It's March tomorrow. Get ready to race.

[Lister Farrar]

Time to rev the engine a little. It's attacks and chases tomorrow, leadouts Tuesday.

Hi all:
As we’ve posted (viewtopic.php?f=1&t=4124) and been mentioning at rides, Tripleshot is offering a variation on the normal rides to help you get ready for racing. The idea is to add some variety, some intensity, and some race simulations. Whatever your goal, some focused intensity training is key to performance, and it’s much easier to do hard stuff in a game than by yourself. There is no requirement to take part, and you are welcome to do a conventional ride. Thus (depending on how many people show up on a given day) we will divide the riders into groups of those who want to "play", and those who just want a regular ride.

Bryson will coach the A's, I will do one B group, Hugh or Peter the other, Barton the C's. We’d also welcome stronger riders to ride at the back of groups and help gapped riders recover, and give tips.

*Tuesdays- Mark Cavendish’s Excellent Adventure
Lead-out drills like last summer, with teams of 3-5, taking turns being the sprinter being delivered to the finish. There are three sprints, two on the uplands circuit, and one at the finish at Beacon Hill.

While this is similar to what pro teams do, there are important differences. We give each other more room for safety. The emphasis is on working as team mates and protecting your sprinter, not blocking other teams. The challenge for each rider is going hard enough on the front to keep your sprinter in contention, without splitting your team. Sprinters learn to direct their team, because they can see the whole team. They call out gaps, or the need to match a passing team. Most teams will rotate lead-out workers in front of the sprinter until 100 metres to go, to avoid burning out the lead-out riders.

*Fridays- Attacks and Chases Game
This is a variation on the attacks and chases game from last year.

But instead of the attacks going consecutively, this game has specific jammin' zones to go hard, then regroup. I’ve avoided putting the main hills in the work segments, so drafting is a bigger factor, which teaches the focus on drafting and working together in racing. It will fit into your training as threshold or zone 3 intervals. Plus pace line skills.

Jammin' Zones
1. Blenkinsop rd, right on Cordova Bay Road, to Mt Doug Hotel (essentially the crest before the descent to ash.) Regroup and recover to Ferndale and Tyndale.
2. Corner of Ferndale and Tyndale, left on Arbutus, right on telegraph bay road, to Cadboro Bay Rd and Maynard (one block before Starbucks). Regroup and recover to top of Caddy bay hill.
3. Top of Caddy Bay hill, to Beach drive and King George terrace. Recover and regroup at top of KGT.
4. Top of KGT to Beacon Hill finish line (various number of laps depending on groups).

The Game
Designate 2-4 sub-groups of 3-5 riders. Each group takes a turn attacking in a zone. The attackers are given a head start of 10-30 seconds, depending on the strength of each group. Then the chasers organize a pace line to try to pull them back. Both groups try to stay together, vs. trying to jump the gap..

Stronger riders, look back after every pull to see how your group is doing; your focus is on making the group succeed; be careful not to pull the group apart. Pull longer if you feel good. Avoid big accelerations on the front.

Weaker riders, avoid long turns, and sit on before you feel you are cooked. Better to sit on, and stay with the group, than do a hard pull and go off the back.

What do we do if we catch the attackers?
Chasers keep going, finish the interval. Attackers try to get on the back.

Find this scary?
Think of it as team intervals, but with something to chase. Try to accelerate hard to start the interval, but it’s secondary to going hard for each zone.

Other tips:
1. Jump as soon as your team jumps. Watch the front riders, not the rider in front of you. Even a few seconds delay at race pace can create a gap that’s tough to close.
2. Don’t pull till you’re gassed. It’s easy to be too excited in the first minute or so. Your turn isn’t over until you’re back in the draft. Save something for that.

[Josh.E]

Is the teams thing happening on the A ride tomorrow?

Trying to decide whether to come out in the morning or not.
Might skip if it's team sprints.

[Lister Farrar]

Hi Josh:
I could be wrong, but from Friday's experience, but I think the A group needs to decide amongst itself if they want to try anything different than their normal ride. Certainly neither me nor the TS exec has any desire to make anyone do anything they don't want to; it's simply an offer of coaching, aimed at the average member to prepare for racing.

My sense is the B groups are more interested in this sort of thing, but again, it will be up to those who come in the morning to say what they want to do.

I'll present the leadout drill as an option, with Peter's addition of a lap on the circuit to have three sprints (1, 3, 5), and then ask who is interested.

L

[Lister Farrar]

I rode with the second b group and it seemed to go well. With three teams. There was another b group with three teams, about 13-14 riders in each. I saw some talking and some shoulder checking to be sure the sprinter was on the wheel. Probably could be more. Sprinters were shy at directing their teams.

I also saw moderate strength riders like kristin doing huge pulls in the wind keeping their team along side the others. If she hadnt her team would have been in the wind or her sprinter way back in the line.

I'd say it worked well for learning how to get a teammate up to the front. I think teams of four is a good size. I think peters idea of five laps with three sprints was good too.

Things I'd do different would be try to make a b1 and a b2 group. The second group had a few guys who were stronger than the rest.

I'd also like encourage stronger or more experienced riders to ride b2 because its good to have a few who can advise their teammates. Maybe if you're having an easy week, come and be a lead out coach?

[Anika]

I wont speak for the other A riders but I thought this morning was great. We did 5 laps instead of 4 so we could do sprints on 1, 3 and 5. Other than that the workout was the same as always. Im a fan! Great ride everybody!

[Lister Farrar]

Friday update
Well, that went smoother: i think the key was having B1 and B2 groups. Thanks to Luke for coaching the B1 group on his 'easy day' before racing Saturday. (Just heard he won! Coaching must be good for your legs...) Dylan says you did great Luke, directing and offering feedback.

In B1, Luke says the first interval had the chase surging a bit and falling apart, but got it together after that.

In B2, we had three 8-10 minute intervals on Blenkisop, Ash to Caddy Bay, Uplands to KGT, and then just pace lined it in.

We stopped after each interval to briefly discuss how the groups were working. After the first, it was decided that a double pace line doesn't work when people are different strengths; a single pace line with varying length pulls worked better after that.

In all three intervals, the break got caught just at the very end, so motivating for all.

Best line of the day was Mark, in the final break saying "It's motivating to look back at the chase getting closer, and realize I have shirts hanging in my closet that are older than the junior pulling us back", (Brenna was feeling good)

Progressions:
So far the 'attacks' have been fairly artificial, with the bunch allowing a gap, though both groups going hard to stay away or catch up. This is good for working together at speed, but missing the surprise and acceleration of a real attack.

Next steps are for breaks to jump harder, tight together. And when the bunch is already rolling, to simulate racing. Then maybe later, jumping from the back to simulate surprising the bunch.

Other tips:
Attackers, jump hard IMMEDIATELY when the first person jumps, not when the person in front of you jumps. 1-2 seconds hesitation is a 5-10 meter gap and lot of work to close.

[wonger]

In all three intervals, the break got caught just at the very end, so motivating for all.

Waaait a minute there big fella - I'm pretty sure that Eric and I stayed away from the group on the first interval. i might ad that we did it in fine style too!

[sylvan]

After the first, it was decided that a double pace line doesn't work when people are different strengths; a single pace line with varying length pulls worked better after that...

Yah, I think this is always the case, for sure. It makes me mental when we go hard with the double paceline. It's always half-wheeling and riders getting into the red way too early. It's not sustainable without some really keen observation and empathy by the faster riders. If it's double paceline with 60 second pulls, you have to go at the pace that can be maintained by the slowest rider in the group.

If it is double paceline and you get tired fast and you're beside a faster rider who's going hard, just flick an elbow and drop to the back, don't even take a pull and don't worry about the faster rider. When you get back into line maybe you'll be beside somebody more equal. At that point you can both do a super short pull when you get to the front. The rider behind who gets left a bike length behind in the wind by the premature rotation shouldn't speed up but a tiny fraction to match the faster rider, or it'll put the early rotater into trouble trying to get back in at the back, and it'll yo-yo the line. The stronger rider ahead just needs to realize that he's now a bike length ahead and very very slightly soft pedal for 10 seconds while the second line evens up. He doesn't have to abandon his pull. Same as if he's half-wheeling somebody - just eeeeeeven it up. It should all be mellow. No yelling STEADY and freewheeling at the front and overreacting like that or it'll all fall apart. If the group wants to go fast or chase, single up. Then the fast riders can pull for two minutes and the slower ones can just pull through and drop back. I really think that the double paceline is for steady point A to point B travel, at a pace that's sustainable to everybody, all conversational, with nobody in the red. If you have a small-ish group and you know everybody's relative strength and you have it organized into equal-strength pairs, then you can do the same as in the single paceline, but it's impossible to get that in a short, all-comers, 6 am weekday ride.

Haha, big vent. One more. Something that happens in the single paceline is the new lead rider will surge too much when he gets into the wind and makes a gap. The second rider doesn't have to close the gap and the third rider and those behind shouldn't freak out and shout "close the gap!" or jump around the second rider to fill the gap. The second rider just needs to keep going the same speed, effectively taking their pull as the new leader, and rotating to the back when they're done. You have to be ready for a slight surge from the new leader on a rotation, but it shouldn't be extreme. The yo-yo rider will eventually realize what they've done when they look to fall to the back and somebody can tell them that they're jumping their pulls as they're going past. This keeps the group going the same speed with no yo-yo-ing and teaches the yo-yo-er not to jump, too. If you want to increase the speed of the group without breaking it up, wait 'til the previous leader has just about gotten back into line, then slowly pick up the speed before rotating back.

Obviously this is for times when you're looking for consistent, optimized speed from the group. If it's racing or attack and chase play obviously you can do whatever you want, surge, attack, close gaps, let gaps open then jump across, see ya later suckers, whatever.

Miss you guys! Good luck tomorrow!

[Lister Farrar]

In all three intervals, the break got caught just at the very end, so motivating for all.

Waaait a minute there big fella - I'm pretty sure that Eric and I stayed away from the group on the first interval. i might ad that we did it in fine style too!

Guess the motivation part of the drills is working eh?

I stand corrected Geoff, I was back a bit waiting for a dropped rider.