zerailleur.com / Zach Bell

Training camp #1 started this week in T Town at the Valley Preferred Velodrome in PA. (www.thevelodrome.com) And it has been a hard go. We started the week right off the plane wih 500m efforts…(30 sec all out) And that just about generated a barf factory. Normally I don’t have any trouble with these…in fact they are usually my bread an butter. But it has been a while since I have done them and the recent block of racing has lead to my body being capable of really hurting itself…but I have not yet developed the ability to clear that pain.

Then we did some motor pacing the next day and I was again in the hurt locker…driving it hard. It all came to head on thursday. In the morning there was rain so the track was closed. We al jumped on rollers and did an hour or so of leg work, then it cleared up and we got on the track for a vicious moto session in the afternoon. then one hour later a Crit with sprints on every 3rd lap. TRIPLE DAY. That is pretty rad…and it was right before another hard day of racing and training.

The next day was a good practice in dealing with mental situations. I consider myself a relatively smart guy but I tend to try to win bike races with more muscle than mind. So when I was struggling a little in the Track Racing last night I tried to think my way through it a little…The results were ok, I was finishing behind guys I can normally finish just ahead of. I have been training hard but I did not feel like it was fatigue. So I kept trying to think my way through. How do you get the most out of your performance. How do you adjust when things are not going along they way you would like. Well I break it down.

Towards the end I focused on one thing. How am I going to win this next bike race with the tools I have. I think in biking that is what it has to come to every time. How can you win a race with the tools you have. I worked backwards. All night I was there at the end and I was getting hung out spinning like a mad man but not making the headway. This is usually not the problem for me. If I am spinning like a mad man there are usually only a couple people around who can hold me off. Granted I might blow after and skinny ankled guys can put me in a hurt locker…but while I am spinning like a mad man…GOOD LUCK. So by the end of the night I decided if I am spinning like a mad man and not making it around like usual maybe I needed to spin something bigger like a mad man. I put on a bigger gear than I have usually ridden on this type of track waited and then spun it like a mad man. AND IT WORKED. I was back to my usual speedy form. Took me all night to figure it out but I thought my way through it. The strange thing is I figured out I had to ride like me. With a lot of muscle and meat headed attitude. But looking back I have put a lot of effort into improving my strength and If last night is any indication it seems to be working…I was able to spin a bigger gear than ever on a hard track at the end of 48 hours of overload. It sure is encouraging when training does what you hoped it would. But it is always a little unsettling if it changes you in some way, even if that is what you where going for.