First Time Trial this Sat!!

[RobRollin]

Well I've bitten the bullet and entered my first TT. I havent decided if I will do the 14k or 20k yet. The 20K has a sizeable hill in yet.

Sat, 8 Aug: Tri Sth & STVCC Time Trial Series #2, 13:30, 14/20Km, Sandford.

I'll be riding my Avanti, jersey, knicks, helmet, gloves, and my computer, take the lights off. It's not going to be really aero!! my best time over 10.86kms is 19mins with pedestrians, traffick, intersections and other cars so, with a road closed I should be able to hold a decent average speed. What avg speed should I try and hold?

My legs are tired this week as Ive been riding into a head wind for the past 3 days every training session.

[Grant W]

Hi Rob,
Good luck with it, I was hooked on the TT after my first.
I don't know a great deal about them other than I hope we have more where I ride over the next season but from what i have gathered, TT's are about pacing your self . You should know your limits,knowing when your at threshold and how long you can stay there and how long you can exceed it.
It's no good going out in the first half of the race holding an average speed of 40+km/h only to finish the last half at 80% recovering because you have popped to soon.
You would be surprised how much of a rest the intersections padestrians etc... give you when your out on the road which you will not get on a closed road. 1min at traffic lights can rests me up pretty well.

For me, I try and time it so when i pop, and I always do it is a few meters from the finish line. The first third at 85%, the second at 95% and the last at 100% with the final 1000m at 120%
Self control helps, I always bust out of the start flat out to 50km/h only to look down at the HR monitor reading 195, not good getting caught up in the adrenaline at the start is my downfall.

Others here will know a hell of alot more though.

Have fun

[drubie]

I've only done two of these things, but the best advice I've received is that "when you're done, you're done" as in, after you've popped it's incredibly hard to recover. That means like Grant says you have to ration out your efforts. Because it's your first one, it will be very hard to work out how hard you can go before expiring, so specific advice like go 85% in the first half is good but hard to follow if you don't know what 85% really is for you.

I reckon for the first one, just go for it as hard as you can from the off and treat it as a learning exercise. You'll find out soon enough whether you went out too hard or too easy. Refine from there. If you can ride the course beforehand then follow Grant's advice.

[RobRollin]

This is round 1, after round 1 of the tri series was cancelled last weekend due to !! BAN ME NOW FOR SWEARING !! weather. So There will be two more, then we head into crits.

I've got no idea really, when I do my TT usually I pace myself at 34kmh. It maybe windy as well as it's all flat right next to the water. Anyone have a pair of tri bars?

[Alex Simmons/RST]

1. Don't start too hard. easy to say, actually quite difficult to get right. It takes discipline and practice. Going at the right pace in the opening minutes will actually feel easy, almost too easy. But it's actually not too easy and it will catch up with you. Because it takes a lot of power to go a little bit faster, you don't lose much time by deliberately going easy in first few minutes. But the cost of going too hard in the opening minutes is very high.

2. Pace by feel, forget HR.

3. HR comes along for the ride and is a lag indicator, so is not a lot of help for pacing in TTs. The HR trace for a well paced effort will look like the red dots of the second of the 20-min TTI efforts shown below and it will continue to rise through the course of the TT. It takes a few minutes to even get up to "threshold" range and then it will steadily rise throughout the TT, often nearing a max level towards the end, especially in shorter TTs. If you have a TT where HR gets up to zone very quickly and then plateaus, that is a pretty darn good indicator that pacing was very poor.



4. Work on getting as aero as you can. Tuck that head, wear tight clothing, remove unnecessary items from self and bike.

5. Most importantly, enjoy it!

[RobRollin]

Thanks for the info, I feel read for the TT, a little nervous as it's my first race, but the last 4 months have been in preparation for this. Possibly not a TT, but I've been doing a few hard rides a a good tempo. Not sure about aerodynamics of me or the bike, the F5 is still being built. I might try and get a pair of TT bars for the next one.

My nutrition has been good over the past few weeks, and I'm watching my nutrition over the next day, making sure I am hydrated, have enough carbs etc.

[RobRollin]

Quick question, should I go with jersey, knicks, leg and arm covers, or just the jersey and knicks? I'm trying to get aero!! Cages came off last night, front and rear lights.

[Alex Simmons/RST]

Quick question, should I go with jersey, knicks, leg and arm covers, or just the jersey and knicks? I'm trying to get aero!! Cages came off last night, front and rear lights.

Depends on how cold it is!

I would rarely ride a TT with leg warmers but arm warmers, if tight, would be OK. If cold I might leave the warmers on until right up to the start.
A skin suit is much much better.

Anything that flaps or is loose is slowing you down.

If on road bike then hands on the hoods, elbows bent so forearms are parallel to ground, that brings head and back down. Unless your bars are pretty high relative to saddle, then you would hold onto the drops. But in general, using the hoods as described is more aero than using the drops.

[Grant W]

Quick question, should I go with jersey, knicks, leg and arm covers, or just the jersey and knicks? I'm trying to get aero!! Cages came off last night, front and rear lights.

Make sure you leave the wheels on Rob, You may need them

Brought a pair of "Skin's" leggings a couple of days ago, and love them they are pricey tho $160.00 at Rebel Sport.

Good luck for tomorrow.

[Chuck]

Some good info in this thread, cheers

[RobRollin]

I know my bike isn't really 100% for this TT, the last week deu to the rain and wind, grithas become my chains enemy, although Ive done a thorough job cleaning it, the bike is dirty, so I'll be cleaning tomorrow, every gram of dirt counts.

Weather should be Drizzle. Mostly Cloudy. Cool. Wind: 24 km/h NW. Rain: 1mm (32% chance). Temp: 4~13

[lmc60397]

always sunny at sandford but i know one TT was washed out my husband, will most likely be down there while i am at cadbury's working a 12 hour day lol he rides with a group from cremone on sunday and really ever do they miss a day because of the wheather also rides wednesday's out at Richmond

[RobRollin]

Cadbury's...I've forgotten how many times I've ridden up that now using it as training for sprints. Should be a good showing tomorrow.