Friday Night Regular Season - Marymoor Velodrome

Friday night was the first night of the regular season racing. With the start of season racing came a few field changes. One was that they were limiting the women's field to category 1-3 racers. That left me out since I am a category four. I was really disappointed about not being able to race. I emailed one of the officials and asked about racing with the men's 4's field. I was intimidated to ask because the men's fours field was invitational only. So I had to ask for an invite. They thought it was a great idea so I did it!

I was really nervous about racing with a bigger field with fast riders. The last time I raced with the men was over 15 years ago and my race ended in a big pile up on the first lap which took me down. So I needed to get over the hurdle of that experience too. I didn't go back out to the track until last year.

Racing with the men turned out to be really fun and I'm glad I did it. The first race was a point-a-lap race. I only lasted a few laps before I got gapped and couldn't get back on the group but I finished the race. The next race I was ready for the surges. It was a 20-lap scratch and I stayed in the whole time! My teammate Steve helped me during the race by encouraging me to get closer on the wheel in front of me. I could hear the announcer calling out my name too. It was hard but exciting. The men's field moves fast and is quite crisp. When they all start sweeping down to the line at full speed it can be scary too.

The 4's racing was done after two races so I got to enjoy watching the other races the rest of the night. The other women all came by and congratulated me for doing the men's race. It was nice to have so much support.

I watched Mark make an awesome winning move on his 25 lap scratch. Nice job!

After the races we got ice cream to celebrate!

Wednesday night at Marymoor Velodrome - Cyclisme sur piste

We got in some track racing on Wednesday night but just barely. There were some sprinkles during warm up. Every time I went out to warm up there would be sprinkles so I ended up skipping warm-up. I know the track gets slippery when it's wet so I asked one of the refs, Phil, when they call the race. He said he had a fool-proof method of telling when to stop racing: as soon as someone goes down in a crash. Thanks Phil that made me feel so much better.

The refs are really cool though. They emphasized during the pre-race instructions that safety is first, fairness second, and competition third. I know that they are always looking out for us.

My first race was a scratch race. There were only five women so it was easy to keep an eye on every one. I waited until the last lap and tried to block in the strongest rider but it didn't work and the other riders used my wheel for the sprint. I got really bad stomach cramps from not warming up but I knew what was up so I took an extra long cool down and I was fine by the next race.

The next race was a snowball. I was going to use my strategy of going for points on the second lap. Jen A. took the first sprint and then I went. But she caught me and took the second sprint too. But we had gapped the field so I tried to come around again, and again. Eight sprints and eight second places. Jen is really strong! I was on her wheel too. So I took second place in the race since I was second on the last lap. In the last race, the 4x4 it was the same story. I could not out sprint Jen. I even went for it with a lap to go to see if I could catch her off guard. Now I really have to work to get better at my sprint. I've had it!

Cougar Mountain Training Ride

We did a training ride up Cougar Mountain yesterday since there weren't any local races. I was expecting the possiblilty of rain but it was sunny. It was in the 80's by the end of the ride and we all ran out of water. It was a super nice day. We don't get to train together much during the nice weather because we are always busy racing so the sunny ride was a real treat. We stopped at Starbucks after to chat and swap stories with other racers. One of the Recycled Cycles racers crashed twice on his last crit and still managed to get 5th place!

I found another four leaf-clover before the ride. :)

Track Canceled for tonight

Track was canceled tonight but I rode my bike out anyway. I was hoping it might clear up but we were having this really weird weather pattern from the East. There was supposed to be only 10% chance of rain but we usually get our weather from the West so when it comes from the East all of the weather models are pretty useless.

It was raining when I left Seattle. I stopped to visit Scampy, the Burke Gilman trail cat. His fur was wet when I petted him. If you've ridden the trail you've probably seen Scampy on the railing watching all of the cyclists. He does this all day long. I've gone on a 5 hour ride and seen him on the way out and the way back. He likes it when you stop and visit. The other cat came out too and there was a bit of a stand off. I made sure I gave them both some attention.

Scampy is included on the Wikipedia entry for the Burke-Gilman Trail - check it out,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Burke-Gilman-Cat-3462.jpg

Here is another picture that I found by Googling http://www.flickr.com/photos/patleahy/170119546/

Lucky!

I found a four-leaf clover today! It's a little worn but still good. I think I will press it and put it under the seat of the track bike.

Marymoor track in the sun - Cyclisme Piste

The weather at the track last night was awesome. Sunny and warm and no need for a jacket between races.

This is a picture of me with Luca. Luca and I raced together on Aurora. Now he is moving on to California. He is a great guy and a good person to have as an official. Everybody will miss him!


Racing went pretty well. It didn't hurt that some of the strongest riders went to Wenatchee to race a stage race for the weekend.

Our first race was an unknown distance. I got off the front with Devon but made a rookie mistake of being on the wrong side of her just a bit so when she swung up track I had to go up track too. So much for working together. I felt pretty dumb. I think the race was about 9 laps.

The next race was the snowball. I was going to go for points on the first lap but two others were going for it before I could jump. This was convenient though because I went for the second lap and everybody was tired so I ended up getting the points for the 2nd and 3rd laps!

The last race was progressive points. I took 1st on the first sprint and hung on for 3rd or 4th in the last sprint. I found that my best shot was to go well before the last turn. I was just happy to get some points though. Hooray!

I rode out to the track from Seattle so I got in 25 miles before the start of the race. I rode easy though so it didn't hurt the legs and I drank Perpetum by Hammer Nutrition. That really helped I think I might have bonked otherwise. I could have used some more electrolytes though because I was feeling light headed at the end of the night. I loaded up on their endurolites when I got home.



This is the sunset over the Circ du solei tent next to the track.

Bike to Work Day

It's bike to work day! I think it's the best weather ever for bike to work day. It was 50's in the morning and 70's on the way home. Very nice. Lots of riders out. I was excited to see bikes everywhere I looked. The bike racks in my building were mobbed with bikes on top of bikes.

That's my green monster in the picture. Fixie with monster tires that ride through everything.

Pre-race BBQ loading

We had our first BBQ of the season today! Yea summer! I also got in a swim in the lake. Much warmer than the last time I went swimming a couple of weeks ago.

Tomorrow is a track night so hopefully all of the good food will make me feel strong.

It's supposed to be really hot all weekend!

Pictures!

Here are some links to pictures that Stephen Rusk took
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephenrusk/2480947957/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephenrusk/2481758410/

The cool thing is that you can see my new lady-bug socks. :)

Gears

I've advanced to changing my gears. OK I still need help but I'm thinking about which gears I should be using. I'm pretty sure I have been under geared. Of course it's easy to think that when you keep finding yourself at the back of the pack. Last week I raced a 48x16 which, depending on the gear chart is an 81 inch gear or a 78.8. It depends on what wheel size your chart is based on. Many of the charts still use 27 inch wheels which nobody uses anymore (I'm told). I used the Sheldon Brown Web page calculator http://www.sheldonbrown.com/gears/ . It's weird but you can actually get a bigger gear-inch by using different tires. Most of the women I've asked are using an 88 inch gear. Last night I used a 48x15 which converts to a 84 inch gear (or 86 using the older charts).

The format was very close to last week except instead of the tempo we had a point-a-lap race. The scratch race went pretty relaxed - a few riders tried a go but nothing too much changed. We had about 3 laps to go and I saw my teammates were in good position so I went for a break. I got caught in the last lap but my teammate took the win. Yea!

The point a lap was a pretty fast pace. I think my gearing is better than last week but I'm still not able to contest sprints. I didn't go for the first point. Since I didn't get any points this week my strategy wasn't necessarily any better. I felt like I could have gone for it later in the race but I was tired like everyone else.

The points race I tried to get in better position. The one time I made a good move though there was some bumping behind me and somebody was yelling. I was afraid I had cut somebody off so I moved back to the back. It turned out is wasn't me but at least we all finished safely. I started to feel sick from the gels I had eaten. Maybe next week I'll try shot blocks between races.

Somebody commented to me that we sound like a bunch of flamingos on our neutral lap. The group likes to chat and giggle during the neutral. It's almost a shame to break up the fun with racing. I guess the men don't do this on their neutral lap so it seems odd to them.

Bike to Work Commute Challenge

It's bike to work time! And our building is having it's second annual competition between engineering firms. Now all of my riding to work really counts! Go team!

Yellow Line

I saw that the rider who rode over the yellow line in our Longbranch race wasn't ejected. And after all of the tough talk by the officials to "send you home (eject you from the race) immediately - it's that important". Hmmm what's up with that? And they left me out of the results too.

Longbranch State Champs 2008

Loooooongbranch - 5 laps of suffering.

I'm not the greatest hill climber so I thought why not do Longbranch and work on my climbing? It seemed like a good idea in Seattle.

I got dropped on the first climb but wasn't last. Somebody from behind (Norine?) caught me and we worked together to catch two group health girls (Nancy and Trish?) . The four of us worked together really smoothly. It was fun. But then we hit the hill again and got separated. I caught the group health girls again but they decided to call it quits I couldn't see Norine behind me anymore. I caught one other woman ahead of me but she quit too. So I decided to do one more lap. And well maybe just one more. Then I only had one left so I figured I might as well do all five. Hopefully the legs get stronger for all of this. I kept on seeing Annette going the other way for training. I figured if she was still riding (injured shoulder and everything) I should at least be able to finish.

I think that next year I will do some long out of the saddle climbs to better prepare myself for staying with the group. I went though all of my water too.

There was a killdeer bird nesting in the parking lot, just like the ones at the track on Friday. This time I spotted the speckled eggs that look like rocks.

When I got back to Seattle my legs were aching so I took a swim in Greenlake. Boy it felt good. All of the swelling went away and the legs were happily numb.

First night of track - Marymoor preseason

It's track time finally! Woohoo. You can see the newly completed building for offical track business.

Here is a picture of my bike ready for action.

At 4:15 I got an email that racing was canceled and I was so sad. It didn't look like it was going to rain and I really wanted to ride my bike on the track. So I decided to head out to Marymoor anyway and just ride around. When I got there, the officials had their table set up already and as I was cruising around I yelled "is track on?" YES!

We had 11 women in my race and Jen raced with the faster group. We had a scratch race, a tempo race, and a 4x4. I was a bit nervous since I was riding my new bike for the first time in a race but everything was fine. No points were on the line anyway. I need to get used to riding in the middle of the group though instead of the back. On the tempo race I went for the first lap and ended up third - for no points. I'm going to have to work on my jump and sprint! It was harder than I thought it was going to be but lots of fun.

There were also little birds on the track. Not the kind that stop and fly away when you get there - no - nesting killdeer with babies and the babies were on the track and we had to avoid them. Luckily everyone survived. It was the craziest thing. Apparently the killdeer birds use lawns as their breeding habitat and in this case it was the infield of the track. They try to distract preditors from the nest by faking a wing injury and sliding around in the grass. It was so bizare to see a bird looking like it was hurt while we were trying to warm up in the infield. The babies were at the very top of the turn and I don't know what exactly they were trying to do. Someone finally went moved them to a safer place.

Here are a couple of videos of the race after me:

The track announcer is really funny. He always says stuff like " and the crowd is going wild" before anybody starts cheering. Circ du soleil has a tent next to the track which complicates the parking (if you think you are going the wrong way it's probably right). As the show was getting out the announcer was trying to entice the crowd to watch the races. "regional, national, and internation class riders are racing bikes in the velodrome - come by and grab a spot while they are still available!" Hee hee he left out local.