New Here, But Not new...
 

Hi, everyone. Some of you here know me, many do not. For those who don't, I'm a master's woman racer who frequents the Masters Racing forum. I've been racing on the road now for four seasons. My coach is Racer Ex, and I finally came around, at his urging (and that of many others, truthfully) to start competing on the track. My only real talent is sprinting, and I've decided I need to (finally) go where my talents lie.

I live close to Hellyer. I'm not qualified to ride there, yet. I did one of their beginner sessions three or so years ago, and I need to get another in before I start training there. Competing is another thing entirely!

Speaking of which, I'm told I'd be good at the flying 200, 500 and possibly team sprints and TT's. Ik and 2K races are a maybe. Mass start events? I don't know, I think I'd rather race crits for now, I like having brakes when in a peloton.

My track bike is a Giant Omnium. It's reasonably well set up. I've assembled a plethora of cogs and chain rings, plus wheelsets for training and for racing. I also have TT bars for it, along with the drop bars it came with.

So. I'll lurk here for a while, and keep my mouth shut until I have questions.

Thanks, everyone!

Hi, and welcome to the forum!

Contrary to what others say, Racer EX really is a smart guy :D

Have a look at the stickied threads to catch up. And maybe look at the threads on the first 2 pages. Feel free to comment in those, even if they are old threads.

Carleton, thanks!

Ex is the guy!!

Get training - the Masters World Championship is in Los Angeles in 2017 - you go girl.

+1

Seriously. The women's fields in Masters Worlds competitions can be unexpectedly small (but still fast).

Yep. My training partner did really well at Indianapolis this year, and is prodding me to come with her to Worlds. We'll see how the progression goes!

:)

She did just OK. Couple of AG records and jerseys. :rolleyes:

Yeah, she's quite a slacker, that one. ;)

Welcome to the track forum Sarals! :thumb:

Welcome to the track forum. :thumb:

I help instruct at our half-day USAC approved rider education clinic at Ttown. The two biggest fears a new rider has are the banking and the lack of brakes. We stress how safe it is to race on track and the danger of actually having brakes. After only a couple of hour hours, some students become true believers and question why would they ever race on a flat course or with brakes. The lack of brakes (for everyone) forces the peloton to move and react predictably, thus making it much safer.

Welcome to the track crew! We like when the fam grows.

I'd encourage you to give mass start events a try. You might be pleasantly surprised. While I haven't collected hard data on it, observation suggests a far lower rate of crashes on the track than on the road. There are rules for how you move on a track that don't exist in crits; no brakes actually makes things safer.

Dalai! You never mentioned track!! GLad to see you here, and thank you!

Thank you!

If there is field with 55+ masters women in it, I'll give it a try - perhaps! I have a hard enough time in a crit hanging on to those young 3's and 4's...track might be safer, but I'm sure it's just as hard! :)

Thank you!

As I said, I'm going to take advantage of my strength, which is sprint. I'm not going to make predictions, because who the heck knows what will happen, but I do have a decent sprint. Track offers me opportunities to use it, and much more often as well as one up situations, which the road really doesn't. It took a long time for me to come around to the velodrome, and believe me, I had many friends as well as my coach Racer Ex telling me I needed to compete on the track. I have no expectations, but at least I feel have a chance on the track, because of the expanded opportunities. The road was pretty narrow focus. Flat crit or I was in trouble!

Mass starts? As I said, put me in a 55+ field and maybe!

I'm sure that Ex has mentioned to you that road "sprinting" is very different than track "sprinting".

Sorta like comparing the "sprint" of a 100M foot race vs the "sprint" at the end of a marathon. Same word, different meanings.

Mark Cavendish is a prolific road "sprinter" but on the track, he's considered an enduro racer when compared to other world-class trackies.

Generally speaking, sprint events are around 80s or less in duration*.


*Yes, match sprints and keirin are longer, but a lot of that time is spent at low or moderate speeds.

Also sprinting on the track requires maximum effort. Meaning trying to get as much as your legs/core can produce. On the road, all of the sprints are sub-maximal. The sprint at the end of a crit (even a short one) isn't the max that your body is capable of producing. It's the max that your very fatigued body is capable of producing.

Compare a 1-rep max squat when fully rested to a 1-rep max squat after running a 5k.

Carleton, I've discovered that!! I've started work on track specifics already. Ex has had me do standing starts to a full on sprint, which I did on a road bike (big ring 50T and 15T cog on the cassette). Zero to 60 in 5 seconds!! Resting HR to threshold in 6 to 10 seconds! Full body, shoulders hurt afterwards!! Not at all like a sprint in a crit where you're already doing 25 or so MPH, and close to or at threshold. Track sprints are a real shock to the system, at least that's my "early" take away!

What I noticed is a track sprint is very similar to a running sprint. On the blocks and go! Ouch....

Your HR will go waaaaay past threshold. If your HR is going to threshold, you aren't pushing hard enough (seriously). Your HR should be close to maximum.

This is why sprinters spend so much time in the gym, to build up the foundation of strength to support the legs and butt producing so much force. Your fingers will get stronger, too. It's common for females to have legs so strong that their fingers can't hold on to the bars. Your grip strength will have to grow with your legs.

Best way to use a HRM for sprinting is in between efforts. You'll get better at going full gas soon enough. You've got a whole different set of metrics to look at and get used to, but I'm sure Racer Ex will have you set up properly anyway.

I saw the YouTube video of Anna Meares doing "box jumps". Almost four vertical feet? I took that as a marker of how strong the elite sprinters are!

The sprints I did were an introduction. I didn't expect to get to Max HR, and I didn't. However, I saw clearly that it was a different kind of effort entirely from what I'm used to doing.

I've been racing track since 09. :)

My track bikes :love:

https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7547/1...db57d23a_z.jpg

https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5475/1...161121e8_z.jpg

Last couple of years been quiet on the bike; I did race my clubs summer track season the summer after my collarbone break in 2014 then focused on the National CX series 2015. Since July last year I barely touched the bike and I didn't even renew my race licence for 2016 as I cared for my wife as she courageously faced her cancer!

Plan to keep myself super busy to manage the depression means I will be back racing our summer track season. This starts in 6 weeks so will be able to post in the race report thread soon. Though my plan to not be home in an empty house on weekends backfired and I tore my MCL on my second day out skiing; therefore been unable to exercise the last three weeks!

@Dalai, the bike is so good for "fixing what ails you", in so many ways. It got me through a very difficult time in my life, and now look what it's done!

Beautiful bikes! The Planet X? I had one on my short list for purchase. I don't want to know if I'll regret it or not!

Do your aerobars meet the 10 cm rule?