I turned up early as usual and did 2 laps before anybody else arrived and had a Zero Coke. Then there were 2 or 3 Apex riders who had also turned up and I started out at 9:00pm and did 2 laps with them at their usually very very fast pace. Most of them appear to be B class riders and they are pretty fast. I’m still stuck in D class hoping this training will pull me into C class next month at Saiko’s Nikkan Sports Tour De Japan stage.
On the 2nd lap tonight, I saw a few of our Semas guys had arrived in the parking area and went and talked to them. No point going too hard and burning myself out before my team training starts. Although I really enjoy the faster training.  I can train hard with the Apex crew on Thursday nights and still be loyal to my team on Tuesdays. The polar chart below will show the few laps with Apex, then the lull when I’m waiting for Semas, then the Semas warm up and the Semas finale. (I managed to pip Aki-san on the finish line tonight- just. I think we are about 5 wins each now- a good battle between us each week. I know he is faster than me but I’m doing the Aussie wheel sucker shuffle and throwing in a few ijime attacks after he’s had a long pull at the front).

The Apex guys don’t warm up much but just go hard from the start. 10 laps by 3.8km. We do about 10 laps of 3.1km on a slightly different route. The Apex guys go through the ‘no bicycles allowed’ tunnel while the Semas team goes up the ‘no lights’ hill climb. I’ve been wanting to use my Garmin as well on these rides as well as take a 20 second video of a sprint to upload here as well. Maybe next week.