Boulder Indoor Cycling is Awesome!

One of the coolest gifts John gave me for Christmas (not to diminish the rollers or Wii!) was the introductory course to riding in the Velodrome at Boulder Indoor Cycling. We both signed up for a 10 week class to get certified so we can go to the track and ride whenever we want. I have to say that I FREAKIN LOVE THE TRACK! Those who know me know that this is a first for me because I have had a love/hate relationship with the running track most of my adult life but the indoor cycling track is something that I just love! We have been taking a class at the crack of dawn on Tuesday mornings. Our instructor is a former pro cyclist names Michael Robson. He is an Aussie and he rocks! Not only is he passionate about cycling he is passionate about keeping knuckle heads like me in line before I trash myself on the track.

The track itself is just cool and scary to look at:

Quick Facts:
Construction: Wood
Overall Length: 142 meters
Maximum Banking (corners): 45 degrees
Minimum Banking (straights): 16 degrees
Current Lap Record: 7.690 seconds

The track creaks and cracks as we go flying around it on our fixed gears. You need to see the track to appreciate its small size and steep turns. I have added this picture and a couple links for you to see more if you are interested. Trust me when I tell you it takes some getting used to as you learn to cruise around the track. You have to stay at 14 mph at the very slowest or you will simply slide down the track. That is enough to make it a real workout for me! I rarely dare go that slow. Since we have been riding we have had one crash in our group. Poor Tom couldn’t decelerate fast enough and he had nowhere to go but down. All I heard was the crash and slide. It freaked me out and it took me an entire class to get over the sound. I had a similar reaction when Sonja crashed in a bike race last summer; she was right in front of me and I saw her crash but the sound is what seems to stay with me. Tom was fine and back on the track in a couple laps. Last week I arrived at the track early enough to watch the hot shots before our class and two guys locked handle bars and one of them went down and broke his collar bone…just like that! So I have to say that I have a tendency to ride fast in order to keep away from people!  We ride somewhere between 25 and 25 mph depending on who is pulling and what we are doing. I have learned all about madisons, exchanges and really holding my line! The rollers have really paid off!

Michael and our morning group are all there for a hard workout so we really hammer. The workouts are a gut buster for me as I chase the boys around the track! John and I got to go to two of Alan’s classes on Tuesday night and that was really fun too! It was a very different coaching style but we both had kicking workouts and the people were really nice. The challenge to track riding is being comfortable enough in your own skin to jump in with a group of people you don’t know. The better they are the better I am. It is really hard to follow people who aren’t as confident or who are squirrely. There are a bunch of vocal queues we use to let people know what we are doing at any given time and sometimes I feel like I am the only one yelling but I am cool with that if it keeps someone from crashing into me!

Thanks to Michael, Alan and Tim, who got us started at Steve’s clinics! This has been an awesome addition to my athletic abilities. It has definitely made me a better cyclist! And thanks to Johnny who makes his Pista look so good on that track!