More track sprints

There were four Blue Rooster riders today - enough for a good workout. I have four teammates taking the track class next weekend too! We should be having some more company soon.

We did some 2k efforts and then some sprints. I sprinted with Mike and Ben. Ben is an old time racer and has a really good jump. I couldn't stay on his wheel. I am determined to work on it though. We were in small gears so the legs were flying by the end of the sprints. I was ready to call it a day and Ben talked me into doing 4 more. I needed a nap after that workout!

The track was really busy by the end of our workout. It almost felt like a race night.

Everett

On Saturday my teammate Mary and I followed the interurban trail north. I didn't know how far it went so we just started following the signs. The "trail" starts and stops and is not well signed so several times we thought we were at the end, only to pick it up again. We ended up in Everett and finally decided to turn around even though the trail kept going. It was exciting to do another new route and fun to have a friend along. After we turned around we found that there was a big head wind all the way back that seemed to get stronger as we went. Mary loves the wind though and sped up the more windy it got. That was fun. I think I will look at wind differently now. http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Greenlake-to-Everett-via-Interurban-Trail

Greenlake to Everett via Interurban Trail

http://www.bikely.com/

Track Sprints!

We did some sprints on the track last Sunday. My legs were not at all ready for the effort. I was in a small gear and it seemed very hard! Glad I am starting my training early this year. I trained with 4 of my teammates. We did some 3k efforts, 1k efforts, and some 200 meter sprints. It was fun! I'm getting some good practice in the paceline too.

Field Trip to Enumclaw

The girls and I went for a training ride down in Enumclaw. The riding was great and it was nice to have a break from the cars. We had a good time and for the most part the weather was really nice. The last 5 miles though the sky opened and we got wet. It was worth it though. When we got back Susanne had some special bakery treats waiting for us! Chocolate covered strawberries and tarts. Yummy!

These local riders were surprised to see us ride by. I happened to already be taking pictures.

Climbing mud mountain. It was a harder climb than I expected!

Enumclaw Cumberland Ravensdale

http://www.bikely.com/

Track Practice

I went out to the track this morning and rode with my track teammates. There were six of us! I did all my training either by myself or with other teams last year so it was really cool to have a big group from my team. We did a workout that Mark gave me. I worked harder on the intervals then I would have by myself and I didn't shorten the warm up and warm down either. It was fun! I can't wait for next Sunday.

Volunteer Park Crit

My crit was pretty fast. We had a very strong field. I finished way off the back but I did finish. We had 15 cat 1-2's and we were single file from the start. Not much room to hide. I made some mistakes too. I forgot that you have to ride as hard as you can on the downhill in addition to the uphill. I was fine on the uphill but managed to get dropped on the downhill. I just couldn't get it in my head that we had to sprint down the hill. I got lapped but jumped back in and got in the group. They weren't pulling riders so I got to finish - well almost. The riders for the next race lined up across the road before I could finish even though they could have seem me coming if they just looked back. I had to ask them to move so I could finish my race. They seemed anoyed at me. I would like to see them try to keep up with some of those women!

Marymoor Auction

Last week they had the annual auction for the Velodrome. Each year they raise money for velodrome programs including the kids' program, Team Zoom(pictured above). I raced at the velodrome on Monday and they had a ton of kids out. There were three to four fields of just juniors. It was exciting to see all of the money they raised to build the program. They also earmarked some funds for Women's cycling development. They will have classes just for the women taught by some of the top women that have raced at Marymoor including Jennie Reed. Those should be fun!

Crit Practice

I did crit practice with some teammates today. We went up to Volunteer park and practiced crit starts and accelerating up the hill. The race at Volunteer park is next week and hopefully they feel ready for it now.

We also rode down to Seward to do some more practice down there. There were some pet detectives practicing finding pets in the woods. It was really interesting. They train the dogs to find lost pets and they are a non-profit volunteer organization. They find cats as well as dogs. They have a pet detective dog that smells something from the lost animal and then follows their scent. They were practicing finding a cat on a leash. It was really cool. http://www.missingpetpartnership.org/ .

Last week I raced at Ravensdale. It was an aggressive race with lots of attacking. I lasted almost half way before my lungs seemed to give out. It was fun while I was in there and I did feel pretty good. After I got dropped I did a ride with Carol one of the other women. It was nice to chat. I had to put on more clothes because I under dressed for the race and was freezing - otherwise I would have finished it.

Mark has been having me do some high revolution work on the rollers. Last night I did some short intervals at 160 rpms. The legs are going really fast at that speed. They were hurting today on the hills!

Tonight is the auction to raise funds for the velodrome. It should be a fun time.