Originally Posted by
chasm54
@
Heathpack, I'm not much of a time-triallist but 10-mile TTs have been the staple of most UK cycling clubs since God was a boy, so I've done a few. And I've never owned a power meter.
If she has a HRM then your advice is pretty good, she'd do well to focus on LTHR. If she warms up really thoroughly it shouldn't take her a mile to get there, but obviously if she's a noob the emphasis ought to be on not going out too hard. The other question I'd ask is, "when in January?". If she has time to do some serious efforts and still recover before the event, then the most useful thing she could do imo is get out and practice riding at threshold for some lengthy periods. A few sets of 2x20 threshold intervals will get her accustomed to what that level of effort feels like, and that it is possible to keep it going even though you're tired.
But hold on on a moment. You have a coach who does 40k in 52 minutes and change, and you're asking the rest of us for TT advice?
Haha, no way am I prescribing workouts for her. She has a coach. Her coach can tell her to do the 20 min threshold intervals if that's what the coach wants. And no way am I asking my coach what advice he would give to someone else's athlete. (Someone who well could have hired him had she so chosen.)
Mostly I'm happy to go out and pre-ride the course with her, a friend of mine did that with me before I did my first TT and it was immensely helpful. And I know she's going to ask me some questions when we do. Overall I realize its not my responsibility to coach her but I just want to be sure I have something to say that is basically correct.