Jul 31, 01:00 AM by Steve | Motivation
Posted in Cycling
Motivation can be such a wonderful thing. It can push us to our limit when we might otherwise slack off. I know I talk about Old San Marcos a lot, but I really love that road, it is such a good test of strength over a moderate time frame—long enough that you can’t just power up it, but short enough that it doesn’t take phenomenal endurance. I’m going to cut to the chase and let you know that I got another new PR today. I know everyone is probably sick of hearing about every little second I shave off, but this time the difference was huge: 40 seconds. I took 40 seconds off my previous 16:59 PR, for 16:19!
But let me back up for a bit… that was my second time up today. I had gone earlier at lunchtime with the usual Echelon crowd. Ed, Ed, Bill, Scott, Sean, and Dave joined me for the usual march up the hill. My legs were feeling flat in the morning so I was figuring on an easy cruise up rather than trying to push the pace. Ed F and I were chatting away on the way up and around the mile mark we were clearly on an 18 minute pace, and the rest of the group had split apart pretty good. At the second mile the pace had held steady and there wasn’t anyone particularly close to us. I figured I could still pull out a mid-17 time so I picked it up a bit in the switchbacks and finished strong, sprinting from the tree to the sign, for a time of 17:40, +9 seconds to the sign. (Ed K always likes times to the sign).
Now about the motivation, I circled back down to find Scott and pace him up to the finish. I know he has been pushing up against 20 minutes and I wanted to help him try to break it. I didn’t know what exactly the time was at that moment, but I figured he was tickling that barrier and the extra motivation may do him some good. I shouted all the typical motivational stuff and he really hammered in the final section and finished very strong. His time was 20:03 which was very good, and probably a PR, but still just over 20 minutes.
Cut to this afternoon, I get an email from Chester:
Hey man, set and I are goin up osm, painted caive, and stage coach after work…I am feeling really tired and drained after lunch ride.
If you came, you would probably kick my ass…
If nothing else you could keep me company while “spinsof&%$ingfastuphill”
AKA SETH goes and does his 120 lb meskito thing.Gonna meet at research park at 5:00… base of OSM at 515ish
Be there dude… no excuses.
No excuses… crap, I guess I have to go then. I had to meet Kim at Nite Moves but I figured I could get up OSM quick chasing Seth and Chester, then jam down the 154 to get downtown quick. Chester, however, neglected to tell me that The Hammer and M-Dub would be joining us as well. When I hooked up with them on the approach to the climb they were doing well over 20mph, and I knew I was going to be in for some pain. I heard someone say they were going to “go easy”, and I thought “yeah right”. We hit the bottom hard and I was at LT from the beginning. Chester started falling off after a minute and I started to lose contact 30 seconds later, but I dug deeper, kicked it up a bit, and rejoined the group. I was 3:55 to my “5 minute” driveway, and just under 5 minutes to the 1 mile sign. On the long straight, Seth was already way up the road and I pulled up to Matt and said “easy my ass”. Seth waited and I caught up to him and he basically paced me up the rest of the way. I never saw the huge HR’s that I usually get on a PR run up OSM, just high 170s pretty consistently. I thought I may finish under 16 minutes but struggled a bit in the switchbacks and lost some pace. It was clear when I got over the top of the switchbacks that I would be in the mid/low 16 minute range, but unlikely I would get under 16 today. I finished strong, but sure enough quite a bit over 16. It gives me something to still shoot for. I never thought I would get anywhere near this fast, so it is still hard to believe that under 16 minutes is sounding like an increasingly realistic goal. We will see how I do in the next TT in a few weeks.
I was chasing M-Dub down 154 until he saw I was behind him near the bottom and slowed down so I could catch up. We hooked over to Modoc and chatted as we both headed downtown, until we parted at Mission.
When I got home from Nite Moves I had an email from Scott:
I wanted to thank you for coming back down the hill, part way, exhorting and encouraging me to go all out across the line. I almost made it below 20 minutes for the first time… only 4 more seconds to go!Anyway, it meant a lot. Thanks again.
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Way to go Steve! Now you just need to have confidence when you race… you should be with the lead group in these Road races- no excuses
— chester gillmore at Jul 31, 08:24 AM