MN State Road Race 2005
Thursday, July 07, 2005
Track Racing
Man, do I love track racing! I started the track class at the local Velodrome the beginning of June. It was supposed to be four weeks, but after the first class, we had 3 consecutive rain outs. Not cool. After the first class, I was dying to go fast. I could feel it. And I couldn't get the stupid grin off of my face.
Last night was a development race for Cat 5 track racers like myself. I got there thinking I'd do the group start races only. The track director looks at me and says, "your doing everything, right?". So what the heck. "Everything" consisted of a 200 meter flying start time trial, 1k Time Trial (the "kilo"), a Scratch Race, Miss 'n' Out, Team Pursuit (which we did as a team time trial), and a 20 lap points race. The track is 250 meters, so the 20 lap race is only 5k, about 3 miles for the metrically challenged.
I was so toasted by the time I was done, it was amazing. Basically every race involves at least one maximum effort. It was basically a 2 1/2 hour long sprint interval work out.
I had a new experience during the kilo. The kilo is the track cycling equivalent of the 400 meters in Track and Field: just short enough you have to sprint it but just long enough you really can't. I ran the 400 meters (it was the 440 yards back then) in Jr. High School and I remeber how much I hated it. I have no idea why I liked the kilo given that comparison. Other riders have talked about getting tunnel vision or seeing stars during hard efforts. Last night was my first experience with tunnel vision. For one, you're concentrating so hard on the black line (the lowest line on the track) to keep your distance to a minimum that you start to not see much else. But when I finished, I sat up and realized my field of vision was widening! Amazing. Maybe I'm not sprinting hard enough on the road.
The Team Time Trial was awesome. I love the working together, the rhythm, it was great! I'm looking forward to riding it as a pursuit sometime.
I got 3rd in the scratch race, 4th or so in the miss 'n' out. I learned strategy real fast on that. I had been out front for a couple laps and dropped back to get a draft to recover, then got boxed in and couldn't sprint to keep from being eliminated! Even getting dropped, it was cool.
I was tanked by the points race and picked up 4th on the first sprint. After that, I was just haning on to be sure I wasn't lapped. I will definately be there in spades for the first Thursday night I can. Even better, I think it's something my wife and kids can watch and not get too bored.
More later. Thanks for reading.
Last night was a development race for Cat 5 track racers like myself. I got there thinking I'd do the group start races only. The track director looks at me and says, "your doing everything, right?". So what the heck. "Everything" consisted of a 200 meter flying start time trial, 1k Time Trial (the "kilo"), a Scratch Race, Miss 'n' Out, Team Pursuit (which we did as a team time trial), and a 20 lap points race. The track is 250 meters, so the 20 lap race is only 5k, about 3 miles for the metrically challenged.
I was so toasted by the time I was done, it was amazing. Basically every race involves at least one maximum effort. It was basically a 2 1/2 hour long sprint interval work out.
I had a new experience during the kilo. The kilo is the track cycling equivalent of the 400 meters in Track and Field: just short enough you have to sprint it but just long enough you really can't. I ran the 400 meters (it was the 440 yards back then) in Jr. High School and I remeber how much I hated it. I have no idea why I liked the kilo given that comparison. Other riders have talked about getting tunnel vision or seeing stars during hard efforts. Last night was my first experience with tunnel vision. For one, you're concentrating so hard on the black line (the lowest line on the track) to keep your distance to a minimum that you start to not see much else. But when I finished, I sat up and realized my field of vision was widening! Amazing. Maybe I'm not sprinting hard enough on the road.
The Team Time Trial was awesome. I love the working together, the rhythm, it was great! I'm looking forward to riding it as a pursuit sometime.
I got 3rd in the scratch race, 4th or so in the miss 'n' out. I learned strategy real fast on that. I had been out front for a couple laps and dropped back to get a draft to recover, then got boxed in and couldn't sprint to keep from being eliminated! Even getting dropped, it was cool.
I was tanked by the points race and picked up 4th on the first sprint. After that, I was just haning on to be sure I wasn't lapped. I will definately be there in spades for the first Thursday night I can. Even better, I think it's something my wife and kids can watch and not get too bored.
More later. Thanks for reading.
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