Hubbard TT

There were additional expectations on me this week: I promised McT that I'd throw it in one higher gear on the home stretch this week and churn extra hard if he'd do one more set of something in the gym. It's good to have a friend there to motivate you to push yourself. Gatlin has officially filled that role recently, and quite well if I may say so (and I may - it's my damn blog); but McT's dedication to the sport of bodybuilding has been an inspiration to me for . . . well geez, since high school. Senior year - while changing back into our uniforms in the locker room after gym class was the first time that anyone noticed his physique (to my knowledge). Between taking his gym shirt off and replacing it with his dress shirt, I noticed his muscle definition and said something like, "Damn! McT's ripped!" This was not at all expected from the mild-mannered kid. All five or six guys in our locker row and a few guys from the next one turned to look. Several guys expressed how impressed they were. I think someone might have even encouraged him to flex. :) Anyway there's that. On to the time trial...

Last week was a week for records to be set. The wind changed right near the turnaround so we had a very weak headwind for most of the way out but a wild tailwind on the way back. I felt like I was shot out of a cannon after the turn. This week wasn't quite so great - we had a bit of a barnburner on the way out but it stuck with us for strong headwind on the return. I did indeed upshift (two gears in fact) and put in a big helping of extra effort, working well into my red zone for pain over the last couple hundred meters. However my time suffered due to the wind as well as my lack of concentration and consequent poor aerodynamic form and suboptimal pedaling. 25:05 this week. Not bad for me, but I couldn't help but hope for another improved time.

But the silver lining of my lack of improvement is that I think that this is an indication that I've found my baseline. Or I've hit my first plateau. The uber-easy improvement is over - I'm no longer a novice. From now on, improvements in my time will be harder earned, come in smaller increments, but feel more significant.

There was a dude taking pictures there today. Hopefully he got some of me - especially the one of me crossing the finish line with "AGONY" printed in big bold letters across my face.