The left over of the working-class sport of outdoor velodrome racing is scattered across the Northern suburbs of Melbourne, with many clubs still in operation as the sport begins to make a bit more of come back with the younger crowds willing to risk skin and bone on these concrete bowls.
Velodromes like people come in all shapes and sizes, big ones, steep ones, flat ones, broken ones and dodgey one - and of course the flashy ones! From Coburg, Preston, Brunswick, Blackburn and Hawthorn they present a great training opportunity even for the novice rider.
These rings of fire are perfect for continuous speed and interval work without the hassle of cars, people and sometimes on midweek mornings, cyclists!
Knowing Hathorn Velodrome was not far off my normal path to work on my slightly longer commute (20km instead of 10km) I wanted to test out what it was like, my previous experience is with Brunswick Velo - which is only for the hardcore, steep sides of rough concrete meet you and the concern of falls.
Hawthorn is a baby in its steepness to say the least but offers a good bank to build speed going into the turns, setting myself up simply to put in some laps my routine was simple for my first time around - hard/easy!
- 3 lap warm-up at moderate pace, that said I'd already rode 15km to get there.
- 5 moderate to hard continuous
- Sprint intervals - 1 hard lap, followed by 1 coast lap ticking the legs over x 10
What a great session, got the blood pumping found it easier the more I did and on checking my times improved almost every lap.
Will be adding this in most Fridays if time permits as a great chance off the back of my midweek run, to add some sprint work to my cycle training and start to build up some further cycling skills. .
#velodrome #hawthorn #newblog #AR2G #forher
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