How much TT bike per week?

toolonglegs · Postby **toolonglegs** » Mon Mar 26, 2012 4:34 am

Just wondering how many hours people spend or should spend on their TT bikes per week.
At the moment as I don't have any tt's for 5 weeks and then not many till later in the year that I would spend one 2 hour session per week in TT position. Probably all my back can handle at the moment but already noticeably easier on my 2nd ride compared to my first.
What are others doing ?.

Chookman · Postby **Chookman** » Mon Mar 26, 2012 10:25 pm

TT bike on the road: 1 x per fortnight if I'm lucky; however i do a fair amount of riding in the TT position on my indoor trainer. i have an old cruddy Cannondale I use indoors that is set up in a similar position.

Alex Simmons/RST · Postby **Alex Simmons/RST** » Mon Mar 26, 2012 11:17 pm

It depends of course, but I suggest one of your threshold and/or hard tempo interval sessions be done in TT position, and one other ride per week on TT bike to help acclimate.

toolonglegs · Postby **toolonglegs** » Tue Mar 27, 2012 12:35 am

Two valued opinions... Thanks.
Looking forward to my first ITT!.

Grim · Postby **Grim** » Tue Mar 27, 2012 11:35 am

Depending on you frequency of rides, usually once a week TT open road ride usually suffices and as previously posted, if you have an indoor trainer setting up as close to TT position for interval and threshold training is great. Essentially targetting core strength to ensure you can maintain the TT position for as long as the bike leg is for the race you are targetting, the rest of your mileage during the week on the roadie is fine.

toolonglegs · Postby **toolonglegs** » Tue Mar 27, 2012 4:11 pm

Thanks Grim, at the moment a big part of it is getting over my back issues. So I want to slowly get my back used to the new position. Luckily for me ( and strangely it would seem ) the more I hurt myself on the bike the better my back feels, obviously lost a lot of muscle in my year off.
I have one 5 km prologue and a 25km TTT at the beginning of may, maybe another prologue in mid June then nothing until TT season starts over here near the end of the road season (end of August to start of October).
So I have a fair bit of time... Main aim is French Nationals for my federation last weekend of September .

Grim · Postby **Grim** » Wed Mar 28, 2012 1:47 pm

No problems Toon, given you have detailed your targets specifically to set TT and TTT races things become a bit clearer, your main goal will be to maintain FTP and above at max effort (Prologue) and this involves more targetted training which is best facilitated indoors. (You don't really want to be in a red haze unable to see or breathe with open road traffic) The outdoors TT riding will be mainly to hone your bike handling skills especially paceline in the TTT and becoming familiar with your team members and setting your optimum team pacing for the race and strategy. Bike handling skills become especially important especially when you are in the "red" at max effort on an especially technical course so how much time you want to spend on this will be entirely dependant on your current level of comfort. With regards to actual training, since its a length of time until your races, getting especially aero over comfort shouldn't be as big a priority as getting the gas in the tank to say with focused threshold training. Mix in core strength work to reinforce the supporting muscles in your back and lessening the load on your spine during this time. I myself have a prolapsed disc and know your pain and can't stress how vitally important it is to strengthen core. Good luck and good training for your races.

toolonglegs · Postby **toolonglegs** » Wed Mar 28, 2012 5:15 pm

Zero traffic on my roads... I might see 5 cars on some 100 k rides which makes life very nice.
I sold my power meter when I hurt my back... Won't have one for a couple of months but for the last 3 months I should be on one... Been back on the bike 1 year now and finally feel good.
I lost so much core strength standing up on the bike hurt!.
If I get it right it will be a big year

.
Now to keep losing 20% of my body mass ... That will make me more aero for sure lol.

Grim · Postby **Grim** » Wed Mar 28, 2012 10:30 pm

5 cars in 100 miles?, wow very lucky, I have to go cyclocross with my bike to avoid congested traffic where I live..

Until you get back to PM usage, I would suggest Heart Rate as a measure. Having an actual metric of measurement is better than just relying your "feeling". I am also ramping up my time on the bike in prep for a couple of TTs and Duos and I absolutely love my Quarq PM. Cheers