After having a couple of days off, I was slotted to ride the 3K individual pursuit in the morning session today. The other's all had 200's and sprint rounds right a way in the morning. They all made the cut (top 8) so in turn, they all got to sprint. Andy qualified 8th and Chip 3rd in the 55-59 and Scott qualified 1st in the 50-54 group, with most of the qualifiers all grouped within 10'ths of a second of each other. Andy unfortunately got dispatched during the early rounds. Scott and Chip ended up going through and making it to the semi's, that would take place in the evening session. Normally, a guy would go home and get off his feet and out of the sun between sessions if they need to come back in the evening to race. But Scott was a rock star and stuck around to help me with my pursuit schedule and to 'walk the line' for me.
I laid out a 3:38 schedule. A 'schedule' being how fast you 'plan' on riding each lap of you nine lap effort. I figured a 3:38 would win it, plus it is my personal best time for this event and I at least wanted to match this, and if possible, lift at the end oand possibly set a new PR time.
"walking the line": This is a technique for communicating these schedule times to the rider on the track. If you have ever watched a pursuit at the track before, chances are you also saw a coach or fellow rider, standing next to the track yelling out numbers (time splits) to the rider on the track. "walking the line" communicates these time splits to the rider in a non-verbal manner. This technique was taught to both Scott and I from a previous coach of ours and it works rather well. You have a static object next to the track where the rider can see it (a water bottle, shirt, shoe, anything). The person walking the line uses this as a starting point. For each 10th of a second the rider is "off" their time (slow), the walker takes a step "past" the "line". For every 10th of a second the rider is "over" their schedule (fast), the walker takes a step "back" from the line. This method enables the rider to visually see where they are at related to their schedule. It also takes away the chance that something is not heard, or mis-heard. It works really slick when done correctly.
To be honest, I wasn't really sure what to expect out of myself today. It was HOT day and I wasn't sure how the two days off were going to treat me - sometimes you can come up flat if you aren't active enough on those days. Or you can come up fatigued if you are too active those days.
Mike MaCarthy was the man to beat. Mike is a past elite world pursuit champion (I can't recall the year). So obviously, he knows how to ride this event. As far as others, I had no idea who they were or what they could ride, so I was just going to go out and rock it as hard as I could, the best I could and see where I stood after all the times came in.
I was the 8th heat of 13. So I would be able to see the times of the 14 guys a head of me, but after my ride there would still be 10 guys that could take a shot at the time I posted. The one thing I didn't want to do was 'check out' during the middle of the ride like I did last year in Trexlertown and have it cost me a gold. I was determined that would not happen this time around.
(ok - I would like to go into more detail on this ride, but I have a migraine headache from either dehydration or heat stroke and I'm tired and need to get my bike set up for tomorrow's sprinting - so the following is going to be abbreviated)
I went out hot - but it felt really good. Scott walked the line great for me. But on lap 3 he had to yell at me to throttle it back a bit. Looking back, that is what saved me. Without that verbal queue, I would have went up in flames 3 laps later and limped home. I adhered to his request... I tried to soft pedal a bit and take the edge off and fall into a cadence that I could push, and that hurt, but hurt just enough that I could tolerate it until the end, but not so much that it would destroy me before the finish. With 4 laps to go I still had him pushed back from our 'line' a significant distance - BONUS! With 3 laps to go (one kilometer) I did a quick check of all my systems. The suffering was increasing but I determined I could endure it for 3 more laps without falling off the pace. With 2 to go, my confidence was boosted even more. I started feeling good about things, and almost started to pat myself on the back mentally, thinking, "dang, this was a good ride"... then Scott brought me back to reality with a somewhat concerned tone of "come on!!!!" (or something like that, my memory isn't so good right now). So with one to go I really tried to bury myself. I could hear the announcer, but couldn't make out what he was saying. I tried to throw my bike at the line best I could, but I don't think it amounted to much. I was toast. I tried to listen to the announcer as I coasted around the track trying to figure out how to put out the fire that had erupted in my lungs. I hear something about 8 hundredths of a second... but I didn't know what. After rolling a little longer, I made it out. I had edged the guy who started across from me on the track by 8/100th's of a second! Then the other news... 3:36!!!
My time stuck until Heat 12 when MaCarthy road a great ride of 3:33.
I've been on the other side of that 8/100th's before. My first year at Master's Worlds in Manchester England I lost out on a bronze medal in the kilo by 3/1000's! -- of a second. There have been other times as well when I have been on that other side. "Banked karma" is the term Scott used. I like it. Lord knows, I've made my share of deposits. So the withdrawal today was well received.
Below, the podium of the 40-44 3K Time Trail, and the best sight I have seen in a LONG time...
200's and Sprinting tomorrow, check back tomorrow night for all the details.