At 50, most of my years on the bike were just being on the bike doing what I've loved doing since buying my first 10 speed at age 13. I never gave thought about performance or progress stats. I was always in good enough shape to head out for 30 or 40 miles of mostly flat roads. That all changed a few years ago when I decided to take on the local hills that surround me. Climbing requires a completely different range of strength and endurance needs. Around that time I also bought my first bike computer to monitor speeds, times and averages. Since that time I've watched my progress measured in reduced time to cover the same routes. I've also noticed faster recovery time and an increased capacity for sustained efforts with far less pain.

I'm not the only one to notice these physical improvements after riding consistently and regularly pushing beyond one's limits. That said, I do still have le suck days. Today's ride was a good example. It seemed to take me forever to find a comfortable rhythm and pedal without dull pain, which is the equivalent feeling of having parachutes attached to your ankles while pedaling. But, from having ridden as much as I have, I knew that feeling was temporary, so I began to work on my mind. The old "I am the boss of my body, so you do what I tell you" technique. On the first climb I refused to gear down to make the pedaling feel easier and stuck to my normal tempo. Sure enough, halfway up I had things back to relative normal. I still didn't feel at my best, but I managed to salvage what could have been a crappy ride. I ended the ride some 5 minutes over my recent averages, but that time was still well below the times when I first started 18 months ago, and even 6 months ago. Tomorrow will probably be a great day! That's how it works sometimes.