While the weather is cold and wet in our home latitudes, we already wish we were back at the training camp in Croatia. Winter training is good preparation for this. The transition to the next age group holds many new challenges, demanding training sessions and numerous bike races with a new trainer Mr. Mortag.
When I arrived in the U17s, I noticed the difference to the U15s right from the first bike training session, because my average heart rate was about 10 beats higher than usual. The training workload also changed relatively quickly from 3-4 times a week to 4-5 times a week, and the number of kilometers increased noticeably. From now on, strength training with dumbbells and the like also played an important role. As the saying goes: “The cyclist is made over the winter.” So in the weeks that followed, you could hear the clattering of the barbells and the athletes chasing from the weight room. But between these strenuous training units there is of course still a little time for a fun indoor training session with, how could it be otherwise, a cultivated stretching. But in addition to maintaining athletic fitness, cycling training is not just a decorative accessory.
Thanks to this good preparation, almost all of us were fit to take part in the KLD. Based on this step test, individual heart rate ranges are defined for each athlete. These heart rate zones are the basis for effective and appropriate training for each of us. They will play a particularly significant role later in the new 2017 training camp. Successful cyclists don't just fall out of the sky. Top performance can only be achieved through an individual training process and targeted preparation for the upcoming season. That is why the KLD is very important for every individual.
At the end of the year, the winter lift in Frankfurt (Oder) is still the last highlight. On Friday after school everyone packed their bags and after a 3 hour drive we arrived at the velodrome in the dark and in low temperatures. It was a little late and I thought the athletes from the other clubs were in their hotels and we would now have to train alone on the track. But contrary to my expectations, there were a surprising number of familiar faces on the train. After we had repeated all the basic techniques and our trainer Mr. Mortag gave us a few more tips, our nightly training was already over and we drove to our hotel in Poland. After a long day of school, bus travel and training, everyone fell into bed tired after a large portion of pasta.
After the first night, the girls had to get up early while the boys were allowed to sleep in, because it wasn't our turn until the afternoon. After we got on the track, we warmed up on the rollers. By this point, the girls were pretty much done with their competitions. Later, when we had completed all the races, we could be happy about a few good and very good results from our girls and boys. The track bikes stayed on the track overnight and we all fell into bed exhausted this time. Later, only the laughter of a few older hotel guests from the pensioners' disco could be heard.
On the third day the alarm clock rang early, because today we were the first ones who were really allowed to pedal. After a rich breakfast, the bags were grabbed and packed into the bus. Exciting races, such as 20 speed laps, 20 laps of scratch, 50 laps of points driving and, for one or the other, Madison, were on the agenda today. Around noon we were done and the girls still had to compete. Many athletes went to the nearby pizzeria after the races. This day also flew by and so in the evening it was time to get the bikes on the bus and off home.
After these formative days in Frankfurt (Oder), it wasn't too long until Christmas. Over the Christmas holidays, the stores were replenished with plenty of good food, always on the green basis of course. In the end, I, from the young U17 class, drove about 800 kilometers on the road in December. We trained until the last day of the year and everyone had a good start to 2017.
Lennert Lifka