query plan

I am trying to improve the performance of a particular query. I am using Sybase sql server v4.9.2. I noticed that the first time I execute the query the performance is a little slow. The second time I execute the same query, with different search values, the performance is terrific. Does the query optimizer keep the query plan somewhere. Is there a way to keep this plan perminantly so the optimizer doesn't have to figure it out each time the application is run? -- Diane M. Lombardi Howard Hughes Medical Institute Internet: lombardi@cshl.org Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory phone: (516) 367-8392 Cold Spring Harbor, NY 11724 fax: (516) 367-8461