Track cycling - enlighten me...

colm_gti

I didn't realise how handy I had it in college during my masters, 300kms a week on the bike on average...big shakeup finishing in ucd in September, followed by a move to london and the beginning of a grown-up job...now I'm lucky to get a third of that in!

Hoping to sort out the logistics around cycling in and having suits in the office to change into, and beginning the 12km round trip commute on Monday, wahoo!

As I won't have the time to clock up the big winter base miles, I've been considering diverting my attention to other disciplines that typically happen over shorter distances at a higher intensity (I.e. Track cycling), to lessen my disadvantage without a pile of winter miles in the tank. The fact that I'm living a stones throw from herne hill velodrome is another influencing factor. I've been debating whether or not to use my btw on a track machine or not.

So, to those of you that have been competing in track events regularly, tell me a bit about the sort of training you do, pre-season and mid-season.

bcmf

colm_gti wrote: »

I didn't realise how handy I had it in college during my masters, 300kms a week on the bike on average...big shakeup finishing in ucd in September, followed by a move to london and the beginning of a grown-up job...now I'm lucky to get a third of that in!

The real world welcomes you!!

Beasty

I've been advised to work on cadence - 2 years ago I was commuting at 70-80 rpm. Last winter I was up to 85-90rpm. This past couple of weeks I've been targetting 100rpm. Leg speed in the shorter events is, I am informed, critical, but try to get as many base miles in as you can regardless. Rollers are very popular with track cyclist to help develop leg speed. Getting nearer the season intensity and gearing will increase.

I wouldn't bother trying to commute on the track bike. A road bike is perfectly adequate. You wiill also have the Olympic velodrome opening up hopefully next year.

CramCycle

colm_gti wrote: »

The fact that I'm living a stones throw from herne hill velodrome is another influencing factor. I've been debating whether or not to use my btw on a track machine or not.

I got my track bike on the BTW scheme, just use a lower gear, for commuting.
Although I just roped my calf muscle so maybe ignore me.

kumate_champ07

the races might be a lot shorter but training sessions and recovery rides still take up alot of time

kumate_champ07

your efforts will be 1-4km for tt's/scratch/points races,

or 100-1000m if your a sprinter

nak

10-13 hours a week training (working my way back this year after a year off from injury); variety of road, turbo, commutes and weight lifting for me. I also do crit races and cyclocross.

Commute on my old track bike sometimes as it takes full mudguards and has a front brake, new one isn't drilled for brakes and isn't that nice to ride on the road, so reserved for track only.

RonanCFD

bcmf wrote: »

The real world welcomes you!!

Not quite - need to add kids as well!

Harrybelafonte

1. Don't buy a track bike until you're sure you actually enjoy track racing, as lots don't. Herne Hill rent them.

2. Winter training, lots of miles, cadence sessions, gym sessions (squats, deadlift etc), swimming, whatever; during season whatever you used to do for road.

3. It takes just as much time and work to be good on track as on road, speeds are significantly higher (I don't have figures, maybe Beasty does), there'll be a lot more jumps & sprints (I say this from A4 perspective, A3 may have been different) and cadence is king.

4. Join LFGSS.com, they have a specific forum for Track and supply lots of info re training at HH, this thread in particular:

http://www.lfgss.com/thread17798-66.html#post3907972

Beasty

Harrybelafonte wrote: »

speeds are significantly higher (I don't have figures, maybe Beasty does),

I normally average 35kph just in the warm-up

Racing wise we'll be typically averaging 45+kph in the second group over a 12 lap (5km) hare & hound, and a bit faster over shorter distances

My "cruising" speed for the 2k pursuit is about 47kph, compared to 40kph over a 10m TT

Overall it works out about 15-20% faster on the outdoor track than on the road

Harrybelafonte

Beasty wrote: »

I normally average 35kph just in the warm-up

Racing wise we'll be typically averaging 45+kph in the second group over a 12 lap (5km) hare & hound, and a bit faster over shorter distances

My "cruising" speed for the 2k pursuit is about 47kph, compared to 40kph over a 10m TT

Overall it works out about 15-20% faster on the outdoor track than on the road

Thanks Beasty. Might I be so bold as to add that the weekend events are even faster and longer?

Beasty

Harrybelafonte wrote: »

Thanks Beasty. Might I be so bold as to add that the weekend events are even faster and longer?

They definitely are - I was alluding to track league stuff, which is handicapped, with me in the middle group

The scratch guys will be going a few kph faster (typically taking half a lap/230m in the hare & hound back over say 8 laps which would be going 3kph or more faster than my group)

godtabh

colm_gti wrote: »

I didn't realise how handy I had it in college during my masters, 300kms a week on the bike on average...big shakeup finishing in ucd in September, followed by a move to london and the beginning of a grown-up job...now I'm lucky to get a third of that in!

I'm averaging about 225km a week with work, a 1 year old and an MBA to balance. If you can organisne yourself you should have no problem clocking up the miles.

So between 4/5 sessions on the bike I do 2 sessions on the cross trainer for an hour at a good intensity. Seems to be working ok so far

Harrybelafonte

godtabh wrote: »

I'm averaging about 225km a week with work, a 1 year old and an MBA to balance. If you can organisne yourself you should have no problem clocking up the miles.

So between 4/5 sessions on the bike I do 2 sessions on the cross trainer for an hour at a good intensity. Seems to be working ok so far

With all due respect, comparing how much we each get done in our allotted time doesn't work. Our priorities are all different. Work for me is maybe 5-6 hours a week, 13 years ago it was 14 hours a day.

godtabh

Its not about how many hours you work its about how you manage your time.

Harrybelafonte

godtabh wrote: »

Its not about how many hours you work its about how you manage your time.

Oversimplification as far as I'm concerned, but we're going OT now.

As far as I know Colm, it's actually race season in HH now. So you may not have a pre-season.

nak

Harrybelafonte wrote: »

Oversimplification as far as I'm concerned, but we're going OT now.

As far as I know Colm, it's actually race season in HH now. So you may not have a pre-season.

Same as us, league finished in September, training still on.

n-dawg

I live a stones throw from the Glasgow velodrome and love it. The first thing to do is book yourself in for accreditation. The way you move around a track can be quite different from moving in road races and due to the higher speeds its important you know what your at.

After that if you enjoyed accreditation start thinking about a bike. I don't know how herne hill works but in Glasgow a commuting fixie is not allowed on the track. It needs to be a specific track bike. So short cranks, high bottom bracket, no braze ons (bolts for water bottles etc) and track bars

On training I was told by a former Scottish champ to ride under geared for a few months to get your legs used to high cadence. This meant I was riding an 82 inch gear in races when most others were on 88+ after a few months of busting a gut to keep up it got much easier and now that I've swapped to ~86 inch I know I have the cadence when needed for sudden accelerations etc. Other than that most of my training is similar to road racing.

PS its incredibly addictive and because the races are normally less than 10 minutes you can have several hits in one night...

Harrybelafonte

nak wrote: »

Same as us, league finished in September, training still on.

Ah, apologies, I was told the opposite.

Beasty

nak wrote: »

Same as us, league finished in September, training still on.

Looks like they managed to keep racing for an extra month this year after having lights installed during the summer

Maybe something that could be considered at Sundrive as I understand progress has been made with the lighting there

Harrybelafonte

Beasty wrote: »

Looks like they managed to keep racing for an extra month this year after having lights installed during the summer

Maybe something that could be considered at Sundrive as I understand progress has been made with the lighting there

Depends on whether we're willing to pay for it or not.

Beasty

Harrybelafonte wrote: »

Depends on whether we're willing to pay for it or not.

Those of us who attended the Track Commission AGM were given an update on the situation, and hopefully there will be some working lighting in place next summer

nak

It would be great to have lights, but it does get to the point where it's too cold to be sitting around waiting to race, so we're always going to be limited by that. Most people want a break from racing anyway. Feels like a real luxury cycling indoors.

The main reason why they don't want bikes that have been used outside in the velodrome is to protect the wood, doesn't apply to outdoor tracks, so the rules on bikes tend to be a bit more relaxed.

kumate_champ07

anyone else still on a break? havent done any training since early September, was doing 300km a week, and now 40k/w! strange thing is Ive lost 4kg! as I sit here eating pastries..

Beasty

kumate_champ07 wrote: »

anyone else still on a break? havent done any training since early September, was doing 300km a week, and now 40k/w! strange thing is Ive lost 4kg! as I sit here eating pastries..

Final race 9 October, a couple of weeks of easy commutes and 2 hour long sessions on the track in Manchester, then winter training started in earnest 2 weeks ago...