New pain; New gain. Next up, my first TT
 

Today, this was a practice for Sunday's time trial race. The object was to ride today in a higher gear in the big chain ring the entire way, attacking the hills and never really resting on the ride. Lower cadence, less spin...bigger gear and bigger speed the plan. This is contrary to all my basic training, but it is what my coach said will need to be done if I am going to flirt with averaging 20 mph in a rolling hill 40K TT at the State Championships Sunday.

It hurt.

I have not felt burning in my weak legs at the end of the ride like that since my early days of cycling. I forced myself to get out of the saddle for at least 12 rotations at a time from mile 21 on, just to keep the speed up near 20. Throw in a nasty little headwind all the way back, and I was pinning the suffer meter. But now I at least know what it will feel like to suffer Sunday when I need it toward the end. I know what it will feel like to have to reach down deep and push, physically and mentally.

It ended up an 18 mph ave. ride, which in fact is a PR for me alone on this route. It was no easy task with the wind in my face all the way back in today.

Now, the question is...will I be able to pick that pace up under race conditions Sunday?

1. I will warm up on my trainer on site, so that should help me get off to a little faster start than today. I usuallly take about 5-6 miles to wake up on a bike.

2. I won't have all the traffic/intersection stops at the race like I had today on my training route. Will that add up to hitting 20 mph ave. in the race? Who knows, but for some reason I have that as a goal for the event.

Rest on Saturday and then here goes nothing...my first TT ever Sunday morning. (Unless it rains!)

Go man, go! I hope you hit your mark. I wish there were more TT type events around because it seems like the coolest way to test yourself on the bike. It's just you against the clock.

Good luck,
John

Best of luck, Hip! Make sure you do get an easy spin (just enough to shake the legs out) tomorrow....

Good luck Hip. I would guess that taking out the start up/slow down for intersections will give you quite a speed boost, and hopefully, adrenaline will do the rest. Have a great ride.

What's your TT bike? And Good luck.

TT bike?!
The same as my everyday road bike.....my Klein Reve X, Campy Veloce gruppo.

You might be well served to at least buy a cheap set of clip on aero bars and slam your seat forward to simulate a TT position. It is just silly how much a difference an aero position makes in a TT. You might be surprised at how much faster you'll go if you're aero.

Also, try not to "attack" the hills if you're truly time trialing. You don't really want to attack anything, but rather keep a perfectly consistent output. You might end up feeling like you're creeping up the hills, but you'll do better to maintain your HR / power output between the hills and the flats.

DO NOT ADD AN AERO BAR for this weekend. Yes they can make a huge difference, but you need to train with it.
You will need to get used to the different handling of your bike with it.
As mentioned you will often have to move your seat position, which will affect your pedaling.
When in the TT position you will use your glutes a lot more, if you were to try this weekend, I would imagine you would be drastically slower due to using muscles you are not used to using.

Agreed, you need to get your body accustomed to riding with aerobars. Save it for another time, but I do recommend getting them. Good luck!

Leaving bike as it is.
No water cage pump....took it off.
No second water bottle....took it out.
No saddle bag...took it off.

Those are the only changes.
I figure I will spend a little more time than I usually do in the drops to be as aero as possible. I also found today that I am pretty comfortable coming out of the saddle while staying in the drops. I tried to do a dozen turns of the crank like that at a time to keep my speed up....going in and out of the saddle that way while in the drops.

Good Luck Hip.

It is very hard on a training ride to ride the kind of pace that you will do on a time trial. Without the stops if you can peg the 20 MPH speed you will be find in a 40k itt at 20 MPH average. Like everyone said do not attack the hills, use the same effort and maybe a slight bit more over them. You will slow down a bit but if you pop you are really in trouble.

Go easy tomarrow, a nice spin and get mentally prepared for the itt...

As for the aero bars, while they will be a big help they are not for now. TT posistion is very very hard on the glutes like said above and the posistion can also rob power if not set up perfectly. You also need to do serious adjustments on the bike to make it work well.

Good luck and let us know how you do...