Heathpack 

@YogaKat, nicely done!

The really huge events with so many people are just not that fun for me- I'm a wreck with all those people with their squirrely riding.

But I do like being able to just go out and do my own thing, ride whatever pace I want. That's the beauty to me of the fully supported ride- you can ride it with friends if you want or just go push your own pace and test what you can do and find people to paceline with. Vs riding an unsupported ride with friends and you're kind of stuck going at the pace of the slowest person that day. Fun, of course, because you get to ride with your friends. But sometimes its fun to test yourself and the organized rides make that a little more feasible.

happybday29475

Great job, @YK!

I've thought about doing the HHH from time to time, but then I start thinking about it, and spell out the name, and then suddenly my calendar gets full...

I remember doing a different but still huge bike ride..."Rosarito-Ensenada"...some of you may have heard of it, lol...what a total blast that was! It's pretty hard to focus on PR'ing during those rides, with so many distractions (good and bad) going on...

I think sometime before it's all over I've gotta get out and do RAGBRAI, too....

happybday29475

Yeah, that's a good summation.

One oddity: If I race with my age group, that includes all categories, including some 1's and 2's, who can whip me with one leg. If I race my category, I race all age groups, including against kids. Anyway, the pursuits for the masters categories are 3k or 2k, depending on age, but for the "elites", including cat 4s, the pursuits are 4k.

So the people I was afraid of only had to do a 2k pursuit, but in order to avoid them, I had to do a 4k pursuit.

On the infield, beforehand, I made sure to let'em know that I thought they were sissies, only riding a measly 2k...they'll be kicking my arse around soon enough...

YogaKat

@Racer Ex, That had to be one of the most exciting things to experience (although the Alpe d' Huez is not quite in my skill set... yet.)
The crit that I watched was a little crazy. I didn't realize it was going on until I got up there the evening before and I was standing at one of the turns taking pics with my phone when a rider went down. The small group where I was standing and I had to scramble to get out of the way as I saw bikes heading straight at us.
@Heathpack, I really understand where you are coming from. While I love the idea of doing group rides and try to do them from time to time, I just really prefer to ride on my own terms. Especially an event like this. I don't like to be held back by the people in my group nor hold them back. I'm not completely anti-social, I just prefer the socializing afterward. The mass start really was the scariest part and I was a bundle of nerves. I was very thankful we had timing chips.

@rapwithrom, Exactly! HHH started out as a goal of mine purely for sentimental reasons. After seeing the people coming off the century ride I realized that just didn't seem as fun. Starting early in the morning we had some cooler than usual weather for this time of year and it only started getting pretty hot about the time my ride was about done. That's not to say I won't consider doing an organized century in the future, just in temps that aren't going to put me into heat stroke (and there were plenty in the med tents this weekend unfortunately.)

I wish I could find an aerial photo that does justice to just how many cyclist there were lined up on that road but so far photos and videos just don't do it justice.

Thanks all for your support! I love my BF family.

LAJ

It's good you had a fun time, @YogaKat. Bikes, life, life on bikes, they all take strange turns, and it's good you're back on the road.

sarals 

Late to the party! I've been dealing with rather enormous stresses at work. We're in the closing phases of a buyout and the daily "oh, you have to complete this action NOW" is quite frustrating. Anyway..

@rapwithtom - track, awesome! It seems to me you're pretty darned strong. Aero be damned, excellent racing. You earned a jersey in my book, for sure. Congrats!!

@YogaKat - good, solid, smart ride! I am SO glad you enjoyed it, that's the point, right? You're darned fit to come back from a shoulder injury such as yours and put in a hard ride like that as quickly as you did. I think the Bike is Your Oyster, choose your poison! Congratulations!

Hermes

I know you are being cute but the reality is that the 4k and 2k are completely different races favoring different athletes genetic makeup. A 2k has a much larger ATP-PC and anaerobic component and less aerobic than the 4K.

I suspect the USAC / UCI logic is that a shorter distance is easier than a longer one at full power. When said that way, it would seem that 2k would be less taxing and more suitable for older riders. On the contrary, the 2k is a terrible race that feels more like a kilo where one goes all out for the entire race. One can execute a great 2k with a positive, neutral or negative split on the lap times. The go all out, positive split the lap times and hang on for what you can at the end is very painful but for some racers may be the fastest way to do it. That approach will not work for a 4K.

I have witnessed two notable DQs in 4k pursuit racing at the elite track national in Carson by somewhat infamous masters racers who are many times competitors. In both cases, the masters racers measured their initial 2k of the 4k and planned to accelerate or maintain the pace in the 2nd half of the race.

What played out in practice, is the racer starting on the other side of the track pursuing them caught and passed them. The pursuing racer used up too much of his energy catching and passing and then slowed down. Under the rules of pursuit, once you are passed you cannot repass.

In one case the masters racer re-passed the pursuing racer and in the other case the masters racer sort of kind of drafted the passing racer (I thought the drafting call was an overreach by officials) and both were DQed.

It sucks when competition effs up ones race plans but it is good to know the rules or just say screw it, and continue racing since slowing down to stay behind someone at a national championship seems just wrong.

happybday29475

Clearly. Witness 100m dash vs marathon. Or, triathletes' snobbery toward crits (kidding) (not).

Oxymoron of the week.

I did not know this! In fact, in my 4k, I both started to slowly and the other guy also started too quickly. Apparently he did in fact nearly catch me before my pace increase and his subsequent explosion...after which I passed him.

Racer Ex 

I think have done every race in track racing, including the keiran. The 2k is a hideous hybrid of pain and suffering. It's the worst race in cycling. The officials are required to wear safety googles so that they aren't blinded by the lactic acid that's spewing out of every pore of the riders. Sweat drops are so acidic they actually etch concrete tracks with the reminders of pain.

I mean, I was riding around up track of the guy who died like a mouse full of Decon...

Year prior I went 4:50 and cracked the top ten. Disappointed was I.

sarals 

Good reads. I'm trying to get a mental picture of the pain level (I have it, now, thank you). Watching various track sprints on YouTube has been enlightening, as well as looking at what my training partner has been doing recently. I don't know what I'll be best at, but I think the 250 might be in my wheelhouse. The 2K just sounds ridiculous.

sarals 

Speaking of 250, 4k, etc, I am still in awe and in a bit of suspicion over the performance of the British team in both the 2012 and 2016 Olympics. I don't question the ability of any of them (especially Chris Hoy), but one of the (dominant) women has me shaking my head a bit.

Especially considering the recent revelations about one Lizzie Armitstead. I hope I'm must being paranoid.

Hermes

There is no 250 meter event in track racing but there are 250 meter records which are the the flying one lap and the one lap from a standing start.

The shortest individual race for 50+ men and women is the 500 meter time trial from a standing start.

The shortest head to head competitive race is the match sprint where two riders commence from a standing start and the first one across the finish line in 3 laps wins. These matches are seeded by racers in the match sprint tournament first doing flying 200 meters.

The other individual race is the 2k pursuit.

Team events offer opportunities. In team sprint, the lead off racer does one lap. And the length of the lap is always one lap of the track.

The reality is the all the track races from sprints to mass starts to individual timed events are extremely hard. Do not be misled by distance. Every race will have its facets of strength, endurance and execution as well as fatigue. Sprints at the track are extremely fatiguing. What roadies think is a sprint is just an hors d'oeuvre to what a track sprint is.

Sprinters at the track do a long warmup and then maybe 3 sprints with 10 to 15 minutes rest between sprints. But those 3 efforts are gonzo to the max sprints that are worked in concert with a weight lifting program such that the focus of the force far exceeds typical road sprinting at the end of a crit or road race. And of course, that is not taking anything away from how hard it is to race a crit and sprint at the end for a win. In track sprinting, one is sprinting to win right from the start. So there is nothing measured in track sprinting. It is full on.

Racer Ex 

Very true. Last year I decided because of my surgery to give match sprints a go. It verified what I had figured out from my 2k and Team Sprint training in the past...three full on violent efforts are really wearing. Same was true this year when we were doing Team Pursuit practice. By the third effort the legs are going or gone.

With that the value that the various software puts on these efforts is, in my opinion, well below the actual impact. It's one of the many holes that make training to a particular metric like CTL a pretty dicey proposition.

Hermes

The other reality of power recording at the track is...unless one has an SRM track scientific power meter with an SRM head unit set on high speed data collection, the high power transient pulses produced are not captured correctly and probably understated.

And if one does a full power standing start or several standing starts, the first pedal revolution, if done correctly is a doozie, producing a lot of torque. It is like doing 1 rep max weight dead lift. So standing starts are extremely fatiguing and the fatigue hangs around for awhile just to make it more interesting. At least it does for me.

YogaKat

Thanks LAJ and sarals.


@sarals, according to the Doc the fact that all the fractures were still in the correct placement and that I had enough muscle to help hold it together is what saved me from having surgery. That being said, I'm not sure if it's fitness or plain stubbornness.

I did exactly what the Doc told me to do and not to do and worked my butt off in PT because I figured it they didn't let me back on the bike soon I was going to lose my mind (and I did come close there for awhile!)

sarals 

@YogaKat. If I was told to stay off my bike "because" for any reason, I WOULD loose my mind!
@Hermes, yes 500m, not 250. The 250 was the sprint portion. There is much to learn about track culture and events!

Hermes

What you posted is the sprint qualifying which is the flying 200 meters not 250 meters. In the flying 200, racers are given 3 laps to accelerate to speed and cross the start of the measured 200 meters that starts from the apex of the turn and finishes on the white start finish line of the home stretch of the track.

Notice the line that the racer took during the windup. Also, the best way to do the wind up is...enter from the back stretch and on the home stretch accelerate to 20 mph to the blue relief line. Ride the relief line until the home stretch and then accelerate up to the balustrade.

Even though those olympians make riding at the balustrade look easy, it is not. So one wants to cork screw one way up the track using the least amount of energy. Once at the balustrade, one starts accelerating. Coming into the final lap, one is now going very fast and stands to accelerate close to the balustrade on the home stretch and then dive off the banking to hit the start line in the turn and hold speed to the finish of the 200 meters. The first woman did this perfectly.

The goal is to hit a high initial speed and hold that speed versus accelerate after the start line. Also, note that one MUST use drop bars and not aerobars. And the set up for the bike i.e. rider on bike is different for sprinting than for pursuit or the 500. I use Jim Manton at VSC for the setup.

As a side note, a racer going around the 250 track pulls 2 Gs in the turns at 35 mph. The women in the video were probably hitting 40 plus mph which is more like 2.5 Gs. Hence, one wants equipment that is bullet proof.

shovelhd

This is road sprint practice, but I get a kick out of the guys that say they went out and did an hour of sprint practice and then did an hour ride after. When I was done with sprint practice, I was DONE. The mile ride home took forever.

sarals 

And, I was invited to do a "cool down" ride by a couple of friends after the District Crit on Sunday. Up Mount Diablo. Ummmm....let me think about that!

@Hermes, yes, I linked the wrong video. Barb and I have been back and forth all day trying to find the World Record for the 200. Her National Record wasn't recorded by the UCI due to some issue with protocol. It's 14.61. Bonnie Woodward owns the 70-74 World Record, set in Manchester last year, of 14.56. From what I've been able to determine, and I'm not done looking, no masters woman over 75 has had a recorded record in the 200. It's a shame Barb's wasn't recorded as such.

My point, before I got sidetracked, was that if those Olympic athletes were doing a 200, and Laura Trott did it in 14.057 in 2012 (I don't have her 2016 time), then Barb, at 50 years their senior, is just as fast. However, the video I had in mind is the one below, and that IS a 250.

We talked about riding the balustrade, and she agrees with what you said, it's not easy. As far as I'm concerned, I am excited about learning a new discipline. Very excited!

sarals 

THIS is the 250! Lots of events to learn about in track.

Hermes

I am glad you are excited about track.

Masters men and women do not race a flying one lap. The flying one lap was included into the Olympic Omnium. From time to time a local race promoter may run an event and includes a flying one lap as part of an omnium. Masters districts, nationals and worlds do not offer it as part of an omnium or a stand alone event.

The LAVRA time trial series at Velo Sports Center offers team sprint, flying 200 meters, 500 meters, kilo, team pursuit, 2k IP, 3k IP and 4K IP.

Hellyer offers an occasional timed event series and masters districts. Hellyer offers sprint tournaments and Wednesday and Friday mass start racing.

Laura Trott can probably do an 11.5 second flying 200. She does not do that event. 14.05 for a flying one lap 250 meters is smoking.

Your friend Barb did a flying 200 and her time is excellent.. I believe she is a rookie trackie so I suspect she can improve that 200 meter time.

sarals 

She is an amazing athlete. She does hope improve on that time, too.

I'm reading the Hellyer website. There is wealth of information!

Thanks, @Hermes!

Hermes

Here is the link to the world records. Of course, UCI cannot call them world records so they call them best performances since the actual world record is held by another racer typically younger. I cannot find a big enough eye roll gif to use for UCI.

Since you are both ROOKIES, take your time with the track and do not be in a hurry for mass start racing. There is fun timed racing and structured workouts at Hellyer and VSC to do while you learn the track and get experience.

sarals 

@Hermes, trust me, I am no hurry to do mass start events on the track! I'm perfectly fine with reserving that sort of thing for criteriums. I can't say never, but I don't expect, as of right now, to do that on the track. I know that Barb has no plans to do them, at all.

Thanks for that link, I've been looking for that!

sarals 

2016 NCNCA District Championship Criterium, MW 60-64, Pleasanton, CA

How to start this narrative? This was a HARD race. It was not at all like the other three district crits I've done. I've come a long way since the first one, and I still have some race experience to earn. A lack of experience depth kept me off the top step, by a little more than a bike length.

This was a flat crit held in a industrial park in Pleasanton, and this course has been the site of the District Crit since 2013. This was the third time I've raced on this particular course. The field was combined 50+ masters women, all age groups represented, and it was also a Masters Women's 55+ Series race. 24 riders were in attendance, and the field was a veritable who's who of NorCal masters women. There national champs, UCI champs, state champs, in fact I think most everyone who lined up for this race had some impressive palmares in their history. I had two women in my age group, one is a national mountain bike champion, and the other a world class climber and endurance athlete. Because the field was so large, and there was so much talent in it, I had a hunch the pace would not be leisurely, as it had been in previous years.

Carlos, the race director, lined us up according to age group, not that it mattered. We rolled at the whistle for the 40 minute race. The temperature was 65 degrees at race time, and there was a light wind out of the west.

The pace for the first lap was fairly sedate. The nervousness was palpable, and the field was a bit twitchy. I took up residence at the rear of the pack, so I could calm down myself and observe how other riders were behaving. On the second lap, the pace came up, and the first of many attacks came. By the fourth lap, it was obvious this was a fight, the pace was high, and there was a lot of movement in the field. No one was content to sit on the front and play follow the leader. There was a constant rotation to the front, as people tried to control the pace, attack and cover attacks. I was working really hard, and I allowed some little gaps to open from time to time while I tail gunned. Coach admonished me on one lap to "move up on that wheel!" as I rolled past him on the front straight. I was a bit more mindful of such holes from there on out, except for one moment.

After one of the four primes, one of the 50+ women got away and dangled off the front for a few laps. She was on a large team, and they did a decent job of controlling things on the front for her, all the while covering attempts to bridge. I had plenty of opportunity to rotate to the front, but I was avoiding it. I was marking the two women I needed to mark, and I'd move close to them, or move up enough when one of them went towards the front to see what they were doing.

Late in the race, with four or five laps to go, there was prime sprint (they weren't really sprints, at least from my vantage point, just accelerations), and the peloton, instead of slowing as they had been doing on the other prime laps, kept right on going after the start/finish. I'd been working pretty hard on the that lap, and I allowed that gap to open again, and this time it got wide. The next thing I knew, I was staring at the peloton pulling away from me, and I was good forty feet off the back, and in the headwind section of the course. In times past, I'd have jumped and tried to chase back on hard, and blowing myself up in the process, but I've learned not to do that. I settled into a solid pace and waited for the group to come to me. It took a lap, but they did (coach said that he thought "oh no" when I went by off the back), and I latched back on. The pace was still high, so I buried myself in the middle of the pack and got some needed recovery. A few times the thought went through my head about how %$#@& hard this was, and it would be SO easy to sit up. Not on my life.....

The bell lap came, and the jostling started. I knew right where the women I needed to contest were, and I positioned myself behind one of them, with the other behind me. There was soldi acceleration on the back straight, and there were a lot shenanigans and yelling as people moved around trying find or shed marks. My mark moved right, to the inside, near the front, and I was right on her wheel. We hit the last turn, in the gutter, good clean line, and as we came off the corner, I was pushed off her wheel by another rider. I didn't brake, but I slowed, hesitated, just an instant, right as the sprint started. Now I had to make up about four bike lengths. I made up almost three, and was closing on Lesley as we hit the line.

And believe me, it was noticed!

I managed second in my age group, and finished near the front overall.

This was a great race, so much fun. I have to say it - old ladies rock!!