Hot racing at Marymoor Velodrome

It was hot last night - at least for a Seattlelite.

I felt a bit weak as I was fighting off a small cold that I had during vacation, so I didn't feel 100%. The first race was a point-a-lap. I tried for some of the points but ended up missing it and then just hung on until the end. I had one teammate in the race but she had also been on vacation all week and was feeling tired as well. After the race I was coughing a whole bunch. I was worried that I might not be able to finish the night. I spit in the grass to clear out the crud.

The next race was the miss-and-out. I stayed out of trouble for the first three laps but I really needed to rest on a wheel. On the 4th lap I was beat and the wave came around on the outside. I think riding in the front is a really good strategy but I think at some point you need a wheel to rest on for at least at lap. After the race I noticed my cough was pretty much gone! Hooray!

On the final race I tried to be in front for the points laps but I didn't have the acceleration in my legs and I kept getting 5th (points go 4 deep). At one point I tried an experiment. The plan was to counter my own attack. To do this you get a gap on the field but it's not a real attack. After the field catches you - you counter. Well the attack went well and I soft pedaled and felt good and was ready to counter when the field came but I misjudged their speed and got swamped. I'm going to try it again sometime but I have to work on the timing. I think if you get it down the field will have trouble deciding if you are going for real or not.

We had about two laps to go and my teammate had some points so I decided to try and set her up for the finish. I attacked hard with about 1-1/2 laps and when the field caught me Karen was right on my wheel. I looked back and she said GO! I hammered around with all I had. I was worried that if I didn't go hard enough someone would come around and box her in. It was not a problem though. She rested and then sped around to take the final points! It was exhilarating to get it together as a team on the final lap.