Personal Record

When I ran track and field in high school and college, I was all about the personal record. Each race was a chance for me to set a new PR, each practice a chance for me perfect the technique I'd need to reach my goals. And since we had two meets a week plus weekend invitationals - at least in high school - I had plenty of opportunities to be better, faster and stronger.

Mountain biking, however, only gives me fewer than ten chances per year to go out, race and potentially set a PR. And because every course is different, and a single course can change from year to year, I sometimes miss being able to set new PRs and quantifiably measure performance improvement.

But now I have a new benchmark. Yesterday, I rode home from work and blew any previous road ride PRs out of the park. I wanted to have an average speed of 15 mph or greater (previous best was 14.5 mph), and I wanted to keep my cadence in the eighties. Modest goals for anyone who is a serious cyclist, I know, but I'm kind of new to this whole road riding thing, since I just got my road bike in January. Anyway, the ride was awesome! It was a shade under 23 miles with a crosswind most of the way. I averaged 17.3 mph, did pretty well with my cadence (my computer doesn't measure the average) and finished in an hour and nineteen minutes. I should disclose that these mid-Michigan roads are pretty darn flat, and I would have been much slower if there had been hills to tackle. But I'll take what I can get!

So now, in part to satisfy my need for new PRs and in part because it's an easy way to get a good ride during the week, I plan to ride home more often. Maybe, after a few weeks, my coworkers will even stop shaking their heads when they see me in cycling attire at the end of the day. :)