I did my 1st 25mile TT this weekend (I have done quite a few 10’s) and clocked a 1:01:37 which I know is not super, but I was really pleased. I have set one of my goals as trying to get down to under the hour. What sort of power increase will I need to gain and what is a reallistic time frame to achieve this goal? Perhaps I should just try and buy some time loss and get a disk 
My ultimate goal is to be able to regularly get under the hour in Duathlon bike splits.
If I’m not mistaken, a disc is worth about 1:40 over a spoked wheel.
Or you could hit the weight room and develop some more power.
But that hurts. Buy the disc…
Weight room won’t help power on the bike.
Power is specific to neuromuscular movement.
some articles here: www.timetrial.org
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Weight room won’t help power on the bike.
Power is specific to neuromuscular movement.
I couldn’t disagree with you more.
Perhaps you should read “Physiological Bases of Sport Performance”.
While others waste time in the gym… i’m in the saddle getting stronger. Specificity. Simple.
Actually, he is partially correct. Power in cycling can be best described as the ability to accelerate quickly, e.g. sprinting out of a corner. Strength training in the gym is only one aspect of power, the other is speed. Both speed and force are required to have power.
For improving a 25 mile TT, the most important items to focus on is building muscular endurance, and endurance, followed by force training.
You can either use strength or force workouts to achieve your goals, I too use force workouts instead of weight training, however I use weight training for core strength, just not legs.
I also use weight training to some extent
From my understanding of physiology it does not have a direct impact on my TT performance though.
However, it does provide other indirect benefits… which could lead to faster times on the bike
To say doing leg weights will directly improve your TT is misleading, imo.
Actually, he is partially correct. Power in cycling can be best described as the ability to accelerate quickly, e.g. sprinting out of a corner. Strength training in the gym is only one aspect of power, the other is speed. Both speed and force are required to have power.
For improving a 25 mile TT, the most important items to focus on is building muscular endurance, and endurance, followed by force training.
Ding ding ding - we have a winner. I have sick amounts of leg speed (I was a VERY good 100-400m sprinter in an earlier life - my teens). Once I moved on to cycling, I spent tons of time in the saddle, doing all the correct power-building intervals, but I only saw modest improvement. A few years ago, I started working with a strength coach, doing HEAVY squats, lunges and deadlifts, and within a year I went from being a MOP time trial rider in this region to being one of the best on LESS miles in the saddle.
The utility of the weight rooms depends on your physiology - what limits you. For me, I can accomplish more in 30 minutes of heavy squats and lunges than I can with hours in the saddle. Sure, specificity is important, but it’s not the only way to go.
This is purely anecdotal evidence, but it’s MY evidence, and that’s all that really matters. We have a yearly 37 mile TT up a nearby canyon. I rode it 3 years in a row, all three times within 1:30 of one another, and in the middle of the pack. I saw the strength coach, rode 500 miles less that year (I ride about 5000/year here, and we have pretty tough winters) and took 14 minutes off my time (in shitty conditions) and was 3rd overall. You can try to convince me that the weight room didn’t help my TT, but I’m not believing any of it.
This year I am using force workouts through all periods (base, build, …) and have incorporated weekly force intervals into my ATP. I am focusing on doing them all seated, turning a fast cadence. My objective is to ride an effort bit higher than L4, while a cadence about 10 beats lower than my flat 40k TT, so somewhere in the 70-75 RPM range.
We have a “hill” in La Jolla that takes about 5+ minutes to climb, I do force repeats here. Later in the year I will mix in Palomar, I chickened out on a 100 miler up to Palomar on Sunday, I just don’t have that in my legs right now, but I did manage a fast paced 200 miles this weekend. Maybe Palomar next weekend.
I used to do a lot of force workouts on the bike, but all with limited success. I think one problem is that you have to do them when you have really hit decent form or else your cardio system simply can’t hold up to give your legs the work they need. Doing them throughout the season, especially after doing some high-end work, will probably allow you to extract more from these workouts. Early in the season, I do much better building power and strength in the weight room.
Thats why cycling is so much better than running - you can buy speed!
Thanks very informative - I can diffinatly improve my warm up!
Weight training wise I tend to just do 1 session a week in winter - I alway though of it as kind of training to train / injury avoidance rather than getting a big improvement. In the summer I tend to want to avoid the gym and make the most of the warmer weather.
Currently my week tends to contain a training crit and/or some 4min intervals on the turbo, with 1 or 2 below amax steady rides from 1hr to 3hours.
I notice I tend to lose time on the down hills - I thought this was perhaps due to being quite light (66kg). But the last 10 I did the women who went of infront of me must have been lighter than me, but whilst I was putting good time in to her on the ups she seem to be a bit quicker on the downs. I tend to preffer to ride at a low cadence so perhaps I need to work on being able to spin quicker in the aero position to go faster on the downhills? Or maybe I am catching a lot of wind?