Yesterday the women took to the Track with the encouragement of teammate Karen Fienberg who recently received her Certification to ride on Boulder Indoor Cycling's (BIC) 142 meter velodrome. (Note: Appropriate to replace with plural "we" to first person singular "I" in emotional descriptions.)
Karen, Christy Orris, Shawn Heidgen (a former track racer) and I geared up for a 1.5 hour session with BIC coach Steven Herzfeld. Our training started with a lecture on the track's architecture, terms and rules then moved quickly to our first exercise which involved clicking into the fixed gear contraption (definition: "mechanical trap") while holding on to the wall. Once we felt brave enough to release our sweaty grip we followed our leader around the infield before crossing the cote d zur and getting ON! the track. We move gradually up and around multiple times until we'd covered each lane then we moved back down the track slowing our cadence in order to gracefully get OFF! the track. Whew!
Next, we did a pace-line with the first person sprinting off the front, down to the sprinter's lane until they arrived at the back which triggered the next person to launch. Once everyone had completed this drill we set up for a little 2 x 2 TT competition with a "rail start". Let me just say, we were all winners (albeit a little post track hack)!
The final two exercise were Follow The Leader-Steven, and an individual lap sprint. Follow The Leader is pretty much a free-for-all with no rules other than staying in control of you and your bike, and the lap sprint gave each of us the opportunity to give it our all = somewhere around 40 mph and up to 45 on the turns. That seems about right, don't you think?
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4 comments:
Now my regrets are even MORESO... that I had to bail last minute. YOu all are rock stars!
BMCT gals: You have amazing courage. We had so much fun watching your training session. Can't wait to see your first race!!
Annette and family
I was SO proud of all of you. I know you were all a bit nervous and anxious (just like I was the first time I tried the track), and was so glad to hear you laughing and hooting after about 5 minutes of riding. I believe it was Christy that yelled, "I love this!"
Thanks to Paul, Jerry, Randy, Annette and her daughter for coming out to support and assist us. It was much appreciated. And of course Steve, our wonderful instructor at BIC!
I'm ready to try another team pursuit. I need to work on my breathing when the adrenaline kicks in high gear.
Looking forward to making more left turns with all of you.
Congratulations to all you ladies! Welcome to the Left Turn Club!
Joe
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