The worst idea I have ever had

39.2km.

It was painful, it was hot and it was a little bit windy. But overall the conditions were pretty favorable. Last Sunday would have been a better day for an attempt but I can't complain about 80 degrees, clear sky and fairly mild wind (for Kissena).

My goal was to break 40km and I came pretty damn close. Had I done this on a better velodrome (read: not bumpy or windy) I probably would have and that's good enough for me.

Already there are some pictures:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nickjames/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21494593@N00/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/14060984@N05/sets/72157602145075017/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thelivest1/sets/72157602149945677/ New!

Some pictures from Will:





And a picture from Gui:

The Time

My record attempt will start some time between 2 and 3pm on Sunday September 23rd.

The BBQ will hopefully be underway by 1pm.

Special thanks

There are a lot of people that have helped me out a lot in the past few months during my preparation for the hour. I'd like to take a moment to thank them all:

First and foremost Dave from Bike Works. He has given me discounts on equipment, lent me his disk wheel and has been very encouraging. He also hooked me up with an awesome Bike Works skinsuit which I will be wearing during my attempt.
Additionally Tyler and the guys at Affinity Bikes ordered me a Lazer TT helmet.

As for individuals not associated with bike shops:

Chombo for making the flyer
Chris M who is lending me his Specialized Tri-spoke
Lee who is lending me aero-booties and for helping with timing during the 30 minute TT
Chris VD for lending me a stopwatch
Chris Y for helping with timing and driving me back home from the track afterwards
Will for helping with timing and taking amazing photos
Ceya for his training advice
Alan for helping me get a USAC official
Andres for promising to bring the grills for the BBQ
Squid for the promotion
The thursday morning crew

And everyone else for your support and well wishes. I'm doing this for you guys (okay that's a lie - I'm doing it for myself, but your enjoyment is important to me).

Pictures from the test run

I may or may not be fast enough, but I certainly look the part.

New Flyer!

Test run

I went to the track yesterday and did a 30 minute TT as a test/practice-run of my hour record. I did 48 complete laps in 30 minutes and did 49 laps in 30:13.91.

The formula used by the UCI to calculate the total distance is as follows:

D = (L Pi x TC) + Di C
Di C = (L Pi x TRC) / TTC

where: D = distance covered in the hour (or half hour in this case)
L Pi = length of track
TC = number of complete laps before the last lap
Di C = additional distance
TTC = time of the last complete lap
TRC = time remaining to ride at the beginning of the last lap

Using this formula my distance for the 30 minute effort was 19.467km or 12.096 miles.

Here are some fancy graphs I made:

Getting sick

For the past 5 or 6 days I've had a slight soreness in the back of my throat. The kind you wake up with and think "it's nothing" and then the next day you are full blown, can't-get-out-of-bed sick. Except it hasn't progressed to that point.

I've increased my vitamin intake, particularly vitamin C (5-8 grams daily at the moment). As of today my throat is no longer sore but I am feeling sluggish and my nose/head is congested.

I'm really hoping that this goes away within the next day or two. At the very least I hope it doesn't interfer with the attempt itself.

The good news is that I received the permit for the velodrome. I have talked to Alan and though he won't be able to officiate himself, he did say he could find someone who can. I have my aero-bars, skinsuit and TT helmet, and I should be picking up my disk wheel, aero-booties and tri-spoke this weekend.

I've also been looking into phosphate loading, which involves taking sodium phosphate for 4 days prior to the event. In several studies it was found to increase performance on a 40k TT by up to 8%.

I hope I'm ready.

The date has been set.

I've been neglecting this blog but I have not been neglecting my hour record attempt. Last week I filled out the paper work for a permit to use the velodrome. There may be some issues with insurance that I need to clear up but it shouldn't be a problem.

I also talked to Alan (USAC official) about officiating the attempt. He's going to look into whether it's a USAC record or just a track record and figure out what sort of timing equipment we'll need.

So by now you are probably wondering when the attempt is taking place. Sunday September 23rd. Mark your calendars.

I have a little over three weeks left to train. The track racing season is over so the hour record is my only focus now. I have almost all of the equipment I need (aero bars, skinsuit, disk wheel/tri-spoke). I'm waiting on a time trial helmet that I ordered through Affinity Bikes and I have yet to get aero booties.

Hopefully I don't completely embarrass myself.

ECMC

Wednesday - Independence Day - marked the start of the East Coast Messenger Chumpionships. A five day "Bicycle Messenger Fiasco." Two alleycats, a beach party, a day at the track, karaoke, polo and excessive drinking. Excelling in each event would give you points towards the overall omnium and the person with the most points would be crowned the "Chumpion."

The Chumpionships kicked off with the first alleycat. No information was released before hand other than the location of the start (Chambers St. and West Broadway). We weren't given a manifest at the start of the race either - we had to leave our bikes leaning against a fence and the organizer stuck a note in our spokes. The race started LeMann style with everyone running to their bike and retrieving the note.

According to the note we had twenty minutes to get two 16oz cans of beer, lock our bikes to the bike rack between 6 Pearl St. and 17 State St. and rendezvous on the 3pm Staten Island Ferry.

My friend Andres and I went in search of beer with a few other racers. This is much easier said than done in the Financial district. The first few places we went to did not sell beer. Finally we found a place that did but they only sold 12oz cans (and it took a good five minutes of explaining to the clerk to find out they didn't have 16oz cans). Fortunately across the street was a grocery store that sold beer. Andres ran in and bought some beer while the rest of use waited outside. When he got out he put the beer down just as a few other racers showed up and they proceeded to take our beer. Andres yelled at them and managed to get some of the beer back, enough for those of use who were waiting there for him.

We made our way to the ferry and saw that most people were locking up right outside the terminal. However Andres and I decided to follow the directions properly and found the bike rack specified in the note. A handful of others did the same.

We got on the ferry with about 5 minutes to spare. Once on the ferry we were given the manifest - all the checkpoints were below Canal st. and most of them were unmanned. The finish line was unknown - at each checkpoint we'd get a clue (a letter or number) and once completed the clues would spell out the address.

After a pleasant ferry ride the race started. It turned out that locking to the specified bike rack was totally unnecessary and pretty much guaranteed that anyone who followed the directions would lose. While we had to run 3 blocks just to get to our bikes everyone was already riding to the first checkpoint. The few of us who had followed the rules decided to stick together and we were off to the first checkpoint.

Once all the checkpoints were completely we were able to complete the word jumble and determine that the finish was at 169 East Broadway - 169 Bar. We headed over there and I was the first one to the finish - but I forgot to put my name on my manifest. As I was frantically scribbling my name Andres and this other guy roll up and hand in their manifest before I can.

Broadway Bombin', another race completely unrelated to ECMC, was starting later that evening. However while we were at 169 Bar it started raining and I was feeling pretty tired. I opted to skip the race and head home to take a nap. I hit the pillow a little after 8pm and woke up a little after 9am the next day. That was some nap! Unfortunately I had to go to work so I missed the beach party and camping. However I was able to convince my boss to let me take Friday off so I could race at the Velodrome.

On Friday I packed up my rollers, grabbed my track bike and headed towards the 7 train. I don't like riding long distances with my rollers in my bag so I figured public transportation would be the best way to get to the track. When I got there a few people had already arrived including Alex who was organizing the events. Unfortunately only a handful of other people showed up. By the time we started the races there were 12 racers and only a couple of spectators. According to the ECMC handbook the track racing was supposed to involve "betting" - you would bet on a racer and if they placed you would earn points towards the final omnium. If you were a racer and people bet on you, you'd get points for that too (and of course points if you placed in the races). However this ended up not taking place as there were not enough people to make it worthwhile.

But we still raced. Alex started us off with an 8 lap scratch race. We kept it pretty slow at first but by the bell lap the pace was pretty high. With 200m to go Luke and Dan jumped. Adam and I responded but were unable to catch Luke and Dan by the finish. I ended up in fourth place by half a wheel.

After the scratch race we all decided that a team sprint would be fun. At first we were going to choose our own teams, but after I asked Luke and Dan if they wanted to be on a team with me, we realized that that wouldn't be fair so we randomized the teams. I ended up on a team with Justin and Izumi - both strong riders so we made a formidable team. We were the first up and had to decide the order for ourselves. Izumi would be the first rider followed by Justin and then myself. We lined up, got our holders and waited the start. For some reason however, I had a really bad start. It took me half a lap to catch up to Justin and Izumi. Once we were all together however we held a pretty good pace and finished our three laps in 1 minute and 37 seconds. We wound up in second place to Luke's team who had a time of 1 minute and 33 seconds.

By this point we were all getting really tired from racing in the relentless sun and heat. Alex decided to have only one more race - a Miss and Out. I stayed near the front for the most part although I did play the devil on a few laps. Alex was eliminating down to three, although this proved to be pretty difficult as he didn't have a bullhorn and we didn't have numbers. I'm pretty sure there were a few laps where no one was pulled because no one could hear him shout at us. I made it to the top three along with Luke and Dan and we were given two neutral laps. We slowed it way down - the heat was really getting to all of us. Half way through the bell lap Dan started sprinting. I responded as did Luke who started sprinting behind me. He quickly passed me while at the same time a sizable gap was forming between me and Dan. I felt like vomiting and knew there was no way I could keep up at that point so I just gave up and was satisfied with my third place finish.

The main Alleycat for the ECMC was on Saturday. However I had family business to attend to after which I had to go to work, so I missed the main race. I did however make it to karaoke that night. I sang "The Message" by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. Once the karaoke was over I went home.

Sunday was the Polo tournament and award ceremony and in the evening, a re-screening of Bike Shorts (a bunch of short movies about bikes including RASH). I had to work during the day so I missed Bike Polo but I made it to Bike Shorts. While there I was informed that I managed to get in 15th place overall due to the points I accumulated at the track and at karaoke. However since I missed the award ceremony I missed out on my prize (which was probably just a T-shirt).

All in all it was a crazy/fun weekend. Big thanks to Bill Dozer and Josh Whitesnake for organizing an amazing event!

Almost forgot - Road racing

Last saturday marked my return to road racing. I have stayed away from road racing for awhile now, mostly because it's hard to fit into my schedule. And also because it scares me a little - the first road race I ever entered ended with me in a 5 person pile up. One of the seat stays on my road bike got bent (fortunately it's a steel bike and was easily repaired), my rear wheel needed to be rebuilt and my handlebars and cables needed to be replaced. I was barely able to walk for two days due to a sprained hip and was off the bike for a week. It took me over a month to fully recover (I had also sprained my wrist and bruised my ribs).

The next two road races I did didn't go so well either - the first post-crash rash was only three weeks after the crash and I still hadn't fully recovered. The next race was difficult for me mentally - I had trouble staying in the pack - especially on the downhills - due to the fear of crashing again.

After that I pretty much stopped road racing. It was a pretty demoralizing experience and when you combine that with a 6:30am starting time (meaning I'd have to wake up around 4:30am) it was very easy to miss races.

But that all changed last weekend. The Kissena Cycling club organizes races in Prospect Park during the summer months and I decided to sign up. I prepaid online to make sure I'd go. I woke up at 4:30, had some breakfast and headed to the park. The guy at the registration desk recognized me from the track and I'm sure he wondered why I was in the Cat 5 field. He handed me my number and I wandered around to say hello to my friends who were also racing.

It came time to line up and I noticed that Alex "Thunder Thighs" was in the Cat 5 field. Surprising, to say the least, as he is a Cat 4 track racer who rides in the A group and often places. But he was pretty much in the same boat that I was - neither of us did much road racing and so we had to work our way up.

The race started off easily enough - the pace was pretty comfortable and I spent most of the time near the front of the pack, mostly as a precautionary measure in case there was a crash. Alex was also at the front of the pack, and decided to attack. I responded and got on his wheel but we only got a gap of a maybe a hundred meters and the pack quickly caught us.

And that was pretty much how the rest of the race would go. Alex would attack, I would respond but we would fail to make a break. We must have attacked three or four times. Alex is an incredible sprinter but it seems that breaking away is his weakness.

On the final lap there was a crash. Fortunately it was on the uphill and also fortunately, it was behind me. I heard the unmistakeable sound of metal twisting and bodies hitting the ground. I took a quick look backwards but then thought better of it and just continued forward. Immediately after the crash this one guy at the front launched an attack. I told Alex to let him go, figuring that we would catch him later. However after almost half a lap he had gained an impressive lead and Alex sprinted to catch up to him. When the pack reached the downhill I started picking up the pace to catch the two of them. I ended up pulling the pack up to them and losing all my energy in the process. Alex and I ended up finishing towards the back of the pack.

Despite my overall poor performance at the finish of the race I had a lot of fun. I don't take Cat 5 races that seriously and I don't take road racing that seriously either. It was nice to break up the monotony of pack riding with some (failed) attacks. Next time I'll probably just sit in the pack until the end, but I don't regret the strategy that Alex and I employed.

RASH

In an effort to deliver more content to you, the consumer, I figured now would be a good time to post the short film RASH, which I co-directed and starred in. It is a parody of the trailer for the film MASH, made in San Francisco about fixed-gear culture.



While making this film with my friend Lee we discovered the sub-sub-sub culture of roller riding/racing. While we were aware of it before hand, having experience with GoldSprints and seen videos/pictures of Dave's roller racing machine, it had never occured to us that there was a real "culture" behind it all. I hope to further document it in a less tongue-in-cheek manner in the future.

Rollers are and will continue to be an important part of my training.

Thursday morning River Road

The past three Thursday the usual Thursday morning group ride has consisted of riding along River Road and then taking 9W back to the GWB. This has turned out to be much preferable to our previous rides to Piermont in the morning. True, we don't get to stop for breakfast halfway through the ride but the scenery is nicer, the hills are more intense and the route is much shorter. I end up getting back home between 8 and 8:30am which gives me plenty of time to shower, eat and take a nap before work.

Last week Dave showed up on his uncle's Pogliaghi track bike. Kurt and I were both on road bikes. As soon as we got to River Road it basically became a solo ride - Dave zoomed ahead as usual while Kurt and I struggled to catch up. Kurt is a pretty cautious descender however, so I dropped him on one of the longer downhills.

Eventually I caught up to Dave. He had stopped to wait for us by the little cabin on the 180 degree bend of Alpine Road. Dave went down to the bottom of Alpine Road while Kurt and I headed to the top. Kurt and I wondered aloud how long it would take before Dave passed us. Kurt and I made it to the Court house at the top of Alpine Road and waited for Dave. Once we were all together again we got on 9W to head home. Dave took a bunch of photos that can be found here.

Yesterday, of course, was another morning group ride. This time Dave didn't show up and Kurt is on vacation in Mexico. However Lee was back and he met up with me in Brooklyn. We both had decided to take our track bikes. We headed up to the GWB while I attempted to get in touch with Drew. Drew wasn't answering his phone so I thought it would just be the two of us until we got two blocks from the bridge and Drew called me. Unfortunately I had never communicated to Drew that we were on track bikes so he showed up on his roadie.

We all made our way to River Road. Without Dave it wasn't a hammerfest so we stayed together for the most part. I would often end up a few hundred meters behind on the descents as I was the only one riding brakeless and the ground was still wet from the thunderstorms the night before.

We got to Alpine Road and decided to head down to the bottom. We took it easy going up but it was still painful. Alpine road is about a mile and a quarter and averages about a 7% grade. I was in my track gearing (48x15, 84") so I spent most of it out of the saddle.

After the ride I had breakfast with Lee and then headed to work. I felt surprisingly good - usually after the Thursday morning ride I'm really tired and a little bit sore. At first I wondered if perhaps riding my track bike had anything to do with it. Does it fit better? Do I recover better mashing up hills instead of spinning? Then it hit - the races on Wednesday night were cancelled!

Has it really been three weeks?

It's been awhile since my last post on this blog. I've been really busy at work, but that is NO EXCUSE. There should be nothing more important in my life RIGHT NOW than my blog...err...my hour record attempt.

Rather than try to document what has happened in the last three weeks with regards to my training and racing, I'm just going to pick up from last nights track race. Or lack thereof.

It was extremely hot and humid out yesterday, 91F with close to 100% humid. Threats of thunderstorms in the late afternoon. I decided to err on the side of hope and bring my track bike to work. After a somewhat productive day of work, 5 o'clock was quickly approaching so I headed out. I stopped at Conrad's bike shop in Tudor city to pick up a tubular tire as I have run out of spares (I ride this bike once a week and have flatted more in two months than I have on my other two bikes in six months). Unfortunately Conrad's only had Conti sprinters in stock which are $70 - more cash than I had on me at the time. The guy at the shop recommended a can of sealant instead so I bought a can of fast air.

From Conrad's I started heading towards the Queensboro Bridge where I was to meet up with a few other races. I ran into Ken on Third Ave. and we headed uptown together. And then it started raining. We both looked at each other but kept going. By the time we got to the bridge (about 5 minutes later) it had stopped raining. We met up with Luke and Todd and started riding.

When we got to Flushing it started pouring. We stopped under and awning and waited it out. The rain tapered off pretty quickly - about ten minutes later. At that point we were all pretty sure the races were going to be cancelled and that we would be the only people at the velodrome but since we were so close we decided to soldier on anyway.

Upon arriving at the track Ken through his hands up in the air as if he had just won a race. There were people at the track! A few racers and the officials were huddled in the storage container seeking shelter from the rain that had just passed. Ultimately Alan decided to cancel the races. I took a few laps on the track anyway where I was amazed to see a pheasant walking around turn two. When I got close he/she flew away.

We were all waiting around at the track hoping it would dry up enough to do some unofficial racing, however every five to ten minutes it would rain and then stop. Eventually people started leaving so a group of us - Ken, Luke, Kym, Dan and myself - left to go home. And that's when it started to rain. And I mean rain. Lightning flashed and thunder cracked. And then Dan got a flat. Kym and I stopped to wait while he fixed it as the lightning creeped ever closer.

Kym started getting freaked out by the lightning as it was only 2-3 kilometers away (2-3 seconds inbetween lightning and thunder). At one point she suggested we hitchhike, to which Dan replied, "Come on, we're hardcore bike messengers and computer programmers!" Thanks for remembering me Dan!

I made it home soaked and feeling great.

More training, more track racing

Last monday I attempted to start training twice a day. I was able to pull it off on monday, but on tuesday I had to work late and wanted to get to be early to make sure I got to work on time on Wednesday. I'm racing every Wednesday night of course, so I don't do any training on Wednesday. Thursday morning was the usual group ride to piermont and by the time I got home from work on Thursday I was dead tired. It is now Friday and I spent this morning doing laundry as all my bike shorts/bibs needed washing. To make matters worse I got doored on the way to work this morning and while I'm relatively okay, I'm probably not going to be able to train tonight.

But enough excuses, on to the reports:

On my way to the track on Wednesday, when I was about a mile or two from the velodrome, I flatted. More specifically, I flatted a tubular. I rode the flat the rest of the way and set about changing tires. It took me awhile to pull the old tire off as the glue had really set but I eventually got it off. I pulled out a tube of track rim cement and started smearing a layer on my wheel, getting my hands nice and sticky in the process. I got out my spare tire and started putting it on the rim. In the process I managed to get a ton of dandelion seeds stuck to my rim and had to pull them off as best I could and reapply the glue. At this point some of the guys who hang out at the track saw me struggling with the tire and gave me some help/suggestions and soon enough I had the tire on.

By the time I got the wheel back on my bike the officials were already having the Men's B group lining up along the rail. I pinned the number to my jersey as quickly as I could and threw my jersey on. Of course I had pinned the number too tight and it ripped out of two of the pins. I managed to re-pin it and get on the rail just before the race started (and thanks in part to Sam telling Alan to wait for me).

The first race was a point-a-lap race. Will from the DC team made a break rather early. I decided to chase him. I caught up but was unable to pass him and we eventually got caught by the pack.

A scratch race was next and after an uneventful 8 or 9 laps I ended up boxed in just before the sprint and came out in 6th place.

The Men's B feature race was a points race with 4 sprints. Will and I decided to try the break-after-the-first-sprint strategy. It kind of worked. Really all we accomplished was splitting up the field into a five person break and everybody else. Of course the three people who responded to our break ended up taking most of the points on the next two sprints. Right before the bell lap I decided that enough was enough. I wanted to at least get some points during this race so I started sprint right out of turn 4. No on caught on to my attack. I managed to keep the intensity high for the next 500 meters and easy formed a large gap between myself and the other 4 people in the break. I won the final sprint but ended up in third (I think) overall.

Thursday morning meant another group training ride to Piermont. The landslide that had closed River road had finally been cleared so we took the more scenic, hillier route. Dave and I decided to TT up Alpine road. There was an article on NY VeloCity about this road and how the time it takes you to get up it correlate to how many watts/kilogram you can output. Dave finished in 5:22 and I finished it about 40 seconds later. According to that article that means Dave can output about 5 w/kg while I can output about 4.5 w/kg.

While on the way home from Piermont there were four of us left (down from about eight) so we tried a double paceline. We managed to keep it pretty well organized for a good amount of time and effortlessly maintained a 27/28 mph pace.

I was planning on racing in the Empire State Games qualifying race tomorrow however due to my injuries from getting doored (some bad bruises) and the fact that most of my friends have decided not to race, I think I'm just going to sleep in and hopefully do some training later in the day.

Bicycle Fetish Day

Yesterday was Bicycle Fetish Day! It started off with a block party in Williamsburg with music, food and bikes. There were some contests there for things like: prettiest bike, ugliest bike, most philosophical bike, etc. Someone had brought a mini ramp and there were some people doing jumps off the ramp, including a guy riding an impossible wheel (basically a wheel with pegs attached to the axle). There was also a race.

My friend Victor had organized an Alleycat race. An Alleycat is basically a street race through the city with very few rules. Typically you're given a "manifest" with a list of checkpoints and you have to go to each checkpoint in any order to complete the race. The course for this particular race was pretty short so I decided to do it. In particular the checkpoints were (listed in the order I completed them):

Essex and Houston St.
68th St. and 1st Ave.
38th St. between 8th and 9th Ave.
33 W 17th St.
Centre and Worth
Kenmare and Lafayette

And then back to the Bicycle Fetish Day. Here is a map of the course. We took the car path on the Williamsburg bridge and the Central Park 65th St. Transverse in order to save time. After the 38th St. checkpoint most of the people I was riding with headed down 7th Ave. whereas I took Broadway. I arrived at the 17th St. checkpoint about 20 seconds before they did so we regrouped to head downtown into the financial district. Once we were back on the Williamsburg bridge a couple of the guys started sprinting. I joined them but took it a little bit easier. Eventually we all got stuck behind a truck and a double-parked car on Havemayer and had to get off our bikes, lift them over some parked cars and ride on the sidewalk to get around. In the end I came in fifth place and won a Syncros hat, a t-shirt and a Crumpler pouch.

A little while after the Alleycat some track bike events were held. These included trackstands, footdown, freestyle and skids. The trackstand competition involved trackstanding normally for a certain amount of time. Once that time was up, you had to remove one hand from your handlebars. After another set amount of time, both hands had to come off. Eventually it came down to having only one foot on the bike. Almost everyone fell at that point with only a few people (myself included) able to stay up with only one foot. However I was the only person who was able to stay up for more than 5-10 seconds after we started the one-footed trackstands and I won $13 (it was $1 to enter, winner takes all).

After trackstands was footdown. This entails riding around in circles while trying to knock other people off their bikes. If you put your foot down you lose. I'm not terribly interested in footdown so I didn't participate.

Next up was the freestyle competition. Most of the people who competed were doing trick skids (leg over the bars, no hands, foot through the frame, etc.). I did some trackstand tricks - foot-through-the-frame trackstand, then did some bunny hops in that position, did a no-handed foot-through-the-frame trackstand and then attempted to bunny hop and failed. Dan G. ended up winning by doing some trick skids while curtseying with his hat.

The last track competition was the distance skid. Basically you sprint until you reach a certain point, and then you lock up your rear wheel and put as much of your weight forward as possible by leaning over your handlebars. This causes your rear wheel to skid, and whoever goes the furthest wins. I was the second person to skid and right when I started my skid I started to fishtail. I over corrected and ended up going down pretty hard. Apparently I hit my head, bounced/flipped over landing on my back then rolled around. I immediately popped back up on my feet and was pretty much okay. A little bruised and I had a couple of scraps (and I need a new helmet) but nothing serious.

The day ended with a party in the backyard of the City Reliquary.

A slow week

Last week was pretty slow, cycling-wise, as I had a lot of catching up to do at work. However the past three days have been pretty intense.

On tuesday after I got home from work I immediately headed out to Prospect Park for some lactate threshold training. I did a 20 minute sub-threshold interval, followed by a 20 minute recovery interval, then another sub-threshold interval. On the second interval my heartrate monitor kept saying "Check strap fit" so I based my workout mostly on RPE (rate of percieved excertion - how hard you think you are working). Not terribly scientific but still very useful.

Speaking of scientific training, I'm really looking forward to the Minoura eFlex computer/power-meter. It uses an insole to measure the amount of pressure you are putting on the pedals and converts that to power. It's probably not as accurate as torque based power-meters but it seems like it would be very easy/quick to switch between multiple bikes and would require no modifications in order for it to work with a track bike. Unfortunately the computer is not yet out and the power meter is an add-on that won't be out until next year. In the mean time I heard that a friend of a friend is trying to sell a PowerTap so I might try and get that.

Back to the riding - on Wednesday evening the Twilight series at Kissena continued. On the schedule was: an 8 lap scratch, a tempo and a Miss-and-Out. The scratch race was pretty uneventful and I finished with the pack. Right at the start of the Tempo race (a points race with the first two people to finish each lap getting 2 and 1 points respectively) there was a break of two riders. As far as I know they took most if not all of the laps. The Miss-and-Out was next and ended up being a huge disappointment. The fields for the scratch race and the tempo were pretty large, and I assumed that the field for the Miss-and-Out was large as well (I started the race towards the front of the pack and didn't really get a good look at it). After about 3 laps there were several people in front of me, but given the field size for the previous races I thought I was fine. Then I hear my number being called. For whatever reason a bunch of people decided not to do the Miss-and-Out. Lesson learned - make no assumptions.

Finally we come to this morning - a continuation of the thursday morning group rides! Once again I met up with some friends at 5am for a pre-work ride. This time we only went to Piermont so that the people who needed to be at work earlier could make it out. David and Gui didn't show up this time, which meant that Andrew and I were pushing the pace for most of the ride. I was a bit tired from all the riding I did Tuesday and Wednesday so overall it was a more moderate ride than last week. I hope that we can continue riding every week before work.

Next week I'll probably try to start training twice a day.

Cancelled races and Nyack

It rained yesterday. Actually, that's an understatement. Sudden thunderstorm is more descriptive. In any case, the Twilight series track race was cancelled. While this was depressing it did mean that I was well rested for today's adventure...

I woke up at 4am. Made myself some breakfast (sauteed tofu, peppers and onions), brushed my teeth and got my cycling clothes on. Grabbed my road bike (which I had just finished repairing the night before) and headed to the Williamsburg Bridge to meet up with some of my friends. Our goal was to bike to Nyack, NY, get some breakfast and be back in the city by the time we all needed to be at work.

Quite a few people showed up for this ride. At the WB bridge Dave, Lee, William and Gui showed up. Andrew met up with us at the George Washington Bridge.

While on the way to Nyack we mostly stuck in a paceline and kept up a pretty good pace. We added in a few sprints at random just to change things up a bit, and occasionally just rode leisurely and chatted. Unfortunately Andrew had to get to work earlier than the rest of us and turned around shortly before the state line.

When we got to Nyack we stopped at Runcible Spoon (a muffin/coffee shop) and had some breakfast. While there this guy passed by on a Segway with his son holding onto his leg, hitching a ride. Lee snagged a blurry picture of the spectacle which he put up on his Flickr.

Dave decided he wanted to ride my bike for awhile since we are about the same height and use the same pedals. That meant that I got to ride his LOOK 595 with the SRAM groupset. We swapped bikes and started the ride back to the city.

The SRAM shifters are really quite ingenius. They consist of only a single paddle per shifter. A light tap on the paddle downshifts while a harder tap on the paddle upshifts. It was pretty easy to get the hang of, although I found myself reaching for the thumb lever that wasn't there a few times. Once we finished the climb up Tallman Mountain Park Dave and I switched bikes again and we continued on our way.

Once back in the city I headed home to eat, shower, swap bikes and head to work. I'm now sitting in my office fighting the urge to take a nap.

Lactate Threshold Heart Rate

Last night I went to Prospect Park to perform a Lactate Threshold Heart Rate (LTHR) test and calculate my LTHR. I chose Prospect Park because Central Park is being repaved and PP is also the perfect distance for such a test (3.3 miles, so 1 lap will take 10 minutes at 20mph).

To calculate my LTHR I followed the test outlined in The Cyclist's Training Bible - do a 30 minute time trial and record the average heart rate over the final 20 minutes. I set the timer on my heart rate monitor for 10 minutes and set it to start the chronometer one the timer finished. I started at Grand Army Plaza and finished a little over 1 lap when the 10 minutes was up. I figured I had a little over 2 laps left before I hit 30 minutes total.

During the time trial I occasionally looked at my watch and noticed that my heart rate was typically between 164 and 174bpm. On the downhill it would get as low as 156 and on the uphill I hit 189 at one point.

In the end my average for the last 20 minutes of the time trial was 171bpm. I'll use that figure for training purposes until I get a chance to run the test again.

Pictures!

Photos from the VeloCity Tour:
Amy Bolger
Dave August
Todd
TAK

Photos from the Twilight Series:
Koqui

Kissena Twilight Series: week 2

Yesterday marked the second week of the Kissena Twilight Series. Since I upgraded to Cat 4 last week I had to ride with the B group (Cat 4/5) this time (although even if I hadn't upgraded I probably would have ridden with the B group). It was yet another gorgeous evening of mild temeratures and clear skies - perfect for racing.

I showed up, signed in and picked up my new number. Went infield, changed my clothes and hopped on the track for a warm-up. There was a nice long paceline going when I got there so I waited until they passed me and then hopped on the back. After a easy laps at a steady pace the official rang the bell. The racing was about to start.

The first race for the B group that night was a scratch race. It was pretty uneventful and I ended up around 7th place. Not too bad for my first race in the B group. The next race was a Miss-and-Out. The first few laps were fine, but then I made a fatal error - I sprinted to cross the finish line and ended up getting carried into the second position by turn 1. By turn 2 I decided to get on the wheel of the guy in front of me, who was in the sprinters lane. Big mistake. As soon as I got on his wheel the pack caught up to us and started passing us. Not only were they passing us, they were passing us really close, almost pushing us into the grass. By turn 3 I was near the back of the pack, and started trying to get into a better position. I was pulling up behind Pablo when a rider swerved up track a bit and actually bumped into Pablo. No one crashed but I did slow down enough that I ended up at the rear of the pack, completely boxed in. I got eliminated.

After my disappointing performance in the Miss-and-Out I was determined to do well in the Men's B feature. The feature race was a 12 lap "Devil's scratch" - a combination of a Miss-and-Out and a scratch race. For the first 6 laps the last rider is eliminated each lap. The final 6 laps are carried out like a normal scratch race. I made it passed the first 6 laps. On the final lap of the scratch, a group of 5 or 6 riders made a break on turn 3. Unfortunately there were two riders inbetween me and the break who weren't responding. I had to try and bridge a two rider gap, which I failed to do. In the process of trying to bridge the gap I also ended up pulling another rider behind me, who then sprinted past me to the finish line. Once again I ended up around 7th (or 8th).

Overall it was a very satisfying night of racing. I'm enjoying the faster pace of the B group and feel a little bit safer in the pack (aside from that one rider who bumped Pablo).

Nutrition and interval training

As my training increases I have been thinking more and more about nutrition - on the bike and off. This has lead me to experiment with gels, and I have come up with my own recipe that is a close facimile of the Clif Shot apple pie. The main ingredient in Clif Shot gel is brown rice syrup which is an excellent base for gels - it has a good mix of complex and simple carbohydrates and electrolytes. The combination of high and low glycemic index sugars means that you get immediate and sustained energy. The electrolytes help with water absorption and prevents cramping. Clif Shot also has additional electrolytes and flavoring.

The brown rice syrup I had already had more potassium and sodium than the Clif Shot so I figured I could go without any addition electrolytes. All I had to do was figure out the flavoring. A combination of apple juice, lemon juice, cinnamon and allspice came pretty close to replicating the Clif Shot. It was a little less tart but still quite palatable (for a gel anyway).

Anyway, here's the recipe:

* 8 tablespoons of brown rice syrup
* 1 tablespoon of apple juice
* 1/2 teaspoon of lemon juice
* 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon
* a touch of allspice

Stir all the ingredients together in a sauce pan over low heat until combined.

I had planned to do some interval training last night, so after I finished making the gel I poured it into a flask and headed to the park. I figured that using the gel during an hour of interval training would be a good test - if it was bad I wouldn't need it to continue my training and if it was good it certainly wouldn't hurt to use it.

It turned out that it worked pretty well. I'd take a shot of gel during each rest interval followed by some water. It tasted alright and I never felt like I was running out of energy. The only problem was that it was a bit thick. It was rather cool last night and by the end of my ride it was getting pretty hard to squeeze it out of the flask.

VeloCity Tour

The VeloCity Tour has started and hit the Kissena Velodrome on Sunday. The tour is a multi-city (NYC, SF and Chi) event aimed at bike messengers (though non-messengers can compete) with the top prize for first male and female messengers being round-trip airfare to Dublin, Ireland for the Cycle Messenger World Championships.

I competed in the first VeloCity Tour last year and it is what prompted me to start racing at the velodrome. Of course this meant that I had to compete again this year.

Since so many people registered (over 40 racers I believe) they split the Men's field into two groups based on the rider numbers (evens and odds). There were no categories (in fact many of the racers didn't have licenses as this was a non-USCF race) so everyone was lumped together. This meant there was a huge gap in terms of experience and speed.

The first race was a 10 lap scratch race. As soon as the whistle blew the pace picked up, and stayed pretty high the entire race. Most people would have taken it a little easier on the first few laps but I guess the faster guys, particularly those who hadn't raced on the track before, wanted to take off immediately. I stuck to the front the entire race and we had some semblance of a pace line. However on the last lap I was about 7 or 8 riders back when the top 5 or so started to take off. The two guys in front of my didn't respond so I was left to bridge a two person gap and try to catch up to the break. I wasn't able to catch up in time and ended up in a distant 6th.

The next race was a Miss-and-Out. Because the field was so large the final lap would consist of five people (all the previous Miss-and-Outs that I've been in have had a final lap of three). Since many of the riders were not very experienced with track racing and Miss-and-Outs are notorious for crashes I stayed near the front of the pack for most of the race. Fortunately there were no crashes during the race and slowly but surely the field was whittled down until there were only five riders left - and I was one of them. In the end I took fifth.

Next up were match sprints. The qualifiers consisted of groups of four. I was paired with Pablo, Craig and this other guy whose name I did not catch. As soon as the race started the other guy just took off. Craig, Pablo and I debated for a second whether we should chase him down immediately or not; since none of us knew him or how fast he was, we decided to chase him. We got on his wheel around the start of the second (and final lap). We all easily passed him, with Craig winning the sprint, Pablo taking a close second and me lagging behind for third. Afterwards I briefly spoke to the guy who took off early in our race, and it was pretty clear that he didn't understand the strategy of a match sprint. I told him that usually the first lap is really really slow as people try to jockey for a good position, and it's only in the second lap that someone will take off.

The final race was an Australian Pursuit. This was the first time I've ever done this sort of race and it was definitely an interesting type of race. Basically all the riders are evenly positioned around the track. Once the race starts, each rider tries to chase down the rider in front of them. If you get passed, you are out of the race. Unfortunately my legs just weren't into it and I got passed after two laps.

After the VeloCity tour was over there was an Alleycat race to the after party. I didn't participate as I didn't want to race an Alleycat on my track bike and I had brought my rollers with me. Instead my parents gave me a lift home where I had some time to take a shower and eat before heading to the after party (which was only a few blocks from where I live). I got on my commuter bike and started heading towards the bar when a guy on a road bike came flying up next to me and asked me where Union Ave. was. The bar was on Union Ave. so I figured he was racing the Alleycat - he was, and it turned out that he was totally lost (he was from SF) so I showed him the way.

Once there, Felipe (who organized the Alleycat) started the award ceremony. I have only three words to describe this award ceremony - UNDERGROUND, ILLEGAL, INTENSE!

The Flying Scotsman

Last friday the movie The Flying Scotsman was released in the US. This movie is a dramatization of the autobiography of Graeme Obree, who twice held the Hour Record. The film stars Johnny Lee Miller as Graeme Obree who does a wonderful job portraying the Scotsman - although I might be biased as Hackers was one of my favorite movies (Johnny Lee Miller plays Dade Murphy/CrashOverride/ZeroCool in Hackers).

Though at times the film followed the typical inspirational-sports-film format and it had its fair-share of cheesy moments, and certainly had a few anachronism and other such inaccuracies, it was very enjoyable. There aren't many sports movies about Cycling (Breaking Away, American Flyers and Quicksilver come to mind, but nothing recent) so it was quite refreshing to not only see a movie about cycling, but a movie about one of my favorite cyclists and his attempt at the hour record.

Chris Boardman documentary on YouTube

In addition to the two videos in the previous post, I have found this documentary on Chris Boardman. I haven't watched the entire thing yet, but I'm posting it here anyway. It's broken up into five parts:

YouTube videos

There are a couple of youtube videos of successful hour record attempts that I have found.

The first is Graeme Obree breaking the record for the first time using his unique "tuck" position:


The second is Tony Rominger breaking the record for the second time:

Kissena Twilight Series and license upgrades

Last night was the first night of the Kissena Twilight Series - 16 weeks of racing on Wednesday nights. There are five groups: Men's A (1/2/3, 4 by permission), Men's B (4/5), Men's C (5 only), Women and Masters. Two races per group and two features.

I was originally signed up to race in the B group, however Dan had signed up for the C group and I was interested in trying some of our strategies again. I talked to Alan (the official) and switched to the C group.There was a points race scheduled, so Dan and I planned to use the same attack we used during the points race last weekend. Gui didn't make it to the track that night so instead we enlisted our friend Pablo to be part of our break. We explained our strategy to Pablo who was really only half listening.

The strategy would have to wait however, as the first race for the C group was a Win-and-Out. In this type of race there are a series of sprints, with the winner of the first sprint winning the race, the winner of the second sprint coming in second, etc. This particular Win-and-Out would consist of 9 laps with 3 sprints - the final sprint would determine third, fourth and fifth.

Since I'm not that good at sprinting my plan was to attack on turn two and try to make a break for it. However right before I started my attack another rider tried to get into the paceline I was in right in front of me. He obviously didn't see me there until just before he was about to bump me and he freaked out. He swerved up track but miraculously did not cause a crash. In that moment, someone else attacked. I jumped and got on his wheel, but it didn't last long as the rest of the field responded and was soon passing us. On the next sprint Dan and Pablo attacked and I caught on to their break. This time the rest of the field didn't respond quickly enough and so it came down to a three man sprint. We were all within half a wheel of each other but Pablo ended up winning the sprint to get second place. Dan and I still had a gap on the field so we decided to try and maintain our break. On turn three of the last lap this guy Andres came flying past us. Fortunately his was a solo effort and we still had an impressive gap on the rest of the pack. I slingshoted around Dan on turn four and ended up in fourth place.

The next (and final) race for the Cs was the points race. Dan, Pablo and I had a quick last minute discussion of our tactics and then lined up on the fence to wait for the start of the race. Unfortunately we go split up on the sprint lap with Pablo near the front, me in the middle and Dan in the back of the pack. Right after the sprint I started to attack and shouted at Pablo as a passed him to get on my wheel. I had no idea where Dan was but I hoped that he was close enough behind us that he could catch us.

At the same time we launched our attack, another group of riders made a break for it as well. There was a bit of chaos as our group and the other group overlapped and it was difficult for us to keep a proper paceline. In addition to that Pablo had not really been paying attention to our strategy and so when I pulled up track on turn 3 for Pablo to take a turn pulling he followed me up track instead of passing me. In the end two riders in the other break pulled ahead with Dan persuing them and me persuing Dan. And it remained that way until the end, putting me in the fourth position for the second and third sprint.

After the races were often I spoke to Alan about upgrading to Cat 4. The requirements are 4 days of track racing and a track safety class. They don't really have any track safety classes at Kissena, but John Campo has a training clinic every Saturday (and I had gone to one) so Alan told me to fill out the form on http://www.usacycling.org. When I got home I filled out the form and Alan approved it so as of last night I am a Category 4 track racer.

The Flyer

My friend Chombo made me a flyer for my hour record attempt:

Kissena Opening Weekend official results

The official results for the Opening Weekend at Kissena have been posted: http://www.kissena.info/track/.

Intervals

Last night I went to Central Park to do an hour of interval training. I took the Pulaski bridge into Queens and got on the Queensboro bridge. There was a van used by the construction crew parked right at the entrance but there was enough space for me to get by. I didn't think much of it until I got about halfway over the bridge and there was a crane sitting in the middle of the bike path. I ended up having to lift my bike over the "legs" of the crane and walk past it. When I got to the Manhattan side of the bridge the gate was closed and there was a construction guy telling bikers/pedestrians the bridge was closed. He asked me how I got through (no one stopped me) and then opened the gate for me.

I made my way to Central Park and started the timer on my watch. I would do 5 minutes of riding while trying to keep my heartrate within 80-90% of my max, followed by 5 minutes of recovery riding. I'd repeat this for one hour.

Unfortunately it seems to me like my heartrate monitor is a little finicky. At high intensity it often seems like it is not accurately measuring my heartrate and is giving me a number that is too low. One minute it will be registering 169bpm, a minute later it will register 184bpm without any (perceivable) increase in intensity. I think the problem may be the contact points on the chest strap - I may need to keep them moist by spraying water on them more often. It could also be the battery in the chest strap as I have already needed to replace the watch battery. Despite this it is still a useful tool and I'm better off training with it than without.

After an hour of these intervals I still felt pretty good so next time I think I'll double the high intensity interval but leave the rest intervals at 5 minutes. Ultimately I'll have to be able to sustain a high intensity for an hour so I'll have to continually increase the duration of my intervals over the two months I have to train.

Pictures from the Opening Weekend

Andrew LaCorte took some photos on sunday. They are up on his site and can be found here: http://lldesign.smugmug.com/.

My favorite photo is this one: I'm in the white jersey on the red bike.

The Hour Record

The reason I created this blog was to document my training and attempt for the hour record. However I realize that not everyone reading this blog may know what, exactly, the hour record is. There is a wealth of information on Wikipedia, but the gist of it is this: you ride your bike on the track for an hour and the distance you cover is recorded.

There are actually three hour records: the UCI hour record, the UCI best human effort record, and the International Human Powered Vehicles Assocation (IHPVA) hour record. The main difference between these three records are the bicycle requirements that need to be met in order to qualify.

The UCI hour record is the most strict of all the records - the bicycle has to weigh at least 6.8kg*, the tubing must have a circular cross-section, the handlebars must be standard drop bars, the helmet must be used only for protection and not for aerodynamics and any other equipment used (clothing, shoes, eye-wear, etc) must not give the rider an aerodynamic advantage.

Originally there was only one UCI hour record but in 2000 the UCI, fearing that the hour record had become a record of technology instead of a record of athletic acheivement, split the record in two. A new record was born, called the best human effort record, and all of the hour record attempts since Eddy Merckx's were moved into this category (as they all were made using aerodynamic components). This record aschews the weight limit and allows for aerodynamic components, equipment and tubing. However the bike must still fall into the realm of upright bicycles as governed by the UCI.

The IHPVA hour record is for all bicycles (or rather human powered vehicles) that do not qualify for either UCI record. In practice this means recumbent bicycles. These bikes are made to be as aerodynamic as possible - including full fairings that cover the entire rider, monocoque composite frames and wheels that just barely extend out of the body of the bike. They look more like spaceships than bicycles but are capable of reaching speeds as high as 130km/h.

I will most likely be attempting the UCI best human effort record.

*What is interesting about this restriction is that the bike Eddy Merckx used to break the hour record weighed 5.5kg. When the UCI split the hour record into the hour record and the best human effort record, Eddy Merckx's record was the last one the UCI accepted as an hour record and not a best human effort record. This makes sense from an aerodynamics standpoint, however, as Eddy Merckx's record was the last attempt using a "traditional" non-aero bike until Chris Boardman broke the record in 2000. More information about Merckx's bike can be found here: http://www.classicrendezvous.com/

Third place feels a lot like first

Update: Gui took fourth in the Chariott, not fifth, and also won the second sprint in the points race. I also have no idea at this point what place Dan came in on the first sprint.

Today was day two of the Kissena opening weekend. On the plate for today were mass start events. For the Men's Cat 5 that meant a 6 lap scratch, 9 lap points race (with three sprints), a Miss-and-Out and a Chariott. Men's 1-3, 4 and Women did a Keirin as well.

I got to the track a little early and started warming up. Just as I finished my warm up, my parents showed up! I had invited them to the track to come and watch me race. Right before the races started they announced the points. I was in fourth place with 8 points and my friend Dan was in second place with 10 points. Gui was just behind me in the placing. We were all pretty close in points, so today was going to be interesting...

First up - the 6 lap scratch. Judging from my performance yesterday and noting that I'm a) better at longer distance races and b) not a very good sprinter I went into this race not expecting to do too well. After 5 laps I positioned myself near the front. On turn two I was coming up to the front and decided to just hammer it and break away from the pack. I figured I'd get caught before the finish but I also knew it was pretty much my only shot. It ended up working out. One rider (this guy Robert) caught my wheel and sling-shotted around turn four to take first place, but I was right behind him in second. My friend Dan took third. I got a total of 5 points for this race and Dan got 3 points, tying us for second.

While we were all waiting for our next race to start Dan, Gui and I decided to discuss tactics. The next race was a 9 lap points race in which ever third lap was a sprint, and the top four people in each sprint would get 5, 3, 2 and 1 point(s) respectively. We decided that we would sit in the pack for the first 3 laps and not contest the first sprint. Instead we would save up our energy so that while everyone else was slowing down to rest after the sprint, we would take off and try to gap the field. We would ride in a pace line and rotate every 200m. Dan wasn't too sure we could maintain a break for 6 laps but eventually I convinced him to give it a try. "Hey, if it works, we win. If it doesn't, we get back in the pack." Our friend Andrew overheard us discussing our strategy and asked if he could be a part of our plan. Four people, four placings...it seemed like a good fit.

The 9 lap points race started. We stuck to the plan although I believe Dan ended up taking second or third placing in the first sprint despite not really trying for it. We started to hammer it on turn one while the rest of the pack was recovering from the sprint. We quickly got a gap on the field, however Robert (the guy who won the scratch race) caught us. One the second sprint (first sprint since our break) Robert came screaming around turn 3 and ended up bumping my elbow with his thigh as he sped past me. Fortunately it was a light tap and no one lost control. These things are bound to happen in track racing so I was glad that my first experience with this didn't involve a nasty accident. Gui ended up taking first in the second sprint. We easily maintained our break and were never caught by the rest of the field. However as luck would have it, I kept ending up in the back of the break during the sprints due to our rotation order, and since there were 4 other riders in the break I didn't get any points. But overall I was very satisfied that our strategy worked almost perfectly (if it were not for Robert catching us it would have been perfect) and didn't mind losing each sprint. Dan was now way ahead of me in points and Gui was one point behind.

Next up was the Miss-and-Out. I was a little bit worried about this race since it basically involves a sprint every single lap, and you have to contest it or risk being pulled out of the race. I had to come up with a strategy for this race. I talked with Dan and Gui again about possibly making a break. However the general consensus was that it would be very difficult to make that initial break since we couldn't just sit back, let everyone else sprint and then make our move. We HAD to sprint. Ultimately I decided that I would play the field as best I could until it got small enough that I risked getting pulled out of the race. At that point I would make a break for it and try to maintain it for as long as possible. If Dan and Gui wanted to join me and help they could.

The race started and the first few laps were pretty easy. While there were quite a few strong riders in the pack, there were also a lot of newer people who didn't have the experience or the training and they were picked out of the field quickly. When there were only 6 people left I started to get nervous. On the next lap I was the second person over the line and the guy ahead of me kept going. I think he was trying to make a break for it so I got on his wheel. However so did most of the rest of the field. I was at the front of the pace line we had going, and stayed at the front for about a lap. I pulled off to see Dan right behind me. I thought about getting on his wheel but saw Andrew coming up behind Dan and decided to let him take it. Robert then came out of nowhere to take Andrew's wheel so I got behind Robert. On turn three I looked behind me and realized that there was no one else left in the race. I knew at this point it was over - I couldn't out-sprint the three people ahead of me. Still, fourth place meant that I earned two points, putting me three points ahead of Gui.

At this point I was chatting with my parents and a couple of my friends and completely missed the announcement that you had to sign up for the Chariott race. I didn't realize this until just before they started the second (and last) qualifying heat. Whoops. Gui qualified for the finals but ended up taking fifth fourth with points only be awarded to the top three. My placing was safe. I was in third overall.

The officials announced the winners and handed out medals. Robert was in first place having won all the races today. Dan was in second and I was in third. The three of us got our picture taken together by our friend Crihs. As soon as he develops the film I will post the picture here.

My parents were very excited and proud of me. They had a great time at the track and I'm glad that they were there to cheer for me.

Day two of track racing

Today was the second day of racing at the Kissena velodrome and the first day of the Opening Weekend races. I grabbed my bike, my bag and my rollers and headed into Queens. I got on the 7 train and took that to the end of the line, which is about a mile from the velodrome. I arrived a little early so I had plenty of time to warm up. I did a few solo laps before joining onto the end of a paceline a few riders had started. Shortly after it was my turn to pull the bell was rung and it was time to start the races.

The events scheduled for today were: a 2000m pursuit, a team sprint and match sprints. For the pursuit I was paired up with my friend Chris. We started on opposite ends of the track and at the sound of the starter pistol we were off. Kissena is a 400m track so I would have to complete 5 laps. I started off fairly strong but was careful not to push it too hard. I stayed slightly below my max (or rather my perceived max) until the start of the final lap at which point I went all out.

After the pursuit came the team sprint. I am currently an unattached rider so I have no official team and in any case the races as Kissena are less formal as the crowd there is much smaller than your typical road race (all the teams were ad-hoc). My friend Dan and I paired up and our friend Gui mentioned he needed teammates and so our team was formed. We were discussing the order in which we would do the sprints, as the team must ride in a set order with the lead rider pulling off each lap (so the lead rider at the start of the race pulls off after the first lap and leaves the race, bumping the second rider to the lead position and so on). We concluded that the best idea would be to have the rider with the best pursuit time in the third position but since we didn't have the results from the pursuit yet our temporary order was me, Gui and then Dan as the third. When the results for the pursuit came in, Dan was in second place, I was in third and Gui was in fourth. We decided to keep our original order as Gui didn't want to be the first rider.

We lined up at the start while three other races held our bikes in place. At the start of the race I took the lead position, Gui was on my wheel and Dan was the anchor. My goal was to reach my top speed by the 200m line and maintain that for another 200m at which point the first lap would be over and I would pull out of the race. In the end our team took second place.

Next up were the match sprints. Dan and I were paired up and we drew straws (actually golf balls) to determine who had the lead position. I lucked out and Dan had to take the lead. After a slow lap and a quarter, as Dan tried to get me to take the lead, he crawled to the top of the banking and then dropped down. It was on. I got right on his wheel, and started to overtake him on turn 3. He saw me catching up and started to move up-track forcing me to move further up track. This ended up working to his advantage as he beat me by half a wheel. In the end he walked away with 4th place.

Tomorrow will be the second day of the Opening weekend and will consist of mass start events including a 6 lap scratch, 9 lap points race, Miss-and-Out and a Chariott. Wednesday of next week will be the start of the Kissena twilight series.

Next week will also be the start of my training for the hour record.

First day of track racing

Last weekend marked the start of the track racing season at the Kissena velodrome. It was a nice to be able to get out to the track and race on my new bike for the first time. It was also the perfect day for racing - sunny with temperatures in the mid-70s. Of course I completely forgot to use sunscreen which resulted in some minor sunburn on my arms and legs.

As for the races: there were four Cat 5 races that took place. The first two were 5 lap scratch races, followed by a Miss-and-Out and finally a 15 lap scratch race. I did poorly in the first two races, but finished 6th in the Miss-and-Out and 5th in the 15 lap scratch. What I realized during these races is that I'm terrible at sprinting and generally fair better on longer races.

Seeing as how my goal is to suffer on the track for an hour this is probably a good thing.

It begins...

I have decided to start a blog to track my training and progress leading up to my hour record attempt. If all goes according to plan I will be attempting to break the UCI hour record (or the best human effort record) at the Kissena velodrome some time in late June.