Minuteman Road Club

The leader board. AJ has a solid lead over the rest. I think 121ft is about as good as I can do, but I will give it at least one more attempt.

1. ajpiper 149ft= 150-5+4 https://www.strava.com/activities/35800 ... /1075/1135
2. JeremyC 135ft= 136-5+4 https://www.strava.com/activities/35533 ... /1363/1423
3. djming 133ft= 130-5+8 https://www.strava.com/activities/35679 ... /4395/4455
4. michealcole 130ft=127-5+8 https://www.strava.com/activities/35646 ... /2067/2127
5. Pace21 129ft= 135-10+4 https://www.strava.com/activities/35609 ... /3770/3830
6. remad 121ft= 131-10+0 https://www.strava.com/activities/35796 ... /6110/6170
7. bmassey 110ft= 111-5+4 https://www.strava.com/activities/35681 ... is/563/623

Ya maybe I found my super power! Not the most useful, but glad to have discovered it

Its true my racing age is 35 so my result is actually 150 - 5 + 4 = 149. Thanks for clarifying!

Gave it another go on Wilbur Wall, pleased with the result but need to find a better hill. It has a steep section at the beginning and another steep section at the end, but the total bottom to top is 1:19 (168 feet) so the couple of false flat sections in the middle are bad news from a vertical gain standpoint. If I pick the first minute or the last minute the answer is basically the same.

Good news is I paced well for the whole Wilbur Wall segment and managed to get the KOM from a nemesis of mine, but unfortunately this isn't the "minute and 19 second" challenge so I'll need to look elsewhere for a steeper segment.

Since AJ is using "racing age" (hey where was that in the rules???) I'm re-invoking the "Masters (1-4)" clause (aka the P.C.)

140 feet -5 +4 = 139 feet

https://www.strava.com/activities/35803 ... 5241435345 starts at 52:29

https://www.strava.com/activities/35803 ... /2881/2941

[quote=pace21 post_id=57580 time=1591573467 user_id=186

Since AJ is using "racing age" (hey where was that in the rules???) I'm re-invoking the Pare Clause
[/quote]

"Example entry: You must include a link with the time analysis, that way it is easy to verify. Also include your racing age and category."


Oh, and solid effort!

Damn you Dave, always reading the fine print

Yes, please include the 1 minute analysis.

Wow, I thought 130 might be reachable. But 149? That will be tough. I have my segment picked out but I need to get there. I will get there before the end of the month but not sure when.

remad wrote: ↑Sun Jun 07, 2020 7:55 pm Yes, please include the 1 minute analysis.

Done

jraguin wrote: ↑Sun Jun 07, 2020 8:58 pm Wow, I thought 130 might be reachable. But 149? That will be tough. I have my segment picked out but I need to get there. I will get there before the end of the month but not sure when.

This challenge only lasts 2 weeks.

AJ is my hero

remad wrote: ↑Sun Jun 07, 2020 9:53 pm

jraguin wrote: ↑Sun Jun 07, 2020 8:58 pm Wow, I thought 130 might be reachable. But 149? That will be tough. I have my segment picked out but I need to get there. I will get there before the end of the month but not sure when.

This challenge only lasts 2 weeks.

Oh crap, I thought it was through the 30th. I may need to figure out my plans fast.

Wow.

pace21 wrote: ↑Sun Jun 07, 2020 7:44 pm Gave it another go on Wilbur Wall, pleased with the result but need to find a better hill. It has a steep section at the beginning and another steep section at the end, but the total bottom to top is 1:19 (168 feet) so the couple of false flat sections in the middle are bad news from a vertical gain standpoint. If I pick the first minute or the last minute the answer is basically the same.

Good news is I paced well for the whole Wilbur Wall segment and managed to get the KOM from a nemesis of mine, but unfortunately this isn't the "minute and 19 second" challenge so I'll need to look elsewhere for a steeper segment.

Since AJ is using "racing age" (hey where was that in the rules???) I'm re-invoking the "Masters (1-4)" clause (aka the P.C.)

140 feet -5 +4 = 139 feet

https://www.strava.com/activities/35803 ... 5241435345 starts at 52:29

https://www.strava.com/activities/35803 ... /2881/2941

Where are you getting 140ft? clicking your link I see 129ft.

Chris's segment,

https://www.strava.com/activities/35803 ... /2871/2931

Looks like 139ft -5 +4 = 138ft

Updating the leader board.

1. ajpiper 149ft= 150-5+4 https://www.strava.com/activities/35800 ... /1075/1135
2. Pace21 138ft= 139-5+4 https://www.strava.com/activities/35803 ... /2871/2931
3. JeremyC 135ft= 136-5+4 https://www.strava.com/activities/35533 ... /1363/1423
4. djming 133ft= 130-5+8 https://www.strava.com/activities/35679 ... /4395/4455
5. michealcole 130ft=127-5+8 https://www.strava.com/activities/35646 ... /2067/2127
6. remad 121ft= 131-10+0 https://www.strava.com/activities/35796 ... /6110/6170
7. bmassey 110ft= 111-5+4 https://www.strava.com/activities/35681 ... is/563/623

OK, I made an attempt. I think I blew it by stopping a few seconds too early. The end was on the steep part and a few seconds would have dropped off some of the more gradual part early on. I wouldn't have caught AJ but might have been closer.
https://www.strava.com/activities/35886 ... /1942/2002
138 - 5 + 8 = 141

I planned to make two attempts today but the first one I was 1/2 way up and my foot came out of my pedal. Classic me. So this was technically my second attempt of the day.

Recalculated:
https://www.strava.com/activities/35886 ... /1944/2004
140 - 5 + 8 = 143
I am 51. And a Cat 3.

Posting my attempt from Sunday. I think I could have done better, maybe. I may or may not go for another attempt, but at least I got a kom out of it. you guys are beasts.
https://www.strava.com/activities/35805 ... is/897/957
120 = 121 - 5 + 4

Cyclist during challenge "I need to quit before I die"

Cyclist after challenge "I could have done better"

JeremyC wrote: ↑Tue Jun 09, 2020 7:34 pm Cyclist during challenge "I need to quit before I die"

Cyclist after challenge "I could have done better"

Agreed. Those last pedal strokes were near death. Unspeakable sounds were coming out of my mouth.

Just remember when you feel like you are dying that you are in fact very very very far away from actual death. It’s just a defense mechanism in your brain but it can be overridden

https://www.strava.com/activities/35933 ... /1004/1064
144 - 5 + 4 = 143

I think that was my best effort because sometimes I get this raw onion taste in my mouth and that happened today.

I love challenges. Especially when they combine 2 of my favorite things, bikes and physics! I chose Wilbur Wall in RI as the best option that I could ride to from my house, but after 3 attempts at said Wall I came away concluding that 2 false flats in the middle were providing a few precious seconds where I was putting energy into fighting speed (drag) rather than gravity, and gravity is the King Beast to tackle when vertical ascent is the only output we care about.

I took the data from the Wilbur attempts and went back to the maths. I calculated the total energy involved in the full 1 minute ascent by combining 2 terms: the first is the total mechanical energy that I (my body) injected into bike/rider system. That's a relatively straightforward calculation to make if you have a power meter -- just multiply your 1 minute avg Watts by 60 and that will give you the total "physiological" energy you delivered. In my case it was around 40kJ. In addition to that you can add in your kinetic energy, assuming you started the 1 minute effort with some entry speed. You can calculate that by 0.5*m*(v^2) where in this case "m" is the total mass in kilograms of both you and your bike, for me around 82kg. My entry speed into Wilbur Wall was around 23.5mph (10.5meters/sec) which results in a total kinetic energy around 4.5kJ. [interesting to note that a reasonably high entry speed still only accounts for ~10% of the 1 minute "physiological" energy -- humans are pretty good at creating lots of energy really quickly].

So that's all well and good, ~40kJ physiological and ~4.5kJ kinetic. Now what? Well, I know how far I climbed vertically -- 140 feet, or 139 according to some but knowing that the hill gradient wasn't ideal with the false flats I really wanted to know what that effort would have given me on a different hill. Since we know that the total amount of energy (physiological + kinetic) results in raising you vertically by a certain number of feet we can calculate the resulting potential energy of the bike/rider system, which is given by PE=mgh (mass in kg, gravity constant in m/sec^2, and height in meters). Setting those 2 energies equal we can calculate for different constant gradients (5%, 10%, 15%, etc) what the theoretical height number "h" is. At the limit we can simulate theoretically climbing a purely vertical wall from a standstill and get the theoretical height in that scenario. For me it was 159.4 feet. Of course you can't climb a vertical wall and anything less than vertical will detract from your total because of additional air resistance due to increased airspeed, but it's a start.

Armed with that knowledge I started searching for something steeper. Around about that time AJ posted his result, and looking at his hill I got jealous -- super steep and very constant gradient -- perfect! The rules state that we can't copy segments, but lo and behold AJ's hill had a close sibling running exactly parallel up roughly the same gradient. I'm there.

Got out to Arlington early this morning (yay lockdown) and gave it a go. Better result, in between my previous result of 140 (139) and my calculated theoretical max of 159.4 feet. Clocked in at 156 feet. Minus 5 plus 4 yields 155 feet.

https://www.strava.com/activities/35926 ... /1568/1628

Here is my math:. Power + brains = Chris just stomped us

In all seriousness, a steep wall is the key per the physics calculation. I knew my road was too gradual at the beginning.

Nice effort and interesting analysis. One piece of the formula you haven't taken into account (but appear to have benefited from) is how much effort is required to create the entry speed. The perfect hill would allow the maximum entry speed with the least amount of effort require. Basically a downhill into an uphill.

Alas you have taken this challenge further than I'm prepared to. Enjoy...