Marginal gains

In every sport I've ever participated in, there is the same pattern. When you start, you usually make rapid progress, especially when you make a conscious effort. Then you plateau, as the low-hanging fruit gets picked, leaving you with ever-diminishing rewards for ever-increasing effort. At a certain point, you're making your eyes bleed for months to be one second faster on the course. That one second can be the difference between winning and losing, and even though I don't get paid to play my silly games it doesn't mean I'm not serious about them.
 
Recently I did a field test on my trainer, which is basically riding as hard as you can for a specific amount of time until you fall over and die. The average power of that interval is then calculated, which Janice Tower uses to determine training ranges for her sadistic torture sessions. I knew my results were an improvement compared to the last time that I'd done the test, but Janice pointed out that they were 10% higher than they had been the same time last year. 10% may not sound like much, but it's a quantum leap for me. In a sport where you pay thousands of dollars for wheels that might net a 1% gain in speed, I just saved enough money to buy a car. Not a nice car, but a car nonetheless. Pretty cool.
 
For my sins, Janice increased my training levels.
 
Ouch. Maybe I should start looking for more marginal gains.