“Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.” Lou Holtz

"I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand." Confucius

Wednesday 28 September 2011

Tuesday's test for pursuiting at Manchester

The pursuit is an awful race; you ride flat out, keeping a good line to ensure you ride only 2000m and not 2030m since every second counts and its agony all the way.

For me the pursuit is 8 laps of the velodrome, which can be divided into 3 parts:
  • Lap 1 is from a standing start, where the bike is held in a gate and the 30 sec count down starts once it is deemed you are ready.  It's normal for lap 1 to be ~ 4 secs slower than the rest but for me it's usually a very slow lap indeed as I'm not powerful and so struggle to get up to a decent speed without crucifying my legs.
  • Laps 2-7..this is the meat of the race and should be done at as steady a pace as you can manage....a pace which  you will  have worked out previously. Your handler will indicate whether or not you are riding to your schedule.  Pacing is critical and you have to be very careful that you don't spend all your bikkies on lap 2
  • Lap 8.... thank god.... the final one and pure adrenalin gets you through this one..that and an intense desire to get the f*#$%ing thing over and done with.
So when you're training for the pursuit you practice

  • gate starts+1/4 lap to perfect your exit from the gate since if you go too early your effort does nothing except fry your legs as you attempt to drag the gate around the velodrome or if you go too late  you may just topple over sideways..  Since the gates are not always available, need 2 people to manage them and are time consuming you also practice a hand held standing starts or  solo near standing starts +1/4-1/2 laps to get used to the intense effort.
  •  6 lap efforts at the pace you want to hold for this critical section.  Prior to all this you have sorted out which gear is appropriate for the time you are aiming for given your cadence.  My cadence is very slow by track standards..I'm planning on riding in the  95-100rpm range, but by lap 6 will probably down to 90, if I know me...and I do(!).
Anyhow...last Tuesday I got into full race regalia.....skinsuit,  aero booties, aero  helmet, race wheels, best chain, groovy cog and chain ring and did my first flying 6 lapper..ie NOT a standing start. Sadly I managed to get within the parameters I'd set myself...had I failed I would have withdrawn from the competition.

I really am not sure whether I'm sad or glad, since as I said at the beginning the Pursuit is a cow of a race.  The best thing is that, seeing as there are so few older ladies racing, we'll be grouped with much younger age groups and so there's no way I'll get into the finals.  This means I will only have 1 race and so only have to kill myself once.

Pursuiter's cough will be my constant companion for  the rest of the day.

If it's so awful why do I do it?..yup.. I've gotta ask that too!...well I can't sprint and am pretty clueless in mass start track races, so that only leaves the 500m TT and the Pursuit.......both are awful but  the Pursuit makes you suffer longer.

Note..in the pix.....only the helmet is the same! bike, wheels, red booties, skinsuit..all gone.

No comments:

Post a Comment