Team Training

I'm a solo artist. I like solitude. I really enjoy riding alone and I do most of my riding by myself. That said, I've been neglecting some crucial areas of my racing development.

This was made abundantly clear last night when I joined my cycling club for the weekly team training night at a local auto race track. My club rents the track every Tuesday night. I've been meaning to get up there but, I figured I could get just as good a work out on my own. I figured wrong.

The training session was about 2 hours long and consisted of some fast paceline work, a gear-restricted race (39x18) and an all out race (any gear) and then ended with some more paceline work as a cool down.

Here's what I learned in those 2 hours:

1. I'm terrible at cornering in a group - I loose about 2 bike lengths on the wheel ahead of me each time we enter a turn. My confidence had improved by the end of the session, but this is for sure an area I need to work on.
   
2. My pack riding comfort needs help. I've always thought I was a pretty steady rider but I found myself getting nervous. Again, I felt a lot more comfortable by the end of the session, but it's something I'm going to work on.
   
3. I'm pretty freaking strong - I finished 4th in both practice races, and this was in the A group...

The thing that's holding me back most is number 1 and 2 listed above. I'm definitely making it a point to go to these training sessions more often - some things can't be learned on your own....