Tuesday night I did a track session at Velo Sports Center in Carson, CA with Roger’s group. I rode my pursuit bike in the aerobars.
80 lap warmup with the final 20 laps a motor burnout.
We had a fairly large group so Roger broke divided us into the slow men, fast women (we have no slow women) and fast men. The fast men had two juniors, one that attended junior track worlds and the other who is up and coming on the track and won the VOS this year in the 16 age group plus the usual P/1/2 others. Roger asked me if I want to ride with the slow men or fast women. Man, I will always select the fast women.
Riding with women is great except for the size mismatch i.e. not much draft for me and whoever is behind me gets too much.
The first effort was a 70 lap motor pace drill. The slow men lined up first and we lined up behind them. One of the women from our group was a sweep that opened a gap for the men as they rotated through the line. They did 30 laps rotating behind the motor and then did individual efforts in the pole lane. We rode behind the men. I was in 90.6 gear inches and the pace for the men was 96 rpm or approximately 25.7 mph.
After the last man peeled off, Roger increased the pace and now I was spinning 110 rpm, 29.4 mph or 19 second laps. We did this for 30 laps rotating behind the motor. The last 10 laps we dropped into the pole lane and did team pursuit one lap pulls. That gave me 70 laps in the aeorbars.
The 90.6 was about 2 gear inches too small for the duration of the effort and the speed.
The next effort was flying one laps diving off the balustrade with 3 laps recovery at the balustrade. For those who do not ride the 250 track, the track is shaped like a bowl. At the balustrade, the bowl shape is exaggerated such that the 45 degree banking is actually a climb. So one is climbing in the turns and descending in the straights. So even going relatively slow, 20 mph, the turns pop my legs with 400 watts so rest is a relative thing.
I geared up to 92.6 for the drill. We would dive off the banking as a group in formation. My wife was in front of me and I let a gap open to make it harder. In general, I hit 500 to 700 watts on the one lap efforts 125 rpm in 92.6 gear inches or 33.4 mph. My wife was popping 450 to 550 watts for each effort. We did two sets of 4 efforts each for a total of 32 laps with 8 flying all out efforts.
The final effort was a Miss N Out led by the motor. We all get behind the motor and then the goal is when you are behind the motor, on the exchange, to beat the motor to the pursuit line. Roger is on the motor and gives a thumbs down if you miss. I was near the end of the line so when I got to the motor we were going fast since the speed increases with each lap. The motor pipped me at the line. I should have started my acceleration earlier since it is harder to generate power, fast in the aerobars.
200 laps for the 3 hour session on the pursuit bike with most in the aero position.