Courage to ITT

I'd recommend that you do them. It will be great training because you will almost certainly force yourself to go harder than you would in practice. The more TTs you do, the better prepared you are for the next one. And because you have no "reputation" at stake yet, you can experiment without worry.

Your most basic strategy is to go the fastest speed you can that you think you can hold for the distance (not including hills, of course). One minute that might be 15 mph and another that might be 20 - it's a constant conversation, and sometimes argument, between your mind and your body.

I like the Nike "JUST DO IT" approach just fine. I started racing just last year and my first sanctioned event was a 10k TT. You don't have to be stressed over pack riding skills, covering breaks, getting dropped etc. You have one goal and that is to finish the distance as fast as you can....pretty simple.

A tactic that I have been using (again I'm pretty new as well) that was suggested to me by a coach is to run the race in thirds. In your case the first 4 miles at a pace that you are sure you could maintain for the whole 20k, 2nd 4 miles at a pace that is a bit harder and then try to bring it home the best you can that final 4 miles.

It takes time to get better at TT'ing as you learn what your body is telling you and how much pain you can endure.....you are only racing yourself and that stopwatch.

- one racer advised me to switch from current speed to average speed , on the computer. And stick to a figure.

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Thanks for the replies/advice so far! The TT is next weekend and I'm going to l scout the route this weekend...

For a 20K TT, how stripped down does the bike get? Lose the water bottles, lose the saddle bag (?...there's supposed to be a pick-up van, if necessary); the terrain is hilly, so maybe lose the mini-aero/TT bars?

Thanks

I think it's great that you want to do a TT. It doesn't matter how fit or expericence you are. If you plan to get better there is no better teacher than an actual race.

Clip on bars for sure. Keep one water bottle and carry a bottle, at least a small one. Make sure to spend sometime in the bars BEFORE race day. A couple important tips for your first TT. Warm up well before the ride. At least 30 minutes. Maybe a 10 min warm up very low intenstiy and then a couple of efforts with rest inbetween, say 5 minutes in duration to get your HR up to or near your TT HR. Then cool down about 10 min and head to the start line about 10 min before your time slot. Second, don't go out too fast/hard at the start. You will hate yourself if you do. : ) Think of the ride as a carpet unrolling. It starts out slow speeding up more and more as it unrolls, then snaps open at the end. Find your rhythm from the start and settle into your TT HR. Riding or driving the course before hand is a great idea and will help you know where the climbs are and where you can really push it. Know where the finish line is. Most of all have fun!!!!

azdroptop said:

I think it's great that you want to do a TT. It doesn't matter how fit or expericence you are. If you plan to get better there is no better teacher than an actual race.

Clip on bars for sure. Keep one water bottle and carry a bottle, at least a small one. Make sure to spend sometime in the bars BEFORE race day. A couple important tips for your first TT. Warm up well before the ride. At least 30 minutes. Maybe a 10 min warm up very low intenstiy and then a couple of efforts with rest inbetween, say 5 minutes in duration to get your HR up to or near your TT HR. Then cool down about 10 min and head to the start line about 10 min before your time slot. Second, don't go out too fast/hard at the start. You will hate yourself if you do. : ) Think of the ride as a carpet unrolling. It starts out slow speeding up more and more as it unrolls, then snaps open at the end. Find your rhythm from the start and settle into your TT HR. Riding or driving the course before hand is a great idea and will help you know where the climbs are and where you can really push it. Know where the finish line is. Most of all have fun!!!!

Yes, it's definitely important to ride the course before the race, and to see which corners you can stay on your aero-bars and which you can't. My first TT I wasn't going to ride the 10K course beforehand, but then at the last moment decided to. I wasn't going race speed and I tried to stay on my aero-bars through a corner and almost crashed. If I had waited until the race to find that out it would have been nasty.