Yesterday I overdid it a bit. And today I could really feel it.
Basically it was laziness, in a twisted sort of way. Tons of hills the last couple of days. Climbing these kind of hills in a smart way requires really working your gears. You want to maintain a steady rapid cadence so you are pedaling consistently - ideally around 90 revolutions per minute. To do this on hills, you have to work your gears constantly to make it easier to pedal when you are climbing and harder when descending.
Basically I just started short cutting it and would just stand up in the pedals and mash up the climbs rather than pay attention and do the shifting. This is fine for a bit, and fine if you can rest the next day. But it really strains your muscles, and riding nearly 100 miles day after day taxes your reserve strength. Especially for me - I tend to mostly sit and spin and rarely stand to climb so some of those muscles aren't as strong as they could be anyway. So there were two 85 mile days with serious mashing that took a toll.
To top it off I didn't get my ice bath last night because the tub was draining slow which usually means something nasty is down there and I just didn't have the stomach to clean the drain and then hunt down the disinfectant from housekeeping to sanitize the tub (like a few days ago ... Yuck.)
So when today rolled around I knew I was going to hurt after the first couple of miles. Muscles on the left side cramped and tightened and pulled into my lower back and side making the back hurt. So you stretch and contort and twist on bike while riding while making complaining grunting noises. My more spry riding companions totally outpaced me today. But that's OK cause my body is demanding I slow down and behave on the hills ...
And there were plenty as we finished Missouri before dropping into the Mississippi river flood plane 70 miles into a 97 mile ride.
Today we rode a gorgeous set of small country roads through pasture land, corn and soybean fields and farms. We passed through several more Mennonite and Amish towns and I was pretty amused seeing a teenage girl in dress, apron and cap sitting on a riding lawnmower mowing the field. She looked as surprised to see us ride by as we were to see her. The clouds and fog in the morning turned into a comfortable riding day and full on sun by mid afternoon. It was quiet and peaceful for the 70 miles heading east to the Miss river ... A good day to meditate in the saddle and enjoy just being out.
We passed through some tiny towns - Barring was one and it was sobering. There was once a big hotel there that had fallen into disrepair and other buildings on main street that were almost falling down.
Finally we dropped down into Canton, a small river town where we caught a ferry to the Illinois side of the Mississippi. The ferry took about 10 minutes to cross and just ran back and forth continually. It was a small little boat with a flat deck that sat low to the water and an engineers cabin that was attached to the deck by an arm ... The engineers cabin just rotated around to push the ferry in one direction and then back across.
On the Illinois side we were greeted by a dirt road that led to a big grain silo that was a co-op for the county ... No grand hoopla for entering the state in this direction.
We rode south through the Miss River flood plain for 15 miles - pancake flat - with the ridge that was at one point the rivers edge rising several hundred feet on our left. The flood plain was planted entirely with corn for miles. Gradually we paralleled the river again and followed it south past several parks to Quincy. The river was running gently, very muddy and brown, and I was surprised how narrow it is this far north.
Quincy is an old river town known for its architecture. We ran into a woman who is a cyclist and she gave us hints about where to find the bike shop and suggested we ride through the neighborhoods and check out the historic houses off Maine Street. I did, and they were beautiful, huge and impressive. The money here came from the railroad - the bridge west to Kansas City and beyond came through Quincy and combined with steamboat traffic it made this the second largest city in Illinois in the late 1800s.
An extra long ice bath tonight has made the muscles feel better - hopefully up for a 110 mile ride to Springfield tomorrow.
Goodbye 2015, Hello 2016!!
10 years ago
