mcafiero

So I have kind of concluded my first year of track racing. Nat's was last week and now I may get back in there for what's left of the Tues/Thurs night racing.

As a summary of my accomplishments, I improved my 200 time from 12.06 to 11.53. Won a good handful of match sprints and short points races. That's the "good".

The negative: At some point this summer, I went from being able to hold in the sprint lane at high speed to losing it completely. At nationals, I spent the 2nd half of my 200 above the stayers line. And during the team sprint, I did the same. And even my first match sprint against Wesley Pierce, I felt like I had a good run at him, but lost it once again in the turn and I went above the stayers line!

Other than that, I spent a sh*tload of money on equipment and coaching and this and that. And I also met some people who get just as obsessed about stuff as me. And some really nice people, too.

People always post here for advice for their first year. My advice is to get on the track as much as you can. Get comfortable and get some rollers and roll a LOT at high RPM. One thing I regretfully failed to do.

The frustrating thing about this year is that I got fat. I don't think my coach understands how much food I can put down. And as I was gaining weight, following orders to eat a lot to build those muscles, he kept saying, "now's not the time to lose weight" after I realized I overdid it with the eating.

Moving forward: the next 18 weeks I am back on MY eating program. The same one I was on when I leaned up early 2011:
https://www.sixpeeps.com/18weeks.jpg
https://www.sixpeeps.com/18weekback.jpg

However in that go round, I was lifting upper body twice per week and never did a single squat or deadlift or power clean. So the next go round, I'll be squatting, dead lifting, power cleans... and my favorite lower body exercise in the gym: weighted step-ups. Those kill me for some reason.
I'm also mixing in some boxing and grappling to lean up (until January), along with the two gym days per week and 2-3 long rides.

So where my upper body got big and my legs shrank in the above, I hope the opposite to be true this time around. I don't look AS bad as the "before" photo above, so maybe it won't take all 18 weeks. Maybe 16.

Also moving forward, I put the rollers in my office right next to my desk. When I need a break from work, I am pledging to get on for 10-20 minutes and do some high RPM stuff. I'll probably go for a PR high RPM average for a fixed amount of time: 10 minutes maybe. Hopefully once per day, always challenging myself to beat my high RPM average.

Hoping for a way better year two. I don't think anyone wants me on their team sprint next year after my performance this year. So maybe I can earn a spot again with some hard work.

carleton

Welcome to the mind-f*ck that is bike racing.

Don't sweat it. You did great for your first year. It gets easier.

As I've said before: You don't go to your first Nationals to win. You go to see first-hand what it takes to win.

mcafiero

And you've been a huge help, too Carleton - thanks for your generous knowledge! I said for a long time that I wanted to find myself in a match sprint with Carleton and it happened twice!

queerpunk

egad! I hope you mean the sprinter's line!

you're not going backwards, you're going forward. you're at the point where you are able to go so hard in your flying 200 that you're putting yourself in difficulty. this is good. this is a step forward. one of the next steps forward is being able to hold the measurement line when you're in difficulty.