Winter training - do you use your TT bike?

Richie G

Having raided my piggy bank and taken the plunge on a time trial frame, i wondered whether people spent much time riding in their TT position throughout the winter. I'm keen to adapt to a more aero position so was planning on putting the TT frame on the turbo (which i'll using 2 nights a week) and maybe (weather permitting) the odd outdoor ride at weekends. Obviously the bulk of my miles will be on a regular road bike. Just wondered what others did?

Cheers
Rich

Jeff Jones

Yes, starting late January I trained on it (properly) once or twice per week for the whole season. Specificity.

method

I'll be riding on mine all year round, long rides, turbo etc.

Floodcp

I have just put mine away for the winter and was intending to just ride my road bike on the turbo.
Will there be a benefit in riding my TT bike on the turbo during the winter?? Normally the first TTs are in April where I live.

method

It depends really, but it maybe that practicing on it will help you get a better position. I'm a triathlete so I figured that the more practice I get on the bike I'm racing on the better.

Richie G

Thanks for your replies everyone. I think i'm gonna go with doing plenty of miles on the TT bike. As Jeff says:

Specificity

(I quite like that word!). Just out of interest, what sort of intensities are people doing? I felt that last winter i might have done too much interval work and not enough base mileage. With 2 turbo stints a week i was doing short intervals one night and longer (2x20) the other. I wonder should one of these sessions be a tempo ride?

Cheers
Rich

Jeff Jones

I'm a big fan of tempo riding, nearly always on the TT bike: ~80% of max HR for 1hr/week in up to four week blocks. I use it in winter mostly, but also during the year to keep my condition if there's more than a 1 week gap between races.

I don't like doing too many intense efforts outdoors during winter because it doesn't feel too good on the lungs. I think last winter I did four five minute intervals in total before my first race in March.

So besides 1xtempo ride, 2xlong rides on the weekends (maybe one on the TT bike), 3xrecovery rides, I'd do 1xfartlek-style ride per week, going hard but not too hard on the hills.

Thing is, everyone's different.

stevewj

I've got a tt race bike (an old Cougar), and a spesh transition for training. This winter I intend setting up one of my two road bikes with bull bars and tribars for wet weather training just 'cause I love the position, but it should also help next season when it can come as a bit of a shock to the back having ridden road bike position from Oct to March.

andrewgturnbull

Richie G wrote:

Having raided my piggy bank and taken the plunge on a time trial frame, i wondered whether people spent much time riding in their TT position throughout the winter. I'm keen to adapt to a more aero position so was planning on putting the TT frame on the turbo (which i'll using 2 nights a week) and maybe (weather permitting) the odd outdoor ride at weekends. Obviously the bulk of my miles will be on a regular road bike. Just wondered what others did?

Cheers
Rich

Hi there.

As others have said, this is a great idea. I'd go a little further and make sure that you do all your intervals down on the aero bars, use the cowhorns/tops for the recovery sections only.

After a few years of this I'm way more powerful on the aero bars than not - even when climbing hills.

Cheers, Andy

ermintrude

Does anybody ride their TT bike on rollers. I love rollers and am quite competent on them on my road bike, but I've got a new TT bike and its so hard. I expect it's just the different position, but is it a no no to ride that sort of bike on rollers.

andrewgturnbull

ermintrude wrote:

Does anybody ride their TT bike on rollers. I love rollers and am quite competent on them on my road bike, but I've got a new TT bike and its so hard. I expect it's just the different position, but is it a no no to ride that sort of bike on rollers.

Hi there.

Yes - I use my rollers for doing my 20 minute intervals on the rollers - there's just enough resistance to make it worthwhile.

Riding the rollers on the aero bars makes for a very smooth, rock solid riding style - no shoulder movement at all!

It took me a whole winter to work up to the whole 20 minutes in the aero bars, could only manage 2 or 3 minutes at first!

Cheers, Andy

andrewgturnbull

ps Check where your front wheel sits on the rollers. My TT bike has a considerably shorter wheelbase than my road bike, hence I had to adjust the rollers so that the front wheel sat on top and not behind the front roller. This improved the handling enormously!

ermintrude

Thanks Andy, I've brought the front roller a bit further forward, it's certainly better but it's going to be a while before I dare use my cyling shoes !!