Yes, Back To The Track

Since fog and cold in August makes me cranky and Ren said she was going to be there and Gio was going to be the supervisor and had said come on down, plus, I needed to try out the aero bars if I'm going to be using them in the 2K pursuit in a week, I headed down to the velodrome Saturday morning for the beginner session. And, yes, I love it there, riding in circles. Neil sent me a message saying they were going to take up a collection to rent me an apartment next to the track. Teammate Jay said I could just put a cot in one of the containers and live there. Either would work!

There were quite a few people there for the beginner session, which was great! Gio and Glenn took the first-timers to a fixed gear bike over to the warm-up circle and I took the rest out for a 40-lap warm up. After that, I took the pure beginners out for their warm up. It was a lot of fun as I can remember back to February when I was scared $*&$less to get closer than about 6 feet from the wheel in front of me. And, by the end of the session, at least one person said she was hooked.

After the warm up we did some drills and some pursuits and maybe something else, I forget. I got the legs loosened up after Friday night's racing and got a few hard efforts in, so that was perfect. I dropped out of the last couple of things they were doing in the session and put on the aero bars and after the beginners' session was over I got back on the track to try out the aero bars. It was mostly like riding the tri bike, but at speed (90% of race pace), going around the curves did feel a bit different and getting from a start, up to speed and then getting into the aero bars at speed was a little tricky. I'll get down to the track next weekend and give then another try, but I think they'll be great for the 2K. For the 500m, I think I'll leave the regular bars on.

Post-ride I went and picked up burritos for me, Gio and Glenn, and then sat in the sun and watched the Ready-to-Race clinic and worked on my suntan. That was followed by a trip to Target, then over to Ren and Tiff's house for wine and a catering tasting. They needed Gio's and my palates and we were more than happy to help (tri tip, pasta salad, quiche, red wine). A very fun day and evening spent in the South Bay.