I did my first TT ( 11.6 miles) on Wednesday evening and this is the start of my Clubs TT Season. I still have 7 weeks of the TT training plan in my calendar to do but I am not sure how to manipulate that to fit in 2 TT’s ( a 7 and a 10) each week ( Wednesday evening and Saturday morning) without burning myself out which I would probably do left to my own devices. There will also be a Sunday group ride each week but I do have the opportunity of an easier ride if I want to as we normally have 3 ride levels to choose from, I generally go out on the fast one. I like indoor training and want to continue to increase my TT times but not neglect other aspects of my fitness, basically I want to be the best I can be all round at my age
I WANT IT ALL AND I WANT IT NOW
Right there with you, @ozmadman! Seriously, best thing I can offer is to sort through your season and pick just a COUPLE of the many events on offer to be your focus events, and maybe dial back the rest to fit more-or-less into your regular training, while continuing to work through the plan(s) to improve your overall.
Far too easy to get caught up into the club scene and turn everything into a competition - or to jump at every chance to compete - straight up recipe for burnout. I’ve started up base training for my region’s fall CX season and have had to be very picky, or every club training and every weekend in the fall turns into race weekend.
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Thanks for your input, and the “burnt out” Coyote!! There is a guy in our club 15 years younger than me who wins both our Saturday and Wednesday TT leagues, not necessarily because he is the fastest but he does more events and therefore racks up the most points. I would like to give him a run for his money this year as no-one comes near because they don’t do many TT’s. Would be nice to get a cup or two for my first full year in a cycle club. Two TT’s a week would effectively be two HIIT sessions so maybe I can work around that for starters? cheers
I’m sure you know the TT position requires some adaptation and you might have a 10-15% drop in effective FTP until you build the flexibility needed. My club puts on a weekly TT too and the best thing for me is to just ride the TT bike and couple times a week, in the aero bars, not fast. Just getting comfortable in the position for a few weeks before the TT season starts re-aquaints my body to it. Just riding the bike makes a huge difference and it does not have to be hard riding.
HA! I get it, brother, I really do! We have a local CX series in the fall of four races just back-to-back-to back, which ends RIGHT BEFORE the big USCF/UCI race on Cape Cod that is my Mt. Sufferlandria this year. I SO want to jump all over the series too, though.
Nothing at all wrong with your plan - though what is it about us wanting to curb stomp guys 15-20 years younger than us? I would say you just need to decide that THAT is your goal for the season, recognizing you can’t have it all. Focus on doing well in as many club TT’s as you can to get your points, but just realize that your OVERALL fitness and form will have to take a backseat.
My two cents.
Yes that is something I need to get used to once I have sorted my TT bike out as the few TT’s I have done were on my road bike with standard bars
I only did one 10 mile TT last year, my first ever on my standard road bike with no aero bars where he was competing too. he was on his all singing and dancing TT bike and he only beat me by 1 minute. Over here we have a VTTA (Veterans Time Trial Association) standards system where age is taken into account so from 40 years old and up a small amount of time in taken off your actual time for each year you are over 40 to compensate for advancing years. This makes it a fair competition for everyone. On that basis being 15 years older the amount taken off for his 14 years over 40 compared to my 29 years over 40 meant that in reality I beat him by nearly a minute!!. I may even win the “scratch” points as well if I do enough races and others don’t even though in real terms i may not be the fastest on the day.
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Oh well by all means, kick his @#$% @ozmadman!
(love the age-based leveling. we only have age-based entries, so my chances are still only against other old dudes…)
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