Track Camp, Day 3 and Wednesday Nite RR

Day 3: Mass start racing and strategy. Skills to be worked on: Tactics, gear selection positioning and timing of sprints.

I woke up Wednesday morning tired. Even a lot of coffee couldn't shake the "tired" from my legs, shoot, my entire body. Loaded up the truck and headed to the track and once I got on the bike, I felt a little better. We did the paceline warmup and the legs felt pretty good, but it took a long time to get the blood flowing.

After a little points race discussion, we split into two groups (guys/gals) to do a controlled points race. Twenty laps, sprint/points every 5th lap (or was is 4?) We had 5 girls since my riding partner Taylor had headed off to Junior Nationals, so I was the slowest of the group. Kenny controlled the pace at the front and when we got to the sprint lap, everyone was to sprint then we'd regroup. The first 4 laps we were riding at 25 mph and I was close to the limit, so when it was time to sprint, I was gassed and no sprint. The pace then came down to a more civilized 21-22 mph and I was able to sprint. It was good since we could try going early, or waiting a bit and then going and trying to chase down everyone else. A good hard effort for sure.

After the guys did their race, it was back to discuss what had gone on, then it was time for some drills. The first drill (though we may have done this before the points race, I forget) was to divide everyone into two groups, one on each side of the track. Each group rides around in a paceline at about 15 mph and when Kenny blew the whistle, the front person in each line had to sprint to get to the back of the opposite line. We did three times through each and this was a pretty good effort!

The other drill we did was to divide up into pairs and rider 1 would lead and rider 2 on their wheel for a lap. When you came around again, rider 1 picks up the pace (close to 200m pace) and rider 2 backs off a couple of bike lengths out of turn 2 and then heading into turn 3, rider 2 sprints to bridge up to rider 1 and runs up on them to get in the slipstream, then shoots off around rider 1 coming out of turn 4 (and hopefully beats them to the line). Since Taylor wasn't there, I got to partner with Kenny, so it was very easy to ride close to his wheel. We did this drill a number of times--hard but very beneficial.

After this it was Q&A time and by then, everyone was pretty gassed so no more riding, unless you wanted to roll around. A number of us stuck around to race in the Wednesday night races, but since we had some time, I laid in the grass on the infield in the sun and took a rest, then went to get some caffeine.

The Wednesday night races were to be points race, scratch race, miss-n-out and longer points race. The juniors weren't there (except for Andrew), so it was Ashley and I and a bunch of men. Usually in the points race, I get dropped on the first sprint, then spend the rest of the time trying to catch back on or just rolling around. Well, last night it was a 12 lap points race, sprint every 3 laps, and I was able to hang on for 9 of the 12 laps. And the pace was much higher than it usually is. About lap 8, I was starting to go cross-eyed, but I was jacked about hanging in that long, and on really tired legs! I saw that my max speed during the race was 29.5 mph. That is moving! The 10-lap scratch race was a little more civilized, but not that much slower. In that, I hung in for 9 laps, but when they went on the bell lap, I got gapped coming out of the first turn and didn't have any "oomph" in my legs to stand up and try to go with, but I was pretty happy at hanging in for 9 laps.

After that race, I called it a day and ran down to the store to pick up some "fluid replacement beverages" aka Tecate. Those of us who were finished racing sat around and drank a beer and once everyone was finished racing, the Mice hit the road and made a stop at the taco truck, then it was back to SF and back to the real world.

The camp was very much worth the time and money and I'll do it again for sure. My teammate Nole said last night, "I can tell you are riding way better....the confidence in your riding really shows." Good to hear.