Advice for 25 km TT

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Tapeworm
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by Tapeworm

Regardless, what were the results? Post race analysis, regardless of how well or not the race went, is where the true benefits of power meters come into play.
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Kermithimself
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by Kermithimself

I did the 24,3 kms in 38.01. Average power was about 260 watts. Did a 25 km test 5 days prior where I held 275 watts on a course with more corners and deadspots.
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devinci
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by devinci

How was your start?
How was your pacing strategy?
How did you feel after x minutes, then y minutes, etc?
How did you feel in the position? Did you move arround? Felt power-less? Powerful?

You should reflect on your race and ask yourself these questions. A race is never useless, unless you avoid reflection and look foward to your next race without knowing your mistakes and modifying your approach.

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Tapeworm
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by Tapeworm

^ This.

If you're keen post up a screen shot of the TT power file and/or the file itself.
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Kermithimself
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by Kermithimself

devinci wrote:How was your start?
How was your pacing strategy?
How did you feel after x minutes, then y minutes, etc?
How did you feel in the position? Did you move arround? Felt power-less? Powerful?

You should reflect on your race and ask yourself these questions. A race is never useless, unless you avoid reflection and look foward to your next race without knowing your mistakes and modifying your approach.


Oh, I have reflected on it and found ways to improve my performance. I know that my form was the best it could be, but I just had a day where other things interferred.

- Bad sleep in the days leading up to the event(waking up 2 hours before my alarmclock and only 6 hours of sleep - not 8 like I'm used to)
- A stressfull day the day before the event where I never had time to sit down and relax.
- Everything was done in the last minute.

So for next time I know that I need to have a simple day the day before, make sure that I don't wake up too early and get enough sleep.

My start was easy. Get up to speed and then try to build towards my FTP. So I set out wanting to do 250-260 watts the first 5 minutes and then step it up and hold it at FTP to the turning point. The last 5 minutes building even more power.

I felt bad all the way around. Actually, not true. At first I found it easy, but after 5 minutes I started to lose my flow.

My position felt ok. My shoulders hurt a bit, but I just didn't have the power in the legs that day. I was struggling to hold 250-260 watts on the flats. At the end I slided a bit forward on the saddle. Might need to adjust the position a tad.

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mrfish
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by mrfish

I would recommend spending lots of time on the TT bike to practice riding it - it's an easy way to get faster. Part of this comes from getting used to the position and your muscles and pedalling becoming more efficient. Then another gain comes from practicing pacing, corners, gear changing on hills, and other technique... all are slightly different than on the road bike as you have more momentum / less drag.

Then also you can save a lot of time by staying on the TT bars all the time. As long as you don't need to brake there's really no reason to be off the bars (unlike the majority of the Protour who are pretty bad in this regard, likely as they've only been round the TT course in the car). It needs some practice on your TT course - don't try to be a superhero, start at a comfortable speed then try 1mph faster until it gets sketchy. Also I used to ride on the race wheels as much as possible. Handling can be very different, and you need to know what's possible when it's windy or raining.

Then there is the mental aspect, which I think is an areas where you could make gains. Read the book Mental training for sport - basically you need get into the right frame of mind to hurt yourself, but not so over-excited that you lose the plot. The other thing which will help is rehearsal - design your race routine, then practice it 1x per week in a club time trial against clubmates. This puts you in a competitve situation and will help you train your brain that competing is normal.

One other thought - I'm not sure whether it's a good idea to smash yourself completely in training. On the one hand you should as otherwise you don't find out what you're capable of and what overcooking it feels like. On the other hand it can take a week to put your body back together and longer to get your head around riding that hard again. Probably something you should plan. I never did this, and never had much idea about training when I was riding seriously, which was probably a limiting factor.

nathanong87
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by nathanong87

is it recommend if on rolling hills to do the same power all gradients, or if your ftp is 300 lets say.... doing 280 on down hill and 320 per uphill? or does this strategy burn our your system....

where is time made up the most? been talking to nick s about this a little too as my first tt is this sunday. 8.5 miles , no t-t gear allowed cept for skinsuit and shoe covers. Out and Back with some "speed bumps" in between.

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devinci
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by devinci

Generally, a wise pacing strategy during a TT would be to increase intensity on rising parts of the course and decreasing intensity on descending parts. It's very slight shifts in intensity and nothing big though. If using FTP as a regular target, I'd shoot for 110% on uphill and 90% on downhills.

The higher the speed, the less advantage you have to spend your effort overcoming wind resistance and everybody else will be riding relatively fast and time gain on 47km/h vs 50km/h are not quite huge on descending parts VS riding at 35km/h vs 32km/h on uphill part (basic exemple). People will mostly loose time on uphills. Spending energy to overcome gravity is better because time gain for energy spent will be bigger

Back when I was TTing regularly, I found I could make some very good time on other people when I kept a very steady, yet high intensity on flat parts where you are exposed to wind (or not).

metal
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by metal

I found this while trawling the web. Its a great discussion on correct pacing in tt's.

"Quantifying the Effective Application of Pacing Strategies in Cycling Time Trial Events: The Pacing Optimisation Index (POI)"
http://www.clochette.co.uk/TTF/Articles ... Word97.doc" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Cheers,
metal

nathanong87
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by nathanong87

lol one thing to note about time trials is showing up on time helps.....

finished 2nd to my teammate 30 seconds down.... but showing up late, i was like 20th or something. Out and back course 14km....no tt gear allowed

http://app.strava.com/activities/51155842" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Foo
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by Foo

Make sure you're warmed up properly prior to start, don't flog yourself right from the start, get into your rhythm quickly and you should not be able to stand or walk at the finish, if you have ridden it correctly = nothing left to give. :idea: :wink: Most riders don't ride them correctly and give everything. :roll:

Foo
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MattSoutherden
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by MattSoutherden

I realise that this thread is long past race day for the OP, but the advice still holds for others planning their first TT...

I think my three main points have already been covered.

1. Don't go off too hard.
2. Don't do anything on race day that you haven't done before. (that would've been the TT helmet for the OP - if you're not practiced at keeping a good head position, and the helmet has a tail, you might as well fit a parachute).
3. Unless you're last name is Wiggins, and you know with increadible accuracy what your absolute CP curve looks like, a power meter is best used to keep an eye on dropping below threshold, or going way up into Zone 5. Other than that, balls out!

The thing that determines if I'm going to drink on a short TT would be the weather. Even on a 10, a hot dry day can mean you get a dry throat and start to wretch after 10 minutes. YMMV.

Oh yes, there is a point 4 - Don't go off too hard. ;)
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Ypsylon
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by Ypsylon

MattSoutherden wrote:I realise that this thread is long past race day for the OP, but the advice still holds for others planning their first TT...


What I can add is: don't sprint for the line!

If you even could, something went wrong. If you make it to the final k with something left, you want that to turn into speed on the race course, not behind it. Depending on the finish you want to accelerate one last time a couple 100m before the finish and then somehow get to the line. Even if you can't pedal for the last 50m, coasting in from 50+ km/h will still be faster than a sprint for the last 50m, especially in an aero tuck.

If the finish is uphill, ignore me.
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fitty4
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by fitty4

Kermithimself did you drink anything during your test?

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Enda Marron
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by Enda Marron

Just to continue/hijack this thread....
I have always dabbled with TT's, this year I took things a little more seriously and trained to a structured plan - mainly for the Giro delle Dolomiti (a 6 day stage race/sportive in the Dolomites). Part of my training was participation in a local triathletes TT league of a reasonably high standard and reputation. I did well and was usually in the top three against younger and top end triathletes. Following my return from the Dolomites, I was persuaded by a clubmate to enter the National veterans TT championships (40kM on a hilly course). I did this and finished 12th, but more significantly I broke the hour (59:25) in testing/windy conditions in my first "proper" TT (bike conformed tpo UCI regulations).
Now the questions - I appear to have some TT ability, what winter training should I do to improve, what else (training sessions, kit etc) should I do to take some time off this and possibly go faster next season
Thanks

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