Sunday training at Marymoor

Mark and I did a workout at the Velodrome today - 2 hours. It may be the longest I've ridden on the track at one time. Mark did some pursuits and some 1-lap efforts. I practiced hanging on to his wheel. I think I am getting better at staying on the wheel. I can stay on Mark's wheel at least! I found that using my core muscles helped.

At the end I practiced coming around Mark in the sprint. One of the other riders, Hugh, was helping me with the timing of slingshotting around. It was fun but my legs were toast afterwards. I took an ice bath to cool them down.

My own cheering section at Marymoor

I had a real cheering section last night. My Mom and Dad, my brother, his wife and son, and my cousins from Iowa all came to watch us race. It was great to have everyone out. It's also fun to hear what others think when they see the racing in person. They all liked watching us race but the kiddie kilo was a show stealer! They couldn't believe how many kids were out there. I can't wait until my nephew is old enough for a tricycle so he can "race" too.

I made the mistake of resting too much after the FSA race and my legs felt like they were missing the snap needed for the sprints. I had a good time racing though. The first race was a tempo and Devon and I got away for several laps. The Women's field was small though and everybody got points so my placing wasn't very high.

In the miss-in-out I managed to get through the first couple of rounds by riding on the front but I was out on the third round on a very close finish. I was pleased not to be out in the first round though after the last two miss-in-outs.

The last race was a 15 lap scratch race. I conserved energy for the finish but wasn't able to do much more at the end. It felt like my gear was huge even though it was the same one I've been using all year. I think I need to do some sprints during the week to keep the legs strong even if I am recovering.

Thanks everyone for coming out - and for taking pictures!

Keirin

Here is an interesting link for somebody's blog who saw a Keirin in Japan.

Helping Out

I decided to take a break from racing on Wednesday but I went to Marymoor to watch and I volunteered to do registration too. It was fun to help out and a good way to meet everyone who is racing. You also get the inside gossip.

Mark usually does registration but since I was doing it he was able to get in a better warm-up. He raced in the master's field.

The races are fun to watch but I don't like seeing the crashes. Unfortunately last night wasn't so good. The 4's field was split and both fields had crashes. After the second crash I heard the promoter yelling loudly at the guys to be more careful. He was really upset. Then the officials called the group that had just crashed into the infield and read them the riot act. I think it shook them up and when I saw them racing next they were in nice straight lines riding very smoothly. Hopefully it will be safer for everybody now. I think what really upset everybody is that one of the Juniors was taken down. The rider was fine but nobody wants to see one of the future stars get hurt.

FSA Grand Prix and State TTT

The FSA Grand Prix was my biggest track race ever with top riders from the US and Canada.

My highlight of the weekend was doing the first ever Women's Madison. Unfortunately my regular Madison partner hurt her shoulder over the weekend and was not able to do it with me so I paired up with Michelle from Wines and we both wore the Avanti colors.

I've been racing track for a little over a year now and it has been a series of events that have pushed the envelope of my comfort. At first it was small things like getting on and off of the track during warm up. Then I did the Monday night practice races and Thursday training for new women with Jen. Next I started racing on Wednesdays with the Women in a field ranging from 4-22 riders, doing races up to 16 laps. Then I did some of the Men's Cat 4 races on Wednesdays and Fridays with fields of about 30 people and races up to 25 laps. I got the upgrade and raced on Fridays in front of the big crowd with the Cat 1-3 Women. And this weekend I raced a 30 lap points race with 40 women, some of whom were National and International caliber. But to top everything off we did Marymoor's first ever Women's 48 lap Madison with 8 teams slinging each other in and out of the race at top speed without running into each other in front of a huge crowd - and I had a brand new partner that I hadn't worked with until Saturday. Whew!

I was humbled and awed by the speeds I saw out there. I also did the team sprint, the team pursuit (with my Wines friends), the keirin, a flying 200 meters, and a 500 meters. Nothing spectacular time wise but great experiences. I was surprised at the physical contact in the keirin. Racing is pretty tame at Marymoor so I was surprised to see riders pushing others on to the apron and head butting, which normally isn't tolerated at Marymoor - even in the Keirin.

They also had the kiddie kilo for all of the kids and a spectator event with fat tire bikes provided by the velodrome. They were fun to watch. Mark and I got to hand out free coupons to each kid for a Popsicle at the concession stand. The girls from the Livestrong team were also giving the kids yellow livestrong wrist bracelets.

The points race on Friday was pretty fun. I got intimidated at the start though with the big field. We were riding around slowly and I was getting nervous because it is always more dangerous when the group is bunched up. So I attacked! I know this wasn't very strategic since none of the racers were tired yet and it was an elite field but it sure was fun to take a flyer and have the announcer call out my name. One of the other racers bridged up and we worked together until I couldn't come around her. Then the field caught up and I got dropped but I stayed in the race and rejoined the field. I didn't quit and I got some practice riding with the big group. It was OK after all and I got my confindence up a bit.

I got to bed at 1am on Saturday and then got up at 5:45am Sunday to go out and corner marshal for the team time trial (TTT). Our corner was a bit hairy since it was an out and back course and we had teams passing through the corner in both directions. Of course Murphy's law - several teams had to hit the corner at the same time. At one point we had two teams from one direction (one just passed the other) and a Cat 1-2 coming in the other direction. I could hear the cat 1-2s saying "OK guys take the whole road". I ran up the road and started yelling "heads up oncoming teams in the corner" as loud as I could and we all held our breath. They came through the corner without any collisions and we breathed again. Other than that we had a few drivers who tried to get around us but we keep the riders safe. You don't really appreciate the job of a corner marshal until you are out there. We got a lot of thank yous from the racers.

Here are the cute calves off of the first turn on the TTT course.

Below are some random clips, mostly of me and Mark but some other racing too. At the end is some of the Madison showing me waiting on "relief" to be slung into the race. I like the trance music in the background!



It was tricky to find my partner during the Madison race. You have to figure out when she is coming and get up to speed to make the exchange. We had several botched exchanges. One time I tried to exchange with the pink and red "gentle lovers" team (that is really their team name). And then a few laps later I had to call off one of their riders who was zooming down the track at me. I yelled "not me! not me!"

Mark also raced - Cat 3's on Friday and Master's on Saturday. Here he is getting set up to do the Keirin.

Friday Night Fun at Marymoor Velodrome

Lots of fun racing last night! I had fun racing and spectating.

There was a story about the velodrome on King5 sports and I think I am in the picture with the story. The picture is small so it's hard to see but it was exciting to see myself and to see local track racing get some press. As Mark and I were driving out to the track we were at a stoplight when a driver from the car next to us saw the bikes on top of the car and leaned out the window to ask us if we were "those velodrome racers who race with fixed gear bikes and no brakes!" Yup, that's us.

The first race of the night was the men's category 4. Mark's teammate John was racing with his son, Coner, who is a junior. Coner made an attack early in the race and John went with him. They held off the field for several laps while the crowd cheered wildly for the father/son duo. It was cool to watch. I had to frantically dig through my bag to get the camera out to capture the moment. Nice job guys!

My first race was a point-a-lap. The pace was high and I didn't manage to get any points. At one point I saw two riders from the Group Health team, Rachel and Jen A. moving up the side and I thought I'd jump on the wheel and come around, but as we moved off the front Jen A. gapped off of Rachel's wheel. I was fooled and Rachel held off the pack for the point. It was a good move on their part, I'm definitely going to watch for that one next time.

In between our races Mark's group did the Chariot race, a 1 lap all out effort. Mark got a great start and rode away from the field. It was incredible to see anybody get that big of a lead in a 1-lap race! I caught it on video too.

My next race was the win-and-out. I didn't go for the first sprint-win but I was trying to get in there for one of the next sprints. But the Group Health team did a nice job of boxing us in at a key moment. They had four riders and I got myself trapped on the inside. I finally got out and charged around to almost reach the leaders but I didn't get any of the win laps.

My last race was a points race. I was careful this time not to get in a box. I decided to stay near the front. On the first sprint lap the points only went one person deep and I was on the front. Every time I've been in this situation before the field sweeps around at full speed and I can't keep up. So this time I really tried to be ready for it . I rode out of the saddle and was ready to change speeds while watching to my right. I saw someone come up and I punched it. I got a gap and held it to the line to take the points! I was so excited to be able to sprint from the front of the group and hold it. I kept going and found myself up by 1/2 lap. But it was 4 more laps until the next points and I didn't think I could hold off the field that long. I rode strong but not all out. The group eventually caught me after a few more laps and I rested in the group but wasn't able to take anymore points. In retrospect I should have gone for broke while I was out there. It was really really fun though and the crowd was cheering hard for me. It was thrilling to hear people calling out my name. After the race I rode up high on the bank to wave at the crowd. They really make it fun for me.

Mark told me that when I went off the front he wasn't paying attention until he heard the announcer say "And Mark is on his feet screaming and cheering". I laughed so hard. The announcer knows who we both are and got Mark good.

The last race of the night was the 1/2 men's race and one of the racers was from Trinidad-Tobago. Our local guys are super fast so it was incredible to see this guy beat them in the sprint. I am pretty sure he is Olympics-bound. Next week is the big FSA Grand Prix with a prize list of $14,000 dollars. We will being seeing a lot of talent out there. I can't wait.

Yikes!

I had a close call at the races last night.  Unfortunately we had a crash in my first race and some of the guys went down.  I was able to ride high and avoid the wreckage but I think one of the guys may have broken some bones.  Hopefully everybody heals fast. 

The crash happened in our "unknown distance" race.  Which is the race where you don't know how many laps you are doing until they ring the bell - and then you have one lap left.  We did about 8 laps and then they rang the bell.  Right after they rang it, one of the guys pulled out of his cleat and rolled over the handlebars.  They suspended our race and ran the other two cat 4 men's races.  And then they re-ran our race.  I thought that since we only had one lap to go that the race would be really short.  But no, it was "unknown" again and we went at least 6 laps before they rang the bell.  I was getting tired!  Some of the guys also thought it would be short and gambled their strength by attacking early, which made the race extra fast.  I really didn't want to re-run that race but I was glad when we all finished safe the second time.  It was good maybe to calm everyone's nerves.  

I also had a close call at Tuesday's practice.  I was riding slow and one of the guys wasn't paying attention and hit my bike from behind.  I was able to keep my bike upright and he did too so neither of us went down.  My bike was fine but I saw him adjusting his handlebars later. 

The next race was the miss-and-out and I was eager to redeem myself after last week's first round miss.  Last week in the women's race I was out on the first lap because I got stuck on the inside.  So this time I made sure I was on the outside.  But the wave didn't come around like I thought it was going to and I was out again on the first lap!  So my revised strategy is to get in the front and go to the outside on the first lap.  Carrie rode at the front and was fine on the first lap but then didn't stay there and the same thing happened to her.  She went to the outside but because there were still so many riders the wave didn't move up and she was stuck - out on the second lap.

Here I am telling some kind of fish story to Carrie and Kelly.  Carrie also raced with the men.

The last race was a 4x4 points race.  The speed was fast but my legs felt good.  I thought of attacking but the guys were watching really close and I didn't think I could get away with it.  I'll have to try something next time.  I guess you never know for sure if you don't give it a shot.

This is what the track looks like after the sun goes down.  You can see the moon rising.  We stayed until everything was finished because we were carpooling with Brian and he has to shut off the lights.  It felt really quiet and erie when he finally flipped the switch and the lights went out and we left the deserted track.