Stagnation is one of my greatest fears; the feeling that I am not learning anything or not making gains in performance ranks above fear of death and public speaking. As such, it should be of no surprise that setting and tracking personal records is important to mark my improvements. With my weight loss, I have a big excel file that lists my weight for the past five hundred or so days. With my personal records on specific courses I am a bit more loose, but they are on my mind as I ride through them, regardless of whether or not I am having a go.

Last week, on 26 August 2010 I left the house on what would turn out to be an awesome ride. At the time, of course, I didn’t really know what pace I was going to keep – I just needed to relieve some stress and energy built up from work. At my first main road I made the turn as a truck was coming my direction and was able to slip into the gigantic draft and go ~38 for roughly one mile. It was awesome to say the least, but I eventually had to make a turn and was forced to back off.

I was feeling more than fresh at this point and decided that I could probably make a decent attempt at my Swamp record, a 3.1 mile section of road in the Great Swamp Wildlife Refuge. The road is essentially flat save a few hiccups, but if the wind is wrong then you will be pushing a brick wall through much of the mileage. That day I was fortunate enough to enjoy a complete, dead calm. I knew what I had to do – set a pace of 25 and hold it as long as possible.

The first mile flew by and I thought that I might have been going too easy. Experience took over as I remembered the hiccups and how bad the last half mile can be as the wind changes and starts to hit you straight on. I kept my pace and dug in (Paul might say I was conserving my lead at this point) for the next mile, trying to focus on anything but the cycling. As I hit the right hander the pain started to set in a bit, a slight up hill towards the first intersection and I shoved the throttle down. I was going to break my time… by how much. Previously this year I had set an 8:09, and before that an 8:20. How much lower could I go? Could I break the magical 8 minute mark?

YES! As I smashed the lap button to reveal my time and it sat there in all its glory: 7:29.57 for 3.1 miles!! A new personal record. Progress. There is the evidence that I am getting faster; getting stronger. And if I needed any more proof – the data in TC says it all (relevant area highlighted in yellow).

Of course now only one question remains: how much faster can I go?