Sick day; a few numbers

So stuck to taking today off. I usually have to force myself into a day off (and I told Lindsay to not let me workout today), but my throat took care of that for me. I slept in a couple extra hours, which is good. It’s almost 50* and sunny, which sucks for me, but oh well. Pretty soon it will be nice all the time and won’t be a big deal. It’s supposed to rain tomorrow a.m., so it may be another one off. I’m not going to get out in the wet with a cold. A few days off will be good for me anyway.
I looked at some of the ascent numbers between my standard rides in Muncie vs. here. It’s kind of funny:
I did hill repeats to get in some climbing in Muncie. This was riding out to the Prairie Creek Reservoir and riding as hard as I could up "the hill" 5 times. It was a 27 mile ride w/ ~550’ of climbing.
My ride to replace that here involves no intervals, but is a route w/ 4 climbs. It is 25 miles and climbs ~1440’. Big difference?
My standard tempo ride in Muncie was out the Cardinal Greenway to the reservoir do a loop and back in. The reservoir (w/out the green way) is 12.6 mile loop w/ ~185’ of climbing. Total feet climb w/ the greenway is ~420’ over 33 miles.
My tempo ride here is out to the Bottom Rd. loop, which w/out the ride out is a 9.5 mile loop w/ ~505’ of climbing. Total ride is 1558’ over 33 miles.
For Muncie peeps comparison sake: Hagerstown (which is Muncie’s hilly ride) climbs ~1070’ over 60 miles.
So my standard Tuesday tempo ride here climbs about as much as Haggerstown+ the Cardinal Greenway both ways AND a Res. Loop, but in about 1/3 the distance. It’s hilly down here.
My point in boring you w/ these numbers is: I feel way stronger of a bike rider already. I’ve not lived here even a year yet and notice it. Racing road on a lot of the same course I’ve raced for years, I notice I can climb w/ much more ease than ever before. At Hueston Woods I was using the hills to recover. No joke. I’ve always been light and had good power-to-weight ratio, but it’s increased a lot and I can tell.
Summary: riding hills all the time will make you fast.