Day #11

I'm having trouble remember what day everything happened.

On Monday we ended up at the track in the afternoon to do the "certification" class, which is a requirement if you want to train on the track. Don't need it to RACE on the track at the USA Nationals event, but to train, you do.

Granted, I'm glad there's some sort of something to keep people from just getting on the track and potentially being dangerous, but at $65/kid, it was steep for us to learn nothing is any different than at home. Oh well.

They went through the class, but Noah was having trouble with his rear wheel, which is his race/training wheel. The tire wasnt' cooperating with the track. We borrowed (Thank You) a rear wheel from the Hollands, while I pulled the offending tire from Noah's wheel.

Turns out the spare tubular I brought wasn't the one I pre-stretched, so we lost a day there because that tire was in no way ready to be glued since it took every ounce of ooomph I had, plus help from Rob to get it on the rim even when it was dry. (glued it on fine last night, though, so he'll run it today in our last training session).

The boys stayed for the open track session after the class. Steve worked with Imari a bit to accelerate--even more, if that's possible--his learning curve. Royce is shaking out some kinks and getting his groove back. Hunter is ripping laps faster than I've ever seen, and Austin is on his Revenge Tour. Noah has showed some chinks in his armour, fighting a case of nerves, but it didn't help that he was sliding out his first three laps on the new track. It's all good now.

We went through a 3/4 workout, meaning we did a good chunk of the kind of thing we normally do, but there's no "training" left. You either have it or you don't. at this point, we're only working to get folks comfortable.

The session, though, was scary. So many people on the track. Kids going every which way with nobody seemingly knowing what they were doing or how to do it, yet many kids and "coached" assuming they know everything. I pulled our kids down from the track for awhile until the craziness could subside a bit. When the track started clearing out, we got back to work. No problems from then on.