Time Trialing Help

crit jumps don't help much,,, need hard and steady pace.. HR
would help but not when you start slipping off the back
after your pull only to see that red line coming.....been
there, done that....

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

Quoted message said:

I'm not good in the red zone. Need some practical training
tips. I am a cat 3 and a pretty good crit racer with way
above average acceleration. (Just thought I would through
that out there but I can't imagine that this skill will
help at all in a TT).

Based on a recent team TT it seems that I hit my LT so
suddenly that I don't have time to make any adjustments.

At this point I am not even using a heart rate monitor-
broken recently. I know, I know, I'll get one!

Let me know what works for you

But seriously folks: try 1-hour warm up at 50%AT (anabolic
threshold), increase to 70-AT for flat intervals (steady
stairstep times ... 1
min....then rest....2 min...then rest....3 min....rest....up
to 10min. Then repeat a couple more times again. And DO
have a car waiting for you when you get to your last
interval. But don't do it more than twice a week, and on
other days work your sprint back to where it was before
all that hard and steady. And remember, these guys ride
at 80-95%AT for an hour, then go for a 200km ride the
next day..... ah fun

"vernon" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:uP-
[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

crit jumps don't help much,,, need hard and steady pace..
HR would help

but

Quoted message said:

not when you start slipping off the back after your pull
only to see that red line coming.....been there, done
that....

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

Quoted message said:

I'm not good in the red zone. Need some practical
training tips. I am a cat 3 and a pretty good crit racer
with way above average acceleration. (Just thought I
would through that out there but I can't imagine that
this skill will help at all in a TT).

Based on a recent team TT it seems that I hit my LT so
suddenly that I don't have time to make any adjustments.

At this point I am not even using a heart rate monitor-
broken recently. I know, I know, I'll get one!

Let me know what works for you

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

Quoted message said:

I'm not good in the red zone. Need some practical training
tips. I am a cat 3 and a pretty good crit racer with way
above average acceleration. (Just thought I would through
that out there but I can't imagine that this skill will
help at all in a TT).

Based on a recent team TT it seems that I hit my LT so
suddenly that I don't have time to make any adjustments.

You don't mean LT, do you?

For normal TT, warm up properly, like 10 to 15 miles at 5
mph under what you expect to do for the TT, coming up to
time to go do a couple of minutes at TT pace, aim to be by
the start line two or three minutes before you're due off.
Get off the bike, stretch quickly, especially calves and
hamstrings, go to the start line when your minute man
starts. Off the start, hit it for 10-20 seconds to get up to
speed, by spinning not pushing, then change up the gears to
where you want to settle in, get on the TT bars and keep
calm. The first few miles will feel really easy; just keep
spinning, don't take the pace up. Then it'll start to get
painful (and boring) and you just have to hang on in. Try to
judge your effort so you don't have anything left to sprint
through the finish; blowing up with a few hundred yards to
go is better than being able to take it up for the line. If
it's flat and not windy, you'll just be sitting in one gear
the whole time, and the only 'interesting' bit will be
remembering to change down so you can accelerate out of the
roundabout at the turn(s). If there's a hill, save yourself
a bit before the hill, work your balls off up the hill and
over the top, aim to be blowing up a bit about when you're
up to speed again going down the other side (not at the top
of the hill, if you're not up to speed then you are losing
time), then rest down the hill.

For TTT, pretty much the same applies, plus don't try to do
anything special until you're well into the course and
you're sure you can manage. If you've agreed 30 second
turns, then do 30 second turns, not 31 second turns, and if
you're not sure you can hack it do 25 second turns for a
bit, or sit on the back if you're about to be dropped. Your
teammates will not mind too much if you're not doing your
share of the work; they will mind if you're suddenly not
doing any work after your ego takes over and you blow up and
drop off the back. Make sure you're as close to the guy
ahead as you can be when you're not on the front; when you
get to the front make sure you don't take the pace up or
everyone will hate you. If you think you should be going
faster, take longer turns rather than taking the pace up at
the front; if you're coming up to a hill have the less good
climbers skip turns, and if you're going up a really short
hill or accelerating out of a turn try not to drop the guys
who can't sprint. If the TTT is last man counts for time,
then you're going to have to stay together; but if it's e.g.
third man of four, then you'd better have a hand signal
agreed for either 'wait, i'm coming back' or 'go on without
me'; if someone misses a corner and ends up ten seconds
behind the rest of you half way round, you want to wait for
them to come back (and not make them chase on); if someone
is blown up and can't hang on to the group you don't want to
waste thirty seconds letting them catch up only to find they
can't stay on. Good signals: head down in TT position means
'i'm coming back', sitting up, one arm up means 'go on'. If
you are the dropped guy, aim to finish the course as fast as
you can; you'll probably be wasting your effort, but
occasionally you'll come upon your team a bit further on
with their required third place counter having broken his
bike and you'll be needed.

Peter