TT tips?

[aramis]

There's a very low key TT around me (no cost, but it's timed with results) that's 5.5 miles each way, with a short climb before the turnaround point around here I like to do every once in a while to see if I'm improving.

Any tips?

I use a similar length/style route by my house to practice and have gotten my fastest results by going about as hard as I can for 20 minutes, backing off and recovering a little for 1-2 minutes and continuing at a higher close to max pace, rather than a constant pace the whole time which I thought is how you're supposed to do it.


Just using a regular road bike (no aerobars) and I have a powermeter.

[Louis]

I'm no expert, and certainly not a racer, but I'm pretty sure that regardless of your conditioning, drag is your single biggest enemy. If you really want to improve your times aero bars would be my first choice, and deeper wheels my next choice. A jersey that's on the smallish side and doesn't flap won't hurt either, but that's not high on the list of big-hitters.

[aramis]

I'm no expert, and certainly not a racer, but I'm pretty sure that regardless of your conditioning, drag is your single biggest enemy. If you really want to improve your times aero bars would be my first choice, and deeper wheels my next choice. A jersey that's on the smallish side and doesn't flap won't hurt either, but that's not high on the list of big-hitters.

I kind of right now am just trying to improve "my" performance, so I am nixing aerobars or special wheels or helmet or anything like that. I figure I can always add those later. Trying to keep the bike a constant.

I wear a tight jersey every time I ride and last time I was mostly in the drops with elbows pulled in anytime I wasn't climbing if it's worth anything.

[oliver1850]

Our local TT is similar. On its rough roads, I find that knowing the course and picking a good line make a difference. The turnaround can cost a lot of time, work on getting back up to speed quickly. I would try putting extra effort into the climb, and getting a bit of recovery on the descent. The lowest total energy expenditure for a given average speed will be at a constant speed, so try to minimize speed fluctuations.

[aramis]

Our local TT is similar. On its rough roads, I find that knowing the course and picking a good line make a difference. The turnaround can cost a lot of time, work on getting back up to speed quickly. I would try putting extra effort into the climb, and getting a bit of recovery on the descent. The lowest total energy expenditure for a given average speed will be at a constant speed, so try to minimize speed fluctuations.

Thanks, I didn't think about that. Since the turnaround is at the top of the climb I'll try to just muscle it quickly back down instead of starting to coast on the turnaround. The descent is pretty fast even with zero pedaling.

I'll work on maintaining speed thing since it makes sense but it isn't always possible to do without burning yourself out since there are a lot of smaller elevation changes and you'd have to maintain 400w+ on some to maintain a 250w speed you have coming into them.

[shovelhd]

Don't go too hard in the beginning. Work on your turnarounds. Concentrate on pedaling in circles on the descent. Save the flat out stuff for the last two minutes.

[holliscx]

Speed fluctuation comment +1

Also aim to ride a negative split (second half faster); you are better off starting a bit conservative and finishing strong vs sprinting from the gun and flagging across the line. So ride smart.

[regularguy412]

Don't go too hard in the beginning. Work on your turnarounds. Concentrate on pedaling in circles on the descent. Save the flat out stuff for the last two minutes.

^^ This -- especially.^^

You can easily blow yourself up if you allow yourself to do too much work, early on. My rule of thumb, for me, was: hold to approx 7 beats of HR below my expected working HR and do that for the first mile. Then I allowed myself to step up a gear and begin putting the muscle to work. You have to do a few TT's before you can know your own body well enough to know how it will react.

Good luck !

Mike in AR:beer:

[false_Aest]

if you're not thinking about gear + position then start doing 2x20s twice a week.

10-15 warm up
20 min all out (95-100% of FTP)
10 min recovery
20 min all out
15 min cool down.

Anecdotal Evidence:
I started doing these religiously 10 weeks from the SDSR TT (4 miles ~5% average). My time dropped ~ 2 min from my initial test ride.

I was doing these on a trainer w/out a PM (speed = # of watts). Had to pay attention to how my legs/body felt so that I could compare when I was in the race. It'll be easier for you to keep track since you'll have a PM on race day

[mike p]

Hard to give training advice over the net to someone you don't know but that never stopped me before :-). I'd say instead of 20 min intervals start out with 5 min at a harder intensity than your doing for twenty with a shorter break between.

Mike

[redir]

I have to disagree with some of the advice but you have to find what works best for you. I do indeed go very hard at the beginning and then settle in and go very hard at the end. The whole time is very hard don't ever relax but rather settle in to a high heart rate and threshold. It's only an 11 mile TT so don't reserve any energy if you cross the line half dead you did well.

Of course you don't want to kill yourself at the start but my point is on a 11 mile TT you should be going hard at it breathing really heavy the whole time. Remember to concentrate more on exhaling then inhaling, push the bad air out and the good air will come in. IF you have a power meter and train with it then that is a very valuable tool so that you know how much power you can hold for what amount of time.

When TT's have climbs in them then you should crush yourself to get up the hill. This is where aero is not important and a lot of people will lose time there because they get lazy and think they will go fast on the down hill and make it up. Crush the climb and then get aero and take a breather on the descent.

This has always worked for me and FWIW I have won several TT's when I was racing. I never was good at the very long ones though and mostly because I relaxed too much thinking I needed reserves.

[Tandem Rider]

11 miles is about 25 minutes or so. A TT this short requires a super warmup. I do a 10 miler once a month, fast times are usually 22 minutes or so and require at least a 30 minute warmup. You don't have time to "ease" into it.

As far as training goes, 2x20's, crossovers, and 3 minute VO maxes will get you there. Crossovers and VO maxes teach you to keep your speed up for the difficult spots and then recover while at FTP.

[aramis]

I have to disagree with some of the advice but you have to find what works best for you. I do indeed go very hard at the beginning and then settle in and go very hard at the end. The whole time is very hard don't ever relax but rather settle in to a high heart rate and threshold. It's only an 11 mile TT so don't reserve any energy if you cross the line half dead you did well.

Of course you don't want to kill yourself at the start but my point is on a 11 mile TT you should be going hard at it breathing really heavy the whole time. Remember to concentrate more on exhaling then inhaling, push the bad air out and the good air will come in. IF you have a power meter and train with it then that is a very valuable tool so that you know how much power you can hold for what amount of time.

When TT's have climbs in them then you should crush yourself to get up the hill. This is where aero is not important and a lot of people will lose time there because they get lazy and think they will go fast on the down hill and make it up. Crush the climb and then get aero and take a breather on the descent.

This has always worked for me and FWIW I have won several TT's when I was racing. I never was good at the very long ones though and mostly because I relaxed too much thinking I needed reserves.

Thanks sounds like solid advice. Since it's 5.5 miles to the end of the climb (approx 1 mile climb, I think it's 7-9%ish) I could go at near max until about 1/2 mile before the climb that's slight downhill, use that to pull back a little (say 70% of max) and then muscle maybe 10-15% over my max 20 min power to the top and then for the return just give a constant pace at whatever I have left (it's more downhill on the return).

[Likes2ridefar]

Thanks sounds like solid advice. Since it's 5.5 miles to the end of the climb (approx 1 mile climb, I think it's 7-9%ish) I could go at near max until about 1/2 mile before the climb that's slight downhill, use that to pull back a little (say 70% of max) and then muscle maybe 10-15% over my max 20 min power to the top and then for the return just give a constant pace at whatever I have left (it's more downhill on the return).

Not saying you are wrong, but you may want to confirm those % changes with some trial and error. I don't really know what you are basing them off of, but I think dropping to 70% of max is way too low and going 10-15% over your max for anything more than 5 or so minutes will probably make you crack and make you less effective for the remainder of the TT. I would think something like 5-10% above threshold would be a better target and for the rest of the ride stick to threshold as best you can.

[MattTuck]

When it is safe and you can manage it, ride like this:

http://bicycling.com/blogs/thisjustin/files/2011/03/Cancellara-E3-Win.jpg


Other than that, start within yourself and build to truly 100% exertion at the finish.

If the downhill is long enough to get some decent rest, I'd also kill myself on the climb.

[kurto]

I've followed this pacing advice from Joe Friel with good results, even before I started using HR and power.
http://www.trainingbible.com/joesblog/2009/05/time-trial-pacing.html

[aramis]

Not saying you are wrong, but you may want to confirm those % changes with some trial and error. I don't really know what you are basing them off of, but I think dropping to 70% of max is way too low and going 10-15% over your max for anything more than 5 or so minutes will probably make you crack and make you less effective for the remainder of the TT. I would think something like 5-10% above threshold would be a better target and for the rest of the ride stick to threshold as best you can.

No, I'm probably wrong. :p 20% above my 20 minute max for the climb might be more than I can handle. In fact when I think about maintaining that actual number I remember how painful that is for more than a 3-4 minutes or so, let alone doing that and then going back to a good clip.

[Ti Designs]

Time trials are about speed over distance, which means you break down your performance of any time trial you're going to be repeating into segments and you prioritize based on the length or time of each segment. For example, lots of people will put a lot of effort into a short, steep hill, but then lack the power to get back up to speed quickly after the hill. The hill is short, going slightly slower up the hill isn't going to cost that much time. Bumping the speed back up after the hill is going to carry for a while - that's the speed over distance that's going to reduce your time. Another thing to think about is the cost of speed. 1 MPH gain at 18 MPH takes far less energy than 1 MPH gained at 28 MPH, at some point you must question if it's worth the wattage to push the speed or if it's a better time to bring down the heart rate.

Some people learn a distance and then try to increase the speed. I've always set out with a high speed and learned to sustain it over a distance. That probably means some training sessions indoors to keep control over everything. As much as I hate wattage production sessions on the trainer until the room goes dark, they do help.

[John H.]

shovlhd and false give good advice here- don't start too hard and do specific training to help you improve.
Starting too hard is the biggest mistake you can make in a tt- it never feels hard to jam on the pedals out of the gate, and once the damage is done it cannot be undone.
Since you have a powermeter you should start at a slightly lower power than you think you can actually hold- take it up to goal power in a couple minutes. It feel feel like you are creeping at the start.
Also, try to increase power a little bit in the hardest sections. Go 5-10% over goal wattage up climbs or into a headwind. Reverse for easier sections. 5-10% less on decents or tailwind. You can burn up your legs trying to hold power high in those sections.
With about 5 min to go- up the pace even more if you have anything left 3k out?).
One more thing to add is proper warmup- need to go into a tt well warmed up to perform optimally.

[aramis]

Well I did it today. It was out into a pretty good headwind that calmed by the climb and back had a tailwind. I rode to it (about 10 miles there to warm up a little).

I started off rough, had trouble clipping in at the start and then had a hard time getting into a rhythm with all the wind noise (hard to explain but it was a lot harder to hear pedaling and breathing) so I think I lost a bit of time on the first part.

I pushed really hard on the climb, probably about 10%-20% higher wattage than the rest of the ride. With the tailwind the little climbs on the back went very quickly and I had some energy in reserve at the end unfortunately.

I did shave 3 minutes off the last time I did it (when it wasn't windy) so I'm happy. I think pushing hard on the climb helped the most. I also got a new highest 20 min wattage which is cool too.

Next month I'll try to work on being a little more composed and keeping a steadier rhythm and of course pushing harder on the climb.


Thanks for the tips. I think they helped, biggest thing I think I changed was more effort on the uphills.

I didn't do "well" compared to the fast people but I am growing to like doing TT's.. something about feeling like I'm dying but still pushing hard is fun.

[Louis]

I didn't do "well" compared to the fast people

Based on what you've said up-thread I think you're mostly competing against yourself, so that's really no big deal.

Glad to hear that it worked out well for you. :)

[wasfast]

I always wear foam ear plugs. You can still hear well enough and it blocks out the wind noise. You will be able to hear your breathing, almost too well.

When you have a disc and aero helmet that covers your ears, it sounds like a jet in your ears. If you have high speed sections (40mph plus) it's very bad without plugs.

[aramis]

Based on what you've said up-thread I think you're mostly competing against yourself, so that's really no big deal.

Glad to hear that it worked out well for you. :)

Thanks!

I always wear foam ear plugs. You can still hear well enough and it blocks out the wind noise. You will be able to hear your breathing, almost too well.

When you have a disc and aero helmet that covers your ears, it sounds like a jet in your ears. If you have high speed sections (40mph plus) it's very bad without plugs.

Good tip. It was louder than riding a motorcycle on the freeway without earplugs (but with helmet)! The time I went before it wasn't an issue (no wind). Next time I'll grab a pair.

When I was riding to it, it was all in a headwind and it was really tiring even when I was intentionally taking it very easy (using powermeter). I think a lot of it was the noise.

[shovelhd]

Good job. Now you know more about yourself and how hard you can push it. If you had something left at the end, then you didn't go all out with 2 minutes left. Try that next time.

[wasfast]

Thanks!



Good tip. It was louder than riding a motorcycle on the freeway without earplugs (but with helmet)! The time I went before it wasn't an issue (no wind). Next time I'll grab a pair.

When I was riding to it, it was all in a headwind and it was really tiring even when I was intentionally taking it very easy (using powermeter). I think a lot of it was the noise.

Your brain perceives the noise as you going faster/harder than you actually are. It helps me feel more calm and focus. The wind is a big distraction.