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!

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.

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 #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.

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.

DISC #3 for Summer

Oh, the glories of a strength session! Let me see. Race Gear + 4? No worries, call it 99". Race Gear? No worries, call it 99". At least for the 82" match sprints I went back to 86". Hopefully I'll be getting a new chain ring, chain and cleats this week sometime...

So 99" 1/4, 1/4, 1/2 powerjumps from 10km/hrish, nothing terribly exciting. The two half-lap seated powerjumps from 25ish were slightly more interesting, got up to 53.2 on the first one after making more of a conscious effort to accelerate through the middle of the range.

But it was with the motorbike efforts that the fun really began. A 250m MACC on 99" was always going to lead to tears of joy. My jump, as always, was a bit suspect, but I worked to try to continue pushing through to get back on the roller and push the speed up as high as I could. And it worked reasonably, steadily accelerating for the first ~150m, hitting a top of just over 63 and maintaining over 60 almost to the line, probably back to 58 as I crossed. Not quite up to my goals yet, but progressing.

The 500m windout didn't quite go to plan - again on 99", this time no jump just a steady acceleration. And that went fine until turn 2, ~300m in, where I came too far forward on the saddle, had too much weight on the bars and started weaving all over the place, wobbling for King and Country. So instead of hooning down the back straight at 62/63, I dropped back to 58/59 and more or less sat there through the last 100m on my own to the line. Opportunity missed, though I still hit nearly 63.

That was originally supposed to be it, but we lined up for some more match sprint practice instead. I was paired with Nic, who was talking the whole way around about how he had nothing left. I didn't bother letting him know that I had nothing either! We had a bit of bumping practice through turn 1/2 as Nic tried to push me up the track and I decided that actually no, I like it here just fine thank you! So I was actually in a good position coming out of turn 2, right next to him with a bit more height and run off the bank. Trouble was, I couldn't jump! I just kinda rolled down and tried to accelerate in the saddle. I saw Nic get out and thought... nup. Not gonna happen. It was basically a race to turn three, see who could claim the lane, and I was never in danger of getting there. I'm frankly astounded that my garmin shows a max speed of 53-odd - I would have guessed I hit mid-40s at most! A good little bit of extra tactical experience though.

ABOC Summer #2 with DISC

Or something like that. After yesterdays spinning 'warmup' I felt in a reasonable place for a bit of sprinting action. First up we did some powerjumps on (for me) 86", 2 x 3/4 lap. I lead out the first one with Dino, jumped at the 200 line from mid-30s and sprinted to the line unchallenged. Second one I was in second position and followed Dino's jump down the back straight. Here I was in a good sort of position to go around him, but I just haven't been able to get that move right, and I came out of his draft and just sat there, finishing a bike length back - right where I started!

After that we went up to race gear, 99", and did a motorpaced entry + 150m. I jumped poorly, but still managed to hit 61.4 coming out of turn 2, but couldn't quite hold that down the back straight, dropping back to about 57 which I held to the end.

Partnered Flying 200s, and I lead out the first against Craig. The jump again was ordinary, and I rather dove down in to the lane before the 200 line rather than smoothly coming down and still up around the red line at that point. I actually accelerated down the back straight this time, up to around 57 from 55, and held that to the line pretty well. The next one was similar, following Craig this time, except that I was meant to lay off coming out of turn two, take height, run down in to the slipstream and around. Again I got it wrong, not taking enough space and rather diving back down behind him leaving me with not much of a run. So I pulled back out too sharply, got stuck on his hip and couldn't pull past. Marginally closer than with Dino, but not much!

We finished with another 1.5 lap match sprint, and I was up against Jarrod this time. I was behind him, and had plenty of height when he went with about a lap to go. I was half intending to practice the laying off again, but I just plain had too much speed and muscled around him instead. So not quite the right sort of practice.

One thing that's become enormously more apparent as I've gotten stronger in the gym and on the trainer is that that's not really being transferred to the track very well. I'm almost scared jumping for a flying 200 because my bike handling just isn't good enough, especially at DISC. Or, at least, I've convinced myself that this is so. And I did hit the fence with my foot winding up for the second 200. I don't have a power meter, but I reckon if I did it'd show that I was down a good 10% at least in my jumps compared to on the trainer, and quite possibly more (I mean, I've never trained with power, so I can't really quantify. But you get the idea.) Simply because I'm lacking in confidence and skill. More training I guess! And at least BBN isn't quite so slippery...

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...

DISC Summer #1 with ABOC

Nice to get back on the track today after lots of spinning and lifting. I was on standby as support for Team Splat!'s Around the Bay epic which left me rather late getting to DISC, and without a partner for powerjumps when he defected to the enduro stream!

Accelerations generally felt a bit soft tonight, especially on 86" but even up on 99". My body just didn't feel right. I hit about 43km/hr in each 1/4 lap powerjump on 86", but felt like I should have been able to get higher.

The next drill was a F150 with a motorpaced entry on 99". I was pretty happy with this despite the sloppy jump, it felt fast and was - an average speed for the 150m of 60.47 with a top of 62.4 after crossing the 200 line at about 59. In fact, even though it was only a 150m effort, my average speed for the 200 (approx!) was still 59.5 - or only just over 12 seconds. Of course, that's with a motorpaced windup and entry, so even though the 150m was unassisted, doesn't quite mean it equates to an actual 12s F200, even at DISC! Still, nice to go fast.

After that, a full F200 though motorpaced the entire way this time. Again my jump was poor, and I came down off the fence too early, but speed was good - crossed the line at about 55, and accelerated all the way, crossing the line at about 61 (and still accelerating!) for an average of 59km/hr, about a 12.2 or so. All I need to do now is to organise a motorbike for my races...

For the first time in ages (well, a month or so) we did a windout, back on 86" (one day I'll get a new chain so I can go down to 82"... one day). Got up to 61.6 on that, which is a pretty decent effort. I don't have my cadence sensor at the moment, but it would have been up around 150 or so.

Finished off the evening with a practice match sprint - again, I didn't have a partner, but this time I formed a group of three with Merv and someone I don't know. Merv took the lead and I was initially at the back, but moved up through the middle, keeping height. Merv jumped from the bottom with about 300m to go while I stayed up the bank, accelerating and watching the other rider behind me. I saw that he wasn't going to come underneath, so I just dropped down around the 200 line a couple of lengths back, accelerated down the back straight and came up beside Merv just before the turn, held him there, then pulled away to win. Which, all respect to Merv, with my speed I should be able to do, though he's a better rider than I am.

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!

DISC Session #21 with ABOC

Whoops! Bit late for this one, and full of lunch still. Ah well, never mind. Powerjumps and flying 200s with an attempt to pass the leading rider. Powerjumps were fine, very jumpy, marginally powerful. Got up to 4km/hr on the second one on 92", good result.

Edit: 45km/hr! Not 4km/hr. That was not, in fact, an effort to disguise my abilities so as to lull my SSS opponents in to a false sense of security. I'm not that clever. Just typlexic.

Flying 200s the idea was that the following rider laid off, built speed and blasted past the lead rider to take the victory on the line. I was with Carl, and for the first effort the plan didn't quite work, as the trailing rider mistimed his effort and didn't quite get past the lead rider. In the second effort, the trailing rider rode perfectly, passing the lead rider about 10m before the line.

I'll leave it up to the imagination of the reader to determine who was which when!

End of the night, I was rooted. Still rooted from spin on Friday, actually. And, as predicted, this week's spin is even harder. Sigh. I'm sure it'll pay off...

DISC Session #20 with ABOC

Gods. Tonight was meant to look like this. Instead, it was windout after MAC after MAC after MAC after powerjump after powerjump after powerjump with about 10 minutes between each. Madness! And I suspect it's only going to get worse over the next few weeks...

But it went okay. I started off feeling fairly tired and stiff after yesterday,  but the numbers held up - 43.9 in the 1/4 lap powerjumps, 52 in the half lap on 99". The first couple of pedal strokes felt pretty glacial though.

2x250m MACs and 1x375m MAC... tough. Still feeling tired, and I got quite a bit of slipping on the first MAC, but recorded 62.7km/hr, which I was happy with. Well, until I discovered that Neil hit over 71km/hr. So I've... got a ways to go. But we knows this. I was still accelerating throughout and hitting top speed around about the line in the first two, and in the final MAC added another couple of km/hr after coming out from behind the bike for the last 100m, accelerating to the line, so there's definite improvement noticeable. I'm just not going to win A-Grade next month! But that's okay. No, really.

Finished off the evening with a nice lazy (!) windout back on 86", up to 57.8/143 for what was essentially a warmdown, drafting the whole way. I was even able to pedal back in - after the MACs, I coasted (not free-wheeling, obviously, but you get the idea...), taking two or three laps to slow down because I didn't have the energy required to put backward pressure on the pedals, and considered running in to a foam-covered pole so that I could just fall off rather than having to unclip and step over the bars!

DISC Session #19 with ABOC

Enjoyable session tonight at DISC with the ABOC crew - another decent turnout of sprinters, into the double-figures I think.

More powerjumps on 99" to begin with - 6 of them in fact, 1 of those seated, and another 1/2 lap instead of a 1/4. Slightly higher max speeds for this week, up to 45km/hr on the 1/4s and 49 on the 1/2s, so happy with that. After a bit of residual stiffness following yesterdays weights session, it was reassuring to feel some snap in the legs!

We then did a motorcycle entry with a flying 150 to follow, which saw me break 60km/hr for the first time in a flying+distance, and not because of the draft - once the motorbike jumped I was nowhere near it, as it took a lower line in to the bend while I stayed up near the fence until near the finish line. It was probably a combination of this line and potentially a higher entry speed of 45km/hr at the jump which contributed to that. Not a dependable guide, but my Garmin records 9s for the 150m, which should indicate at least sub-13s for the 200 - will be interesting to see how that time has progressed by the time we get back in to Summer racing.

Finished off with some more skills work, this time with a form of hooking and diving practice - second rider on the wheel, going up the bank coming in to turn three, being held up there by the lead rider who then dives for the lane. In the final go around the sequence was reversed, with the following rider being the one to dive for the lane (and it's a long way down at DISC!) Fun stuff.

DISC Session #18 with ABOC

Fun night tonight at DISC - overgeared powerjumps, overgeared MACs, and some duckin' and divin'!

Well, over-geared-ish. I only go up to 99", which is perhaps a little overgeared for racing at DISC, but not by much these days, as I get stronger. I really needed something more like 107" to make it a real strength effort! Anyway, no dramas this week, everything stayed nice and solid for a change.

Powerjumps felt fairly good, possibly held back a little in the first one for fear of something going wrong, but not too much. The MACs were fun as always, though again I felt like I didn't push quite as hard as I might have done. Managed a top of 61.7/132 on 99" though, which is okay. Need to go faster!

We finished with a bit of ducking and diving as a skills drill, no sprinting, which was a more relaxed way of finishing off. The first set around I was a bit wobbly for some reason, not holding a good line while leading and having trouble keeping my eyes back. The second set was better - and faster, which probably helped. I don't think I'm quite up to A-grade level just yet, but perhaps by the end of the season, with continued training (and racing!) combined with losing more weight, I just might be competitive! It's something to aim for, anyway...

DISC Session #16 with ABOC

"make sure that my bike is absolutely tip-top hunky-dory super-duper ridgey-didge before tomorrow's DISC session"

Ahahahahaha. Hahahaha. Hahaha. Haha. Ha.

But wait, let's start at the beginning, shall we? First up, powerjumps on 99" - three out of the saddle (including one warmup) and one in the saddle. Two 41km/hrs and one 44km/hr (91RPM) not bad from ~10-15km/hr. Seated was harder, of course, and didn't quite get on top of the gear by the 1/4 lap, finishing at 38/82.

Next drill was powerjumps from behind the motorbike on 92", jumping out of the draft at about 35km/hr and going for a half lap. Well, I made it about 50 metres (depends how much of the slide you count, really!) before ending up on the infield on my arse. Not entirely sure what happened yet, except that something seemed to slip in my drivetrain somewhere - the cog is the chief suspect here. Up until now I've always saved such a situation, but not this time - down I went. Nothing too bad - little bit of grazing, small hole in the knicks, but nothing worse than that. I've managed to find a video of the incident:

Well, it was something like that. Except for the staying upright bit and the lack of being run into by someone else. And the... everything, really!

Anyway, I checked the bike out and nothing seemed to be wrong - wheel was still centred (slightly out of true, but not much) and the cog was on tight. So I put stuff back together again, tightened everything, and went back out for some ducking and diving!

This time we did one lap over, one lap under, one lap ducking and diving and then on the final lap, at some point the rear rider jumped and raced to the line. I took the lead for the first one, and was quite happy with the way I managed to ride while looking backwards - I didn't look forwards at all for the entire time, and while I won't claim I maintained a dead-straight line, I was fairly smooth at least. In both efforts I lifted my front wheel slightly off the ground a couple of times in the sprint, possibly because of the smaller gear (back to 86" I think it was) but only very slightly.

We finished with a 500m windout behind the motorbike, with a last 100m sprint. Nothing too exciting to report there, only hit a top of 58.9/144 on 86". Always a nice way to finish the evening though.

Brief stats here.

DISC Session #15 with ABOC

Powerjumps and MACs... nothing too complicated tonight! The powerjumps were 1/4 lap, react to the lead rider, three thereof with three of us in the group so we each got a turn in each position. Nobody overtook anyone else, top speeds for me after 62.5m from ~15km/hr were all about 42-44 km/hr (on 86"), and the new Look Keos were fine - which is to say, I was fine in them!

MACs were also good - 250 followed by 375. The 250 I hit the roller 3 times in the windup, and again had to avoid the back of the bike on the catch, for a top of 59.8 on 99". The 375 was better, in that I only hit the roller the once in the windup, and the bike was going faster - which meant more chasing/less drafting, and more effort. So even though it was a longer effort, I still hit a higher top speed of 61.0/131RPM. Not so satisfying those numbers though, must get them higher.

At the end of the session I decided to join in the 'extra' gate starts - and promptly pulled a wheel. Annoying. It'd been fine all night, so the only thing I can think of is that it was fine for lower-power efforts like the MACs, or it wasn't quite in straight and so as I rode it worked itself ever so slightly loose. Should've checked it before I did them, but I'd done it up as tightly as I possibly could in the first place. Sigh. I keep on missing bits in this sort of way. Not that gate starts are essential, but they're useful additions and good for working strength on the bike rather than in the gym. Ah well. Not like I'm aiming for the Olympics I guess, but still, I'm not just here for shits and giggles!

Brief stats here.

DISC Session #14 with ABOC

Well, an interestingly mixed session tonight. Two mechanical annoyances in the powerjumps - pulled a wheel (again!) in the first warmup, fixed it, and went back out and did it solo before doing a flying entry with Neil and Nic. Then after a tricky three-way-react-to-the-last-rider powerjump where I was in the middle (and finished last, though right on Nic's wheel, and hit about 50km/hr) I was leading out the second powerjump (need to work on watching/reacting, after all) when I pulled my foot out of the pedal - fortunately my automatic systems knew how to handle it because I don't think my pre-frontal cortex knew what had happened until I got down on to the duckboard, one leg flapping in the wind. Looking at the pedal/cleat afterwards, it really doesn't look that worn, but I'm going to put keos and straps on, see how they go. It's a shame, because I quite like the speedplays otherwise - at some point I'll probably fork out the $100-odd to rebuild them with track bodies.

Rest of the night was two MACs and a windout. No surprise I enjoy these more, because they involve going fast, and perhaps don't require as much work as my powerjumps! Though everything still needs work. The MACs I did on 99.7", and hit just over 60km/hr/130RPM for the first, and 59/125 for the second with only about 7 minutes rest between the two. On both I hit the roller a few times going around, and in the final hundred metres or so was actively avoiding the back of the bike - both times ending up around the blue line. Given that, quite happy with the numbers, though I'm hoping (wanting needing!) to go faster still.

Finished with a 500m windout from the blue line (no entry off the banking for this one) and again was sitting close to the roller though not to the extent of slowing me down - can't remember if I actually hit it again, though I think I did. 58km/hr at 142 (back to 86" for this one) is not bad, though I felt like I possibly cheated myself a little in effort. After that just doodled around a little trying to trackstand and then rolled as slowly as possible back to the racks. It didn't feel terribly elegant, but then, that's what practice is for!

No Electronica!

That's right, I was completely naked for tonight's ABOC DISC session - I left my Garmin at home. As such, I am entirely confused about how I went this evening and know nothing about anything.

Well, perhaps not quite. New tyres tonight, so I was a bit concerned about the potential for slipping, but the sanding and vinegaring I did seemed to work and I had no problems on that score. I did still have slipping under acceleration but that's probably positional - though I hope that these tyres will help a bit. I was trying to focus on keeping my arms straight (I've been tending to hunch over the front with bent arms, especially in the powerjumps) but I'm not sure if it helped much or not! My main focus for the moment is transferring increased strength to the track, and slipping (sometimes for a good 50 metres) under acceleration isn't helping that.

Otherwise I was fairly happy with my efforts, the jumps did feel a bit stronger, and I was absolutely rooted after the 2 x 250m MACs, which is the way it should be. Interestingly I recovered better from the final 375m MAC than the 250s, which might have to do with the effort, or simply that there was just one of them. Hard to say. I also had a bit of a play on some rollers, which will take a bit of getting used to!

DISC Session #11 with ABOC

Powerjumps, powerjumps, and then some powerjumps. Just for variety! 2x 1/2-lap on 86" from ~30, then 2x 1/2-lap on 93" from ~30, then instead of doing Flying 100s the 4 of us (only 4!) decided to do... race training, essentially. Work up to 40ish, then rider on the front does a flying lap, rider behind sits on the wheel and tries to time the sprint to the line.

I don't have anything much interesting to say, and the stats don't provide anything very interesting either. Top speed/cadence came in the warmup! For powerjumps the main interest is in the jump, the acceleration, and I don't have a useful way yet of analysing that. I tried to try hard, but I still need to work harder at my jump - and I need to get my new tyres on to, hopefully, help with slipping. I also need to work on my form - one of the sprints I felt like I was really crouching down over the front end rather than standing up a bit more, and so probably robbing myself of a lot of power.

But that's about all. I need to find some better free software for the making of the analyses. Because, clearly, I don't spend enough time on analysis!