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...
Showing posts with label Duck and Dive. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Duck and Dive. Show all posts
21 August 2011
07 August 2011
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.
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.
08 May 2011
DISC Session #3 with ABOC
Well, that was all a bit... tiring. I went in to the evening not really feeling very focussed, and low on energy. I joked to Wayne, my partner for the evening, that I'd probably begin focussing about when I got tired, and the reality wasn't far off that.
We started with 3 x 30km/hr 1/2 lap powerjumps, reaction drills - Wayne led out two, and I took the front for the middle drill. Each time I was beaten, and I didn't feel much more focussed by the end than I had at the start.
The second set of drills was 4 x 3 laps over/under/D&D 1/2 lap sprints, which means that for one lap the following rider rides a metre or so above and 10 metres behind the lead rider, then a metre below, then weaves up and down. The whole time (or as much as possible) the lead rider watches the trailing rider, maintaining position on the track by peripheral vision.
These were a bit of a mixed bag - my reaction time when Wayne was attacking on the sprint lap was quite ordinary, and my acceleration needs a lot of work. I was mostly happy with my ability to watch over my shoulder while riding around the velo, though I wasn't perfect in holding my line by any means. It's harder than doing it at Blackburn, and it's harder doing it at 30km/hr than at 10, but it felt pretty good considering I find it difficult to ride in a straight line on the road while looking over my shoulder for any length of time.
On the third drill I was sprinting from in front, and thought I had the sprinters lane, when Wayne came underneath me down on to the duckboard. I swung up and pulled out of the sprint, with Wayne saying afterwards that I was just out of the lane so he went underneath. I've no idea of the precise position, but it was probably a bit touch and go either way. The important thing, from the perspective of the drill, is that he was going past me at a decent rate - partly because he had the run down the bank, but partly also because I just wasn't accelerating hard enough.
I think partly it's a matter of gearing (I'll stick with 99.7" for now, because we're doing strength work anyway, but 94" or so might be a better race gear for me - at the moment) and partly a matter of experience/technique (I'm still working on my out-of-the-saddle position to avoid slipping, and being confident to be out of the saddle on the bends) but mostly it's my strength, my weight, and insufficient aggression/focus. Especially last night.
The last drill we had the option of doing 3 x flying 100s or 2 x 500m revouts. I chose the revouts partly to work on legspeed, and partly because one just doesn't get many opportunities to sit behind the motorbike. The first one was a bit uneven - Carl rode up to the fence and brought us down on a flying entry line to start the effort, which was quite different to when I did it last time - I found it quite difficult to maintain position behind the bike, either having to backpedal a bit to avoid running in to it coming down the bank, or dropping off the back by 5 metres going up it. Something to work on, but it was only my first time. I only managed 1.5 laps on the first go, but still got up to 54 km/hr/133RPM on 86".
The second attempt I did better, still not maintaining my place behind the bike terribly well, but better than the first attempt which meant I did less chasing. I think Carl also started at a slightly lower speed to make sure I got 2 laps - he said something like that, but it's bloody hard to hear sitting behind the motorbike! At any rate, I felt a bit more focussed by this time, and was able to stick to the wheel for the entire 2 laps with a top of 56.1/138. Bloody tired, but felt a bit better afterwards. Wasn't the most successful session, but I got something out of it and was happy with my last revout at least, and the rest will all add to fitness/experience in some general way.
Brief stats here.
We started with 3 x 30km/hr 1/2 lap powerjumps, reaction drills - Wayne led out two, and I took the front for the middle drill. Each time I was beaten, and I didn't feel much more focussed by the end than I had at the start.
The second set of drills was 4 x 3 laps over/under/D&D 1/2 lap sprints, which means that for one lap the following rider rides a metre or so above and 10 metres behind the lead rider, then a metre below, then weaves up and down. The whole time (or as much as possible) the lead rider watches the trailing rider, maintaining position on the track by peripheral vision.
These were a bit of a mixed bag - my reaction time when Wayne was attacking on the sprint lap was quite ordinary, and my acceleration needs a lot of work. I was mostly happy with my ability to watch over my shoulder while riding around the velo, though I wasn't perfect in holding my line by any means. It's harder than doing it at Blackburn, and it's harder doing it at 30km/hr than at 10, but it felt pretty good considering I find it difficult to ride in a straight line on the road while looking over my shoulder for any length of time.
On the third drill I was sprinting from in front, and thought I had the sprinters lane, when Wayne came underneath me down on to the duckboard. I swung up and pulled out of the sprint, with Wayne saying afterwards that I was just out of the lane so he went underneath. I've no idea of the precise position, but it was probably a bit touch and go either way. The important thing, from the perspective of the drill, is that he was going past me at a decent rate - partly because he had the run down the bank, but partly also because I just wasn't accelerating hard enough.
I think partly it's a matter of gearing (I'll stick with 99.7" for now, because we're doing strength work anyway, but 94" or so might be a better race gear for me - at the moment) and partly a matter of experience/technique (I'm still working on my out-of-the-saddle position to avoid slipping, and being confident to be out of the saddle on the bends) but mostly it's my strength, my weight, and insufficient aggression/focus. Especially last night.
The last drill we had the option of doing 3 x flying 100s or 2 x 500m revouts. I chose the revouts partly to work on legspeed, and partly because one just doesn't get many opportunities to sit behind the motorbike. The first one was a bit uneven - Carl rode up to the fence and brought us down on a flying entry line to start the effort, which was quite different to when I did it last time - I found it quite difficult to maintain position behind the bike, either having to backpedal a bit to avoid running in to it coming down the bank, or dropping off the back by 5 metres going up it. Something to work on, but it was only my first time. I only managed 1.5 laps on the first go, but still got up to 54 km/hr/133RPM on 86".
The second attempt I did better, still not maintaining my place behind the bike terribly well, but better than the first attempt which meant I did less chasing. I think Carl also started at a slightly lower speed to make sure I got 2 laps - he said something like that, but it's bloody hard to hear sitting behind the motorbike! At any rate, I felt a bit more focussed by this time, and was able to stick to the wheel for the entire 2 laps with a top of 56.1/138. Bloody tired, but felt a bit better afterwards. Wasn't the most successful session, but I got something out of it and was happy with my last revout at least, and the rest will all add to fitness/experience in some general way.
Brief stats here.
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