Hour of Power!

Hi Gang,
So heres the deal, aswell as our Thursday night sprint-a-thon, Id like to introduce another on Tuesday.
I propose a 15min warm up, followed by a 45min race simulation at around 38-40k mark, this may vary pending on wind, traffic, peloton size and state of the legs but the idea is for a race pace. All up track time should be an hour and about 30km.

With a Sprint at the 20k mark, and also the possibility of a Turtle and Hair, where the peleton can slow down for a lap or 2 and a small group of 1-3 can sprint off the front and its up to the pack to hunt them down. Maybe in the last 10mins?

Anyway this is the plan, If anyone else has any suggestion fire away. Would be good in the summer season to see a strong race ready Ascot Catering team bringing in the gold...
Bruce G style! ( you do realise bruce we expect to see a solid break away like that every weekend now hahaha )

Anyway for those that are keen see you at the track this afternoon 4:30

I'll see if I can get down for this one...pending the weather........Tuesday is way better for me than Thursday

GD, I am totally with you about training that simulates racing more so.
Tuesday arvo suit me.

Some formats to consider:

1.
10-20 minute elimination race. The last past the line every lap or 2nd lap is eliminated.
Pros: this has a lot of scope for strategy that emulate race conditions. Endurance riders can test their lactate threshold against sprinters, by breaking and holding a gap. The rest can learn to work in a pack to reel in breaks, and sprint to avoid elimination.

2.
Handicap race. each of us gets a handicap based on our av speed for 10 minutes, and we race for 15 minutes.
Pros: idea is to pass many and be passed by few.

3.
Two Team Chase.
Second team starts about half a lap later = 50 seconds, and tries to reduce the gap as much as possible over 10-15 minutes.
Pros: great training for working in a tight rotating pack. individuals learn more about racing at lactate threshold, and not blowing up.
great training for a break and chase bunch.

Well that was a tough session!
Should be more of it. Maybe make it a regular Tuesday thing considering the track is almost deserted.

I'm with you on the elimination race Bruce. We've talked about it a few times but never actually gone through with it.

My legs HURT!!

whoops just noticed I didn't read GD's post properly before. Good to include the sprint (prime) followed later by a rabbit chase (breakaway).

you know, the other thing we could do on Tuesdays is just have a proper race. colluding is acceptable either during or pre-arranged.
A racing mate in Melbourne reckons a lot of guys are now racing casually independent of the clubs, so as to avoid all the officious BS and cost. They are doing road races and crits.

Anyway, I reckon breaks are what we should be practicing. My view is in your average C1 or C2 crit race, only 1 in 6-10 guys in the pack are prepared to risk wasting themselves on the front to reel in a break. Most are there for the roll around and sprint.
If you get three guys in the break who keep rolling over, then they have a good chance of not being caught by a pack that can't cooperate.

And I really want to smash the view that breaks are too hard. A break can build a 150 metre gap by holding a 5kph differential for around 1.5 minutes. I think that is well within the lactate threshold of the guys who were at the track tonight. Three guys could keep rolling over every 10 seconds and get that 150 m gap in 100 seconds. A pack has no choice other than to share the workload to wear that gap down. And my view on human nature is it is unlikely a pack will cooperate for that long.

So, how about we practise three guys accelerating from the back of a 38-40kph pack and holding 45kph for 100 seconds, then bringing the speed back to 38-40kph. It might sound too hard, but this is all about discovering our lactate threshold and recovery requirements.

BruceG wrote:

So, how about we practise three guys accelerating from the back of a 38-40kph pack and holding 45kph for 100 seconds, then bringing the speed back to 38-40kph. It might sound too hard, but this is all about discovering our lactate threshold and recovery requirements.

I'm in... next Tuesday then?

yep...I'm in. These sessions will be great prep for Twilight racing.

Bloody brilliant guys! Exactly what I was aiming for!

I think we should deff should make this a tue regular. And next week we'll give the elimination ago.
Think my legs are totally out of juice!.. Any one got Lances ph number?.. Haha..

And that first 20mins just shows how strong we can be as a team. We do that on sat and we will really do some damage!.

I duno about a break away Bruce after this arvo with what started out as 4 which then became 2.. I was pretty fried at the end. I think a pack could hunt is down pretty easy.. Still i could be wrong, but there is only one way to find out... See you next tuesday!

GD wrote:but there is only one way to find out... See you next tuesday!

yeap only one way to find out. practice a break of 3 or 4 guys. discover what speed you can maintain, and how often you have to roll over, then go apply it at a tactical time in a crit race.

and keep in mind it's always an option that one of the break sacrifice themselves doing more of the work to build the gap.