Fun Track Workouts?
 

I'm building a small group of track riders that don't really plan to race, but they want to ride fast and have fun on the track. I'm looking for skills and endurance exercises that we can do to make the riding fun. We already do the 50 lap ride at increasing speed, off the front to lap the field, and some simple team pursuit activities. Would love to hear about more options with a bit of detail so we could run them properly. Thanks!

at my track's structured training workouts, group-to-groups are very popular.

two groups circle the track, at opposite sides. on whistle blows, the front rider of each paceline jumps away and bridges to the other group. they then sit on the back to recover. the whistle blows and the rider on the front jumps away to bridge to the next group.

etc.

+1 to take a laps noted above and I would also add "controlled" points races. Group rides tempo at blue line then bell lap every N laps for sprint points, then regroup at blue line to ride tempo. You can set the total lap count and sprint laps depending on everyone's ability, etc.

2k on, 1k off, 2k on.

Pyramids of varying types. E.g, 6 hard, 5 easy, 4 hard, 3 easy, 2 hard, 1 easy, 1 hard, 2 easy, 3 hard, 4 easy, 5 hard

Russians or varying sprint type drills. Every 2k, odd riders go up to the Stayers Line with about 200-350 to go. Even riders sprint. Regroup, switch positions, repeat.

Whistle jumps are good. Everybody spaces out around the track and rolls around. When the coach/facilitator blows a whistle, everybody starts sprinting. Sprint till the next whistle. Then roll easy - until the next whistle.

There's always "Follow the Leader". If you have an experienced bike handler who knows how to slowly push people's handling limits, you can have them lead a paceline that varies it's position all over the track. The key is that people have to follow the same line, like a snake. It's a good exercise that also teaches pack awareness, as you have o pay attention to where you are on the track, how you will execute the maneuver, and how far off you are to the rider's wheel in front. Take breaks in between "heats" before more difficult lines to discuss proper weighting of the wheels, lean angle, etc.

We used to have a Dutch guy who went by the name of Fish do this at our track. Former Dutch junior champion and was a bike courier at the time. Only guy I knew who could track stand in the straights no handed with only one foot clipped in. Watched him pull off a no handed, on legged skid coming out of the banking once. Best bike handler I have ever met. An hour behind him and I learned more about riding the track than I had in the previous two years.

Lee Povey was posting on FB about the "Ice Cream Drill." Anyone know what that is?