It Never Gets Easier, You Just Go Faster

I am sure that you have heard the phrase "records are meant to be broken" and on Sunday I had the chance to prove that phrase correct.  Kelsey and I were out late on Saturday night and I decided to skip the team ride on Sunday morning to get some sleep.  Plus the weather was supposed to be awesome on Sunday so I was going to go for another training ride on Mt. Diablo once it warmed up a bit.  After taking it easy on Sunday morning, I started to "kit up" for my big training ride.  I walked outside and the weather was perfect, 75 degrees and sunny without much wind.  This was the first ride in about 3 months that I didn't need to arm/leg warmers or gloves to stay warm.  On the warm-up over to Mt. Diablo I got a call and found out that I would need to cut my training ride short to get home a little sooner.

Truer words have never been spoken.

After this news I quickly decided that I was going to try and beat my personal record (28:35) to the Junction on Mt. Diablo (approximately halfway up Mt. Diablo).  From my experience it is best to try to keep a consistent pace and build on that as I get closer to the Junction.  I started well and increased my speed slowly until the Pay Gate when I just barely beat my best time to that point (14:04).  I knew I was riding well but I had to remind myself to stay consistent as I was still a few miles from the Junction.  I kept building my speed until the finish and by the end I had set a new personal record of 27:37.  The scary part is that the local record is 21:36 so I am still 6 minutes off the pace.  It was a very tough ride and the picture above is of the inside of our team jersey collar and it rings very true: "It Never Gets Easier, You Just Go Faster".