Any tips for 10 TTs

winterfold – who mentioned FTP? I just said that I have no problem riding up 20% hills without blowing out of my backside.

Tonights time was 27:58 which was 1:32 quicker than last time. I’m reasonably happy with that – winning time was 24:32. Despite warming up well I still managed to blow my legs to bits in the first mile.

Just checked my records and my iMagic time for the Kirkliston course was 27:57. I’d be happy if I could get within 5 minutes of that for real!

i expected better ….. what sbz doesnt say is that the whole 1.32 was taken off by going off his heads up touring shopper bianchi to my flat backed layed out long px Stealth TT bike that i loaned him while im working away.

any tips for pacing during TTs? I am rubbish at my club TTs, being beaten by riders who I drop on most climbs, my best times are only when I have someone to chase down or someone overtakes me and I use them to pace at a legal distance,

Use a heart rate monitor?

learn to love the pain …… it is not a success till you vomit on or around the finish line 😀

Don’t go off too fast. Your HR lags behind your perceived effort. Spend the first mile getting up to speed. It will feel like you aren’t trying hard enough but a quick glance at the speedo will confirm that you are flying along nicely (unless a headwind 🙁 ). After the first mile, try to be at threshold. Final mile ramp up above threshold so you have absolutely nothing left after the line.

The tips on pacing above are good. The lag between effort and measured heart rate means that an HR monitor is not effective for the start of a TT. With experience you can develop a feel for how to get up to speed smoothly without going over the red line. A power meter is the ultimate gadget for training and pacing, but a bit pricey unless you are really serious.

It is particularly important to pace the start of the Kirkliston 10 course, because you hit the climb over the motorway to Winchburgh very early. If you start too hard you will suffer here and lose time recovering afterwards.

Looking at absolute times can be a bit misleading, and it is probably more useful to compare yourself to other riders competing regularly, to gauge your performance. Kirkliston would be referred to as a “sporting course” in English TT terms. On drag strip English TT courses, you probably need a 20.xx to get in the top 10 and 19.xx winning times are pretty common. To put Kirkliston in perspective, until last year, the course record, set one of the top British based pros, was 21.47, and the current record is 21.40. The second fastest time last night, 24.24, was set by the current Scottish women’s 10 and 25 champion. Your times are quite respectable for a novice and you should make some big early improvements as you gain experience.

Speak to club members at the event and make use of the ERC coaches; you will find lots of experienced people who are happy to provide advice if you are looking to improve your performance. Good luck!

is that road not really rough too? i’ve only ridden it in passing (though i fancy a go at the tt.. is membership a hassle to do?) but it seems pretty poor.. i bet that makes quite a difference too.

SBZ – different understanding of ‘into the red’ then 🙂 most people mean it as beyond threshold (ie you are on borrowed time before you blow).

So – find a hill you cant quite climb at threshold (HRMs do help with this, but if you dont want that, then its the pace when you could just about hold a conversation), repeat until you can do it, then find a steeper hill, or click up a gear.

That’s the best way of improving your power in my experience as I dont think you can hide.

Save blowing out of your backside for the last mile.

amt27 – you might find you can go harder for longer than you think. I couldnt understand how i was ever going to do it, until I had a mate show me race pace on the course I was going to do for my first one. Then I got it, it is a proper effort, but sounds like you are fit and you just have to take the pain.

is membership a hassle to do?

Info about ERC club membership
The event used to be open to non members, but unfortunately, because of changes in insurance rules, only first claim club members can participate now.

is membership a hassle to do?

Info about ERC club membership
The event used to be open to non members, but unfortunately, because of changes in insurance rules, only first claim club members can participate now.

Did another one tonight. 26:39, so that’s almost 3 minutes off my starter time. Pretty please with that.

Tonight I gave up on the warming up and pacing ideas as they werent really working for me. Just decided to give it laldy from the start and hold on.

What did i say at te start ?

Its only 20 minutes balls to the wall

Btw 3 minutes – that was me bike that did that fer ya

I’d say half of it was down to the bike and half of it down to getting to know the course.

Aye, but did you vom on the bars George ??

Not yet, had to keep riding for a wee bit before my heart rate came down and have a cracking testers cough today.

I’ve done these with a power meter. I knew that my average power was 330W, so I aimed for that. It was really really easy at first.

So I’d echo the above – don’t go off too hard or you’ll flood your legs with lactic acid too early and peform worse I reckon.

Don’t listen to all these Pseudo-Science Guys. It’s a 10, there is no pacing, as hard as you can all the way, then a little bit harder for the last mile. And try not to get hit by cars.

Warm up properly. Arrive on the start-line sweating.

Don’t go off *too* hard. Go easier than you think for the fist half-mile or so. Aim to build to a ‘plateau of effort’ for the next nine miles and then go balls-out for the last half-mile.

If you’ve got anything left in the tank by the end, you’ve done it wrong. Liken it to pouring out a jug of water evenly and constantly and having nothing left at the end.

Position is everything. Keep your knees and elbows in and your head and shoulders low (kinda shrug your shoulders) but look where you’re going at all times.

CONCENTRATE on your pedalling and effort. It’s very easy for your mind to wander.

Don’t get bogged-down with HR monitors and ‘science’ at this stage. If you start taking it seriously then maybe get a basic HR monitor for training. If you’re using one during a TT it’s just something else to get distracted by. After a while you will know and feel when you’re doing it right.

Enjoy 🙂

Just all IMHO, of course.

*re-reads thread with interest ahead of saturday*
i’d forgotten about the cough post silly hard efforts until i read your comment George – I’d better warn Druidh he’ll be riding with me and an awful cough on sunday then 😕 I’m planning on a warm up then hard as i can all the way rather than pacing, and i’ll also be trying not to drown if its as wet as the last forecast i saw!

Claire – I’ve tried pacing. It doesnt work for me. Gunning it from the start gave me a substantial gain though.

I’ve been doing our club evening ’10’s for a few weeks now.

1st week was quite conservative. built it up over 5 miles and then nailed it for last mile: 25:45

2nd time. Went harder and seemed to pace it better (course is pretty lumpy so you have to watch u don’t blow on the small climbs)

25: 16

3rd time I decided to try out some tri bars (after hearing that we get club points for where we come) trounced my time and everyone else’s with a great time of 23:44!! well chuffed

Best tip for 10 tt. Do some 25’s as well. It makes you appreciate a 10 so much more!

Any tips for making a standard road bike faster. Don’t want to spend any money as it’s a one off club TT but I’d like to win 😉

Short of making sure everything works, removing saddle bag and bottle I can’t think of much. There’s potential to drop the front end about an inch by removing some spacers. Uncomfortable for an all day ride but tolerable for 25 minutes I’m sure.

Did a quick practice at the end of a ride last weekend and got 25.5min so I’m confident I can knock a minute off that without the 65 mile warmup.

well i knocked nearly a 1min30 by slamming the stem and putting clip on bars

To get your power up it has to be steep hills as there is no hiding. Power intervals on the flat are too easy to back off on. Steep hills on MTB you can granny or may get too technical so it is more about skill than power

I’m with aracer on this – that’s not necessarily true. Climbing hills makes you a good climber. Doing intervals on the flat (assuming you’re not lazy as in your example) will make you better on the flat. If you want to be a good tester than crazy steep hill reps aren’t the way to go IMO!

In fact, I don’t think crazy steep hill reps are that good full stop. Based on your name I assume you know Barhatch Lane? I ride that every couple of months, but don’t actually find it that good, I prefer doing the adjacent Alderbrook climb, you can attack it better!

Thurman Merman +1

This man knows what he’s talking about.. He introduced me to the pain of TT’s and appetite for racing

Pacing is the best way but I doubt you’d really be able to get the pacing right without having at least used a power meter. It’s remarkable how easy your target wattage is at the beginning and how hard it is at the end.

Q:

Any tips for making a standard road bike faster.

A:

Position is everything. Keep your knees and elbows in and your head and shoulders low (kinda shrug your shoulders) …

🙂

That and pump your tyres up REALLY hard (to reduce rolling resistance).

And remove all surplus ‘stuff’ from your bike (bottle cages, reflectors, pumps, saddlebags, mudguards etc.)

got my club 10 tonight. The course make sa big difference. my PB overall is 23.26, but on this course its 25.52. its lumpy, with quite a few tricky corners in the first 5 miles.

If you go flat out on this course at the start you are dead by mile 7, due to the climbs. If you go flat out from the start on the course I hold my PB on you can get to the finish line without fading.

molgrips – Member
Pacing is the best way but I doubt you’d really be able to get the pacing right without having at least used a power meter. It’s remarkable how easy your target wattage is at the beginning and how hard it is at the end.

Absolutely. Some people seem to have an innate ability to do this but a PM makes it much easier.

I understand the sentiment behind the ‘ride until you puke’ levels of effort but that doesn’t float my boat. I much rather prefer to go at a decent level but not blow my brains out, which probably accounts for why I’ve never been faster than 21:29/54:52/1:56:52/4:09:35.

I recommend getting to know the course and the prevailing wind and adjusting your efforts accordingly. If you utterly cane it for the wrong section, you can run the risk of blowing up horribly and watch everything go pete tong.

Defo have a warm up and if allowed, 2 – 5 miles of the course will give you a gauge of what’s going to be required.

Getting aero and keeping smooth and still are the biggest improvements you can make but if you fancy having a laugh, don’t take it seriously