Monday, August 23, 2010

Enroute to the World Championship

At the request of multiple friends, this blog has been established to allow them to follow my training for and ultimate racing in the Masters World Track Championship in Anadia, Portugal at the end of October, 2010.
I'm new to blogging and could not have set this up without tons of help from life-long friend Larry Sullivan. He lives in beautiful Bend, Oregon with his wife Risa and cats Penny and Emily.
He is a computer geek, chef, real estate broker and all around great friend. Larry, thanks for your help in doing this.
The race I am training for, the 2 km individual pursuit, takes place on a velodrome, a 250 meter wooden track banked at 43 degrees and covers 2000 meters or 8 laps. This is called "the race of truth" as it pits one rider against the clock. No strategy here. No drafting, etc. Just as fast as one can cover the distance. Doesn't sound like much. 2 km is about 1.2 miles and 2:30 should be good enough to win the world championship. It's harder than it sounds and while there are not a ton of competitors in my age group (60-64 years) they are the best in the world.
My trainig for this started about a year ago under the tutelage of Warren Geissert, my coach and friend. Warren is himself a U.S. National track sprint champion and has an uncanny coaching ability. His style has been to bring me gradually along with faster and harder workouts improving my strength, endurance and lactate tolerance.
August 7 and 8 saw us at the Hellyer velodrome in San Jose for the California State Masters Track Championship. I was fortunate to take gold in the 2 km pursuit and the points race, a different type of race which has a mass start, ie, multiple riders starting on the track at the same time. I will also be doing this race in Portugal as well as the pursuit. I'll explain how the points race works in a later post. I don't want to put people to sleep too early.
August 30 Trish and I leave for Frisco, Texas for the U.S. National Masters Champioship. I'll write more then as an update.
Thanks for reading