In the week prior, I missed my weekly target distance. I didn't miss by much -- a 9.69-mile average when the goal was 10 -- so I wanted to make sure I didn't miss the mark two weeks in a row. But so far, I had gone 10.32 and 11.87 miles. Again, no math whiz am I, but that doesn't average out to 12 miles per ride.
So I knew that for this ride, I needed to add a little bit more distance in order to bring my average up and get closer to my target. With that in mind, I followed the same Frankenstein route as last time out, but thanks to a broken water main Hell Hill was closed. This actually worked out perfectly, because the added distance of going up and around the section of street that was closed added nearly another mile onto the route.
You'd think with an extra mile tacked on, my total time would go up. And it did, but by less than a minute. "But Josh," you're probably thinking, "That's, like, freeway speed to cover nearly a mile in less than 60 seconds."
But I didn't jump in my car and drive that last bit, I was definitely on a bike. It's just that the bike I was on wasn't mine. See, back when I first started training, my friend Nicole told me she has a 17.5" hybrid I could borrow if I wanted it. Not only was this bike a more appropriate size for me, but it also has thin road tires and is lighter than my bike. When you throw in the low-rolling resistance you get with the road tires, you've got yourself a lighter, faster and more efficient bike.
In other words, I was now a low-flying missile. Despite the fact that the gears needed to be adjusted (something I didn't find out until after I was several miles in), I shaved 15 seconds off my average pace, from 4:51 to 4:36. This was huge for me, because it meant I was right back in the thick of things in my self-imposed challenge to average a 4-minute mile on race day.
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