Occassionally, I've gone over to NY Velocity to read up on race results, or local racing news, or whatever.

Bad idea.

There is some toxic, petty bullshit going on over there. People fired up in the competetiveness of racing, combined with the easy anonymity of being an internet tough-guy... that's a website to avoid. Can't find last weekend's race results without tripping over the word "sandbagger" a dozen times!

But sandbagging is kind of obnoxious, and I wish the roadie who heads up all the Cat 5 fields on the track will just throw his luck in with the 4s. Where he'd do well enough, or get destroyed by other racers who are getting really smart at working together.

But I was able to get a bit of comeuppance in a 9 lap points race. Early in the race I went high up the banking on turn 2 and got a bit head of speed, opening up a gap. I looked back several times to see how close they were, but it took them a while to react! The gap grew as I tore around turns 1 and 2, and I kept the pace high all tooth-grinding down the back stretch, and stayed alone as I cruised past the line to take First in the first point sprint! That was the first time I've broken away like that, and I blew pretty well after it; the pack swallowed me, I sat on some wheels, and didn't score for the rest of the race.

Next up was a 7-lap scratch. Early on I was wondering two things - can I do it again, but with company? And how will I avoid that strong rider who's new to track racing and bouncing around in the pack? I whispered to him that if he went, I'd follow. He broke strong and it hurt to try to follow him; they chased us down pretty fast but people were tired. Not too tired, though; there was still a strong sprint at the end. I was in fourth trying to sneak up to 3rd, but instead, ex-5th caught me around the outside, and instead of sneaking 3rd, I got 5th.

And finally, a Win and Out. Not my favorite race, but it's one that I have a shot of doing pretty well in. I wanted to sit back on the first sprint, try to bridge to the losers of it, split the pack, recover, and have a shot for the second. It worked; the field was split, but not enough. I wound up sitting back for the second sprint and let some other dudes get tired, then moved hard on the backstretch and tore up their fatigue to win third.

These finishes qualified me for the B Feature race, with the 4s. A ten lap scratch - I figured I'd just sit in and enjoy it. Worked pretty well and I even reacted to the final move with enough time to be in the sprint - though at the tail end of it, getting 5th.

All in all, a good night at the track. Tomorrow morning is the road bike training ride, and the Saturday, Sunday, or Monday I'll find time to get in my sprint interval ride.

Maybe I should get a computer, so I can figure out how fast I'm going, ever. It's a pretty basic "training tool" - not like a thousand-dollar powermeter hub or crank*. I definitely want to get faster, and so some smart training, but I don't want to get caught up in the techie-game of it, focusing on watts and distances and stuff. I'd rather just listen to how my body feels, have fun, and get stronger.

*These aren't for me, but any shittalking I may do of people who use them is done entirely in jest. I used to be the same about lycra, which I wear in spades now, so, you know, grains of salt, feet in mouth, whatever.