Riding the Boards

This week I had a chance to do something I have always dreamed of - riding a bike on a velodrome. Our school is in Perth for District High School Country week, a week of sporting events and cultural experiences for our students. One such experience was an hours training by the state TID coach Mr Peter Robinson. Peter was great with the kids and I was wrapped that I could finally live out a dream.
I'm a roadie, so the track was totally new to me. Fixed gears, no brakes, hold on and pedal like hell. I managed the "pedal like Hell" part, but I forgot you can't coast and almost lost a leg. Once that was sorted out, I was doing okay and managed to get to the blue line. A few laps later though, some of my students were ducking and weaving in front of me and after I threaded the needle, I figured it was time to quit. By now I had managed to slow down without amputating my legs.
The bottom line: I am scared shitless about the thought of doing this in competition, but I have the greatest respect for those riders that ride the boards. If you have never seen an event on a velodrome, it is magic. I also learned that there is nothing that I could ever tell my daughter about riding on the track. I thought I knew a few things, but no, it all looks easy from the stands, totally different from the track.
I tried it, I didn't fall, but I think I'll stick to the road...

Cheers!

Riding for fun

I sit here with aching legs this morning because I worked myself harder that normal yesterday. I have been training on a dead road and I have figured out I have many options of how I want to train - road wise. If I ride in one direction it is fairly easy to ride with only one "less flat" section (i.e. HILL) on my return leg. If I halve that, I can have an essentially flat (for me) 10 k loop which I ride twice.
In the other direction I have more "less flat" (i.e. bigger HILLS, a whopping 2% for 4 kilometres) and I could do that in a 10k out and back or two 5k out and back loops.
Lately I have been going 5k South (hilly bit), then 10k North (more flat) and 5k to return to my start. I have managed to reach a whopping 33km/h on the flat dead road, so I am optomistic of doing at least a 40 minute TT in October.
During the week, we also have here at school, 20 mountain bikes for students to ride, thanks to a really great deal from Fleet Cycles in Perth. We are giving kids a chance to experience the open road, fresh air and "bugs-in-the-teeth" real fun. I have a mountain bike and join the Phys Ed class for their Thursday ride. I shocked the kids a bit when I showed up in lycra, and my daughter was VERY embarrassed. Oh well, I guess the sight of a fat old fart in skin tight clothes is just too much for some people...
Monday our school will be taking the kids to the Speed Dome for a training session, and hopefully this will be my first ever ride on the boards. I'm looking forward to it!
Till next time...