Day 2: 2014 National Track Championships
/Day 2 at the National Track Championships began with two heats of qualification for the men's Omnium. I did not manage to qualify for more pain. So my menu of pain includes only the individual pursuit and the kilo (1 kilometre time trial) as those events, while included in the Omnium competition, are also their own National Championship events.
The individual pursuit was also included on Day 2, so after a long break from the running of the Omnium qualification, I got kitted up again to warm-up in preparation for the individual pursuit; 16 laps of the 250meter track, or 4km as fast as you can go. Given this is my first foray into track racing (since '97), I took a conservative approach with regards to my goals and aimed for an average speed of 47km/hr.
Trackside, I had Anthony giving me an indication of how on schedule I was. Initially I started slow, which was part of the plan, and then gradually ramped up the speed. Once I received indication that I was 5 seconds ahead of schedule, I made to sure to conserve some gas for the last few laps, as it is a common mistake in pursuit racing to overcook your effort to early. Overall, the strategy paid off, and I finished off the race a few seconds ahead of schedule with a time of 5:01.
Afterwards I felt like I could have gone faster, and this was a good chance to set a benchmark from which to work from. I'm excited to see what I can get out of myself if I dedicate some time to pursuit specific training, and get more track time to practice riding pursuit efforts. But for now, there is still one more race to do this weekend. The kilometre time trial! Not really an event that suits me, but I'll give it my best go.
-Charlie
