Track Camp, Day 1

At the velodrome there is a 3-day track camp put on by Kenny Williams, a World Cup racer and multiple Master World and national title holder. I thought, happy birthday to me, so I signed up for it, since I need all the track time I can get. Yesterday was the first day and there are 18 of us, ranging from 15 year old Taylor (whom Ashley and I race with on Wednesday nights) to 66 year old world champion (and total pistol) Leo. Abilities/speed are across the board, but there are some fast guys here, including a bunch from the Webcor team.

Day 1: Intro to the track and work on timed events, including standing starts, pace setting and gear selection.

Well, I pretty much have paid for the cost of the camp as I have learned how to change my gearing and put the wheel back on and get my chain sorted out. There's a lot of technical stuff involved considering you ride only one gear at a time!

Yesterday started out with a pace line warm up, then we did a timed 500 meters. My time was 1/2 a second faster than the day before at the race, so I was pretty happy with that. And, my legs felt pretty good after two days of racing. We next went over some stuff about starts and other information, then we did a few standing starts with timed 100 meters. My first attempt I about went over since I overcompensated a bit on the move back then forward, so my time was slow--15.xx seconds. The next attempt I better got the hang of it and went 13.3. Everyone swapped out gearing and went to a higher gear for the last attempt. This one I was much smoother and I was down to 12.6, so I'm happy with the progression. Just need to do a lot more practicing.

We then divided up into group of 4-5 and did 10-lap team pursuit. I was with two gals from Seattle, Taylor and one other guy who is new to the track and racing. We started out pretty mellow and built into it and the last couple of laps really picked it up. I led out the last lap and fired it up and at the end, Jane said, "Damn, you can motor!" Thanks! After two times through people again upped their gearing if they had it, but since I only have two cogs, I stayed at the same gearing. I was riding 85-86 inches and Jane had on 90 or 92. Third time through was good, faster than the previous two, but still within my effort levels. The last one we shed off Taylor pretty quick and continued on with 4 of us. With about 2 laps to go, I peeled off the front and there was a surge and I got gapped just a bit trying to get on the end of the line and I was pedaling like hell through turns 3 and 4 and almost caught on, but the gap grew and the three pulled away. Kenny said great job on fighting to close the gap, though by this time, my legs were starting to get a little tired.

After that, we did a cool down (at 20 mph!), then it was time to pack up and hit the road. Drove over to Webcor Neil H's house for a quick shower and then we went to dinner. Mexican food. MMMMMM! A big thanks to Neil for the hospitality. It's great not having to drive all the way back to SF each day.