Kelly Cycle Coaching athletes, Lisa Jackson and Jessica Laws competed in the Victorian Masters Track Championships last weekend.  Here is Jess’s report on how the weekend unfolded.

Race Report Jess Laws – Victorian Masters Track Championships February 2012

The decision was made to compete at this event for a few different reasons. I wanted to see how I was going in the 2000m pursuit compared with when I did the omnium, I would get to practice pacing with Helen as I have a tendency to go out hard (from my sprint background), and as the 500m time trial was on the same day, it would mean I would get a few gate starts as well. I also entered the sprint and the scratch race on the Sunday to see how my flying 200m was fairing with the transitioning to endurance work – it would be a good gauge of how my strength was, and the scratch race, well they’re fun!  I also wanted to support the master’s event, as women’s numbers seemed to be lacking, which I found strange as I know quite a few women of masters age who ride the track – go figure? So I entered all the events, kind of like a ‘mini’ omnium of sorts!

Saturday was hot and saw the 500m first and from previous experience I had a pretty good idea of my warm-up procedure. Sprinting obviously requires different energy systems to endurance and so not only did I do roller warm-up but I also did a few ‘jumps’ on the boards to get a feel of the gear I was going to race in and to ensure my body was awake and activated to burst out of that gate! I was one of the first up. I had a good, clean start and came home well. My time was good for where I was at, considering I had done no track starts for three and a half months, so I was happy. Plus it was good enough to secure Gold – no complaints there!

The battle would be for the pursuit. Bob had been coaching another mum (Lisa Jackson), and she was going pretty good, so it would be interesting to see what our times would be like, the big question being would we race against each other in the finals? My warm-up was a little different this time – all on the rollers and ensuring I had plenty of load in my legs and the right energy systems were activated. My main goal for the qualifying was to not go out too hard in the first 3 laps, which I did really well, and so I was able to increase my laps times and finish to qualify second behind Lisa by a couple of tenths. Importantly, I hadn’t buried myself and knew I had more in me for the final ride off for gold – the race was on!

It was a friendly rivalry as Lisa and I relaxed between heats and finals, finding a cool, airy place to rest up. It would be a great race as Lisa has fantastic endurance from her triathlon days and I had the strength from my sprinting. We couldn’t look more different as athletes! I had the benefit of experience as it was Lisa’s first track competition since taking up track cycling. Helen and I talked about our race plan before going up to the start – that’s right, race plan! Not only was I trying to get a better time than my qualifying, but I wanted to win. But not everything goes to plan, I went out too hard, I was 3sec head of schedule after 500m, and by halfway Lisa was 1 sec up on me. In the last few laps, Helen was asking me to ‘lift’, which was easier said than done, but I knew Lisa was ahead of me with 2 to go and so I just pulled out everything I had. When the bell went with 1 lap to go, Lisa’s bell rang first so I gave it all. In the end I was able to win gold, but by only .5sec – it was a fantastic race, and Lisa rode brilliantly, we had both improved on our times too. (Helen also scored 1 up on Bob!)

Sunday, saw another hot day. I had to have a big warm-up on the rollers to get the soreness out of my legs and then go out onto the track to do a couple of entries. I was looking forward to doing a bit of sprinting, however when I did my jumps, my legs felt a little heavy from the day before. Not to worry though. I did my flying 200m time trial and did the same time as I had done in the omnium and country track champs in Novemeber2011! No specific sprint track training just working with Helen on the road mainly and still had my strength and power – nice! I seeded number one and went on to win the gold in straight wins in the semis and finals.  Unfortunately as there was a lack of numbers in the women entries for the 5km scratch race, the race was combined and so we had women from categories 1 to 6 riding. We all rode together for 19 laps until the bell and we raced home, I finished 1^st and received gold also. It was nice to see the women who made the effort to come and race received medals too.

All in all a good weekend’s worth of racing with some promising results. I achieved my goals, practiced the processes involved and made some new friends. Most importantly, I had FUN!

(A special thanks to Helen and Bob for all their help on pursuit day, to my mum and son for providing a rent-a-crowd, and to Kevin, my husband, come mechanic, come team manager extraordinaire!)