Track Camp, Day 2

Day 2, Sprints: Skills to be worked on: 200 meter line, gear selection, tactics and drills to increase speed.

The day started out the same.....paceline warm-up which ended up about 24 mph and I was working hard at the end. We then changed out of warm-up gears, went over how to ride the 200 and the two different lines you can take and then we lined up to do timed 200s. My warm-up gearing is 81 inches (48x16) and my other gear is about 86 inches (48x15), but for today, we swapped out everything and put on 90 inches (47x14). Wow! That's the biggest gear I've ridden and there was definitely a difference.

My first 200 was 15.22 seconds. That's a full 1/2 second faster than I went in the race on Saturday. A couple of comments from Kenny on how I was taking my approach and then later a second effort. The second effort was 15.13 seconds and I felt a lot better on that one. Very happy with this progression!

We then took a short break to refuel and Kenny described the drill we were going to do. You ride in groups of 4 (for as long as you can stay together, or if the group broke up, finish on your own) around the rail (top up by the wall/rail) as close as you could and when you hit the beginning of turn 1, do a seated sprint through the turn and ease up out of turn 2, then the rest of the lap to recover. Repeat x 8 laps. Man, the seated sprints were hard on the legs! Especially in the 90 inch gear!

Another break, and then we did the same thing, but instead of seated sprints, you were to stand up and sprint and the goal was to stand up the entire curve. I started out and could only stand and pedal fast a few pedal strokes, but my legs finally came around and by the last 3 laps, I was able to stand the entire curve. A big break-through for me!

Another break for fluids (warm and humid all day), then it was the "Russian" drill. This one you are in groups of 3 with rider #1 as the rabbit, rider #2 as the motor and rider #3 as the chase. Rider #1 does a normal flying 200, rider #2 follows right behind until #1 starts the sprint and #2 then lays off a bike length or 2 or 3 (depending on speed of riders #1 and #3). Rider #3 is right on the wheel of #2 as close as possible and when #2 gets to turn 3, he/she pulls up track and #3 shoots through to try to catch #1 and come up on #1's wheel as close as possible, then try to go around. Really good exercise! I did it with junior rider Taylor (who is heading to Nationals today--GO TAYLOR!) with Rick being rider #2 for both efforts. When I was rider #1, I got to the finishing straight and could hear everyone yelling at Taylor to catch me so I peeked back to make sure she wasn't coming up on me and pedaled a little harder to stay in front of her. When I was rider #3, I was able to shoot through and get on her wheel and come around her. Good efforts by both of us and I can see where this would be a very beneficial exercise to do on a regular basis.

After that, it was the cool-down. Again a pretty fast cool-down (average of 19-20 mph with surges up to 22+). Those of us who were staying for the Tuesday night racing had a little to eat/drink then it was time to warm up again. Last night was points racing, so that means fast and furious with sprints. I had 6 of my teammates come down from SF to race and that was super nice! I wasn't sure how my legs would feel but the plan was to do the first race and then help Larry with the scoring for the other races. I think we had 10 or 12 in our race and I hung on for a few laps but then sat up and rolled around easy for a few laps and then jumped back in and worked with another rider for the rest of the race. That was enough. It was then time for birthday brownies and birthday cupcakes. About 35 miles for the day, most as very high intensity.

A big thanks to Neil for the use of his gear bag and gears, and for the place to stay for two days! Made it much better not having to drive back to SF each night.