Plateau.

When you're a new cyclist, progress comes quickly and relatively easy. It may not feel that way, but the initial gains are significant. Unless stopped by injury, illness, boredom, or life itself, the sky's the limit during the early days.

Eventually the curve starts to flatten out a bit, so you buy some speed in the form of a new bike or start riding with somebody just a tad faster than you are. Another bump up the performance ladder. Soon the body adapts to this as well, and you're faced with more stagnation, so you find a fast group ride or start racing or buy some really awesome wheels. Anything to go faster and farther and better. At a certain point you might start actually training instead of just riding around. The upward trend continues, now with charts and metrics to back up the sensations.

Problem is, sooner or later you're going to hit another ceiling. Maybe it's genetics, but if you're anything like me it's just mostly poor life choices. I know even at my very best, I will never be an elite athlete. Don't have the stuff, mentally or physically. I can mix it up in the small ponds, but big fish always eat me for lunch. As long as I'm having fun, I'm good with that. I long ago accepted my limitations in a variety of sports. Doesn't mean I don't want to play.

At any rate, I'm currently at a point where progress has slowed a bit. The gains my Training Peaks squiggly lines made have started to level off. I beat my head against the wall to move a number up a single digit a week. Meanwhile I walk around physically wrecked for the majority of my days.

It's time to start thinking about easing of the pedal a bit and going into a more sustainable mode. Peaking in late November for no reason at all is a problem I have, and this year I'm determined to not explode before the new year.

That doesn't mean I'm going to take some time off the bike, because that would be very, very bad. Rather, I'm just going to focus on active recovery and train some different elements of my engine for a while. I might lose some top end in the process, but right now my body's telling me it needs a break from all-out sprints and upper-zone grinds.

It might be hard to see the squiggly lines trend down after I worked so hard to make them climb, but ignoring the alarm bells currently ringing would lead to the whole thing burning down.

This plateau is one of my own choosing. 

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