Swancott time trial

[RoadRaven]

Hey there bt, glad you have had another go at the course.

Staying in the bigger gear is a good thing to do... ideally you should be aiming to get "on top" of a gear (do you use cadence at all as a measure? or your heart rate? either of these are useful measures of what you are or can achieve in a TT situation).
Once you are on top of the gear, move up another until you are on top of that, and keep going until you are in the biggest gear you can be in without dropping your cadence too much.

In a TT situation, many people drop their cadence a little - example, in a race situation (on the flat) my cadence is about 85-92rpm... but in a TT it is about 75-80.

If you have a heart rate monitor and you want to measure improvements in both strength, endurance and lactate threshold there are a couple of ways to do this.

ONE:
Ride a TT course as you did on your second go over the course... ride when the conditions are similar (wind, temperature etc etc). However, the time you do training on a TT course will almost inevitably be slower than when you are racing over the same course. So don't be disappointed if your improvements, when on your own, aren't as big as you hoped for...
During a TT (race or training) you should aim to ride at or above your lactate threshold (measured by HR if using a monitor or by perceived effort if not).

TWO:
Ride an Aerobic Time Trial (ATT). You do need a heart rate monitor for this one, and you should know what your lactate threshold is. Choose a 10/15/20km flat course (I use a 15km 'out and back' course). Ride the ATT course at 5-8 heart beats below your lactate threshold and time yourself. Do this every 4-6 weeks and if you are improving you will be able to ride the distance in shorter and shorted times without going over your LT.


How this works for me:

Resting HR 39
Lactate Threshold 159
Max HR 183

I ride a TT between 160 and 170 beats per minute - in a race situation I can do this for up to an hour before my legs are incapable of very much at all - my race TTs take no more than 40 minutes (and slowly I am shaving the time off this)

I ride an ATT at 151-154 beats per minute.


Good luck and I trust you keep enjoying, once you realise you enjoy doing time trials, there is no turning back >