# First 10 Mile TT - Any tips?



## grellboy (29 Apr 2018)

Doing my first actual tt on Thursday evening. Anybody got any helpful tips?


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## Milkfloat (29 Apr 2018)

Don’t go off too hard, if you don’t feel comfortable being held for the start then you can ask not to be, don’t panic when you get overtaken.


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## Sharky (29 Apr 2018)

Keep your head up.


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## grellboy (29 Apr 2018)

Sharky said:


> Keep your head up.


I was gonna try to keep my head down!


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## Hacienda71 (29 Apr 2018)

Wear tight clothes. Clip on bars help, but best to ride a few times with them first to get used to them. Don't bother with a water bottle. You want to feel absolutely knackered by the end of it so don't hold back. Most of all enjoy it.


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## HLaB (29 Apr 2018)

grellboy said:


> I was gonna try to keep my head down!


https://goo.gl/images/Xj3MBJ


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## palinurus (29 Apr 2018)

Make sure you have some change for entry fee, biscuits and tea.


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## bianchi1 (29 Apr 2018)

Go out and ride the course in advance. If it's a club TT there might not be marshaling on every turn so it's best to know where you are going. Also it gets you used to hills that don't seem much normally, but will blow you to bits if you over do them at race pace. It's also a good idea to make a mental note of any big pot holes on the course that you may not notice when you are at the limit.

Other than that just enjoy.


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## Sharky (29 Apr 2018)

grellboy said:


> I was gonna try to keep my head down!


I hope not. I still have the memory of a poor rider lying on the ground behind a parked car with a pool of blood on the floor and that was over 50 years ago.


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## midlife (29 Apr 2018)

Here's me on one of my first 10's...Skirlaugh roundabout half way ...





As Milkfloat says, keep something for the way back


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## derrick (29 Apr 2018)

Enjoy.


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## r04DiE (29 Apr 2018)

midlife said:


> Here's me on one of my first 10's...Skirlaugh roundabout half way ...
> 
> View attachment 406669
> 
> As Milkfloat says, keep something for the way back


My wallpaper on the PC rotates cycling pics I like. Can I have this one too? It's great!


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## midlife (29 Apr 2018)

r04DiE said:


> My wallpaper on the PC rotates cycling pics I like. Can I have this one too? It's great!



Fine by me  . 

I actually remember it... it's wet and I hated getting wet I was riding my Carlton Cobra with a black hand me down top from Hull Thursday, it was cold so remember putting on my Arsenal football jersey, the "embro" didn't make me any warmer... 

I was hooked


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## r04DiE (29 Apr 2018)

midlife said:


> Fine by me  .
> 
> I actually remember it... it's wet and I hated getting wet I was riding my Carlton Cobra with a black hand me down top from Hull Thursday, it was cold so remember putting on my Arsenal football jersey, the "embro" didn't make me any warmer...
> 
> I was hooked


Brilliant and thank you - when was this?


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## midlife (29 Apr 2018)

Memory is a bit fuddled but I think I was 14 ish so 1974-5.

I loved time trialling so moved onto a second hand Woodrup which I had copper plated....






And then onto a Kevin Sayles Woodrup (bottom bracket on left)






Then had to work for a living and it all stopped


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## biggs682 (30 Apr 2018)

midlife said:


> Memory is a bit fuddled but I think I was 14 ish so 1974-5.
> 
> I loved time trialling so moved onto a second hand Woodrup which I had copper plated....
> 
> ...



Bet you wished you still had them @midlife 

@grellboy if you have time as others have said ride the course beforehand so you know what to expect and to get an idea of where you can get a breather or not , i rode a local tt course a couple of weeks ago on one of my rides and i was surprised by how many others looked to be doing the same all i have to do is deicde whether to enter or not ?


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## r04DiE (2 May 2018)

midlife said:


> Memory is a bit fuddled but I think I was 14 ish so 1974-5.
> 
> I loved time trialling so moved onto a second hand Woodrup which I had copper plated....
> 
> ...


Fantastic, and thank you.


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## palinurus (4 May 2018)

grellboy said:


> Doing my first actual tt on Thursday evening. Anybody got any helpful tips?



Where's our race report?


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## grellboy (4 May 2018)

Oh here we go. Although course is on Norfolk/ Suffolk border bloke who came second says it's quite lumpy, certainly compared to the course he's set his PB on. Anyway, of 18 competitors, I was the only private entry and I came sixth out of 18, with a time of 26.55. All the people ahead of me were aero'd up when compared to me (suits, discs, bars, helmets) so was pretty pleased tbh. Only bummer is I was a full minute behind 5th place and not sure I've got that much of an improvement in me. Average speed 22.3 mph.


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## grellboy (4 May 2018)

Thanks to all for your advice btw.


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## palinurus (4 May 2018)

grellboy said:


> Only bummer is I was a full minute behind 5th place and not sure I've got that much of an improvement in me. Average speed 22.3 mph.



It's possible to make quite big gains in the early stages if you decide to do it regularly, you might well surprise yourself.


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## Cuchilo (5 May 2018)

palinurus said:


> It's possible to make quite big gains in the early stages if you decide to do it regularly, you might well surprise yourself.


Yup . I'm smashing my times by 5 minutes on TT's and 10 on local loops . At a stalemate now though as the next level to get better involves hard work


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## Cuchilo (5 May 2018)

biggs682 said:


> Bet you wished you still had them @midlife
> 
> @grellboy if you have time as others have said ride the course beforehand so you know what to expect and to get an idea of where you can get a breather or not , i rode a local tt course a couple of weeks ago on one of my rides and i was surprised by how many others looked to be doing the same all i have to do is deicde whether to enter or not ?



Just do it , you know you'll love it .


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## grellboy (12 May 2018)

Did my second 10 mile tt on Thursday and with an eye on improvement, been reading up and people suggest interval sessions (between 5 - 10 mins, depending on source) at "above threshold" so this morning i did a ride like this (see heart rate graph). Is this the right kind of thing I should be doing to improve? When near the peaks my hrm said I was in the "maximum" zone.


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## mattobrien (12 May 2018)

grellboy said:


> Did my second 10 mile tt on Thursday and with an eye on improvement, been reading up and people suggest interval sessions (between 5 - 10 mins, depending on source) at "above threshold" so this morning i did a ride like this (see heart rate graph). Is this the right kind of thing I should be doing to improve? When near the peaks my hrm said I was in the "maximum" zone.
> View attachment 408815



Do you have a power meter? They are incredibly useful for time trialling. 

I have used three different sessions to help improve power, sweet spot, which is 2x20mins at Z4. Z5 pyramids, 1min z5, 1min z1, 2min z5, 2 z2, up to five on and then back down. Also z6, 1 min on and 1 off, up to 15 intervals. None of these are nice, but if you do nice stuff then you won’t get quicker.


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## Cuchilo (14 May 2018)

If you dont have a power meter alot of turboing is done on cadence , Have a google about , heres a couple as an example . http://www.220triathlon.com/training/bike/five-turbo-training-sessions/7709-4.html


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## craigwend (15 May 2018)

midlife said:


> Fine by me  .
> 
> I actually remember it... it's wet and I hated getting wet I was riding my Carlton Cobra with a black hand me down top from Hull Thursday, it was cold so remember putting on my Arsenal football jersey, the "embro" didn't make me any warmer...
> 
> I was hooked



They were doing a 25 mile TT through Skirlaugh last week ... today Brandesburton to Tickton 10 mile TT


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## Tin Pot (15 May 2018)

grellboy said:


> Doing my first actual tt on Thursday evening. Anybody got any helpful tips?



GO HARD! _GO HARD!_ AAAAAH!

Oh and know the route well enough that when you’ve got your race brain in gear you stay on course. I mess up half the time and get disqualified. It’s really annoying.

But GO HARD ALL THE TIME!!


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## Cuchilo (15 May 2018)

Tin Pot said:


> GO HARD! _GO HARD!_ AAAAAH!
> 
> Oh and know the route well enough that when you’ve got your race brain in gear you stay on course. I mess up half the time and get disqualified. It’s really annoying.
> 
> But GO HARD ALL THE TIME!!


If i did that i'd blow up after three miles ! I think even a 10 takes some discipline , probably where interval training would help the most .


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## Tin Pot (15 May 2018)

Cuchilo said:


> If i did that i'd blow up after three miles ! I think even a 10 takes some discipline , probably where interval training would help the most .



Meh.






Rage for twenty odd minutes or go home!


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## Cuchilo (15 May 2018)

Tin Pot said:


> Meh.
> 
> View attachment 409454
> 
> ...


Well if you can do a 10 in twenty minutes then you're doing better than me and must have it right .
Myself , without any rage . I can keep the sprint speed up for two maybe three miles and then i know my race is over . It will take me until about 7 miles to get any speed back in and feel fresh again .


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## Tin Pot (16 May 2018)

Cuchilo said:


> Well if you can do a 10 in twenty minutes then you're doing better than me and must have it right .
> Myself , without any rage . I can keep the sprint speed up for two maybe three miles and then i know my race is over . It will take me until about 7 miles to get any speed back in and feel fresh again .



Well, 24 mins.

You just need more rage. I suppose training might help, but more rage definitely - think about Trump, Brexit, those a holes in accounting, the guy who bumped you on the train yesterday morning, the insidiousness of advertising throughout our daily lives...that’s at least an hour of rage right there!


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## Cuchilo (16 May 2018)

Tin Pot said:


> Well, 24 mins.
> 
> You just need more rage. I suppose training might help, but more rage definitely - think about Trump, Brexit, those a holes in accounting, the guy who bumped you on the train yesterday morning, the insidiousness of advertising throughout our daily lives...that’s at least an hour of rage right there!


Sounds to me like you need anger management therapy  Seriously though , i've never had anyone mention rage before . In fact people have said the opposite and always said keep it together .
Alot of people say you can afford to give it everything in a 10 for the whole race . i've never heard a timetrialer say this though . You still need to pace it so you have given everything at mile 10 but thats the same for a 25 , 50 and not that ive done one but 100 ( those guys are crazy )


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## cisamcgu (16 May 2018)

Sharky said:


> I hope not. I still have the memory of a poor rider lying on the ground behind a parked car with a pool of blood on the floor and that was over 50 years ago.



I saw that too once, on the D10/1 in Bickerstaffe, not nice at all


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## smutchin (16 May 2018)

Cuchilo said:


> If i did that i'd blow up after three miles ! I think even a 10 takes some discipline , probably where interval training would help the most .



First time I did our club 10 on the dual carriageway route, I blew up in a big way, having massively overdone it on the outward stretch - clocked the first mile in a little over two minutes, but in the last two miles, I went from being on course for sub-24 PB to finishing in over 27 minutes, my worst time ever.

The circuit route is easier to manage because it's four laps so you can measure your effort better. Proper TT racers don't like it though, because it's quite twisty.


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## Ian H (16 May 2018)

smutchin said:


> ...Proper TT racers don't like it though, because it's quite twisty.


What was it Proudhon said about proper TT?


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## Sharky (16 May 2018)

cisamcgu said:


> I saw that too once, on the D10/1 in Bickerstaffe, not nice at all


I've ridden that course a few times and did my PB on it when it started in Blindfoot lane. Always felt it a safe course althpugh the motor way turn is a bit scary. The accident I remember was on the J14 in about 1967/8. Will never forget.


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