Anyone else ride TT's here?

"Arthur Clune" <[email hidden]>typed

Quoted message said:

Does anyone?

Quoted message said:

I'm curious as to what you think about during the TT. How do you maintain
focus and effort?

Quoted message said:

I nearly always have a couple of intervals of a minute or so where my mind
wanders and the effort drops off. Not ideal.

I can't remember ever thinking during TTs...

--
Helen D. Vecht: [email hidden]
Edgware.

Helen Deborah Vecht said:

"Arthur Clune" <[email hidden]>typed

Quoted message said:

Does anyone?

Quoted message said:

I'm curious as to what you think about during the TT. How do you maintain
focus and effort?

Quoted message said:

I nearly always have a couple of intervals of a minute or so where my mind
wanders and the effort drops off. Not ideal.

I can't remember ever thinking during TTs...

I thought TTs were for people who didn't think ;-)

John B
Ex tt'er

Arthur Clune said:

Does anyone?

I'm curious as to what you think about during the TT. How do you maintain
focus and effort?

I nearly always have a couple of intervals of a minute or so where my mind
wanders and the effort drops off. Not ideal.

When I was hooked TTs I found my mind wandering off and looking at the
early morning countryside and thinking of touring rides. Then suddenly
I'd realise I was supposed to be in a race. Yes it did affect speed.
After some sessions of track racing I found that the increase in speed
and the requirement for constant concentration transferred to road time
trials and performances 'improved'.

Thankfully I broke the addiction and am now cured so its no more course
chasing and lorry slipstreaming for me.
Its now back to less lethal aspects of cycling.

John B

in message <[email hidden]>, Arthur Clune

(') said:

Does anyone?

I'm curious as to what you think about during the TT. How do you
maintain focus and effort?

I don't do TTs because I'm not competitive. But I find when I'm cycling
a long distance fast I get into a Zen state where I'm not actually
thinking consciously of anything at all - I'm just 'being a turbine'.
And 'being a turbine' really works for me for covering distance fast.
The world sort of narrows down to you and the pedals and your leg
muscles (and possibly if you've got one the computer), and you just
spin along the edge where the feeling of tightness in your legs isn't
building up too much.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

Morning had broken, and we had run out of gas for the welding torch.

In article <[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Does anyone?

I'm curious as to what you think about during the TT. How do you
maintain focus and effort?

Yes, I ride TT's most weeks, and yes I also have a concentration
problem. The only thing that works for me is to look at my HRM as often
as possible. If it drops below what I set as my lower limit (usually
around 163bpm on a 40k TT) then I 'wake up' and push on.

It's always been a problem for me, but I didn't realise it was a common
issue!

Thanks!

PS: It's 18:36, pissing down, and I'm off out now to ride my clubs
first'evening 10' of the year (starts at 17:45)...I must be mad :-)

--
Mark (MSA)
This post is packaged by intellectual weight, not volume. Some settling
of contents may have occurred during transmission

JohnB <[email hidden]> wrote:

: Thankfully I broke the addiction and am now cured so its no more course
: chasing and lorry slipstreaming for me.
: Its now back to less lethal aspects of cycling.

I don't ride courses like that so it's not an issue. I totally agree
with you about the lorry thing.

I like TT's with corners, hills and no traffic.

Arthur

--
Arthur Clune http://www.clune.org
"Technolibertarians make a philosophy out of a personality defect"
- Paulina Borsook

MSA <[email hidden]> wrote:

: It's always been a problem for me, but I didn't realise it was a common
: issue!

As others have said, the key to TT'ing seems to be not to think. I find
this hard 🙂

: PS: It's 18:36, pissing down, and I'm off out now to ride my clubs
: first'evening 10' of the year (starts at 17:45)...I must be mad :-)

I gave our Spoco a miss since I didn't want to ride out to the event,
hang around, ride event, hang around for results and then ride back
when knackered and wet. I did do a good training session though so
it wasn't all bad.

Arthur

--
Arthur Clune http://www.clune.org
"Technolibertarians make a philosophy out of a personality defect"
- Paulina Borsook

"Arthur Clune" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Does anyone?

I'm curious as to what you think about during the TT. How do you maintain
focus and effort?

I really don't like TT's, only ride a few club 10's now more as a
social than anything else . The only thing that works for me is to set
the computer to display just the average and absolutely refuse to let
the average go below 32kph
(so I don't get laughed at for doing less than evens) ;-0

Arthur Clune said:

Does anyone?

I'm curious as to what you think about during the TT. How do you maintain
focus and effort?

I nearly always have a couple of intervals of a minute or so where my mind
wanders and the effort drops off. Not ideal.

Arthur

I've only ridden TTs in duathlons but I do run a lot of races and would say
that loss of concentration can be a problem there too. For most runners
races are more like TTs because you're not normally competing 1-on-1 with
other people. The main target is a better personal time.

I think the solution is to concentrate on the critical performance
indicator. In a bike TT this is probably average speed and, compared to
the vast majority of runners (who have to rely on mile or km markers and
split times), you do have the advantage of a continuous instantaneous
readout. Working to a target heart-rate is probably even better although,
in the absence of a monitor, concentration on perceived effort may also be
useful. To achieve your best (or even a lower target) you need to
concentrate hard on what you're doing - all of the time.

The fact is, if your mind wanders then you're obviously not sufficiently
motivated to perform as well as you can. Perhaps you should ask yourself
why you bother doing TTs?

--
Michael MacClancy
Random putdown - "I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't
it." -Groucho Marx
www.macclancy.demon.co.uk
www.macclancy.co.uk

Michael MacClancy <[email hidden]> wrote:

: The fact is, if your mind wanders then you're obviously not sufficiently
: motivated to perform as well as you can. Perhaps you should ask yourself
: why you bother doing TTs?

To get fit for more interesting things of course 🙂

Average speed is no good as an indicator on the courses I ride (usually hilly) so
it has to be heart rate. Do people try and think in terms of "keep going for the
next X mins" and then do it again, or what?

Arthur

--
Arthur Clune http://www.clune.org
"Technolibertarians make a philosophy out of a personality defect"
- Paulina Borsook

in message <[email hidden]>, Michael

MacClancy (') said:

Working to a target heart-rate is probably even better
although, in the absence of a monitor, concentration on perceived
effort may also be
useful. To achieve your best (or even a lower target) you need to
concentrate hard on what you're doing - all of the time.

All this talk about heart rate... I know what limits my performance, and
always has even when I've been really fit, is my ability to clear
lactic acid out of my leg muscles. Cramp has always been the limiter
for me. Am I unusual in this?

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; this is not a .sig

Simon Brooke <[email hidden]> wrote:

: All this talk about heart rate... I know what limits my performance, and
: always has even when I've been really fit, is my ability to clear
: lactic acid out of my leg muscles. Cramp has always been the limiter
: for me. Am I unusual in this?

No. Everyone is the same. The trick is to ride at a heart rate that means
your legs only fill with lactic for the last mile or so.

--
Arthur Clune http://www.clune.org
"Technolibertarians make a philosophy out of a personality defect"
- Paulina Borsook

Arthur Clune said:

Does anyone?

I'm curious as to what you think about during the TT. How do you maintain
focus and effort?

I nearly always have a couple of intervals of a minute or so where my mind
wanders and the effort drops off. Not ideal.

I think about the pain, and how it will stop at the finish. I can't
really concentrate on anything else.

At the start its al nerves........3-2-1- your off...the legs hurt, the lungs
on fire
and BANG your on the ride..Im always lookin for the guy in front,,the guy 2
mins, 3 mins in front..
judging the distance waitin for the turn..countin the seconds as you get to
the place your minute man was and then your passed by the guy who doesnt
think but rides the ride..lololol

D@vo...

the bigger the ring the more it hurts....

The TT ..the race of truth ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Zog The Undeniable" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:40be0816.0@entanet...

Quoted message said:

Arthur Clune said:

Does anyone?

I'm curious as to what you think about during the TT. How do you

maintain

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

focus and effort?

I nearly always have a couple of intervals of a minute or so where my

mind

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

wanders and the effort drops off. Not ideal.

I think about the pain, and how it will stop at the finish. I can't
really concentrate on anything else.