Hi - I’ve signed up for an individual 40km time trial in 3 months - I have never done one - and am looking for some tips/advice/directions towards a training program. A little about me: 42 years old; 5 foot eight 145 pounds; I currently ride 2-3x/ week - mostly on the trainer because of my work schedule while running about twice per week. On the trainer I mostly train by watts (powertap) doing workouts of intervals, tempo and then basebuilding (long and slow). I did a duathlon a few weeks back and averaged about 20mph for the ride. I plan on staying out of the pool for the next 3 months to focus on the time trial. Any help is appreciated.
You haven’t said so, but you appear to be new to cycling. If that’s the case, you’re in luck because your training plan is simple: ride as much as you possible can!
Since this is your first 40km TT, I’d concentrate on the following three goals:
Staying aero the whole time (OK, don’t stay aero through tight turns or otherwise for you safety, but all other times, yes)
Pace it well
Don’t have a time goal
If you do 1) and 2), then 3 will be what it is.
In the next three months, do lots of workouts where you stay aero and push as hard as you think you might push during the race for 10, 20, 30 minutes. A 40km TT is really painful if done correctly. Doing hard intervals in training, or even a test 1 hour TT, will prepare you for the pain. Others will suggest lots of workouts where you push harder than goal watts for intervals of 1-12 minutes. Definitely do those too.
One way to minimize the pain is to pace the TT well. That means you first must identify an wattage goal, which is your FTP wattage. Do a 30 minute test TT (go as hard as you can for 30 minutes) and multiply the average watts of the test by .95. That’s your FTP. (OK, that’s not really your FTP, but it’s a good enough estimate.) During the race, or during any subsequent TT test of 20 minutes of longer, start at 90-95% of that number for like 3-4 minutes. This part will feel pretty doable. Then ramp up your effort to your FTP and just hold it. Let your heart rate rise to hopefully a value that is still aerobic. Hold on! If you have anything left in last 5 minutes, then throw all power and HR numbers out the window and just hammer.
What I’m suggesting is that the most important thing you can do is find a good (comfortable + aero) position on your bike and make sure you can physically hold it for an hour+. After that, riding at your FTP intensity is really all you can ask of yourself. If you accomplish that, then you’ve executed the race as well as Fabian does, well except that he’s putting out twice the watts that you are.
The advanced pacing guide would suggest that you can also hammer the uphills and “recover” on the downhills, and you will go faster that way, but even power pacing is also a good strategy for your very first race.