Personal Best

I managed another personal best time at Champion Lakes last weekend. In a 20 km TT, I took off almost 3 minutes from my previous best time. I knew I was on a good ride when my first lap was a shade over 9 1/2 minutes. A bit of quick mental maths and I knew that I could do 4 laps in 10 minutes or less. I managed to do all four laps in less than 10 minutes, my last lap being the slowest, but not for lack of trying. It has been my experience (even though I'm a noob) that Champion Lakes can get you with it's gusty winds. This is what happened on my last lap, on the next to last corner. I was getting into a good rhythm when I was hit by a gust and I went off pace.
When the wind hit me, it was like riding into a wall, and I said "Oh dear, this isn't nice" or words to that effect. I re-organised my thoughts and remembered what my daughter said to me a few days before - "Pick a gear that works for you". Okay, so I clicked down two and picked up the pace. I only needed to get my average above 30 km/h to be on track for a PB.
At the finish straight, I had enough to really bring it home and it was a fantastic feeling crossing the line.
Two cyclist that I respect the most have told me not to take so much off so I wouldn't have to try so hard to set a PB the next time. Yeah, I could have coasted home and done a cruizy last lap, but then I wouldn't have done my Personal Best, I would have only done my Personal Good Enough, and that wouldn't have been good enough, would it?

The next step

Tomorrow I ride in my biggest (longest) event, the 40 km ITT Champoinships. I don't expect to win, or even finish in the top 70...but I will finish barring unforseen circumstances. I have really been looking forward to this event, and training has been going well.
Every time I ride is a learning experience as so many things have changed since the last time I seriously rode a bicycle in 1972. If you re-trace my first couple of posts, you'll see what happened back them. I remember once in '72 I rode 65 MILES in one day. Back then we didn't carry water bottles on the bikes, didn't know what "bidons" were even. We would ride to the local driven hamburger joint, have a coke or root beer, ride to the next town, lather, rinse, repeat...
We didn't have real road bikes, the old "Stingray" was very common, and I had a three speed Stingray for a while. Later, I built my firts "real" road bike. I went to the local rubbish tip, sourced a frame, wheels, handle bars and seat. Shortly after I started riding it, I broke a spoke, but kept on riding. Then I broke another, then another and very quickly, it was ping, ping, ping richochet rabbit, I had NO spokes.
Luckily I worked in the only bike shop in town and got spokes cheap. I had to learn how to lace a wheel and I trued it in the shed at home on a home made jig. I don't recommend this to anyone, and I'll happily pay someone to do this for me now.
Back then, after a few weeks working in the bike shop, I bought a set of dropped handlebars (a novelty back then) and a racing front wheel and tyre. I couldn't yet afford a rear wheel, so I stuck with my one speed coaster brake tyre. My best effort then was one mile in 2 minutes, a 30 mile an hour average which I thought was really good for a one-speeder!
Tomorrow, my goal is to finish, and to finish in less than one hour and twenty minutes. Anything less than that is gravy.
We'll see how things go and I'll keep you posted.