1 week till I enter a 10mile TT series - I've never raced...

jam1e

I went to a local club shindig last night and had a chat to see what the score was with beginners etc etc. Anyway, they all seemed really sound so I'm joining up and entering their 5 race 10mile tt series starting next thursday.

However, I've never done a tt and have only been roading "properly" for a couple of weeks so could do with some pointers! If anyone can suggest any training plans or similar that are fairly basic (no hr monitor etc) then it'll be much appreciated!

At the minute I'm normally just doing a loop of an hour or so at a 30kph average - so was thinking fartlek type stuff?

Cheers

Bronzie

There's not much you're going to be able to do between now and next Thursday to improve your fitness too much. That said, you've got another 4 weeks before the end of the series, not to mention the rest of the summer, although in reality at least 6-8 weeks of consistent training are need to yield noticeable results.

I'd try and replicate the type of TT efforts you'll be making ie 20-30 mins ridden as fast as you can, maybe split into 2 blocks of 20 mins with a 5 minute recovery in between. Doing this a couple of times a week together with your TT, you should start to see some improvements in your times by the end of the series.

Obviously, you need to allow time for your body to recover from these efforts before your TT each week, so probably allow at least 48 hours after your last hard training session.

All the above is dependent on have a reasonable base fitness in the first place - if you are completely new to the road, try not to overdo it.

As for the TT itself:
- know where the start is, and where the course goes
- allow enough time to reach the start so you don't miss your spot
- make sure you do a good warmup before the start and try not to hang around at the start for ages (cooling down) before your spot
- don't start off to fast and die before the finish (you'll need to experiment with pacing)
- enjoy (as much as you can )

Mount Pleasant

Good advice from Bronzie. I had a go for the first time myself last week and it was great fun. All I would add came from more experienced folks on the day (obviously!) which was to get down into a more prone position next time, using the cycle drops if you don't have TT bars, and to make sure that your bike is in good nick with plenty of air in the tyres. All the best.

capilinconnemara

Echo all that said above. Most important thing is to ENJOY Don't worry about anyone else.When others pass you wich they will don't get down hearted. Just keep your own rhythm as a TT is a race against yourself.
Good luck

jam1e

Cheers guys,

I'm treating the first one as a "lets see what a TT is actually like" type affair and hope to make a solid improvement by the last in the series. Whether this will be down to fitness, "TT-craft", body positioning or whatever will be hard to say but I reckon every little helps!

Went out yesterday with the intention of following bronzies advice but ended up in some battle for survival against the bloody wind. Oh yeah, I was grinding out that 20kph average! - so lets see how I get on today...

(Got some new lightweight skewers coming as well so that's almost the same as training surely?)

dennisn

jam1e wrote:

Went out yesterday with the intention of following bronzies advice but ended up in some battle for survival against the bloody wind.

FWIW I remember bitching about the wind one day, many years ago, until someone came up to me and said "same wind for everyone". Good luck. It will all work out for you by the end of the series. You'll pick up little hints and ideas with each race and by the end of the year you will be well on your way. It won't all come to you at once. Have some patience.
Race, rest, race, repeat.
Dennis Noward

Jaeger

I did my first TT10 a couple of weeks ago, ave HR 180bpm for 28:30. Have been putting in 500ish miles per month all through the winter, so think I've got a decent base, but found it took a full week or more to get my legs back. Was unable to push hard on any ride over Easter, legs felt heavy and weak the whole time, so I feel it's been detrimental to my sportive training.

Would just make sure you increase the intensity of your rides gradually or you will still be recovering from your last TT by the time the next one comes round... (I'm not anti-TT - it was a good challenge and enjoyable (well, once i crossed the finish line anyway!) - but just speaking from my experience).

Alex_Simmons/RST

The three Ps of Time Trials:
http://alex-cycle.blogspot.com/2009/03/old-skool.html
and the follow up:
http://alex-cycle.blogspot.com/2009/04/new-skool.html

softlad

like others have said - too late to train now, realistically. So, ride the first one and enjoy it. Make a note of your time and try to beat it in round 2. And so on and so forth.....

Meanwhile, get plenty of threshold and high-intensity rides in, which should start to give you some benefit towards the end of the series...

jam1e

Well I went out today for a bit of a practice and did 10 windy (the bad, against you windy ) miles in 33minutes. This included stopping to walk a gated level crossing and again to pick up my rear light which bounced of the seatpost.

So I reckon a sub 30 minute time is going to be my aim for race one with a significant (10%?) improvement by race 5. Some of this improvement is going to come from better ideas about pacing etc and an increase in the cornering speed I carry - I'm still getting used to the skinny tires... (My Zesty is running 2.4s and can just about stand up on its own!)

I definately need to adjust the bike for a bit more aero efficiency, bit upright I think but I'll get the mrs to take a pic so I can compare it with proper tt'ers.

Thanks for the links Alex_Simmons/RST - def going to bookmark them.

simon_e

I'm no expert but I remember my first time trial, just under a year ago. Trawled the archive to find my observations. Some useful posts in that thread too.

Eat a ripe banana an hour before you start, have a drink half an hour before kick-off. I like apple juice and water, have not tried any branded energy drinks. Get to the start in plenty of time and get the gearing so you start on the big ring.

It's really easy to go hard for the first 1/2 mile then wonder how you're going to last. Do the opposite, go relatively easy to start with and wind it up as the miles pass and you get in the groove. Concentrate on cadence and putting your effort through the pedals smoothly and evenly, click up a gear when you can manage to push it. Definitely do your best to carry speed through corners, this can make a big difference. Your first event is the initial rough calibration. The other 4 will hopefully be fine-tuning your effort.

Most importantly, don't take it too seriously and try to enjoy it - as best as you can on a 30 minute exercise in self-torture

Mettan

jam1e wrote:

Well I went out today for a bit of a practice and did 10 windy (the bad, against you windy ) miles in 33minutes. This included stopping to walk a gated level crossing and again to pick up my rear light which bounced of the seatpost.

Good time that (33 mins), in the Wind - perfect level to be building up from quite nicely moving towards the summer.

SBezza

You will get faster by the end, as you will get better at pacing the effort, and you will adapt to the effort as well, though not as much as if you had spent the first part of the year training.

I would suggest training in the wind is more beneficial, as when you do get a evening where there is little wind, you will probably fly around. But I would leave a day or two before the event with easy riding.

I have only started this year with TT, and have got a PB with each event I do, though that will stop eventually . As above start off easily and ramp the pace up as you go, also on hills, don't go full bore, back off slightly so you don't get a massive lactate build up, that takes longer to recover from, than going at a more steady pace (still experimenting with this myself).

Last but not least ENJOY, I find them great fun, if not a little bit painful LOL