Saturday Track, Sunday Early Birds

A great weekend on the bike!

Saturday track.

The Saturday morning track session was cancelled since it had rained over night and the track was still wet. So, I went to coffee with someone down there and then did a Target trip. By noon, the track had dried out and the afternoon session was on. Keith put on his low-key races and about 13 or 14 people showed up, including two other women. We all started out with a 40 lap warm-up which got a little fast early. I really hate the saddle on the track bike and Katy gave me another one to try out so we had swapped it out prior to the warm-up and towards the end, I had to put the original back on. Not good.

The first race we did was a 20 lap scratch race with everyone, even though there was some serious speed differential. The group split into about three different groups, but Keith was able to divide us up after that. We next did a team sprint with 3 people and the 3 women rode together. ITeam sprint is where you ride one behind each other, and after one lap the first person peels off, after two laps, the second person peels off and then the third person does a solo lap. Normally, women have teams of 2 with one person riding one lap and the second person doing 2 laps. It's a very fun race. Anyway, we lined up on the rail and I went second. Rode hard and it was fun to go fast.

After the groups got divided,we also did a 20 lap point race, points every 5. In our group, we had 7 people, 3 women and 4 men. After about 3 laps, we began to string out and two guys got a gap and I stuck with one of the other guys and was 4th across the line for the first 2 point laps. Very psyched about that.

We did another team sprint, and this time I led out the other two. Then maybe one more race. I forget. Once everyone started to cool down, I asked Keith if he'd time me in a flying 200. So we did. Twice. It was good to get a baseline for this early in the season and now I know where I need to go. Lots of work to be done.

Sunday and the Early Birds.

Got up and it wasn't raining, but it was overcast and windy. And cold! I picked up Alice and we headed down to Fremont. We got there and it was extremely windy which made it even colder. Sitting in the car and drinking hot coffee was sounding better and better. But no, we got ready and did the advanced clinic. Today's lesson was attacking and we practiced solo attacks, dual attacks and lead-outs. A good session and then 9 of the Mice went to ride. After the ride it was time to get ready for the beginner clinic. The beginner clinic was basically the same and my legs felt surprisingly good. After the clinic there was no time to do anything but shed the jacket and go line up. They again split the women's 4s into two groups. As my legs were tired and it was pretty cold (which means possible asthma issues going hard), I started with the second group. We took off and after the first corner, I tried an attack. My intent was to practice an attack, sit up and get back in the group, then maybe do it again later. Since these are practice races, the more things you can practice, the better.

So, I attack and get a gap and I slow up some and look back and Pacific Bikes gal has jumped too and bridges up to me. She said, "I'm here!" Nuts! I was going to drop back, but instead said, OK, let's keep working. Another gal bridges up but she just sits in and I think I don't want to do all the work for someone not willing to work, so I sit up and we pick up two more, so now we have a group of 5 and we sort of start working together. For about 30 minutes we have a gap and we are going at a pretty good pace and with 3 laps to go, my asthma kicks up and I start to cough and you can't cough and pedal hard, so I dropped back and sat up and when the other part of my original group came by, I hopped in with them and rode the last 3 laps with them. On the last lap, I got to work on a lead-out for Elaine and Taylor and then rode it in. A very fun time and everyone stayed upright.

For the week:

S: 2,100 m

B: 112.2 mi

R: 1.4 mi

Tr: 1:10

Wts: 1x

Time: 11:00

This year v. last year.

I went through my log for last year and looked at my time on bike for the first 3.5 weeks of January 2009 v. the first 3 weeks of January 2008 and I have about 3 times more volume this year, so I'm happy with that.