I am rather new to triathlon, but due to a recent running injury, I have been focusing mostly on cycling while I’m nursing my running injury, which is not restricting my cycling in any way. I come from a background of collegiate rowingg, so I’m still more of a hammering kind of cyclist than anything else. Anyway, in about a month there’s a local 15k~10m time trial (exact distance not entirely sure I think). It’s very low key from what I’ve gathered, which is why I think it’s a good opportunity to get some competitive juices flowing. It will be almost two laps of 7.7km, pancake flat (it’s in Holland) but usually a fair amount of wind in open fields, 3-5 Bft. is average around these parts.
As I said I’m mostly riding at the moment, 5 times a week averaging about 200-250 miles. Mostly solo on a road bike (still in school), and because I’m doing the LBL sportive in a couple of weeks I’ve ditched the aerobars also (but for the tt training and the race I’ll use them obviously). Usually about 2 longer rides, one at an easy pace, the other with three or four other mates where we paceline each other for about 3 hrs or so. The other 3 rides are generally shorter and some are recovery style, others I try to add some intensity but generally still relatively long efforts (usually long blocks rather than short sprints).
As you can see, not so much structure. I do have a Trainerroad account and have used it in the past during inclement weather. I do not possess a powermeter, but can use the virtual power thingy for consistency in training. What I am looking for is to substitute two of the shorter rides for structured workouts, tailored to get me to go fast in the time trial. I have no lofty goals although of course it would be nice to break 40kph, but that’s such an arbitrary number.
I know I won’t be able to use power for the time trial, but it seems benificial to be able to use it in training at least. I did a 5x5 mins at 110% of FTP with 3 mins rest in between that felt reasonably hard but probably should have felt harder. Should I tweak this and then maybe do a longer interval training also? I will also ride the parcours a couple of times and try to do them at racespeed, whatever that may be.
Any advice at all will be kindly appreciated, I’m looking to have fun and try not to be last
I’ve got no advice on your training, but impressed by your winds and that you use Beaufort to describe it.
Where I am we typically have no wind, or a very light onshore, or heavy duty Santa Ana’s.
Also, we Americans are too provincial to realize LBL = Liege-Bastogne-Liege.
Anyways, If wind is an issue, learn to read the wind and pace accordingly. Doing efforts above threshold with a tailwind is not as good a use of your reserves as going above threshold going into the wind.
If the course is accessible, then practice on the course. You’ll want to be comfortable riding on your aerobars, especially with that much wind.
A time trial is mostly a steady state effort, and you won’t be going near VO2max unless it’s a prologue. So threahold work will be your friend. Some of your VO2max training (presumably for LBL) will carry over, and vice versa. But specificity is key, especially when it requires a different riding position
Yeah Beaufort in Holland is basically synonymous with wind speeds, moreso than kph I think, unless we’re talking about gusts of wind. Upon doing some research it appears it is somewhere between 15-25mph winds. I also found out Mister Beaufort was actually an Irishman, not a Froggy as you’d expect. Anyway
For La Doyenne I haven’t done very tailored workouts, mainly just doing the miles and shedding the weight, which has me a little worried about the speed for a short 20-25 min rip on a wednesday evening.
So I should look more toward threshold, which means longer intervals? And at what percentage of FTP should I do them, with what kind of rest.
Yeah Beaufort in Holland is basically synonymous with wind speeds, moreso than kph I think, unless we’re talking about gusts of wind. Upon doing some research it appears it is somewhere between 15-25mph winds. I also found out Mister Beaufort was actually an Irishman, not a Froggy as you’d expect. Anyway
For La Doyenne I haven’t done very tailored workouts, mainly just doing the miles and shedding the weight, which has me a little worried about the speed for a short 20-25 min rip on a wednesday evening.
So I should look more toward threshold, which means longer intervals? And at what percentage of FTP should I do them, with what kind of rest.
Thanks for your replies.
i would do things that would simulate what you would experience in terms of the race. So if you expect that you’ll see headwind for 5 min, tailwind for 3 min, and crosswind for 10, i would do something above FTP for 5, below FTP for 3, and at FTP for 10. I can’t comment much on how much above or below as those are condition dependent, but suffice to say, you should at least get used to going over threshold while in an aero position.
I know I won’t be able to use power for the time trial, but it seems benificial to be able to use it in training at least. I did a 5x5 mins at 110% of FTP with 3 mins rest in between that felt reasonably hard but probably should have felt harder. Should I tweak this and then maybe do a longer interval training also?
If you can’t use power in the TT (why?), then you need to know what the proper pace feels like. So try a couple hard 20 min efforts before then.
Do not increase volume… that would just be stupid.
Rather mix in some high intensity efforts (couple times a week at most) and decrease volume. What you are trying to do is get your VO2 primed. You already have the base.
There are a million different ways to do VO2 intervals. Mix it up. And yes, it should feel like you really did something.
in general, a progression that a lot of riders will use is a longer block of intervals like 2x20 at a little more or less than your 1 hour tt pace and in that same time period another day with longer tempo at a bit less effort, but still hard. Here in the northeast that’s like feb-march
those 3-5 minute intervals with equal recovery are good to start maybe a month out from when you want to start coming around, just once a week.
since you don’t have power, the key with those is to take the first minute out at the correct pace, not too hard. i just did that workout yesterday, look at the heart rate graph, you can see how useless that measure is as it doesn’t even catch up until the last 30 seconds
~10 miles at around 40kph is going to be around 24 minutes. I would say that shorter intervals at above threshold would be a good idea. 2x15, 3x12, 4x10, etc.
I do a flat 10.8 mile TT that is an out and back. The trick for me is to do a hard effort warm up, and pace according to the wind. I.e. if it’s a headwind on the way out, I should be spending ~75% of my energy on the first half, the wind will help me back. Conversely if it’s a tailwind on the way out, I shouldn’t be 50% spent at the turn around because I’m going to need some extra push to fight the wind.
Pacing is going to take trial and error practice… but like jackmott said, you’re doing it right if you feel like you’re going to puke/blackout at the end.
Ok so the increasing volume or not seems to be debatable
Jack if you would have me increase mileage would you just say increase easy mileage or something else? The problem I see with just adding easy miles is that I’ve already got quite a bit of that and it seems (but hard to quantify) that it is kind of killing my speed.
The puking part is definitely something I need to learn, pushing through the acid in my legs instead of shifting to an easier gear.
rruff I cant use power in the TT because I dont have a powermeter, but I can train with power (sort of) because of trainerroad.
jroden, thanks for sharing your ride, this looks similar to what I did yesterday, only I did the 5 minute intervals.
So some workouts could be:
10 mile tt (which would in essence be close to a 20 minute test, which could in turn help me get a more accurate FTP number?)
threshold intervals, 2x15, 3x12, 4x10 (on how much rest?)
vo2max intervals, 6x3m and or 6x5 min (on 5 min rest?)
My outside workouts would then be mostly the easy miles, as well as the course specific miles I guess, to regulate my efforts with the winds.
Ok so the increasing volume or not seems to be debatable
Jack if you would have me increase mileage would you just say increase easy mileage or something else? The problem I see with just adding easy miles is that I’ve already got quite a bit of that and it seems (but hard to quantify) that it is kind of killing my speed.
The puking part is definitely something I need to learn, pushing through the acid in my legs instead of shifting to an easier gear.
rruff I cant use power in the TT because I dont have a powermeter, but I can train with power (sort of) because of trainerroad.
jroden, thanks for sharing your ride, this looks similar to what I did yesterday, only I did the 5 minute intervals.
So some workouts could be:
10 mile tt (which would in essence be close to a 20 minute test, which could in turn help me get a more accurate FTP number?)
**- threshold intervals, 2x15, 3x12, 4x10 (on how much rest?) **
vo2max intervals, 6x3m and or 6x5 min (on 5 min rest?)
My outside workouts would then be mostly the easy miles, as well as the course specific miles I guess, to regulate my efforts with the winds.
I would aim for above FTP for these intervals. Your TT is substantially less than 1 hour, so you should be racing at substantially above FTP. As far as rest, maybe 5 minutes? Whatever it takes to get your HR back down to a comfortable level, get a drink, etc. I might start with something like Lamarck at FTP, and bump it up a few percent the following week if you think you can.
Well the TT was last night. Unfortunately not long after I posted this thread I had some lower back issues which meant I had to seriously reduce my training for a while. Did manage to do the LBL sportive and felt that I had definitely improved on the climbs from previous years (placing around 350th out of 8000 on the timed Redoute climb for that day). But only last week did I do one longer interval session and one shorter interval session, one of them on the tt course.
Ended up going 40.1kmh (24.9mph), or 22:27 for the 15.0 km, placing 13/17 in the non-license/sport license division. Was a cross wind (20-23mph for the north-south sections, and only a short portion with true head/tail wind. It had been raining intermittently all day, and also before and during my ride, so I was extra cautious in the corners. The time is probably nothing to sneeze at for most slowtwitchers, but being relatively new at tt-ing and triathlon, I am happy to have achieved my arbitrary goal I rode it on my aluminium Jan Janssen road frame with T2+ clip-ons, box-ish rims with Conti GP4000s and butyl inner tubes, bibshort with a tight fitting long sleeve compression shirt and a standard road helmet. Top time of the day was 19:18 (~46.5kmh/28.9mph). Overall the event was not as low key as I had expected it to be, with most people running dedicated TT gear and marshals guarding the vital intersections. Overall a cool experience and I am now looking forward to the next one
A session like this - a 10mile, 16K or 15K ITT ounce per week or every other week is training gold, for triathletes who race at all distances.
The funny thing is few triathletes actually show up to these things! Strange.
Many local cycling club puts these races on. I know my club does and about 50+ people show up every week.
Back when I was racing triathletes seriously, a 10mile ITT was a regular part of my training and in the pre-powermeter, days a great benchmark of fitness.
Yes I agree, it was a great training tool. After the first lap I was already thinking fuuuu… I have to do another lap? The competitive atmosphere made me push a lot harder than I would in normal training, even with others to train with. Didn’t see many triathletes, unless they were cleverly disguised (only one guy had a trisuit on, others were roadies. There was even a German rider, to the joy of the organizers as they could from then on claim it was an international event ;). Unfortunately this was not a weekly thing for the club, but there are some other TTs in the general area that I will probably hit up for training.
