Sunday, January 30, 2011

BMCT Women Take To The Track


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? 


 




The Land Lord

This has absolutely nothing to do with cycling but it is associated with humor. (The landlord is Will's daughter.)

Friday, January 28, 2011

I'm So Hungry & I Could Eat Anything

I found myself so hungry on last Saturday's team ride, at about 2 hours into a three and half hour ride. We had just went through Berthoud, at this point I realized that I didn't eat much that morning for breakfast and only had one bag of power bar bits, which I consumed an hour ago. I ask JT, how long before we go by a store, he said we could stop in Longmont, but where still about a half hour out. Man, I'm so hungry.
As we approached Longmont, I could smell KFC, it was a great smell, sorry Marc and Randy, it was a chicken smell, not for you guys. When we went through the light to turn into a gas station for food, I saw the Yellow Arches on the left, that place good fill me up, I thought.
Well, what I'm trying to say, if you team members were not with me on that day, I would have darted to one of them, and stuffed myself. But, instead I bought a LARGE snickers bar at the gas station.
Thanks to all the team members on the ride for saving me from something that would have been GREAT at the time.