Am I progressing merely inch by inch? Or even as quickly as that?

Often enough I\’ve complained that my overall pace doesn\’t seem to be improving any too fast. For years I\’ve had \”increase my pace to 15 mph\” as a goal; and haven\’t attained it yet.

Well, let me stop and think a minute. Yes, I\’m still unable to cruise at 15 mph for several hours; but I\’m also better at going 15 mph for several miles. Time was when reaching 15 mph at all was very hard, even when I had a stiff tailwind!

Last Saturday I rode home 14.5 miles against a wind of 13-15 mph. My average speed over those miles was 9.45 mph, which seems awfully slow. On second thought, such a wind used to push me back to a lower speed than that!

Last Tuesday I decided to see whether I could get up to 20 mph. I didn\’t only get there; I sustained it for a full minute! I even hit a peak speed of 21+ mph.

The flip side of increasing my pace, I suppose, is being able to go for a recovery ride and stay in heart rate Zone 1. It used to be very hard to stay in Zone 1; lately I\’ve been on easy rides and stayed below Zone 1! My Garmin lets me keep tabs on myself as I ride.

Adding it all up, it looks like I might be getting somewhere, even if I\’m merely plodding along inch by inch.