# Time trial



## carlwyckman (11 Mar 2009)

Would be thankful for some advices about time trial training. I want to be really fast on short distances as 3-5 km. What should I do, and how? Perhaps some one can give example for a "normal" week? 

Notice that I just want to get better at time trial, I stil want to be good at the longer distances too.


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## montage (11 Mar 2009)

People will no doubt shout about interval training..but my opinion is that if you want to go faster, pedal harder. Sorry I am not that useful! (But will be watching the response to this thread with interest myself)


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## carlwyckman (11 Mar 2009)

Get your point, have tried it but it wasn´t quite that easy


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## Will1985 (11 Mar 2009)

Without a power meter, I'd say it's all about distance training and (turbo) intervals to develop a better lactate threshold.
Start off with some short intervals of a minute or so, and build up to longer 5 or 10 minute intervals. Generally speaking you want to do sets of intervals which add up to a time you expect to do. In the UK we do 16km TTs, so for instance a 24 minute person might be looking at 8 intervals of 3 minutes and later 3 intervals of 8 minutes at a 40km/h pace.


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## aran20 (12 Mar 2009)

carlwyckman said:


> Would be thankful for some advices about time trial training. I want to be really fast on short distances as 3-5 km. What should I do, and how? Perhaps some one can give example for a "normal" week?
> 
> Notice that I just want to get better at time trial, I stil want to be good at the longer distances too.




Possibly, if you have a velodome nearby, get a fixed bike and do some hard sessions around the boards. For the distances you want to be riding, hard efforts at a high cadence around a track would be ideal. I used to do this in the closed season and found it really helped.


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## carlwyckman (12 Mar 2009)

Sorry to say that we havn´t got any velodome at all in Sweden, think it would be a good way to get faster though..


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## Dave5N (12 Mar 2009)

Copenhagen it is then.


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## Fab Foodie (13 Mar 2009)

Welcome carlwyckman

Where in Sweden? I lived in Helsingborg for a while.

Intervals and Turbo sessions would be good, but really joining a club would be an excellent Idea if there is one near you.

TT's are about measured effort and a lot of pain!


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## carlwyckman (13 Mar 2009)

Thanks! A smal town called oskarshamn near to oland! I am joining a club there later this month or next. Helsingborg is a nice town! Why did you move?


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## Chrisz (13 Mar 2009)

carlwyckman said:


> Would be thankful for some advices about time trial training. I want to be really fast on short distances as 3-5 km. What should I do, and how? Perhaps some one can give example for a "normal" week?
> 
> Notice that I just want to get better at time trial, I stil want to be good at the longer distances too.



Probably the best way to get better at TTs is to do them. Join a local cluba nd see if they run evening/club TT events. In the UK most clubs run evening '10' events (a 10 mile TT) and there is a regular schedule of 10, 25 and 50 mile events at the weekends.

If you are disciplined you can train on a turbo trainer - personally I found it better/more effective to get out on the bike and do the distances as fast as possible on a regular basis. This, combined with the club evening events, helped me get my times down to the low 21 minutes for a 10 (not brilliant but I didn't start till I was 34 )


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## Fab Foodie (13 Mar 2009)

carlwyckman said:


> Thanks! A smal town called oskarshamn near to oland! I am joining a club there later this month or next. Helsingborg is a nice town! Why did you move?


Oland is very nice!

I was on secondment to the head-office of the company I was working for, the infamous "Glas-huset" of Helsingborg. We were taken over by and American corporation and it seemed a good idea to return to the UK. My daughter was coming-up to schooling age as well, so unfortunately it came to an end. Spent 18 months there, it was fabulous.


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## carlwyckman (13 Mar 2009)

Fab Foodie said:


> Oland is very nice!
> 
> I was on secondment to the head-office of the company I was working for, the infamous "Glas-huset" of Helsingborg. We were taken over by and American corporation and it seemed a good idea to return to the UK. My daughter was coming-up to schooling age as well, so unfortunately it came to an end. Spent 18 months there, it was fabulous.



Ok, have heard about Glas-huset before I think. Sweden is a nice country it really is but these days I wish that I came from France or Spain. It still snows here some days and the temperatur hasn´t gone up that much. It sucks tough I want to spend many hours on my bike now!


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## gavintc (13 Mar 2009)

In my experience, I train better when some one else is pushing me to keep up. When I am out on my own, I notice a hill is never quite as hard as when I ride with the club. The spur of keeping with people who are just a little bit better hurts lots, but gets you fitter. I started to lose a wheel at the back of the club run on Wed night and I just knew that if a gap developed it would hurt even more. So, legs screaming in pain and wanting me to slow down, I just had to dig deeper and keep on that wheel. I hated it, but the high afterward was superb.


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## montage (13 Mar 2009)

gavintc said:


> In my experience, I train better when some one else is pushing me to keep up. When I am out on my own, I notice a hill is never quite as hard as when I ride with the club. The spur of keeping with people who are just a little bit better hurts lots, but gets you fitter. I started to lose a wheel at the back of the club run on Wed night and I just knew that if a gap developed it would hurt even more. So, legs screaming in pain and wanting me to slow down, I just had to dig deeper and keep on that wheel. I hated it, but the high afterward was superb.



Agreed - got dropped due to poor technique on a practise team TT....absolutely blew my brains trying to catch them up again...managed it but as soon as I got onto the wheel, I lost it again through shear exhaustion (tip: don't reduce speed too sharply when coming off the front!)


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