K-win On Track

I take pride in my diverse abilities on the bike. I've competed in downhill, time trial, road, cross country, cyclocross, and even trials, with varying success. There are two disciplines that are obviously missing: BMX and track. For many road riders the track has a special place, a sort of mystique. An accomplished track rider who can successfully transition to road racing is a feared entity possessing great power and speed, enviable smoothness and eerie calm in fast, tight finishes.

For many Americans this mystique stems from the track's unfamiliarity - there are few tracks in the US and track racing is not widely reported or followed. Racers who are known are the freakiest of the freaks: Taylor Phinney (US pursuit record holder at age 17), Marty Nothstein (Gold in Sydney for match sprint), and Sarah Hammer (2x world pursuit champ, 20x national champ). Even within cycling these names are unknown to many; what is know is that track racers are fast.

Well you can add one more name to the list - mine. This past Thursday I had my own track success. I rode around it without falling, crying, or otherwise shaming myself. I went with Jan, a fella here who helps with team operation during road season and has time to share in the meantime. Leading up to my track debut I was repeatedly lectured on the in-n-outs and the outs-n-ins of this -ism that we call track riding. The track is marked with lanes, similarly to a running track, except the lines are multicolored and indicate different lane functions. For a detailed understanding of these lanes see - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velodrome#Track_markings -.
My instructions were to start low on the track and get a feel for the turns. Once comfortable with the pace and feel of the track I should move outward slowly. OK, simple enough.

My first laps were quite thrilling, a sort of bizarre, slow adrenaline rush. I found the best state of mind for me was much like the focus involved in freediving; a calm, even state with simple focus on the work at hand and confidence that things will go well. That worked well except that the tendency in such a state is to ignore physical sensations of pain, resulting in a gradual increase in speed, leading to some very hot laps. I quickly realized that going fast wouldn't be a problem and that going slow was damn scary, so I just went fast. Eventually I worked my way to the top of the track and was comfortably moving up and down, passing other riders and following wheels.

The track is most seductive in the corners. Because of the steep banking and tight bends centrifugal forces are quite strong. Exiting the apex of the corner and launching down the straight is exhilarating. The constant left turns also lead to a vertigo like feeling. This all leads to a delirious rush of fun and fear. I anticipate in future sessions the fear/fun ratio will lean more to the fun side. My first actual race should deliver a good spike of fear back into the mix, but that's a long way off. In all I rode for an hour. Afterward I felt like I had done a hard tempo workout. More track riding to come...