12:35

I rode around the Prospect Park bike loop in 12 mins, 35 secs last night, 7 seconds faster than my previous best. Later I calculated that riding 20 mph for 7 seconds comes out to about 100 feet. But still, it was only 7 seconds.

It's impossible to imagine that I could ever beat 12 minutes. I was huffing and puffing, breathing steadily the whole time and pushing myself to ride as fast as I could thruout the ride. I could have gone a bit faster on some of the flat parts, and I didn't set a new record for maximum speed, so presumably I could have gone a bit faster on the downhills, too, but it's hard to envision a way that I could go 4% faster for the whole ride.

Actually, 4% doesn't sound that impossible, does it?

I noticed during this latest ride that altho I didn't feel as fast on the downhills, I felt quite speedy on the long uphill. Perhaps that means that for long races, you win by attacking the uphills more than by attacking the downhills.

It's worth noting that I'm averaging over 15 mph for these rides, which is a fairly strong clip, but 4% isn't asking too much, is it?