First Time Trial - Crash Course in Reality

[freshsushi]

So I have been attending a few "beginner" criteriums, and have been doing pretty well in that I haven't been dropped and I usually finish somewhere in the middle.

I swam for my school in college - I think I read that a few of you did that as well, so you'd know that for a Div. I NCAA college team requires you to practice about 20 hours a week, and on top of that you'd lift weights, etc. I graduated about two years ago.

With my swimming background and recent success with criteriums, I thought that a Time Trial would be a piece of cake. I read from a few articles that you're supposed to pace yourself, while other people had said that you should feel close to throwing up through the whole race. The TT I chose was 10 miles long, and my commute to work is about 12 miles, so distance shouldn't be too much of a problem. On my commutes, my average speed's about 16 mph with hills, stops, etc. This TT is supposedly pretty flat, so I figured 18 mph average speed would get me a top 3 finish.

First someone held up my bicycle at the start, which was a little unnerving, then as he let go, I thought I was going to fall. No matter, I spun right up to 18... then it became 20... and I couldn't slow down. After 2.5 miles, I'm still holding 22mph comfortably, but 2 people have passed me by now (we're spaced 1 minute apart). At 4.5 miles I'm desperately looking around for the turn around cone. At 5 I finally find it, spin around, nearly crash, and speed back up. At 6 I had to grab a drink of water, and 3 more rides pass me with relative ease. At 8 I considered pulling off to the side and riding back home, I'm barely holding 19 mph. At 9 miles I remembered an article which mentionned you should give it all you have at the last mile, but I really didn't feel like I had anything left. At the last half kilometer, one last person passed me and I could see the finish line. And I finally finish, average speed of 21.5 mph.

I was positive no one could've gone faster, I was as pleased as punch at my average speed. I walked up to the results sheet.

Ahem. Dead last. By a good 30 seconds. The first place-er came in 5 minutes faster.

So in light of this educational experience, how was your first times? I'm wondering if I should've gone faster during my first few miles. What did you do to improve your times, (i.e. changed your warm up routine, learned from experience, etc)? What drills should I be doing to increase my speed? Do cycling teams practice time trials and how often? I obviously need all the help I can get.

[Eden]

Don't feel too bad - time trialing is hard and learning how to pace yourself is not easy. (I didn't talk to you in the parking lot did I? I'm the Group Health gal with the red Saturn - spoke with someone briefly who had a Cervelo / black jersey from Eastern WA)

A couple of things you can do to improve your time - in no particular order:

1. if you weren't using aerobars get some. They are the biggest thing you can do to increase your efficency in a TT - the rest of the gear is icing on the cake once you start doing well.

2. warm up throughly - the shorter the event the longer you want to warm up. I did a 45 min warm up on a trainer for this TT - a little longer even may have been better. Also when you warm up it shouldn't all be easy spinning. You want to get your heart rate up and start your muscles clearing lactic acid.

3. you may want to recalibrate your computer - by my calcuations your average speed over 10 miles was 19.74 mph so unless you went further than 10 miles you speed was a bit off.

4. figure out a system for pacing yourself. My personal method is by heart rate, but other people use cadence or other methods. I have a small range that I try to keep my hr in (coincidentally it is pretty much in line with a 90 to 100 rpm cadence as well, but yesterday was the first time I've had cadence on my computer so now I know). I've never been tested for LT(lactate threshold), but experience has taught me pretty much how high I can push my hr without completely blowing up.

5. Don't give up - your swimming experience I'm sure brings you in with a very good cardio vascular system, but it does take some time to train your body for cycling. Cycling specific training will help - doing intervals will make you faster, base miles in the winter will prepare you for next year.

Hope we'll see you around next spring (and if you are in the Seattle area you may want to check out the Women's rides http://www.wsbaracing.com/womenmtt.asp and Meet the Teams rides http://www.wsbaracing.com/meettheteams.asp that are starting up in September on Saturdays and Sundays)

[KSH]

Ha! Well, I know I will NEVER make it in a time trial!

And I finally finish, average speed of 21.5 mph.

That's faster than my bike computer will ever see for an average! Not that it matters, but you rock in my book!

[freshsushi]

Wow! Thanks for the wealth of information!

I would have never thought to warm up more - I honestly thought that I shouldn't warm up for more than 3 or 4 miles at a really easy tempo.

And you're probably right, I had just bought my computer and 19 mph is still faster than what I was planning on going anyways.

I didn't end up talking to anyone, I got there pretty late and I was spending most of the time in my car trying to keep down my breakfast - first time jitters perhaps?

I will definately go out to the Meet the Teams ride - it seems that there's more to time trials than I realized.

[RoadRaven]

Hey there Sushi - awesome time! (although the average and distance dont seem to match... like Eden said, just check your speedo)

I have a 25km TT coming up this Saturday and aiming for my average to be 31-32kph at the least (thats only about 19-20mph I think?). It has a hill in the middle of it which will slow me down... and probably a head wind out but at least the tail wind back will be nice.

I concur with the importance of warming up - I do a good warm-up too before a road race or a TT - about 30 minutes.

As eden suggests, aerobars are well worth it - they raise your speed by about 1-2kph without any extra effort.

When I TT I tend to spend the first 3 kilometres just building up to my lactate threshold... then I try and ride just under it. At the last 8 or so kilometres I start to wind it up another notch riding in my lactate threshold, and the last 1-2 kms I try to go over my lactate threshold. It hurts, and my head still doesn't allow me to push my body as much as I should... but I am working on it. Ideally, at the end of a TT you should be able to say to truly gave it everything you had.

Welcome to the world of racing addiction...

[Brecca]

Boy I'll say it was a crash course in reality for everyone! Thank you for the input and reality check. I'm facing my first 40k TT this weekend. I'll say this, I'm not fast, but I'm determined. You all have given some very sound advice that I plan to consider. I think I'm riding a Catrike so I'm not expecting really high speeds, but I would like to keep my cadance up around 100. My best speed is usually around 18-24mph. How long can I sustain that speed? I guess I'll find out on Sunday. Wish me luck girls. I raced North Manchester,IN this last weekend and tied for second place in the women's class with Jane Hunn, who is a very tallented recumbent rider. I never worked so hard in my life....nor have I ever felt better. If you've never raced, take my advice. TRY IT! Win or loose, you'll have a ball.

[RoadRaven]

Hi Brecca... welcome to the board and good luck with the TT on Sunday... I have a 25km one on my Saturday which will be almost your Sunday!!!

Remember to pace yourself, settle into a rythym and don't get phased by others... its your race, you ride it.

[SheFly]

Woohoo - two new TT victims . Welcome to both of you. Eden and Raven have given you some great advice, with which I will concur. Warm up is key for a TT, especially the shorter ones where you will need to have a high output the entire time.

On our 9.75 mile course, I am pretty much pegged from the time I start until I finish. Last night, after we crossed the line (DH and I were on our tandem), I literally couldn't pedal anymore. My average HR for the duration was 180 bpm, with a max of 186.

The biggest piece of advice - keep at it. You will see steady increases in your average speed each time you go out. When I first started, my speeds were in the 21 mph range, but I have progressed to now averaging 23.8 mph on my own (although we had over a 28 mph average on the tandem last night!).

Welcome to the addictive world of TT!

SheFly

p.s.
Raven and Brecca - good luck to both of you on your TTs this weekend! Please let us know how you do.

[mtbdarby]

Love this info ladies. Maybe I'll convert sometime but I like reading about the speed here.

So question. How do you figure out your lactate threshold? Sounds like if I figure that out and train using that info I should be able to work on my speed. Then I can truely embrace my inner tourtoise!

[AuntieK]

Wow, freshsushi, you couldn't have written a better description of my first
TT! I still haven't gone back, but am planning to soon, so I too am thankful for the advice given in this tread.