Seeking Time Trial Advice
 

I accepted a challenge to ride in a TT on Aug. 12. In June I did my first TT as stoker on a tandem (we placed 7th of 8 tandems). Now I actually have a few days to prep for it and am wondering what I should concentrate on between now and the event: Sprint drills on flat roads? Hill sprints? Long fast rides? Should I bother to try to drop that extra 5 lbs. that found me over the summer? :eek:

Background: I'm going to ride a Fuji Supreme RC. I own no aero gear. I'm a woman, 52, in excellent shape. I ride centuries on the tandem regularly, in fact, our shortest ride is about 30 miles. I average about 100 miles a week.

I'm doing this for fun, mostly, but I'd like to do well, too. After all, it's only my pride at stake! :D

Thanks in advance for your help!

Don't bother changing up your training too much for a race so near in the future. Concentrate instead on form and strategy.

If you can ride the course, and often, that would be ideal. Learn what the wind is like during the time of day you'll be racing, where the hills are, and how they feel.

Practice pacing so that you go have increasing intensity and speed every 1/3 of the course or so. This will prevent you from hitting "the wall" early on and ruining your speed for the rest of the race. This ramping of effort is hard, and you don't get there by being able to go too hard at the end. You get there by backing off a bit at the beginning -- which is tough to do.

In my last 8-mile TT, I shattered a 10-month-old personal best. I started off just below my LTHR (170bpm). I ramped it up to 174 or so, and held that until 1/2 the course was over. Then I ramped it up to 178 until final 2 miles, where I bumped it up to 182 or 183 (my MHR is 194). In the last 1/2 mile, I went all out, finishing at 188 bpm and completely gassed.

Anothert recent discovery for me is that everyone else is right: flexibility is important for time trials. In two days of hamstring stretches, I was able to completely eliminate a problem I've had with my legs falling asleep in TTs. It's been a week now, and I can easily get my fingertips to the floor, and I've never felt so comfortable bent in half on my bike :)

Definately loose 5 pounds in 14 days . Then tell me how you did it if your not dead.

Breakfast: Black coffee and breath mint

Lunch: Iced tea and a finger of frosting off your friend's cake

Dinner: Two glasses of wine, or shots of tequila, and 3 triscuits

Follow this all week except on Saturday double up on the alcohol and replace the triscuits with 3 lettuce leaves

The stomach cramps aren't noticeable after the 3rd day...

Thank you! This is great advice. It makes sense to me, it's do-able (not sure about riding the course before the event, but we'll see).

The flexibility's not a problem; I prefer to ride in the drops. After today's interval workout (20 mi. in 43 min.) I discovered I need to adjust my seat height, but otherwise the bike fits well.

I like having a plan of attack. Thanks again!

Now, does shoe color have an advantage? :D

Cool, let us know how the training goes. You might experiment with going harder on hills and recovering on the flats, vs. maintaining the same effort up and down hills. As far as the physics go, it's more efficient to put slightly more energy into climbs than descents, but some people really favor one approach over the other. I take clients to a 3-mile TT course and have them ride it both ways, alternating, to see which is faster for them. It's surprising how different the times can be. You can also change preference as fitness changes, so it's good to test this every season or so. Really strong time-trialists tend to favor the consistent effort with a very slight bias toward hitting the hills harder.

The color you have now is fine: Sidi

You win.

Would this be Esparto? If so I think you would do just fine with a 20 mile time of 43 minutes as the winning times of last year were:
43:14 for the womes 1/2/3
40:09 in the p/1/2 male and this course is only 18 miles

It is Esparto. However, I'll be in the women's 4/5 so the route is 10 miles. I did 20 miles out and back today in 45 min. I may be more ready than I thought. :D

Are you riding too?

That's a nice and short TT. Get in a good warmup, with some intervals at 85% of training intensity. You want to be ready to roll right into your rhythm.

Yes, I'm doing patterson pass on saturday and esparto on sunday(E3). Is there a 5 for the women, I though it was just 4's.

You can tell how new I am to this...guess I'll sign up as a 4 since there is no 5, or master's women.

Good luck in Patterson, and see you in Esparto!

Hi Red Rider! So glad you accepted the challenge - the only problem with the hot red Sidis is that you should cover them with some hot red shoe covers for aero advantage. (But since we are "competing" in the same category, why am I telling you this?) I think everyone rides the 18 miles in this course - an advantage for you and me with great endurance - maybe this will help compensate for our lack of individual TT experience! All for fun! I am just a little nervous about the start and the turnaround.
I won't have the opportunity to ride the course ahead of time - it is described as flat with a few small rollers - does anyone have any experience with this course? Assuming we start early, should we expect wind?

Ride really fast.

Hey, thanks for the tip, 'Diva. Guess I owe you. ;)

There's a nearby team, Mad Cow, that holds TT practices on some of the same roads that comprised the Dunlop TT. It's a 10 mi. total out-and-back. I did it last night in 26:54. Fluffed my take-off (pedal slipped trying to clip in) and slowed down for the TA. I found a part of my lungs that I hadn't used in quite some time. :eek:

Esparto should be interesting.

Does anyone warm up for TTs differently than they do for other races?

I tend to treat TTs and crits about the same -- come to the line sweaty and ready to hit it. For a road race I warm up a little longer and less intense.

[QUOTE=Red Rider;4985325] It's a 10 mi. total out-and-back. I did it last night in 26:54. QUOTE]

Impressive time! Go Red Rider!

[QUOTE=Velodiva;4991738]Thanks, ME! I thought I was gonna die. :eek:

Esparto will indeed favor us endurance riders. Lesser cyclists will crack while we're just kickin' it up a notch. :D

If you don't blow our doors off we'll maybe see you in Marin. Otherwise we'll see you next weekend. Have fun in Marin!

Red, good job on the course. I did my first TT last night and had a great time. It was a 12K flat course with a nasty headwind on the way back. I ran it in 20:06. Definitely was a lot of fun and gives me a goal to shoot for improving on next year.

Rick

Congratulations on yout first TT! Those headwinds really make it tough!

According to the organizer's website, the women's courses are all 18 miles too.

And if you did 20 miles in 45 minutes, you're averaging 26.7 mph!! :eek: That's significantly faster than last year's Women 1/2/3 winner, who "only" averaged 25 mph.

FWIW, I'll be there...if I can finish my time trial bike build project! I hope to get the bike completed this weekend, and then get it dialed in on my commutes next week. With its black aero frame, carbon aero bars, Zipp 404's and a Louis Garneau Rocket (cone-head) helmet, I'll be the oddest looking commuter in Shasta County! But, hopefully, the fastest too! :D

See you there...I'll have my Redding Velo team jersey and bib on (and, that stylin' TT helmet!).

Thanks. It was a blast and headwinds definitely suck, though I'm not sure if I'd rather face them going out or back. It was on the way back for this time and I am thinking I might rather see them on the way out next time.

Rick