"...I got skills, they're multiplying I'm not looooooosing control.
And the power, I'm supplying....It's Electrifying!!!"
Ok so now we have a lame theme song.
This morning was our Skills Session with ACTAS Coach Glenn Doney, and I for one, think it was fantastic.
I was fairly petrified leading up to it, just knowing I was going to work on things where I might fall off had me totally apprehensive, along with all the usual things I feel in training - that I will be slower/less skilled than the other girls.
Glenn put us at ease, beginning with some simple, easy and totally non scary drills learning how to clip in and out without looking, and how to come to a stop, resting our clipped out foot on our heels (which are less slippery and provide better stopping power).
We did some work next on wheel tapping. Wheel tapping is a Scary Thing To Avoid, so the aim of the drill then was to have it happen and practice not freaking out, over correcting, over-braking and coming off and - as promised, it turns out that when someone taps your wheel, you feel it, it makes a buzzing noise and isn't so scary.
Doing the tapping was a lot harder for me, I tend to lose wheels and fall off the bunch because I am scared of following closely - so actively trying to ride along with overlapped wheels went against my good sense which was telling me to go home and have a nap instead.
But we practiced it and soon everyone was able to maintain an overlapped wheel reasonably comfortably and then tap the rider in front's back wheel with confidence.
Francesca gave it her all with some quite confident bumps and so she tested out the astroturf first (and also second and third). Being indoors on soft springy ground made it a lot easier to try the drills and not feel cold and worried. Despite some riders feeling apprehensive about wheel damage, the bumping was fairly minimal.
We were lucky too to have Bec Doolan - one of the Vikings' star A Grade women riders along to help give us pointers.
Next up was some really fun bunny hopping and manual jumping practice which I loved, having the chance to practice these on the soft ground meant i was able to try bunny hopping with much more speed than i would normally attempt on the road, thus giving me added practice and confidence.
It was at this point that a group of male athletes gathered upstairs to spectate because basically a group of chicks bunnyhopping their road bikes looked pretty fricken cool!!
We did some figure 8 drills which were hard at first, then harder still when we had to do them one handed, but funnily enough the third time when the figure 8 distance was reduced, having two hands again made it much easier.
So a little bit of practice went a long way.
We then had a discussion about descending do's and dont's - which was something all the riders were interested in, we got some great tips and I think all the girls are looking forward to a future session practicing descending positions on Mt Stromlo on June 19 with Doc Hanslip as our coach.
Our final drills included some practice breaking (using front only, back only and then both) and then the Bumping your arms and shoulders into another rider drill. Basically, in pairs we got our upper arms connected and then rode a slalom course.
This sounded terrifying but was actually reasonably comfortable once we got a good contact.
For the finale we stepped it up to riding in threes with the middle rider boxed in. This felt the most unsafe for me and really challenged me - it was during this drill that I focused on talking myself through it in my head and practicing what we had learned earlier about picking a line to ride and watching that line, looking ahead and keeping the communication going.
All in all it was a challenging session that I know I got heaps out of - I am looking forward to seeing all the women commenting below and noting:
- how they felt before, during and after
- what they got out of it
- what they liked the most
- what was most challenging
Welcome to newcomers Angie and Pat, great to have more women on board!
Lastly - team members - if you use twitter you can follow the training schedule & updates through @ValkyrieVikings
And now for a nap before tonights Crace Race!
Good write up, Rach. I thoroughly agree - it was a great session and I got a lot out of it.
ReplyDeleteI too was pretty apprehensive about the skills session before hand. I've never felt overly confident with my bike handling skills, and I guess I was prepared for my weaknesses to be really evident and I was half expecting I wouldn't be able to do most of the drills. And yes, I was also worried about falling off.
The worst was my first "wheel tap". I was shaking beforehand, and spent a few laps trying to work myself up to feeling confident enough to tap Deciana's wheel. I nearly lost it on the first tap - I ended up bouncing back into D's wheel about 3 times before I actually managed to regain my balance! But after that first attempt I started to feel a lot more confident with it (funny that!). I would probably even go as far as saying I enjoyed it and the sense of achievement of being able to do a "resting tap" for a good couple of seconds (felt like minutes!) at the end was fantastic.
My favourite was the bunny-hopping and manuals. They were really fun, and it was great to be able to feel like I had enough conrtol over my bike to be able to get it in the air in a coordinated fashion.
The other great thing about the session this morning was that it enabled the whole squad (or pretty much the whole squad) to actually get together in person. And what a great bunch of ladies! I'm v excited about getting to know everyone better over coming months. Yay!
Good luck to everyone racing at Crace tonight and at Coolaman tomorrow. I'll be doing the PROD representing the Valkyries and would love Vaklyrie company. :-)
Thanks Lisa! Keep an eye out for new recruit Linda on her first ever PROD tomorrow!
ReplyDeletePosted for Angie:
ReplyDeleteFirstly I want to say a huge thank you to Rach (and any others involved) for organising the session and welcoming newcomers so warmly. I really loved the relaxed atmosphere despite the fact that most of us were stepping out of our comfort zone with the drills.
I lost some sleep last night worrying as all the memories came flooding back of a skills session of wheel tapping I participated in a couple of years ago. Most of us (and this included some very experienced male riders) went for a tumble. The difference I felt today was that Glenn really eased us into the whole thing and increased our confidence before pushing us to do the tricky stuff. I was extremely impressed by his positive coaching style.
Most of all I really liked the supportive atmosphere of the group of women today. Like Lisa, I'm also looking forward to getting to know you all a lot better as we share our collective passion for cycling.
The crit tonight was fun. Another new experience to chalk up with those 90 degree turns!
I aim to be at the PROD tomorrow - I'm always a bit wary of riding with mostly blokes, but it sounds like they'll be considerate to those of us with less testosterone, so I'll give it a go....
Angie