MarkWW

eh, it's not that hard to do.

WhatsYoCadence

First day of riding the track this year I accomplished my goal for last year, which was a sub 13s f200. Now I'd like to get a sub 12 at T-Town for the end of the year.

dunderhi

That's easy for you to say. It's whole lot harder for the rest of us.

TrackMonkey7

Nationals are the closest to me they'll be in perhaps many years so my goals are aimed at that. I'm still a cat 3 so my focus is on the timed events, rather than mass start.

Easy goals

Improve at the IP enough to have fun:
I consider myself much more a Cav than a Wiggo, so the IP is tough one for me to improve. I find it hard to gauge an effort for that amount of time rather than going full gas for a sprint lap then sitting up a bit over and over. Additionally, I'm not much of a breakaway artist, but I think that training specifically for the IP might make breaking away solo or a couple other guys less miserable.*

Improve at the other timed events enough to have fun:
I refuse to believe that I'd make even a mediocre track sprinter, so the more sprinty timed events I will plan on participating in purely for fun.

Lap the field at either Kissena or T-Town:
*I love it when the pros do it, for whom it is easier on a nice smooth, fast, climate controlled track, and if you just so happen to be at that level. I've seen it done at Kissena, and I just think it's BA. I feel that training for the IP would compliment this goal nicely and vice-versa.

Participate in the TP at Nationals:
I have a new team that is going to be competing mostly on the track. The other guys on my team look to be focusing on sprint events though, so I'm not sure how keen they'll be to race the TP.

Not so easy goal

Get a cat 2 upgrade (before Nationals):
I really want to bump shoulders in the mass start races, even if I only do so for a few minutes before getting spat out the back. I'm not holding my breath, though.

queerpunk

well, to be fair, it's hard for Mark to do that too.

Huskey

So just had our club championships this weekend (is now end of our track season), And I pulled a 1.19 for the Kilo and a 12.3 for the 200. Pretty pleased with the Kilo as it was with close to no training for it and without tt bars, managed to get a gold in B grade for it. Pretty disappointed with my 200 time though, I recorded a 12.1 in training a month or two ago. I didn't go as big a gear as I normally would have, to try be on the safe side as I hadn't had the gear that high in a month due to poor preparation. Still got gold in B grade for it though (they didn't do sprints after just the 200s), also got gold in the Keirin.

Standing starts have improved a lot now i'm starting to drive with my hips more and able to get move momentum quicker. I've videoing my starts and reviewing them after, when on the bike I feel like im moving around as much as I need to but then on the footage I can see i'm holding back. Just took a bit of time exaggerating my movements to get it right.

Squat and Deadlift have been neglected lately, stopped doing gym almost completely in the build up to the championships plus I've been busy helping coach the young juniors and slower/less experienced adults at the club training sessions. But now I'm focusing on strength work for the next few months I'll be spending a fair bit of time lifting heavy things.

Still planning on attending state champs this year, started saving up for it and my training through this off season will be in preparation for it.

Hida Yanra

great goals!

a few notes that may or may not be helpful - it's worth what you are paying for it

1) depending on what your time goals are, training for IP and TP can actually be quite different.
This has a ton to do w/ your team's make-up and what position you think you'll have on the TP. Most obvious example, if you are going to be your team's 'gate-man', your efforts will most likely not be anywhere near 4k, and your power outputs will not even look close to an IP effort with regard to duration/intensity.

2) The IP is a (generally) maximal effort for +/-4':30", this puts you completely in the aerobic category, and in a perfect world your power plot will look like:


/
/ \
/ ----------------------------- *standing awkwardly on a tall box in slippery cleats while still in an O2 daze*
/

a TP power plot is crazy different than that.
|
/ \ | | | /
/ \ / \ / \ / \ / |
/ \ ---- ----- ----- ------ |
/ |
/ **standing awkwardly on a tall box in slippery cleats while still in an O2 daze**


it's a flat out fact that "pursuiting makes you better at pursuiting" -
but one is trying to be as stable as possible, while the other is about 5x maximal intervals and then trying to not run your tyre into the rear wheel of the dude in front of you as you breathe through your eyeballs and try to "recover" at +/-35mph, while going around an odd shape that wants to spit you uphill every 80 meters.

So, the better you get, the better you are (not rocket science)
but depending on the specificity of your goals, it's worth thinking about parsing your training for how you are going to target IP vs TP vs mass-start?

The difference between pulling in a TP and doing an IP is likely going to be +90 watts. (this has a lot to do with whose glutes you are following in the TP). Dunno about you, but a delta of 90w, smoothly and repeatedly, is a big deal to me.


any IP practice you do will help quite a bit w/ breakaways -
any TP practice you do will help a TON w/ breakaways.

something that your friends will 100% thank you for - being able to change your power on the track bike suuuuper smoothly. It's worth a non-imaginary bunch of seconds if your team can keep the power spikes smoothed out during each lead-dude transition.

sounds like a fun season! Tear it up!


edit: seems my highly scientific graph didn't translate well in the text editor, here's a screenshot:

carleton

I had no idea.

That's one of the best posts I've seen on here in years. Thanks!

taras0000

That was spot on, revealing the obvious that no one clues into, and well explained. This made a lot of sense to me as I was always willing to give the TP a go, but hated the IP. I even found TP fun?

As a gate man, and the guy who gets to peel off, I think I would have been the ideal teammate to draft. Ass and torso like a truck!

Hida Yanra

thanks gents -

now that I'm well and truly out of the game, I'm quite a bit more open to talking about some of the inner workings of stuff like that.

Banchad

My goals for this year now that I know that my local track will be running the track league are:

Podium in a scratch race
Podium in a Kilo(If they run)
Do ok in a match sprint(again if they run)
160kg x 5 squats
190kg x 5 deadlift

MrMinty

Lapping the field would be so hard on a 400m velodrome. I'd say exponentially harder than a 250m. I was thinking about this last night. I was thinking about this last night and I'm sure that someone can do the maths on it. I.e if rider A was doing 40kmh average and rider B was doing say 30kmh avg, how many laps would it take for rider A to lap on a 400m and a 250m velodrome. Each lap, he would make some ground into the difference, until eventually he made up the full distance between the 2

carleton

Basically, if:

Rider A = 40km/h
Rider B = 30km/h

How long will it take Rider A to go 400m further than Rider B

Well, the easy way is to say that, Rider A is traveling at 10km/h faster than Rider B. If Rider B is traveling at 0km/h, how long will it take Rider A to travel 400M at 10km/h?

At +10km/h it will take the breakaway rider the following amounts of time to lap a field:

166M: 60s
200M: 72s
250M: 90s
333M: 120s
400M: 144s (ouch)

Hida Yanra

you aren't wrong -
and that's also the only track length I've managed to pull it off on, even being someone whose tactics tended to be lapping sorts of things (my home track was 400m, so many more opportunities)

It was a couple weeks after my SRM battery died - so no files, but it was a state championship points race near the end of the season- so those with legs pretty much knew when/where/how the winning move would go down.

50 laps on a 400 is a long time - lapping happens.

carleton

I want to know if it took 144s or more

Hida Yanra

lots longer - LOTS.
the field also had the women's 1/2/3s - mostly 1&2s, w/ two Wpro in there - so the chase was pretty hot and they had a ton of engines.
It was of the three most memorable races of my life across all disciplines.

carleton

I can imagine. Elite women are fast as hell.

skysurfer

Get out of category 4/D.

Not embarrass myself.

1incpa

We're well into the race season at T-Town, so I thought I'd update this with how I'm making out with my goals.

I was pretty consistent with my training through the winter. It did get tough riding the trainer after a couple of months, but I stuck it out. It was real nice when the weather broke and I could ride outdoors.

My initial goal was to start out with Saturday master's racing and then get into the Tuesday night cat 2-3 races. Well, I figured I'd jump right into the deep end and started my season with Tuesday nights and have been racing Tuesdays and Saturdays every week that there's racing. As for the not sucking part...I didn't realize how long it's been, but I last trained for racing for the 2007 season. I wouldn't say I suck right now, but I'm definitely not making the races happen. I am having fun and getting my track legs back.
At this point, I'm feeling a little bit better every week. I'll keep at it. I just keep thinking "wait until next year!"

Definitely no cat 2 upgrade for me this year. And I'm ok with that.

I've seen in the race reports thread that some of you are having good seasons; that's awesome! How's everyone else making out with their goals?

Paul

jt_uk

How are you peeps going to be training now that Autumn is on the horizon? Will you focus on strength for the next 6 months or is there anything in particular you will be doing?

tobukog

I'm an endurance rider and I'll be focusing on repeatability and overall FTP until next year. At track nationals (masters) I pretty much figured out that my speed was as good or better than my competitors in my events, but I got taken apart in the points race by trying to cover to many of the aggressive moves. Honestly, I have to be able to be aggressive AND sprint, not one or the other. I'm debating whether to do any leg work in the weight room over the Winter, I haven't decided if it's that important for me on a time - effectiveness standpoint.

MarkWW

Let it be known that WhatsYoCadence is now a cat 3, so I guess it's only a matter of time until he beats me. Maybe at states this weekend!

SprintzNKiloz

I think my offseason is going to be long fixie rides to work on some endurance and then back in the weight room. All in all I rode a good match sprint at Master's Nationals, but a terrible kilo and I think it's my last lap that's killing me there. So endurance seems to be lacking.

carleton

Not sure how long you've been training, but from my point of view:

- Riding fixed gear as training doesn't do much of anything. Don't bother.
- The last lap kills everyone in the kilo. The key is to go into the last lap as fast as possible and hang on and stay aero. Focus on maintaining the speed you have. You aren't going to get any faster at that point.

MrMinty

That was a disappointing "season" at Huyton! Did you make it to any of the races?