If it was an 8-10am sprint training session, why was I rolling home at 4pm?
I’d finally managed to wake early enough to arrive on time for the aboc session at Blackburn‘s velodrome and was ever so happy to walk outside.. into the rain!
I love Melbourne’s SUMMER weather but I didn’t get up this damn early for nothing though, so continued on to Blackburn. It seems quite a few other riders appreciate Melbourne’s weather as we had one of the larger groups that I’ve seen in attendance.
We had a good session with all those cool drills that I forget how to do every week. Basically sprint tactics you would use in a race – leadout sprints, 2 vs. 1, 2 vs. 2, etc.
To even up the different rider abilities, restricted gearing is applied (pick a cog any cog). Spinning like a maniac until your heart explodes is a common activity (170+ rpm/190+ HR anyone?).
After today’s session, I think I’m getting the hang of counting to three – just a few more months and I’ll be perfect! Really guys!
Unusually we hung around afterwards, some of us until the State Pursuit Titles started.. and then stopped due to rain and then two hours later started again..
One of us was even silly enough to volunteer to be a “holder” for the riders. “Volunteer” in this case means I wasn’t quick enough running away and feel too guilty saying no when asked for help by the club. So I spent the day learning how many ways to mess up the job of holding riders for standing starts!
I also got to chat with a cool bloke – Kevin Atkins(?) – a race official during the day. He was choc-o-block with race knowledge and knew bloody everyone!! Funny bugger too 🙂
At 4pm I was busting for a piss (but dehydrated – love the combo!), hungry and needed to get that load of washing out of the machine and the cat out of the house! I’d racked up a full tank of Karma It was now bail time!
For those about to tattoo:
Jamie Staff’s tattoo – the one I was talking about:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/2004/may04/WTC04/?id=day3/SGdsc_2466
Lance Tattoo:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/2000/jul00/sigtat.shtml
Need bigger goatee!!
http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/2004/may04/WTC04/?id=day4/img_4640
Now to swap my holy tyres…