Criterium Training Time

At the end of this month Michelob Ultra is sponsoring Cascadia Crit Series held in our fair city of Seattle. I for one, will be racing on the very streets that I get the privilege of training on everyday, those being the second and third criteriums of the series.

May 30th - 35th and Phinney, Fremont: Cat 4/5's @ 10:20am

June 5th - 20th and Ballard Ave, Ballard: Cat 4/5's @ 4:00pm

Yesterday I did 4 sets of intervals during my training ride in preparation for what I am anticipating a crit race will be like. Each set consisting of 4 all out, pedal to the metal sprints for 1 minute immediately followed by 1 minute of easy spinning, with 4 minutes of easy spinning between each set. I usually don't put much emphasis on intervals during my training because, well...its really painful, and I'd much rather save my efforts for all the 10-20% grade hills I ride on everyday.

Needless to say, my efforts should really be applied toward my weakness... sprinting, which means if I'm aiming to do well in Criteriums, "intervals" need to be a priority. With that said, during my recovery ride today I took a visit to both the Fremont course and the Ballard one. All I can say is, Holy Crap. Both of these courses are on the shittiest roads in Seattle...or close to the shittiest.

Let's take a look:

Fremont .8mile Loop counter-clockwise concrete road: 35th to Canal St. to Phinney to 35th:

Start at white Jeep, sprint to left 180 degree turn at the end of the road.


Said 180 turn (L to R), photo does no justice to cracks in the road, there will be many crashes at this very spot. Slowing from 30mph into this? Lame.


.2mile straight road with heavy separation between slabs of concrete


2nd turn L-R


Turn 3 L-R, smooth/fast to finish. If your watching from the patio @ Brouwer's Cafe this will be your view (except you'll likely have 1 of their 364 brews in hand)


How exciting.

Ballard 1km loop counter-clockwise on brick, concrete, and asphalt: 20th and Ballard Ave to Vernon to Shilshole to 22nd to Ballard Ave:

Starting Line at intersection


L-R Left hand turn on Vernon to slight downhill


Left hand turn onto Shilshole. I pity the fool who tries to take this one on the inside and gets a piece of that asphalt.


Nasty left turn onto brick 22nd


I mean real nasty


Then left back onto semi-asphalt Ballard Ave to finish. Hopefully avoiding both sewer caps.


Got my eye on the primes, just gotta keep my rubber on the road.