# My very first time trial season



## Nosaj (5 Apr 2012)

I have finally been wooed by the dark side (or having a mid life crisis) and must admit my interest in sedate riding with the CTC has been waning a bit. I have now joined a local club with a view to getting in a full time trial season commencing end april/early may.

I have actually been wanting to do this for a while but work commitments have prevented me. However now having recd a heads up from my boss that I can leave earlier on a Wednesday it should be full steam ahead.

My goals are as follows:
Ride as many Weds eve TT's as I can (there will be instances where work will take priority unfortunately)
First couple try not to rag it and blow and learn the course and the pacing and not worry too much about the time (yeh right)
Early season - break evens
Break 28's by the close of the season.

I have a road bike but may have to invest in clip on areo bars and who knows if the bug bites could be purchasing a TT bike

I will have to drive to start so may only get a warm up of 20 mins or so which will not be much. Was thinking of signing on quickly, and then getting out spinning easy for 15 minutes then increasing intervals towards the end followed by a recovery spin slow up to the start.

In terms of training in addition to the club runs I was just going to go to what I have identified a good local training loop mark out a ten course and try and interval up to a pace above the reqd averages for my goal times. Slowly increasing each interval duration over the course of the weeks.

I hope I have got across my sense of excitement and if any TT pro's out there have any tips they would be very gratefully received.

Cheers


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## Arsen Gere (5 Apr 2012)

Your Weds TT's are a good way to learn pacing and build muscular endurance.
Keep the long slow rides on a weekend too, they help keep up your aerobic base, even if you are only doing 10's a 70-100 mile club run at an easy pace has value.
Knocking 2 mins per year off in the early stages is a reasonable ambition but there seems to be a plateau for some people around the 26-25 min mark (24mph average).
Intervals help to boost your v02 max and lactic threshold so they do add value. If you increase the duration on your intervals you end up doing the same as you do on the Wed TT. I'd consider higher intensity on you intervals rather than longer duration. But in between each interval don't back off completely keep some effort going (50-70%). It is the size of the rest period not so much the inensity which determines whether you recruit your aerobic or anerobic path ways. (Bilat).

1 TT, 1 interval session and 1 long ride are a good workout. Keep the TT and interval session apart as they impare each other.
HTH


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## biggs682 (5 Apr 2012)

just go and enjoy yourself its not about coming first or is it


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## oldroadman (5 Apr 2012)

All good advice. Just remember intervals teach your body to ride fast and accept high intensity effort plus the associated pain. All long steady rides build stamina but teaches your body to ride slow and steady. Warm up progressively, if you can arrive at the srat line sweating a lot and slightly blowing then it's a good thing because you will be able to start fast, and then hang on to keep it going. If you have done plenty of miles with CTC then there will be a reasonable stamina base, so don't worry about blowing. Have a good dose of high calories about 30-60 minutes before the start (even a gel or two is OK. Remember the idea is to go fast, and as you steadily improve the speed will last longer and longer - a good regime might well mean you will be nearer 25 minutes than 28 if you get it right. Good luck, and enjoy post-race )because you won't enjoy the race much if you are trying really hard!!). You'll feel great though, being fit.


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## User16625 (6 Apr 2012)

biggs682 said:


> just go and enjoy yourself its not about coming first or is it


 
A time trial is a type of race. What races were you thinking of?


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## biggs682 (6 Apr 2012)

RideLikeTheStig said:


> A time trial is a type of race. What races were you thinking of?


 
yes but not all of us can come first hence my comment


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## Ian H (7 Apr 2012)

It's not by any means my first season of TTing, but I ventured out for my first 10, first TT since around June last year. Managed 25.05 which is a little frustrating. Still, things can only get better...can't they?


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## User16625 (8 Apr 2012)

Ian H said:


> It's not by any means my first season of TTing, but I ventured out for my first 10, first TT since around June last year. Managed 25.05 which is a little frustrating. Still, things can only get better...can't they?


 

A little frustrating, I know the feeling I hate paying speeding fines too.


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## airbus387 (11 Apr 2012)

Nosaj said:


> I have finally been wooed by the dark side (or having a mid life crisis) and must admit my interest in sedate riding with the CTC has been waning a bit. I have now joined a local club with a view to getting in a full time trial season commencing end april/early may.
> 
> I have actually been wanting to do this for a while but work commitments have prevented me. However now having recd a heads up from my boss that I can leave earlier on a Wednesday it should be full steam ahead.
> 
> ...


 Hi its airbus387 here just read your post.When i was going well i use to ride in a chaingang wheeling about two times a week the other two nights my dad would take his motorbike out on a quiet bit of road and i would ride behind it. Rideing a tt alot of it is mind over matter you have to fit enough to suffer but you have to be in the right state of mind.Just start rideing local tt/s and progress i only got a low profile bike and disc wheels towards the end of my raceing days.the main thing with a tt is you can see your self improve ITS A RACE OF TRUTH.i liked rideing the road to but you can hide at times in a bunch if you can tt it makes you a better road rider when it comes to stage races


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## Blue (12 Apr 2012)

Invest in a copy of 'Time-Trialling, Fly through the pain barrier', by Adam Topham - a great book that will point you in all the right directions.


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## Brahan (12 Apr 2012)

I'm not really qualified to give advice but I would say a good idea is to enjoy it.


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## Nosaj (16 Apr 2012)

Many thanks for all your advice. Quick update.

I went on a club run with the club I will be TT ing with. They had an ever so slightly different riding style to the CTC as they ripped my legs off (pace was not particularly high 16.1mph avge over 25 miles) but the headwinds killed it. I stayed with them and actually came back to the club house in second place (out of the five riders in our group)

One of the Juniors posted a 23 minutes 10 on Easter Monday (in the rain and wind)

Hoping to do my first one this weds (the 1st TT is a 2 up). I will be riding solo to recce the course, sort pacing etc and as my time will not be counted because I am solo it will be a good one to cut my teeth on without the pressure of a time.

Cheers


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