Half Monty for TT position

[Alistair_Brown]

I’m just wondering if anyone has done Half Monty for their normal road bike and on a TT bike to compare results? I’m wondering if it would be worthwhile doing a HM in position on the TT bike, then doing some workouts on the TT bike using those numbers. Or is it better to hit the week day workouts hard on the road bike, and train/race outdoors at the weekend on the TT bike?

[willie53]

I am also interested in this idea. I try to train on my tt bike once a week and find it hard to generate the same power as my regular bike.

[Coach.Simon.B]

Hello! You should always test on the bike you are going to train on. The choice of bike depends on your goals. If the focus is a club TT or Triathlon, you need to be executing majority of your workouts on the same bike to replicate position. These workouts should include at a minimum MAP and FTP based efforts. In most cases power on the TT bike will be slightly lower due to the closed off hip angle.

@Coach.Neal.H

With specific regard to TT performance, it’s important to consider any differences in the power output that you can produce in the TT position (but sounds like you help 300W in your 30-minute effort), and then your ability to exceed your FTP power and sustain that level during a TT effort. Generally, we usually see folks being able to hold 5-10% higher than their 1 hour power (FTP) for a 20 to 30 minute race effort. Keep in mind that there’s not a linear increase in power demand for a linear increase in speed or reduction in time…so a 10% increase in power will yield only about a 3% increase in speed. With that in mind, reducing your drag (aerodynamic, drivetrain, and tire rolling resistance) are other areas where you can gain a bit based on equipment used (low RR tires with latex tubes; aero helmet, skinsuit, low friction bearings & chain treatments, etc.) and position changes to improve aerodynamics. If you averaged 300W to go 40 km/hr (30 minutes for 20km) and changed nothing it would take 387W to go 44 km/hr (27 minutes for 20km)…so you’re of course going to want to gain fitness, but also look to save power with aero and drag gains. There’s a nice calculator at: https://www.gribble.org/cycling/power_v_speed.html to compare some different values. Hope that helps!

[RichardK]

I switched to the TT bike this year with the aim of doing most of my racing on the TT bike.

I went from 269W ‘FTP’ (half monty) down to 239W (half monty) or 236W (full frontal). This was roughly what I expected and seems to be in line with the difference I’ve found others experienced.

Following the time trial plan so far this year I’m now up to 250W (half monty). A couple of setbacks (covid vaccine, Achilles tweak whilst running) makes me think I could be a bit higher. I’ve also put a new ISM saddle on the bike so I can hold my position for longer - that’s probably a big help in consistency.

The TT plan has most weekend rides outside, so I have found that I don’t want to go out on the TT bike in UK winter/spring so I’m doing the weekend rides on the road bike. Riding to power targets is tricky (which ones do I use?) so I’ve stuck to heart rate targets instead.

For the HM test, I did it all in the TT position. I replicate this in the workouts by doing all intervals except NM sprints in the TT position. On FF I did all the tests except the sprints in the TT position. Hence I’m a pursuiter on the road bike and a sprinter on the TT bike.

Hopefully about to do the first race of the season this week (local club 10), so we’ll see if this increase in training and power translates to going below 25min for the first time…