SSS Round 1, 2015-16

So! Back to racing once again. The short version of the race report - geez, I had fun! Slightly longer version?

I've written a little about my 'preparation' below, but to expand a little - I really had only the bare minimum to ensure I could be safe. I didn't even change the gear I had on (which was ~92) in part because I didn't search to try to find any other rear cogs, but also because... well, I'd established that everything was mechanically okay, and didn't want to do anything to upset that going in to the race. And whatever gear I was on, I'd just be riding around anyway, essentially.

Flying 200, wouldn't say I went 100%, but gave it a pretty good effort. Got a little out of shape going in to turn 3 again, which saw me run a little wide out of turn 4. Ended up with a 14.308, which was marginally faster than I thought I might get, even given the running wide. I looked up all my previous F200 times at SSS, and found the following:

2010/11:

15.289 (tiny pretend bike)

14.308 (borrowed bike)

2011/12:

14.185 (92")

13.567 (?)

13.809 (?)

13.935 (?)

2012/13:

14.113 (86")

13.515 (102")

14.087 (95")

2015/16:

14.308 (92")

I could probably just did cross-reference with blog posts to find out what gears I rode for as many of those as I have info for. Not entirely sure why I didn't record those three in 11/12 - was I worried about giving important information away? I am for laughing! Anyway, clearly I should always ride 102" when there's a northerly, and maybe 98" when there's a southerly. Either that or there's woefully insufficient data from which to draw any useful conclusions, one of the two.

Anyway, that time put me 3rd fastest in C-Grade, slated to ride against the two fastest qualifiers and one below me, so looked like a potentially tough day! As it happened the third heat was cancelled due to a spectacular but ultimately non serious-injury-causing crash in B-Grade which held up proceedings for quite some time.

My first race against a chap named Blake I lead out, and allowed him to get behind me. I wasn't too too concerned about that even if it wasn't ideal - I felt I could keep a fairly good eye on him. And I did, right up until just before the point where I knew he would jump. I hadn't wound up the speed quite enough though, and instead of jumping where I knew he would (and he did, without my even looking) I instead basically started pushing the pace higher (coming in to turn one of the last lap) and didn't jump hard. He got 5 metres or so and that's about how it stayed. Proof positive is in the power file - a peak of only 1127W and an average from jump to line of ~850W for the 15 seconds or so.

Second race was against a junior by name of Jonathan who'd qualified some 0.8s slower than me. I was leading again, and my plan for this was pretty simple - pace high enough (mid-high 30s, nothing extravagant) to nullify his jump without actually going long myself (because fitness) take a decent jump and just burn him off. And that's how it went - again I wasn't bothered letting him in behind me, kept the pace up and jumped through turn one again - but this time not having taken my eye off him until I accelerated. I more or less just held a gentle acceleration up the back straight and, knowing he wasn't with me, started easing up through turn three and basically coasted up the final straight. Peak of 1340W on the jump, and held ~900W for the 10-11 seconds of the actual effort.

Given my qualifying time that was enough to put me in to the 3v4 final, against a chap named William who'd qualified about a tenth slower than me. I was following this time, and went in with no very specific plan except to try to push the pace up if he didn't keep it there himself - preferably without taking the lead myself this time. It wasn't as fast as the last race, but I wasn't as concerned about his ability to jump away from me so I was comfortable as it was. I had quite a bit of height and space coming out of turn 4 and considered going there with a little over a lap to go, but didn't feel any particular desire to do so and, being right beside him, felt I had him sufficiently covered if he went at the line. He didn't though, and crossing the line with a lap to go pushed the pace more, staying high while he was a little below the blue, and we went at basically the same time in the middle of turn 1. He had about two lengths on me but I had much more speed, coming out from behind him approaching turn 3 and passing him by the start of turn 4, dropping in to the lane on the straight and winning comfortably (practising my throw anyway, at entirely the wrong spot!) Hit 1659W on that one and a top speed of ~54km/hr (based on cadence - garmin didn't want to pick up the speed sensor for some reason, and GPS speed is useless on a velo) and an average of ~980W for the 15 seconds. Which is, you'll agree, quite a significant difference to the first race!

So nothing grand, but 3rd place in C and some useful reminders of what racing is was handy. Mostly though it was just lots of fun, reminding me why I liked to do this in the first place. So roll on round 2!

Return to racing - one week out!

I went to start a post a week ago, and then I completely forgot... anyway, just one more week to the first round of the Summer Sprint Series, and I'm all set to go!

Well, I have my licence. I've got the one cog which was on my bike all these years - the others are, presumably, in a box somewhere. If I can't find them I guess I'm racing on... whatever gear is on there, I haven't actually checked. So... I'm kinda set to go. I've ridden my track bike twice, and even did a flying 200 or 2:

There's a keirin series starting this week at Blackburn, which'd be good, but I'm not ready for that yet - haven't done enough work to be sufficiently confident in my skills with more than one person on the track yet. Don't want to potentially be a danger to others.

I'm not going to be particularly fast. I'm waaaay overweight. But I anticipate that it'll be fun, and that's plenty for me!

SSS Round 4

Well this was an odd day.

Tossing up what gear to ride in the morning, I ended up breaking my chain whip trying to take off the 14 to change up to a 13. Right you are then, I'll ride 95" then!

Got to the track slightly late and I think I assumed that I wouldn't have time for a warmup, and by the time I realised that I'd have plenty of time, I didn't anymore.

So I rolled out for the flying 200 not very ready, but still feeling okay - physically. Felt really uncomfortable on the bike though, and as soon as I went to jump it showed - really wobbly and was hardly transferring any power to the pedals. Rode a 14.087, slowest in B-grade - and I think there were some mutterings about putting me down in C, which would have been rather embarrassing. As it was I stayed at the tail of a 10-strong B-Grade.

I'm surmising that it's the absolute lack of training that left me not feeling comfortable on the bike. Of course, round 1 and 2 were the same, but round 1 I was riding 86" and spinning madly, whereas round 2 I was riding 102" for the flying 200, and able to just bludgeon the thing around the track. Trying to jump at 95", a nice middle gear, really showed me up. Of course that's what I raced on in round 2, but then, I didn't exactly race well then, either!

So anyway, not an auspicious start. But I'd already decided on my tactics - ride flying 200s. Okay, not quite precisely, but the general idea was to stuff all of this riding slowly and then jumping nonsense, because I'm really crap at that. And go from the front, whether I was drawn there or not, because if I get behind, I stay behind - at least, when I haven't been training, because I'm not comfortable enough on the bike to accelerate out of the saddle at speed. Anyone taking notes for the next round?

In my first race, against Paul Yeatman, I drew the lead and went for the aforementioned tactic, just winding it up and keeping him behind me. Coming out of turn 3 he came up to my hip a bit, which was good, let me keep a good eye on him and give me a chance to hook and drop in to 1. He managed to get back, but he stayed behind me and didn't jump underneath, so I just took the run through turn one and then very wobbily accelerated coming out of two. From there I just stayed ahead - watching the video Paul ran a bit wide out of 4 coming towards the line, but I had him by a good bike length. Excellent - my first 'sprint' victory in B.

Second race against Sam McCabe followed a similar script. I pushed the pace up a little higher though still not exactly TT pace, and kept Sam up towards the fence. He was sat beside me until turn three, when I pulled a little ahead and this time managed to keep him on my hip all the way back around to turn one. I gave a little hook, just enough to shy him off, but rather than dropping straight away I held him up a little to stop the natural drop in pursuit. My acceleration wasn't anything flashy, and he sat in my draft up the back straight before pulling around. This time it went right down to the line, but I managed to hold him off and won it on the throw. Two wins!

Third race up against Jarrod, who has changed so much in the last year he's (almost) unrecognisable. I had not much left for this one, but the plan was basically the same though I was nominally following. I knew he'd let me take the lead, and I did. Same idea, but not so good execution - I didn't keep a good enough eye on him, and I took too high a line in to turn 1. Too fatigued, not thinking so well. Watching the video is almost comical - took me a good couple of seconds to respond to his jump. I still managed to get down behind him just a couple of bike lengths back, but as soon as I went my quads were telling me that nothing was going to happen, and I abandoned the chase fairly early really. A win would have put me in to the 3v4 final... and to be honest, I don't think I wanted to be there. I had nothing left for the third race, the 4th would have been very embarrassing!

So that was the day - a couple of wins, and I had fun. Only one round left, and I'm going to do at least a couple of sessions to train for it, finish the season (in February??) on a high.

SSS Round 2 2012-13

Well, I won't claim that it was quite as much fun as last round, but it was still a fun day. Qualified on 102" and actually managed a PB at Blackburn of 13.515 in favourable conditions featuring a Northerly pushing everyone down the back straight. Again, on the back of not much training, and not having been on the track bike since last round. Interesting. And I could have gone faster, but as usual my jump wasn't quite as hard as it can be, and my riding not as smooth. See: training.

Racing I dropped back to... 94" I think. Put a 14t on instead of the 13t, anyway. I'd actually qualified second fastest in B grade, to my surprise, so everyone I raced had actually qualified slower than me! I can't remember when that last happened, and it hadn't happened in B.

Doesn't mean I beat everyone though. Or, to put a slightly finer point on it, anyone! First race against Chris Dann - never beaten him. Still hadn't! I had the lead, but somewhat invited him to take it through turn 3 on the first lap - I took height, and with him down on the blue, wasn't too concerned that he'd jump from there. He didn't, but did take the lead, and we rolled around slowly increasing the pace. I looked for an opportunity to dive underneath him through turn one, and probably could have done, but didn't quite have the nerve/training. So we actually jumped with me a bike length behind out of turn 2, 200m to go, me with the advantage of height. I really should have beaten him from there, even though he has a better kick. But I didn't, and wasn't even close.

Second race, up against Kallum Parlivliet, I was following and after half a lap, decided to force the pace, not wanting to let him jump from a crawl. So I rolled up outside him, and he let me, climbing up behind me and then jumping out of turn 4. It wasn't a super hard jump, and I came down easily into his draft and flowed him around. I then did the dinkiest little break and run you've ever seen, just as he was accelerating in to the back straight (as he always does) which gained me virtually nothing. And then I just sat in his draft the rest of the way, like a... hmm.

Third race, Nick Abels, under 17 but big and strong. I'd considered going more or less from the gun, but figured I'd never be able to outlast him, even if it didn't suit him either. Instead he started accelerating around the pursuit line on the back straight in the first lap, and I sat beside him through to turn one, where I dropped back in to the draft. I stayed there, popping out momentarily (and not really entirely intentionally) in to turn 3, just because I stuffed the entry up, and rolled in behind. We didn't even really properly sprint. I was getting the distinct impression by this point that I'd already decided going in to the day that it was another practice run of sorts (which it was) and that I wasn't even trying to win (which is what ended up happening, even though I hadn't deliberately intended it that way.)

But that didn't matter, because in a field of 6, you don't go around losing all of your races and get in to the finals, do you? I was already getting changed when they announced I was racing the 3v4 final against Chris. Turns out that three people had won all of their races, and three had lost them all - and as the second-fastest qualifier, that meant that I was in (because Jarrod, the fastest qualifier, had injured his knee.)

So out I went, wondering what on Earth I was doing, and what I should do. Chris had the lead, and we did a bit of weaving and so on back and forth before we jumped, side by side, out of turn 4. As has happened before, Chris made it to turn 1 first, and I slotted in behind. And then I got the weirdest target-fixation ever. I was staring at his back wheel, not even glancing up, and when we got to turn 3, I wasn't at all prepared. I slammed in to the turn, flew up to the blue and it was over. Mind you, had I taken the turn flawlessly, I probably would have ended up finishing in exactly the same spot as I'd been at the entry to the turn - a foot from Chris' rear tyre. It was bizarre, I've never had that happen before, though I do get rather tunnel-visioned during a flying 200 - but, if I say so myself, I ride turn 3/4 at Blackburn near flawlessly. Generally speaking I barely get above the black, never mind the red. Okay, perhaps flawlessly is stretching things a bit. But I certainly don't let it throw me up in a F200.

So tactically and so on, obviously my racing was poor. My endurance was also non-existent, which was a problem not because of long drag races, but because I didn't feel that I could accelerate down the back straight. And mentally I wasn't well race-tuned. But I still had an enjoyable day, and clearly the strength/speed is still pretty good - though I can go faster. I wonder what the solution could be. Track training? Spin? Nah, don't be silly, how would those help?

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.

Blackburn velo... yeah, I remember that place!

So I finally got out on to the velo for a refamiliarisation session - hardly call it a training session as such. Took everything, including spare tyres, but somehow managed to forget the chain whip, so did it all on 86". Probably not a bad idea anyway, perhaps I should restrict myself to that for the first round, too.

Nothing too exciting - a lot of rolling around, two powerjumps from... 23km/hr, apparently, a flying 200 from the chute, and a practice match sprint against Dave Thomas, just for the fun of it all.

Powerjumps were okay, hit 46 on the 1/4ish lap jump, and 53 on the 1/2ish lap jump, not too bad. Flying 200 was marred slightly by slipping out of the pedal, just held in by the strap - need to get new cleats, clearly. Still managed some decent power, though it wasn't a strong jump, and hit a top of 58km/hr for, at a wild and random guess, something like a 13.5. But man, the error bars on that one go right off the graph...

The track needs a bit of a clean up - I'll try to get down there again on Thursday with a whippersnipper - but otherwise it felt great, nice and smooth and somehow grippier than I remember. All the work that's been put in has clearly paid off! It was good to be back out there, and I'm looking forward to Sunday. I'm not expecting much, particularly, but if I manage to enjoy myself I'll be content, and it'll give me a good baseline for the rest of the season.

SSS Round 4

For once this is going to be a fairly short post I think. Not too much to say! The day was blustery and southerly, so times were slow - I took up my traditional post at the rear of B-Grade - seriously, I was the slowest of the 'fast' riders, with over a second between me and the next fastest rider. The only point of note about my flying 200 was that I was weirdly aware of the fence - perhaps a bodily cue as the wind was pushing up towards the fence at the point which I jumped? I'm not sure, but I must admit I shied away from it a little.

B-Grade was an aboc affair - Me, Carl, Nic and Dino. I knew it was going to be tough, and probably carried too much of that attitude with me - not that I couldn't win, but that it was going to be difficult to do so, and I raced too conservatively as a result, coupled with wanting to keep out of the wind down the back straight and so not being keen on the break and run idea.

And that's how the first two races went, firstly against Nic and then against Carl. Against Nic, I did it fairly well, kinda similar to my last race against him at Blackburn, jumping behind him and trying to come around. He's quicker now than he was then though, and I finished a bike length or so back. I needed to keep closer on the jump (or, you know, take the initiative!) and then break and run, using the bank for the extra speed.

Carl, again I was too timid, and didn't draw quite far enough forward of him. He gave me a mini-hook coming in to turn one, and rather than continuing up the bank I came straight down, hard on his wheel. I should have taken a break through turn two, but I was too afraid of losing any speed I gained in the wind, and so stayed behind him. I took a bit of a run, but Carl just kicked again and kept me off his hip, and again, I finished... a bit more than a bike length back.

So to Dino, who is that much faster again. I took the advice and played this one much more aggressively from behind, ducking and diving, making him watch me, knowing that he doesn't like that. Coming out of turn 4, I got him looking the wrong way and got the jump on him, diving for the lane and getting it. I knew though that he'd just grab my wheel, and then either break and run or (more likely) just steam past, so I backed off a little through turn 1/2, hoping to kick again in to the back straight. And I kinda did, but I didn't have much in me, and Dino rolled past and took the win by a few lengths. Still, it was a better race.

After Nic had a mechanical in his final race against Carl, I ended up facing him in the 3v4 final, rather than the rematch with Carl I had expected. I drew the lead and just tried to wind the pace up and up, but didn't quite commit enough and again I was looking to react rather than dictating the race and again he jumped past me. This time I had no legs left for a second dig so sat up by turn three.

So goals for this season are not looking too shiny at the minute. But there's one round to go, and 6 weeks or so to prepare - so long as I can get there. I've got an activity scheduled for my course that day, but SSS round 5 is now an afternoon start again, so I just might be able to get there. And hopefully I'll be able to have one last shot at glory... or at least decency!

See, told you it'd be a short post!

Last minute...

So back out on the track today for a very quick session - as in, 15 minutes! New DA wheel nuts on the rear, and a new chain, so wanted to check that they were nice and settled in as well as getting a couple of jumps in.

So I rolled around for a bit, slowly taking it up to about 35, before slowing for a 1/4 lap powerjump from ~15km/hr - no problems, all felt nice and solid. So I rolled around a little more, rested for a couple of minutes, and then did a Flying 200 windup and jump, see how things felt accelerating from about 40km/hr. Again, felt solid, though I didn't continue the acceleration past the 200 line. The new setup (with chain 1 link longer than the old chain) accommodates 82" to (at least) 102" so I've got a good range, with scope for going higher if I want.

Otherwise I'm just looking forward to Sunday - might do a couple of little HCLRs tomorrow, but nothing more than that. I've actually got quite a busy day, otherwise I'd get down to watch the TT and pursuits, but as it is I'll just have to wait until the sprints! Should be fun.

BBN Tuesday too early

So I figured I might as well go - better to rock up late than not at all! In the end it meant that I only missed one motorpaced F150, and I was knackered after 3 anyway, so perhaps it was for the best!

After a month off the bike, it was good to be back out there, and while my endurance and recovery have suffered, the engine seems to still be there - speeds were all in the high 50s, with a top (supposedly. I'm not trusting my garmin much at the moment) of 59.2. This business of sitting behind a motorcycle makes it oh so easy! Mind you, the jump was only from about 45, so it still required a decent acceleration.

Anyway, good session, even if I did go on to lose to my daughter three times in a row. Oh, the ignominy! New nuts and so on should be arriving this week, so I'll finally be 'safe'. With any luck.

BBN #4. Did somebody say 'BOOM!'?

That's what happens when your rear tyre, fed up with all of the abuse it's copped over the months, decides that that was one pulled wheel too many and goes pop. Or, as it were, BOOM. The shiny spot on the rim is where the concrete did a bit of polishing as I skidded to a halt from 30ish km/hr. Oh, happy days...

To add insult to injury, I was asked how long my spanner was, and received unfavourable opinions of my nuts. All's fair in sprinting and war...

That out of the way, and a spare wheel borrowed, I headed out with Nic to do some powerjumps. The idea was to do four sets on steadily increasing gears for the first three efforts, then back down to 82 (by which I mean 86) for the last set. Nic very generously gave me a 49T chainring to expand my selection of gears from (nominally) 86/92/99 to (nominally, and once I get a longer chain. Oh, and does one round up or down? Or 'normally'? I'll try normally for greater precision. If one can really be nominally precise. But anyway) 81/83/86/88/93/95/100/102. Huzzah! Not that I need so many 80s. But if I can manage something around an 82 then Carl, at least, will be happy, and 102 (or higher? Should I get myself a 50T chainring as well? 50x13 would give me 104 lovely inches. Probably don't even really need 102. But anyway) will give me a higher gear should that seem to give me better F200 times. And 95 is a nice in-between gear for racing at BBN. Oh yus, I spill all of my secrets hereabouts...

Oh, so the training. Well, that went well enough aside from exploding tyres, felt suitably strong and stuff, and almost chased down Nic's bad back on the 102" 1/2 lap. And the sun came out, which was friendly of it. Groovy.

SSS Round 3

Well all in all that was a bit of a bizarre day. Actually it started yesterday, when I rolled my left ankle and was limping around strapped up, telling myself that once you're clipped in with toe-straps done up, the ankle barely moves anyway.

So naturally as I roll out for my flying 200, as soon as I get on to the track, before even putting any power down, I pull my wheel - and I'm all strapped in, nowhere near the fence. Fortunately I manage to get enough leverage - with my left foot - to unclip and pull out of the pedal before I topple over. Thank the all-mighty Druw, for now, for 0 degrees of float.

So I went back to the end of the queue, waited for another 15 or so riders, cooled down thoroughly in the strong southerly, and eventually went out again. I was happy with my effort, felt like I jumped at the right point from about the right speed, kept accelerating down the back straight, and held the speed to the line - but only a 13.8 this month. Most times today (except A-grade, who weren't much slower, and Chris Dann, who was faster!) were more than 0.5 seconds slower, so I guess it's okay.

First race I was up against Nic again, and had the lead. I decided to leave him plenty of room, expecting that he would want to jump over the top of me. I was hoping to out-jump him, at least enough to keep him high, but not give him my wheel to sling around as he's done before in training. That didn't quite work, as he jumped out of turn 4 and managed to get past me in to turn 1, so I was on his wheel instead. Perhaps I should have taken height in turn 3? I suspect that would have been too late, so I just tried to come around him. And I almost almost made it, lost by what seemed like a tyre or so. Maybe it was half a wheel, I'm not sure - I was too busy trying to stay upright after pulling my foot off the pedal - strap and all. Somehow not only had the (brand-new. Well, okay, maybe two weeks old) cleat come out of the pedal, but I'd snapped all 4 cable ties that held the strap on to the pedal. I'm still not sure exactly how - I think that my heel may have clipped the chainstay, but I can't be sure. Why though? No idea. Unless in trying to protect my foot and be gentle, I didn't stomp the cleat in to the pedal hard enough and so was never properly clipped in. Impossible to know now. What happened though was that I wrenched my ankle even more, making it hard to even walk. I was not looking forward to my next race against Chris!

Chris had the lead for this one, and I decided to give this whole 'jumping from turn four' business a go. Didn't work though! I didn't really kick hard enough (not because my ankle hurt, but probably partly because I was aware that my ankle was sore. As it were) but in any case I jumped a bit too late to get the best advantage, and Chris (who probably has the better jump of the two of us in any case) held me off to the first corner and, unlike with Nic, I couldn't come around and Chris won easily.

So it was down to the last race against Ben, which was a dead rubber since the finals in 4-man B-Grade were set already, to give me my first win in B-Grade in my 4th round of racing there. I had the lead, and looked to hold the pace at a reasonable level so that I didn't have to jump hard from a low speed. Ben was sitting in right behind me, which makes it harder to see, but at least I didn't have to worry about him having height. He was sitting back a couple of lengths, which meant that I had to watch for him coming up to my wheel with speed. I covered that though, and coming in to turn one I wound the pace up - not a hard jump, but enough to make it hard for Ben to come around. I kept increasing the speed and coming out of turn 4 I had a look around to see Ben still a bike length back - finally, my first win in B!

But I still had to back-up for the 3v4 final, again against Ben. This time it was three laps, and this time Ben had the lead. I was unsure how he was going to play it, but was worried that he might elect to make it a 900-metre pursuit - and that's exactly what he did. I decided to just let it go for the first lap, see what the gap was and how I was feeling before deciding whether to panic or not. As we came up to 2 to go I felt comfortable despite not getting any draft from Ben, and the gap had stabilised to about 5 lengths - enormous, really, but we were only doing 40-odd. So I reassured myself that not jumping after him was the best thing to do, and worked on steadily increasing my pace. I was briefly uncertain coming up to one lap to go as the gap was still about 3 lengths and I was gearing myself up for an actual sprint, but as we closed upon the 200m line I could see that it wouldn't be necessary, as Ben was clearly flagging. After passing I had a quick look back and saw that he hadn't kicked again to get on my wheel, so I just rolled on with one more quick glance to be sure coming out of turn 4 before sitting up to roll over for third - my second win in B, and first podium! Sure, it was a tiny field in B, but third is third, damnit!

What is there to learn? Well, I probably shouldn't have left Nic quite so much room, I doubt he needed so big an invitation to jump. Still, it could almost as easily have been a win. Chris, well, I feel like I can beat him (at least sometimes!), but I haven't managed it in a race as yet. A combination of imperfect tactics and insufficient power application. Ben, well, it's a different set of tactics to an all-out sprint, and I managed to work it well both times, so that's something to be happy about at least.

A couple of months now before there's any more sprints - more SSS, and perhaps Vic Masters? It's a season goal, but given that I'll be racing against other Masters like Neil, and possibly Dino and Chris Ray depending on what entries are like, I'm not anywhere near the level of looking at medals. But then, goals aren't necessarily for the achieving so much as for their utility in driving training!

BBN #3

I was slightly surprised at the turnout, the day after the metro championships, but there were a good 8 or 9 sprinters on show. I, of course, showed up late, and so was playing catchup a bit - no surprises there.

After the warmup powerjump it was on to Flying 100s on 99", just working on the jump and the line, trying to keep low through turn 4. I generally do that fairly well, though today I ended up around the red, partly because the drill only went to the end of turn 3. Speed was okay at around 53-54, but not quite all-out.

After that was powerjumps out of turn 4 - one just to the end of the straight, then two for the full lap-and-a-a-bit. The idea was for the inside rider to keep the outside rider up high by not diving for the lane, an interesting tactic which seemed to work well, though I wasn't actually on the inside for any of the drills! For the second drill I was with Em, who kept me up high down the front straight but on 99" I just had too much rollout for her down the back straight. After that I was trio-d with Jarrod and John, and jumped from about 20m behind to pull around for the 'win'.

After that I dropped back down to 86" for a one-lap match sprint against Hayden, a chap who had randomly stopped by with his family and who proceeded to thump us all. He'll be in A-Grade next week if he keeps his promise to come along! Turns out he was a pursuiter with the AIS some 12 years ago. He's got an enormous jump, which I was hoping to negate by pumping the speed up high (hardly likely to happen in just one lap!) or by getting him going the wrong way and stealing a break. That latter almost worked coming through turn one - I pulled up the track, he started following and then I went to dive sharply down behind him while he was going the wrong way. He saw it though and turned steeper up the bank, leaving me to swerve back as I couldn't be sure I'd miss his rear wheel. A few seconds later he jumped and got a bit of a gap. I followed but pulled my wheel slightly - and was surprised that he didn't get as far away as I thought he would, 'only' winning by a second or so.

Nothing terribly exciting from the evening, solid training session but no notable results. This week is a taper for Round Three, and with any luck I'll actually do it properly this time and be in good shape for the weekend!

BBN #2 for summer (well, late spring really)

Halfway to the track tonight it suddenly occurred to me that attempting to ride without pedals would not be terribly successful. So I ended up arriving at my traditional time of Late, with a hurried couple of laps and a powerjump before the frivolities started in earnest.

First up - I really need a 96" for Blackburn. I rode 92" this afternoon, except for the sprint at the end on 86", and it feels a little too small. 99" on Blackburn is still probably a little large for me when there's wind (ie: usually) and 96" is kinda in the middle there. Have to order a 50t... I know I said I was going to do that already, but I haven't had a chance to budget - and with Christmas coming up, budgetting is a scary, scary thing...

Anyway, started off with a couple of 'paired' Flying 200s, in threes. I lead out the first one, and... that's about all I know. Noone came past. Garmin tells me the max was 52.8, but I forgot to turn the GPS off, so it also tells me I did a lot of riding in the carpark, playground and neighbouring ovals so I don't think I'll pay much attention to it. Especially since I also apparently recorded a cadence of 237.

Second 200 I was in the second spot, and spent the last 50 metres or so before the jump trying to avoid the wheel in front - I kept thinking it was jumping, jumping, jumping... in the end the jump came just a bit before the 200 line, so didn't really have a chance to drop the wheel and so on. Instead I let a little gap open to run in to and around, and that worked well enough. I dropped back down in to the lane and eased up coming to the line, only to hear a last-minute rush on my outside as the rider in third closed in. I held him off, and so won the adulation of crickets and balloons everywhere.

Next up we were practising a common move at Blackburn - jumping from the exit of corner 4 with about 350m to go. First one went fine, though I could hear a strange clicking sound coming from underneath me somewhere by the end. Sensibly, I ignored it and just lay my bike down in between efforts, before realising during the wind-up for the next that it was my cadence magnet hitting the sensor - I must have pulled the wheel ever so slightly in my previous matchup. This time I was against Chris, who out-jumped me down the straight and then refused to stop pedalling so that I could get back around him. After getting off the bike I noticed that the tyre was actually rubbing - not quite enough to drag, but enough that it couldn't be spun more than half a revolution.

So I fixed that, changed gears, and rocked back in for another sprint against Nic - we were, of course, both entirely spent. This time though I managed to actually jump out of turn two, pull ahead of him down the back straight and drop in to the lane to take the win, which was nice - I'd been telling myself that I wasn't going to do what I did last week and simply give in to feeling tired, but to go as hard as possible anyway, so pleased that I managed that.

I also managed, on every jump but one, to pull my left cleat out of the pedal - thank FSM for straps. Not sure an OS delivery will get here in time for this weekend, so might have to pay double and source that one locally...

Brief stats and humorous map here.

SSS Round 2

I have almost no idea what to say about Round 2 at this point. On the one hand, I managed a PB at BBN of 13.567 for the Flying 200 - almost precisely what I managed a couple of days after Round 1, and half a second faster than my previous best. I'd forgotten to turn my Garmin on (hooray! shout all those who think I over-analyse)  but presumably the pattern was similar to that run. My jump was okay, though the transition down the track was a little shaky and probably cost me a tenth or so. I didn't feel like my general sickness/fatigue/listlessness affected me too much, though my 'resting' heart rate (not straight out of bed, but just sitting around) was around 100 and I was very strained afterwards. Still, a good ride and room for improvement. Not sub-13 though (not that I was actually expecting that, but) so I BLAME COACH. Still owe him a porsche though, apparently.

So this time I was 5th out of 7 in B, rather than 6th out of 6, and 25 100ths faster than the slowest time in B, rather than 3 10ths slower than the second-slowest. I was (un?)lucky enough to get a bye, which meant that I only had two races in the heats. First up I was against Chris Dann, and he had the lead. I've trained a bit with him, including a couple of weeks ago at this very velodrome, and I thought I had an idea of what I needed to do to beat him, knowing full well that he was good enough to beat me if I did it poorly, or if he did something else. I was basically hoping to get to about 250m out and jump from there, from as near to next to him as I could manage.

And... well, that's about precisely what happened. Except that I dropped a bike length behind him - which turned it in to something more like a flying 200 following rider tries to pass than a powerjump, and the result was the same - he beat me, and again I basically gave up by about turn 3. Except that I could almost swear by the Garmin record that I actually hit my top speed of over 57km/hr about the time I crossed the pursuit line, only 20m or so from the finish. Which seems bizarre. In fact, the whole thing is a little odd - after jumping from 39-49 in 3 seconds, I then added 1 km/hr per second for the next 8 seconds. With no appreciable difference around the time I felt that I'd given up and stopped controlling my line. Which makes it seem likely that my head had given up, I'd lost focus (partly... mostly? because of being sick and without pizzazz. Or something) without properly informing my body, which for wont of some more definitive direction just kept on pushing until it stopped. But I'm certainly not good enough to win races with that level of commitment, certainly not against someone like Chris Dann.

My second race was against Jonathon Dent, an U17 rider I've never seen before but who qualified as much faster than me as I was to Chris. I had the lead this time, and as last round my plan was to get the pace up, keep it high and have a more steadily-increasing speed drag race rather than a jump from slower speeds. And again, I managed to do that, I controlled the race fairly well. As expected he came past me towards the end of the back straight - but I was prepared for that, and increased my speed, trying to keep him on my hip. I reacted though, rather than just accelerating 20m or so before turn 3, so instead I more or less held him on my shoulder, and coming out of turn 4 we were basically side by side. Not surprisingly, from there he took the win by a wheel or so. At least in that race my focus was much better, and even though the time between races was much shorter than between the F200 and my first race, I felt better.

But that was it for me for the day - not even a free 'win' to boost my tally to 9 points could help, and I was well out of the finals. I had intended to stay to watch the rest of my Splat! and aboc sprint squad team mates race their finals, but I was suddenly overcome very dispirited and demoralised, and so unsociably departed to go home and curl up in bed.

Time to shake off this cold-y flu-y thing, get back on the keto, get back in the bluddy gym and perhaps spend more time on the velo than on the trainer, get more bike handling and power-transferring at speed training in. Just as I'm about to start work again and find my time disappearing. Ah well. Ain'tn't nobody gonna pay me to ride my bike!

BBN Numero the One for Summer

So, I may have turned up a trifle late. Again. Again I had an excuse - my daughter's school Spring Fair. And it should all be over now. Probably Maybe.

Anyway, did a couple of 1/4 lap powerjumps on my own on 86" as warmup. Not bad, hit a top of 46.5, over 77m as opposed to the 62.5 of DISC. Next up I went up to 99" against Chris Dann for a 3/4lap powerjump - a good 230m or so. I was on the inside, jumping from 35km/hr or so, hit a top of 54.5 some 30m from the line, and crossed at about 52.6 after pulling away from Chris through turn 3.

We then moved on to Flying 200s in pairs, and the first one Chris lead out and took his revenge - I wasn't recovered very well from the powerjump, and after giving myself a bit of space coming out of the jump, just couldn't manage to increase my pace coming around him and basically gave up by turn 4, coasting in behind him, almost coming undone by going underneath him because he slowed coming in to the straight when I expected him to pull away, before remembering that we don't go that way and swinging back up the track. After a bit of rest, I lead out the next one and managed to hold him off, hitting a top of 55.3 and crossing the line, according to my Garmin, at about 28.2km/hr. Amusing things happen on the velodrome with GPS enabled.

Finally it was a 1.5 lap match sprint against Emily, back down to 86". She was (nominally) leading, and watching carefully. I looked for any gaps, thinking about taking an early jump, but was content to leave it later so long as the pace was high enough, and we were tracking about 30 so that was okay. I drew up next to her coming in to turn 1 on the last lap and jumped with the advantage of height. I wasn't quite able to draw past her, though I probably could have dropped down in to the lane by the end of the back straight, but I'm not quite confident about that yet. As it was, after slipping a couple of times up on the blue line, I ran really wide coming out of turn 4 and only just hung on to beat her, hitting a top of just over 55km/hr.

I'm pretty happy with that training, having had a very busy and tiring weekend. Granted, I was training with people who (by Round 1 F200 times) are a bit slower than me, so I could have hit precisely the same numbers and lost each match-up against, say, Nic. But overall it felt pretty good, I was marginally less clueless than in the afore-mentioned Round 1, and I'm feeling happier with not just my jump, but accelerating in the middle of the race, down the back straight and coming out of turn 4. Hopefully Round 2 will be more successful than Round 1...

Wreaking my rewen-ge

Turns out I was supposed to do a repeat of the recovery spin today, but I didn't check my email so instead I popped by BBN for a bit of redress. Maybe it's difficult to actually wreak rewen-ge on a concrete track, but not so difficult to do to oneself!

I was momentarily thrown off plan by happening to bump in to the same chap from back in April - who's bought a new track bike and is looking for some racing! So it was nice to chat, but I really wanted to get out there. I was trialling straps on my pedals for the first time - they felt good when on (though they're only cheapies, so I don't know how long they'll last) but getting in and out of them is going to take some practice!

Anyway, after a bit of a warmup I did a couple of half-lap powerjumps (which at BBN is... well, about 165-odd metres, because I went from pursuit line to finish line) on 86", hitting only 50.9 on the effort from ~30km/hr. Bit low, I thought. I then switched up to 99" and did the same, from ~10km/hr and ~30km/hr. Hit 52 this time from 30, which again, felt a bit low. Not by an order of magnitude or anything, but still. Enough to make me concerned that perhaps I wasn't going to make much headway on looking for an improved F200 time.

But I headed out from the chute, and wound it up over the abridged BBN F200 distance. On Sunday I jumped late from... actually, it's hard to tell! Certainly above 40. But it's a rather gentle 'jump' in the garmin record. I crossed the line at about 49 and eventually hit a max of  54.5km/hr before gracefully curving back down to 51kmh, for a time of 14.185 at an average of 50.76km/hr. I don't have such precise timings, of course, for today and a direct comparison is meaningless because of the different conditions - there was all but no wind today, for example. But I can say that I jumped from just on 35km/hr, crossed the 200 line doing pretty much smack on 50km/hr, hit a max of 55.3km/hr (and held above 55km/hr for 5 seconds or so) which decayed back to ~51 again by the time I crossed the finish line to record an average speed of conservatively 52.99km/hr, generously 53.67km/hr and most likely 53.5km/hr. Which makes for a F200 time of somewhere between 13.587 and 13.415 seconds.

That's still a little slower than I'd be happy with. But I'm much more satisfied with that as a measure of where I am than with what I managed on Sunday, conditions notwithstanding. And there's useful info there, too - accelerating after the line is okay, but by 5km/hr? Probably a bit much. So jump should probably have started earlier - more like the start of the clubrooms, perhaps. The question, of course, is could I hold the speed all the way to the line in that case. Crossing the 200 line at something closer to 52 and holding the same sort of pace as in today's F200 to the line would see me riding something more like a 13.28. Which is closer to where I feel I should be at the moment. Wouldn't necessarily mean I'd win any more races, because there's a whole lot more to it than speed over 200 metres, but it's a start!

SSS Round 1, 2011

Well, that was rather a disappointing day. Short version: Slow F200, last qualifier in B-Grade, lost all three races. But, you know, it's me, so there's a longer version...

Let's approach this in terms of lessons learned.

i) Sunday is race day. Not, races go from 12ish to 4ish, but Sunday, the whole day, is race day.

I arrived late after attending to assorted family matters which left me with little time to warm up, check my bike, or get myself in the right frame of mind. With the wind on Sunday, gusting strongly up the back straight, actually getting out there in a couple of different gearings to check how they felt was important, rather than just guessing. As it was, I guessed 92", and that was probably too small. My tyres were low, too - only about 90psi at most. I hadn't ridden at BBN since last year so I was rusty on the right lines, places to jump, etc. and in my F200, I jumped too late though my line was probably not too bad. Result was a F200 time of 14.185, more than a tenth of a second slower than my time from Round 6 back in April, before I started training! Yes, it was a slow day, but that's an awful time.

ii) I need to be more active in my races.

By this I mean not just in terms of moving around more, or being more aggressive, but thinking more and being adaptable. In my first race against Nic, I was following and wanted him to keep the lead, be dragged up the back straight protected from the wind, then coming in to corner 3 to run up the bank, down in to his slipstream with pace and around, as we've been doing at DISC. But the key point came much earlier than that...

 

At 59 seconds I threw a bit of a fake, just wanting to get him thinking, maybe get him to jump. What happened though was that he went for it, going all the way down the track (and off it!) while I just swerved back up. And sat there. And sat there. And waited for him to get back on the track, get out of the saddle and accelerate while I wasted my height and the advantage that I'd gained from getting him going the wrong way. Eventually, I responded but too late - I wasn't quite able to get on his wheel and couldn't accelerate around. I was closing, but was never going to get there.

iii) I need to kick harder.

I've improved since last year, it is true. But the main point really is that I wasn't kicking as hard as I could. This I think is part experience, part confidence, and part bike handling skills.In my second race against Ed, I decided to take the lead and gradually wind it up so as to try to negate his acceleration a little. I felt that I controlled it fairly well, and brought the pace up. But I always expected him to come alongside. Watching the video though, just as with Nic he's still out of the saddle and accelerating at the point where I'm in the saddle and not confident to get out at that cadence.

I had the legs to accelerate more, but needed to be able to get out of the saddle. He sails past, and I keep plodding along.

iv) I need to be aware that I'm racing against another human being!

In my race against Ian, I decided to try to sit behind him in his blindspot. Fine, but I didn't think it through too much further. I let him get too much space, dictating the pace, and then I neglected to take advantage again.

At 42 seconds, again I threw a fake with nothing to back it up. I rolled down the bank not when Ian was looking forward, but immediately after he'd looked back at me again. After doing that, I just sat back up behind him, lost a bit of ground, and he jumped. Somehow I was caught off guard, he got the gap and won by that margin. As someone commented at the end - I'm a bit of a one-pace sprinter. Or, at least, that's how I raced. Too timidly.

Obviously there's much more to it than just 4 lessons. But I think that those are some of the important aspects to take away from these races. I was clearly off my best, for a number of reasons. What I need to do is work on those aspects and come back stronger next month. And, clearly, losing weight is now the more important aspect than gaining strength, and the ability to apply strength on the track is more important than getting bigger numbers on an ergo.

Blackburn Velo 29/04

One training session every 8 days, that should be enough to bring me to peak fitness in 7 decades, no? A combination of Easter camping and anus horribilis meant that I didn't even touch my bike for over a week.

So today's outing was a bit gentle, and only 35 minutes total of riding - and that mostly warmup/recovery time! I did two powerjump-style efforts from 30km/hr over 200m and then did a 2-lap revout which wasn't entirely a revout as such (and wouldn't ever be probably, without a motorbike to draft behind, but anyway) because I ran out of steam long before I ran out of spin!

And that was it. Not much in the way of serious training, but enough to wake the body up a bit without overstressing it while still attempting to keep to the sprinter's 100% credo. I managed a max of 51.7km/hr on my 86.4" on the second powerjump, not bad (for me!) considering I was sticking to the black line. And I should still recover fine for Sunday's session at DISC. No worries.

On another note, in looking up some times to keep in mind for future targets, I happened upon the 'best times' (because they're not allowed to be 'records' for Masters) for a Flying 200 in each age category. Now, the current world record is apparently 9.572 seconds. In Masters 1 (my age group, 30-35) it's 10.333 seconds. I won't go through the whole progression, but guess what it is for someone over 70 years old? Nope. Nope, not that either. It's 12.636 seconds. That's about 0.7 seconds faster than I've already gone, and it was ridden by someone over 70.

Now I didn't bring that up for the point of comparison, but more to observe that even though elite sprinting might be a young man's game, and I'm already too old for it (at least for starting out in it, as opposed to reaching the end of my career) there's still decades of time for me to enjoy the sport in a pointy fashion, should I choose. And that's an interesting thought.

Brief Stats here.

Blackburn Velo 21/04

After being frustrated in my attempts to get out earlier in the week, today was my last chance to get a ride in before the Easter camping trip. Unfortunately (sort of) I got there at the same time as another chap and we spent a lot of time 'warming up' (that is, chatting!) and so I only got in 4 K1s and a flying 100 or so. Still, it gave me a bit of a rev-up before the weekend and at least provided some training benefit. Hopefully.

Brief stats here.