Yesterday, I competed in my first bike race ever, the Santiago Canyon TT. It was a lot of fun, and I look forward to doing it again, but next time, I’d like to go faster. My question is, how do you get faster on the bike? Is it something simple, like logging more biking miles, or should I be doing biking intervals and stuff? I imagine being the only person not using a tt bike probably hurt, but another bike is out of the question, and I’d like to feel like I “earned” it with hard work before just trying to buy speed. For the strong cyclists out there, what did you do to get faster? Thanks for your help.
First off, congrats on joining the community. Glad you enjoyed your first TT. My experience has been that TT’s can be intimidating since, at least around here, only the “big dogs” seem to come out to play and the speeds are insanely fast. Local duathlons and triathlons seem to have a bigger range of talent show up so newbies have a better chance of finishing within sight of some peers.
I’m far from fast, but I can help you as far as this discussion goes. The short answer is: bike more than you have been and do a mix of long rides with shorter high intensity rides, so you are on the right track with your thinking. The RIGHT answers are much more involved and requires some more information from you. What’s your story? How long have you been biking? What kind of riding do you do-long slow centuries, commuting, faster paced group rides? What are your goals-local 20 or 40K time trial or triathlon? How did you feel in the TT-fading toward the end or finished strong? Are you better at going fast for a short period or can you dial it back a bit and last a lot longer? How old are you, how much time do you have to train, what’s your weight?
That’s probably the best I can do for you now, point you in right direction and let the experts pipe in when you give some more particulars. Now I’ll get out of the way and let the learning begin.
Thanks for the help. I felt the same way at the TT because those guys were flying! To answer your questions, I just started biking and triathlons last summer, so I haven’t been doing it very long at all. I do pretty much all solo rides, which I try to ride a little faster, but it’s all relative. My goals are more triathlon right now, but I really enjoyed the tt and I would like to get good enough to be able to hang at least for a little while. I really would like to try to do other kinds of bike races too, but those huge groups and everything is pretty intimidating to me right now. In the TT, I felt pretty strong near the end, but I think that’s more a result of the course. For Santiago, the first 4 miles are up a grade of some kind, and everything after that is flat, downhill, or very slightly rolling. I’m not quite sure about going fast for a short period, or dialing it back, but I would guess I don’t have quite the fitness to last for a long time. I’m 20, and I’m in college, so my training times vary depending on the work I have to do, and I weigh about 190ish.
How was the TT? Is it a hard course? I was just looking at the Santiago Canyon TT website and I see there is another one while I’m home for Spring break. I’m probably not in your age group… so don’t worry. 
If you can and are not already doing it, try to get in some group rides with a local club. It is much easier to work hard in a good group than to push yourself when you are on your own.
You’ve taken the first step to getting faster at the TT. Getting out there is the biggest step. Like someone else said, many people are too intimidated to even try it. I was out there yesterday too and love it when new guys step in.
The second thing is to not worry about what everyone else is running. You are racing against yourself. So just do that. Race against yourself until you can’t possibly beat yourself before you need to start worrying about aero equipment. The only thing you might wanna have are aero bars because they make such a huge difference and you want to learn to ride in a fast position.
There are some good tips on the socalttseries.com website. That’s a good place to start, but thats just a start. I’ve been doing TT’s for three years and I still find ways to go faster. But basically, it comes down to enough and the right kind of training. What that amounts to depends on your situation and goals.
Santiago is about as technical course for a TT as they come. It really helps to know how to ride that course.
I thought it was pretty difficult, but it’s the only one I’ve done so I’m not sure how it compares to others. The climb is pretty tough way to start it out, but after that, you can really haul and it’s pretty fun. I’ll definitely be out there again. And thanks for all the advice everyone, I really appreciate it.