Fast Track/More Madison

I went out with Karen for fast track training on Tuesday. It was pretty crazy with everybody working on different stuff. Warm up was pretty organized but then it broke into smaller groups. Karen and I rode with Annette who was late and missed the main group warm up. Annette was shocked at how bad I was at riding on the wheel and worked on getting me to do better. I haven't done much riding on the track other than racing so I haven't worked on skills and it is obvious when I try to ride in a paceline.

We did a few fast laps with Annette after warm up. I felt pretty terrified; weaving through all of the other riders at high speed! It was no problem at all for Annette though.

After 8pm Karen and I started working on our Madison exchanges. We got Jen to help us out. It was good to have some practice doing the exchanges with another person.

There was a photographer there with a huge lens. I hope I can find the pictures somewhere. It's a bit funny to have someone taking pictures of your workout. I think the Madison is probably a fun subject for a photographer though.

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.