3 hour ride, how to structure it for TT focus

birdy247

I have a 55 mile loop which if I hammer it can do it in around 3 hours.

I am focusing on 25m TT's so my question is how should I structure this longer ride?

Should I ride moderatly easy and then do things like 10 mins at threshold up the hills/on stretces of road where I can do this

OR

ride the whole thing as hard as I can.

I usually ride the whole thing as hard as I can, and it does give a good workout, but I recently rode it with a slower mate, so I used the interval approach. This allowed me to put my all into the hard efforts as opposed to when I ride the whole thing hard when i average most time in zone 3.

This would normally be ridden following a day of threshold work

frazerbrown

If you're focussing on 25m TT's why ride 55 at all?
Just concentrate on 25s maybe...

DaveyL

birdy247 wrote:

I have a 55 mile loop which if I hammer it can do it in around 3 hours.

I am focusing on 25m TT's so my question is how should I structure this longer ride?

Should I ride moderatly easy and then do things like 10 mins at threshold up the hills/on stretces of road where I can do this

OR

ride the whole thing as hard as I can.

I usually ride the whole thing as hard as I can, and it does give a good workout, but I recently rode it with a slower mate, so I used the interval approach. This allowed me to put my all into the hard efforts as opposed to when I ride the whole thing hard when i average most time in zone 3.

This would normally be ridden following a day of threshold work

If it comes the day after threshold work, I wouldn't turn it into another threshold workout by doing the 10 min intervals you suggest.

Riding it at a moderately solid pace will be a great way of building your aerobic fitness, which I guess would go well with the threshold work you're doing.

SBezza

I would use it as either a tempo session, or an endurance session, you need both of these to underpin the threshold and possibly Vo2Max work you are doing as well.

The problem with just riding the distance you race as suggested above, is that 25 miles doesn't give you any endurance base, and it you only did threshold and Vo2Max work, your performances would be up and down like a yo-yo. I think tempo rides are great, but 3 hours is a longish time for a true tempo ride, perhaps do some of the rides at tempo, others at endurance pace.

SteveR_100Milers

SBezza wrote:

I would use it as either a tempo session, or an endurance session, you need both of these to underpin the threshold and possibly Vo2Max work you are doing as well.

The problem with just riding the distance you race as suggested above, is that 25 miles doesn't give you any endurance base, and it you only did threshold and Vo2Max work, your performances would be up and down like a yo-yo. I think tempo rides are great, but 3 hours is a longish time for a true tempo ride, perhaps do some of the rides at tempo, others at endurance pace.

+1 this has been my problem this year. When I have had form its been rally great, but for most of the year I have been disappointed with my times, simply because I have not put in any long steady tempo rides of more than 90 minutes.

birdy247

I think I have gone the other way. Spent most of my time at or slightly below threshold with some tempo sessions (around 2-3 hours) thrown in.

I have massivley neglected any VO2 max/above threshold work.

What are the implications of not going above threshold often enough?

SBezza

Well Vo2Max will help the most with regards to 10's, but to be honest I haven't done that much threshold or Vo2Max work, and I have still improved massively this year.

Most of the TT's I do are 50 upwards so I do need more of the tempo rides.

Threshold work should see pretty good gains to be honest, you just need to make sure you are actually working that area correctly, it is difficult without power, as HR can only be a rough guide at best. Vo2Max will help the top end without a doubt, but they are horrible sessions, I hate them