Originally Posted by
Heathpack
Surely some of you guys have done this? (I never have.)
A friend of mine is planning on riding the Piru TT in Jan on her road bike, per the recommendation of her new-to-her coach. She does not have a power meter.
She was asking me some questions about it over the weekend at the Christmas party.
Her coach told her to just "go out and ride as hard as you can". I was explaining basic strategy but it's hard to explain parcelling out power to someone who does not ride with power. She said she was planning on riding it based on HR and cadence.
I told her I'd go out with her and ride the course- show her the start/finish and turn and explain how things happen logistically. So I know there will be more questions.
Looking at my own rides on the course, my HR is pretty unvarying from mile 1 on. I guess HR wise I could just tell her to ride at LTHR, slightly below in the first half and slightly above in the second half? Not foolproof advice though because on my first time out there, my HR was supramax, I guess from nerves. So going based on HR it seems it would be easy to under-ride it. (Which might be ok.)
I'm not sure what to say about cadence because that's not a huge focus of mine. Maybe it should be. In good conditions, my cadence is higher but in the wind was way lower, so it looks like cadence relates to difficulty of conditions.
So is the basic gist that I should tell her:
1. LTHR by mile 1 and don't let it drop
2. Cadence generally high but really try to focus on a steady effort.
This particular friend is not that mentally tough- she's someone who is likely to cancel on a planned ride because it's too hot or too cold to too dark or too windy or there's too much climbing or it might rain or she thinks people might be faster than her. I think if she just goes out there and tries to ride as hard as she can from the beginning, she's just going to blow herself up and limp home and get a bad time and not like it. Not my problem, I know, but it would be good for me if she had fun and more of our friends were willing to give it a whirl and generally speaking more women were doing TTs. So I would like to help her find some measure of success in her race, whatever that might be.
Just not sure what to tell her beyond philosophy, how she should specifically approach this having little experience riding intensely in a sustained manner and also no power meter?
The above two sentences may define the outcome and I suspect her coach gave her the best advice based upon his/her knowledge of the individual. Or it is just bad coaching advice that is very common. Or your friend misunderstood the instructions.
Belonging to a racing club and attending presentations by coaches and other racers on racing time trials, the biggest problem for a new racer is going out too hard. And most racers have a million things swirling in their head at the start of the race so picking one that is relevant and easy to remember is important.
Intellectually, I like the ride as hard as you can comment with a change is go easy for the first few minutes i.e. your one mile. She will have a better outcome if she rides tempo power for the first few minutes versus going out at anaerobic threshold / VO2max and then slowing down for the rest of the race. During my first race, I was so nervous and anxious that my heart rate spiked at the start from the adrenaline. And it is the adrenaline that causes racers to overcook the start because it feels so easy.
I would suggest telling her to use perceived effort and go moderately hard at the start since I think HR will probably not be reliable, if at all, until she settles down.
My first two coaches focused heavily on cadence and I could not spin fast enough for them and always had a cadence goal along with the effort.
IMO a good range for a beginner is 80 to 90 rpm for time trials. I know of racers who do very well and spin 100 or more and likewise some do well at cadences below 80. However, one cannot just decide on the day of the TT to ride 100 rpm if all the other training is at 80 to 90 or conversely 60 rpm.