By Jean Ann McKirdy

This week the National Track Team is hosting a training camp in Los Angeles, at the LA Velodrome. As a recent recruit to the track, and an experienced competitor in the mountain bike, road and cyclocross disciplines, it was a huge privilege to be invited to participate in this camp. Here I have the opportunity to ride alongside the best Canadian athletes, in a world class velodrome, and learn new skills which I otherwise would not have exposure to do. There are 25 athletes participating in the camp, from all over Canada. Some familiar faces include Olympians Gina Grain and Zach Bell, and World Cup medalist Tara Witten. This camp gives track athletes in Canada the opportunity to train together on a world class track, and gives top tier athletes the opportunity to prepare for upcoming World Cups. It also offers the opportunity and exposure for development to younger and more inexperienced riders, like myself.

Day 1

There are both a sprinters and an endurance group training on the track each morning. I train with the endurance group, where the focus is primarily the team pursuit, and developing top end speed. On Monday some riders were doing testing to meet time standards for carding criteria. Afterwards we did some flying 500m and 1000m in groups of 3 or 4. We did these at about 90%, to warm up a little and get used to doing exchanges with our groups. It was very good for me to get to practice at less intense speed, as it was my first time riding with aero bars on the track, and I was a little unsure as to how the exchanges would go in the new position. I found the position was more stable than I had expected, and while I definitely was not good at them to start with, I was able to improve throughout the day. Afterwards we did flying 1000m to 2000m race pace efforts, which were much more challenging, both physically and skill wise.

After our efforts we had the opportunity to watch ourselves on video, and critique and compare our position and technique relative to the others on the track. This tool is available to us all week, and I found it very helpful in improving my technique and position on the bike. The big challenge for me that day, was getting used to aero bars, getting used to the timing of the exchanges and becoming confident following close to the wheel in front of me. I was often caught closing a gap, after I did my exchange and left too much space between myself and the rider I was following. After seeing the video of myself, I chose to focus on improving those skills the following day.  I love the challenge of learning new skills, and am pushed by the class of the riders around me. Each of them have great skills and knowledge that I can learn from, and the staff and athletes were very helpful in sharing those skills in order to contribute to a program that grows.

Day 2

Downtown Laura Brown shows off the retro Team Canada skinsuit.

The schedule for day two said “flying 500m (really hard day)”. When I read it I remember thinking “how hard can 500m really be?”. It was hard. While our intense efforts were only 500m long, the total distance we rode that day was between 90 and 100km. The way it worked was, the group rode around the track on the blue line at a steady pace, while riders were called down to do an intense 500m effort and then rejoined the group. I found that by the 4^th time I was losing speed by the end of the 2^nd lap. For the later efforts riders were coming down in groups of 2-4 to do the effort, with a slower rider sitting on the wheel of a faster rider. This is so that we can still achieve the highest possible speed, as fatigue sets in, and it gives riders a feel of going fast and achieves a higher quality even as people fatigue.

 While one of my goals for the day was to get more comfortable riding close to a wheel in my aero bars, and keep my exchanges tighter, I was also given a new skill to work on on day 2. During the flying 500m, I found that I was not “jumping” as hard as I should going into the effort. I was doing more of a “rolling 500m” than a “flying 500m”. After some correction, my third effort was much better. I jumped much harder going in, which made a difference of almost 1second!

Day 3

Today we did standing 3000m team pursuits, so it was a true race simulation for the women, whose actual race distance is 3000m. The leading rider used the gate to start, so we had a chance to practice the timing of the start in the gate. With a new stem, which lowered my aero bars significantly, I was much more comfortable on the bike, but ouch, those efforts hurt! After the first 3000m I had a true “pursuiters cough” going on. After a couple 3km efforts we did some shorter 1500m efforts in a 6 woman group. I have to admit that today hurt. The intensity that we are riding at is above what I have done in the past, or is typically necessary for racing mountain bike or cyclocross. This is the first time in a long time that I have been pushed to the point where I have tunnel vision and am really struggling to hold a wheel and my line. This is really good for me! I think it is good to mix things up, challenge myself, and be pushed outside my comfort zone. I think it is necessary for improvement, and this camp is providing those challenges and forcing me to be better.

The coaches here, Richard, John, and Jeremy, are pushing riders to improve, and working to create some positive competition within the group. The onus is on us to push ourselves and each other, and more importantly to get results. Riders have to earn their place on World Cup and World Championships Teams. It is competitive, and about results, but they are also focused on development and deepening the pool of riders on the team.

Jeremy tells a few pre-training jokes

Day 4

Today we got a little, much needed, recovery time on the track. After an easy warm up, we headed up the track in one long paceline to do some high cadence motorpacing and paceline riding. We did three ten to fifteen minute sessions of fast, high cadence spinning, and wached the sprinters duke it out between sessions.

Jeff (coach) and Mike (massage therapist) discuss the day over morning coffee.

Stef and Tim get ready to ride to the track for our morning training session.