Originally Posted by merlinextraligh
Typical Cat 5 crit. Attack from the gun. Accelerate to 28-30 mph. Brake for turn, accelerate back to 28-30. repeat.After a couple of laps, pace settles to 22-23. Someone attacks, everbody chases at close to 30mph. Repeat a few times. Pace then slows to 17mph, and stays there for a while, till the lap cards come out and it takes off again.
So average speed doesn't tell you a lot. It's more about the ability to go very hard for a short burst, recover and repeat. Thus in your training don't worry about your average speed. Work on doing some short intense intervals with limited rest in between.
+1 and +1Dr. Pete. Your ability to be a part of the pack dynamic is very important. If you try to pull the pack, you will last 1/2 lap, if you sit at the back, the accordion effect will peal you off in no time. If you go with the flow, you will do surprisingly little work.
Being able to get your head out of the wheel of the guy in front of you and look up to see what the front of the pack is doing so you can anticipate what will happen and react is a skill that takes a while and only comes from practice.