"pbook" <
[email protected]> wrote in message
news:
[email protected]...
> I'm not good in the red zone. Need some practical training tips. I
> am a cat 3 and a pretty good crit racer with way above average
> acceleration. (Just thought I would through that out there but I
> can't imagine that this skill will help at all in a TT).
>
> Based on a recent team TT it seems that I hit my LT so suddenly that I
> don't have time to make any adjustments.
You don't mean LT, do you?
For normal TT, warm up properly, like 10 to 15 miles at 5 mph under what you
expect to do for the TT, coming up to time to go do a couple of minutes at
TT pace, aim to be by the start line two or three minutes before you're due
off. Get off the bike, stretch quickly, especially calves and hamstrings, go
to the start line when your minute man starts. Off the start, hit it for
10-20 seconds to get up to speed, by spinning not pushing, then change up
the gears to where you want to settle in, get on the TT bars and keep calm.
The first few miles will feel really easy; just keep spinning, don't take
the pace up. Then it'll start to get painful (and boring) and you just have
to hang on in. Try to judge your effort so you don't have anything left to
sprint through the finish; blowing up with a few hundred yards to go is
better than being able to take it up for the line. If it's flat and not
windy, you'll just be sitting in one gear the whole time, and the only
'interesting' bit will be remembering to change down so you can accelerate
out of the roundabout at the turn(s). If there's a hill, save yourself a bit
before the hill, work your balls off up the hill and over the top, aim to be
blowing up a bit about when you're up to speed again going down the other
side (not at the top of the hill, if you're not up to speed then you are
losing time), then rest down the hill.
For TTT, pretty much the same applies, plus don't try to do anything special
until you're well into the course and you're sure you can manage. If you've
agreed 30 second turns, then do 30 second turns, not 31 second turns, and if
you're not sure you can hack it do 25 second turns for a bit, or sit on the
back if you're about to be dropped. Your teammates will not mind too much if
you're not doing your share of the work; they will mind if you're suddenly
not doing any work after your ego takes over and you blow up and drop off
the back. Make sure you're as close to the guy ahead as you can be when
you're not on the front; when you get to the front make sure you don't take
the pace up or everyone will hate you. If you think you should be going
faster, take longer turns rather than taking the pace up at the front; if
you're coming up to a hill have the less good climbers skip turns, and if
you're going up a really short hill or accelerating out of a turn try not to
drop the guys who can't sprint. If the TTT is last man counts for time, then
you're going to have to stay together; but if it's e.g. third man of four,
then you'd better have a hand signal agreed for either 'wait, i'm coming
back' or 'go on without me'; if someone misses a corner and ends up ten
seconds behind the rest of you half way round, you want to wait for them to
come back (and not make them chase on); if someone is blown up and can't
hang on to the group you don't want to waste thirty seconds letting them
catch up only to find they can't stay on. Good signals: head down in TT
position means 'i'm coming back', sitting up, one arm up means 'go on'. If
you are the dropped guy, aim to finish the course as fast as you can; you'll
probably be wasting your effort, but occasionally you'll come upon your team
a bit further on with their required third place counter having broken his
bike and you'll be needed.
Peter
