Well, that was all a bit... tiring. I went in to the evening not really feeling very focussed, and low on energy. I joked to Wayne, my partner for the evening, that I'd probably begin focussing about when I got tired, and the reality wasn't far off that.
We started with 3 x 30km/hr 1/2 lap powerjumps, reaction drills - Wayne led out two, and I took the front for the middle drill. Each time I was beaten, and I didn't feel much more focussed by the end than I had at the start.
The second set of drills was 4 x 3 laps over/under/D&D 1/2 lap sprints, which means that for one lap the following rider rides a metre or so above and 10 metres behind the lead rider, then a metre below, then weaves up and down. The whole time (or as much as possible) the lead rider watches the trailing rider, maintaining position on the track by peripheral vision.
These were a bit of a mixed bag - my reaction time when Wayne was attacking on the sprint lap was quite ordinary, and my acceleration needs a lot of work. I was mostly happy with my ability to watch over my shoulder while riding around the velo, though I wasn't perfect in holding my line by any means. It's harder than doing it at Blackburn, and it's harder doing it at 30km/hr than at 10, but it felt pretty good considering I find it difficult to ride in a straight line on the road while looking over my shoulder for any length of time.
On the third drill I was sprinting from in front, and thought I had the sprinters lane, when Wayne came underneath me down on to the duckboard. I swung up and pulled out of the sprint, with Wayne saying afterwards that I was just out of the lane so he went underneath. I've no idea of the precise position, but it was probably a bit touch and go either way. The important thing, from the perspective of the drill, is that he was going past me at a decent rate - partly because he had the run down the bank, but partly also because I just wasn't accelerating hard enough.
I think partly it's a matter of gearing (I'll stick with 99.7" for now, because we're doing strength work anyway, but 94" or so might be a better race gear for me - at the moment) and partly a matter of experience/technique (I'm still working on my out-of-the-saddle position to avoid slipping, and being confident to be out of the saddle on the bends) but mostly it's my strength, my weight, and insufficient aggression/focus. Especially last night.
The last drill we had the option of doing 3 x flying 100s or 2 x 500m revouts. I chose the revouts partly to work on legspeed, and partly because one just doesn't get many opportunities to sit behind the motorbike. The first one was a bit uneven - Carl rode up to the fence and brought us down on a flying entry line to start the effort, which was quite different to when I did it last time - I found it quite difficult to maintain position behind the bike, either having to backpedal a bit to avoid running in to it coming down the bank, or dropping off the back by 5 metres going up it. Something to work on, but it was only my first time. I only managed 1.5 laps on the first go, but still got up to 54 km/hr/133RPM on 86".
The second attempt I did better, still not maintaining my place behind the bike terribly well, but better than the first attempt which meant I did less chasing. I think Carl also started at a slightly lower speed to make sure I got 2 laps - he said something like that, but it's bloody hard to hear sitting behind the motorbike! At any rate, I felt a bit more focussed by this time, and was able to stick to the wheel for the entire 2 laps with a top of 56.1/138. Bloody tired, but felt a bit better afterwards. Wasn't the most successful session, but I got something out of it and was happy with my last revout at least, and the rest will all add to fitness/experience in some general way.
Brief stats here.
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