Time Trial

[RoadRaven]

Kelowna, SadieKate is soooo right. I train over the TT courses I mentioned above, and some other courses I treat as a TT. But I always beat a PB set training when in a race situation. Although a TT is a race against yourself, when you do it in a race situation, setting off a minute apart from other riders, you have two incentives to give you wings… you want to keep in sight of the person in front, and hopefully close the gap a little (then you know you are improving your time) and you want to stay ahead of the person behind (having someone pass you can be a bit of a head f**k and sometimes demoralising).

The first club TT I did I was started first… so I had two goals. One was to do a PB and the other was to make sure no-one caught me. I achieved both.

[RoadRaven]

Hammer… you don’t need to wait til the club does another TT… you can practice on your own or with friends (just don’t draft off each other). Remember, if you do a hard ride (like a training TT) then make sure you allow yourself enough recovery time between it and your next hard ride.

Ideally I would do a TT attempt at a PB in training about every 2 ½ - 3 weeks. Unfortunately, weather, work and kids mean this isn’t possible. But if it was, I wouldn’t do TTs any closer – I’m not fit enough for my age to be able to recover quickly from close intensive rides.

[RoadRaven]

Do they ever have TT teams racing? - ie husband/wife team? DH and I love to ride and draft and are always trying to beat our last time / avg speed. It would be fun to do that in a race...

I don't know about over your way, but we do have a husband/wife on a tandem in the club.

But I learned about a week ago that for a while tandems were not allowed to race in our club... I think the UCI regs were used as a reason to stop tandems from racing and I'm not sure of the history. However, they are allowed to race again... I think there is just the husband wife, and also two brothers that race sometimes on a tandem.

Certainly in nationals and internationals, tandems have their own category.

As for mixed teams, you would have to check - I'm not sure. But see how your local club feels.

In our local TTs, the tandem races, but always in the results (TTs or RRs) they are listed as the *****(their name) Tandem with their time beside, because the nature of a tandem will of course give different results (sometimes more favourable, sometimes less, depending on the course) to a single rider/bike.

[Eden]

Do they ever have TT teams racing? - ie husband/wife team? DH and I love to ride and draft and are always trying to beat our last time / avg speed. It would be fun to do that in a race...

Down here we sometimes have tandems included in time trials - mostly in the non-uscf races, but sometimes in those too. In fact our Road Nationals included tandem catagories in not only the TT, but in the road race too. I also know that mixed teams are allowed - the one person I know who does tandem racing rides as a mixed pair.

There's a big tandem race every year down in Oregon - its a little far for you to travel, but it could be fun - its already over but here is this year's flyer http://www.wsbaracing.com/flyers/200..._Tandem_RR.pdf

[SheFly]

Wow SheFly… the first time you did your local course you averaged 33.6kph ( I have to keep the calculator open on the PC while I visit TE)
I am well-impressed! And your PB is 37.95… May I ask how old you are or your age category?
This def is your speciality, at that kind of speed you could consider trying out some national competitions…

My partner and I have talked about getting a racing tandem too… although at the moment it would probably be used by my two older sons as they are of similar ability and cadence. My partner could ride with either of them, but he is still stronger than them and would have to adjust his cadence to match their flying legs.

My partner and I are similar in cadence, so once I’m a little stronger (and lighter – still have about 10-15kgs to go) then we might be able to race together.

You are right – It is extremely addictive – I have printouts of the fastest club times at work which I (not infrequently) sometimes just stare at and drift off into a world of numbers, calculations, variables – like wind, and heart rate…

Thanks, RoadRaven! I am 38, and really LOVE doing the TT! You should consider a tandem ride despite difference in cadence - DH and I are at two VERY different racing levels, but the tandem allows us to stay together, and the cadence adjustment comes with time and miles on the road. We have been riding our tandems for several years, and I really LOVE to do the TT on it as well (although the past two weeks, there has been some swearing involved ).

Eden - a humid day is the BEST day for a TT! Two weeks ago, the heat index here was 114 - 101 degrees plus vicious humidity. Believe it or not, the humidity makes the air less dense, meaning that it is faster to get through with less effort. I came within a few seconds of my PR that night...

Tandems are a separate category in most races, but are not allowed in most USCF events. DH and I are planning a road trip (from MA to OR) next year for the very same stage race Eden posted! I think that would be an absolute hoot!

RoadRaven - we have 9 seconds to trim before setting our club course TT record on the tandem.... The longest 9 seconds in eternity . I'll keep you posted - next race is this coming Weds. There are worse things to which to be addicted!

SheFly

[SheFly]

Do they ever have TT teams racing? - ie husband/wife team? DH and I love to ride and draft and are always trying to beat our last time / avg speed. It would be fun to do that in a race...

Do you mean on a tandem, or on single bikes? Locally we have a couple of team time trial races(everyone on their own bike), but they typically have 4 racers. I'm not sure if there are any team TTs with just two racers...

SheFly

[SheFly]

Ideally I would do a TT attempt at a PB in training about every 2 ½ - 3 weeks. Unfortunately, weather, work and kids mean this isn’t possible. But if it was, I wouldn’t do TTs any closer – I’m not fit enough for my age to be able to recover quickly from close intensive rides.

You'd be surprised - I do our club TT each week, in between my training and racing on the weekends (I don't have kids, in case you can't tell...).

SheFly

[kelownagirl]

Do you mean on a tandem, or on single bikes? Locally we have a couple of team time trial races(everyone on their own bike), but they typically have 4 racers. I'm not sure if there are any team TTs with just two racers...

SheFly

I mean single bikes. A tandem would be fun but I am too... hmmm... independent? for lack of a better word - to ride a tandem all the time. I want to ride my own bike. Test myself. So I was imagining m/f pairs TT's, drafting, racing against other couples.

[RoadRaven]

I have never heard of paired TTs

Perhaps there is a race designed like this, but I doubt it would be called a TT

The TT is about individual performance, individual power output and individual endurance.

The one exception of course is the team TT - but I have not heard of m/f pairs in a TT...

I do think your idea is an interesting concept and I would be interested to know if anyone out there has heard of such a race... I might suggest it for one of our end of year "fun" events for the club to trial...

[RoadRaven]

Ahhhh... my partner just left for his Sunday morning bunch training ride and as I was helping him and my son sort breakfast, bars, water/glucose water etc etc i asked about m/f TTs.

He said, "you mean 2-up TTs?"

I said... "I dunno, I guess"

He said he didn't know of them happening here in Middle Earth, but overseas they do 2-up TTs and the second person across the line is time recorded for the pair.
So I guess it works like a team TT, but with only two. He wasn't aware of m/f - husband/wife teams as an event. But in much bigger countries like you all have, you're bound to find one in yours!...

[RoadRaven]

Thanks, RoadRaven! I am 38, and really LOVE doing the TT! You should consider a tandem ride despite difference in cadence - DH and I are at two VERY different racing levels, but the tandem allows us to stay together, and the cadence adjustment comes with time and miles on the road. We have been riding our tandems for several years, and I really LOVE to do the TT on it as well (although the past two weeks, there has been some swearing involved ).

And I'm 41 this month - if we were in the same country we'd be racing the same races at the local club (Vet 1 35-44) and sometimes in nationals (Vet 1 35-39, Vet 2 40-44).
I'd love to do the tandem thing with my partner - its one of the great pleasures we get from cycling - being able to do it together. The younger children still limit this, but not for too much longer. Tandem would make it better... yesterday we both raced (not a TT, just a road race) and wanted to hear about each others races... but we both came in at different times, so we didn't see each other finish (I was at the car getting a jacket when he arrived) and then our older boys want to dissect their races, so we listen to them.

You'd be surprised - I do our club TT each week, in between my training and racing on the weekends (I don't have kids, in case you can't tell...).

I am looking forward to the club's summer series, because as well as the Saturday club races, they also organise Thursday evening TTs, usually based from the local school - they don't count towards series points, but the results do go up on the web page. I am hoping to be able to get to some of these this summer - I watched with some envy as my partner and oldest son headed off last summer.

RoadRaven - we have 9 seconds to trim before setting our club course TT record on the tandem.... The longest 9 seconds in eternity . I'll keep you posted - next race is this coming Weds. There are worse things to which to be addicted!

Good luck with it... I'll be thinking of you. I have to wait two weeks (well, 1 week and 6 days... hmmm... how many sleeps is that???) til my next TT race...

Raven

[SheFly]

Good luck with it... I'll be thinking of you. I have to wait two weeks (well, 1 week and 6 days... hmmm... how many sleeps is that???) til my next TT race...

Raven

Let me know how it goes! I'll post again on Weds and let you know how we did. BTW - hope all is well over there in Middle Earth...

SheFly

[Eden]

Eden - a humid day is the BEST day for a TT! Two weeks ago, the heat index here was 114 - 101 degrees plus vicious humidity. Believe it or not, the humidity makes the air less dense, meaning that it is faster to get through with less effort. I came within a few seconds of my PR that night...

Tandems are a separate category in most races, but are not allowed in most USCF events. DH and I are planning a road trip (from MA to OR) next year for the very same stage race Eden posted! I think that would be an absolute hoot!SheFly

Have fun down in Oregon next year!
I think it was Hammer who mentioned the humidity - though I must admit I find it harder to breathe when the humidity is very high. My last ITT was in wicked dry heat. It was between 99 and 105 when we were out on course and it was oven dry. Us western Washington folks aren't used to it (both the heat and dryness). One guy passed out from heat exhaustion at the finish and they had to call an ambulance for him!

[RoadRaven]

Pssst.... SheFly.... how'd it go?

[SheFly]

Sorry for being so late with the response. The TT last week was cancelled due to road construction. DH and I thought it was too minor to cancel, but they did.

So tonight was the race of truth. Honestly, I was stressed about the whole thing. DH had even gone so far as to put stickers on the disk wheel, proclaiming 20:45 - our target time. The course record for a tandem before tonight was 20:59:9, and our PR was 21:08 - 9 seconds to beat it, but DH wanted a comfortable margin.

When we got to the event tonight, a number of regulars kept asking us if this was the night. Talk about adding to my stress level! A friend asked me how I was feeling, and I said that given that I wasn't even riding yet and my HR was over 130 bpm, I should be fine . Even at the start, as we were prepping for takeoff, one of the volunteers kept repeating "This is the night."

The past two weeks, we have had issues at the start getting clipped into our pedals. Tonight's start was stellar, and we quickly ramped up to speed. I made the mistake of having my HRM so that I could see it, and started to panic somewhat when my HR was over 180 so early in the race... I ended the 9.75 mile loop with a 180 average, and a max of 186 - trust me when I tell you that we were working hard...

Thankfully, the race was fairly uneventful for us, despite the effort we were both expending. I usually can't see anything on the back of the tandem when we are doing the TT, but on the final climb of the circuit, I could tell that we were pretty far out in the lane, and looked up to see us passing a rider who was passing a rider (two abreast), with a car coming in the opposite direction . I decided at that point to put my head back down so I couldn't see anything.

We crossed the line ecstatic - we finished in 20:42! This is a new course record for tandems at our TT event, and faster than we had ever thought we could go. The other tandem (previous record holders) didn't have a stellar night, and we handily beat their time. Only two more weeks left of the series - I am headed back on my single bike next week to see if I can eat into my 24:32 PR time....

Raven - this one was for you!

SheFly