SSS Round 1 2012-13

Well, that was the most fun I've had on a track bike yet. Not because I won anything - I didn't. Not even one race. But I was relaxed, I was happy, and it all just flowed really well. And that's precisely what I wanted from the day.

So, the day started off, incredibly enough, with Flying 200s. As usual I was a bit late, and missed out on warming up on the track. Nic and Neil both offered me rollers, but I ended up deciding not to bother - it felt a bit much like that would be taking it all a bit too seriously. And if I'm taking it seriously, what the hell am I doing on 86"??

So I just went out and put on an effort - and despite trying to be more relaxed and have fun, it was a genuine effort. 86" is way too small for me, of course, and it's actually hard to jump with because there's not enough resistance. And at the end I was rooted - partly because of the lack of a warmup, and partly because I spent so much time spinning. But I recorded a 14.113 to be 6th (of 8) in B - not a terribly impressive time, but given that I've not trained at all, and I was spinning madly on 86", to record a faster time than the first round last year, and only a couple of tenths slower than my 'normal' times at BBN (best was 13.5 on a perfect day for Round 2 last year, warm, no wind, etc.) is... interesting. It should also be interesting to see what I record next round, given a month of decent training!

My races... well, I won't bother with dissecting them particularly. Each round I was following, and each round I tried something slightly different, without doing any of them very well. My favourite was the last one against Kallum, where as expected he jumped straight from crossing the line, I caught up to him, had a few high(ish)-speed feints and swerves (not actually very dramatic) before jumping with him in turn 1. Unfortunately as I jumped my back wheel skipped quite a way (or it felt like it, will be interesting to see if it's on the video) and it felt like it was running rough - perhaps rubbing a little, though it turned out it wasn't. I'd already sat up though, wasn't much point chasing back by that stage.

So overall it was a great day, and I'm really feeling that excitement for racing and, yes, training again! Training on the track is difficult - I almost always either have my daughter, or I don't have the car, but hopefully I'll work a way around that.