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Tell me about your sport please...
How did you get into it, what distances and levels do you compete at?
Whats the routine / training like to fit around day to day life.
is it a very "social" sport or is it full of loners as some would have you believe?
Do a bit but mainly road - might do a bit more next year, normally just do 10s and 25s but done s 50 & a 100
Fairly sociable and very friendly area of the sport - I did loads as a kid and enjoyed it
Train mainly for the road but TT training can be quite specialist - but can get good results of limited time if done correctly
It gets addictive.
Joined the local cycling club after I noticed I was becoming less of a fat mountainbiker and more of a fit cyclist.
Joined in on their 'club 10s' every Tuesday summer evening on the local bypass (10 miles as fast as you can). A more friendly and encouraging bunch you will not meet.
Did it more and more, got better and better.
Someone mentioned that this was just practice, and why not do a [i]proper[/i] timetrial. Usually costs six quid or so and has to be entered a few weeks in advance. They run from late Feb to early Oct and there will be one within striking distance of where you live every Sat or Sun. Properly organised with a village hall HQ, marshalls on the bends, cake and tea looking at the results afterwards.
Got better and better. Bought all the kit. Really enjoyed it for while.
There are different lengths and kinds: 10 mile, 25, 50 100. An then there are 'sporting' courses (rolling) and 'hilly' which can be of any length. Usually around 20-25miles. Ended up doing 3 or 4 full seasons and got some fairly respectable PBs. Reached a 'ceiling' though, and could not get any better. That's when my enthusiasm waivered.
There's much more to it than pedalling as fast and as hard as you can. Great fun and I have some great memories. Made some great friends. Wouldn't like to do it all again, though. Tough game if you do it properly.
Just started this year and have done about half a dozen. I'd had a good year off due to injury and wanted to replace competitive running with something on the bike. TT's seemed like a good place to start.
Did one on the road bike then knocked up a cheap TT bike based on a PX Stealth frame (though it has gotten more expensive with pointy helmets, skin suits, new wheels, etc.) Do club 10's mostly and am finishing near the front of the field. It is strangely addictive once you get going, and quite fun once you cross the finish line!
Training can be a difficult, especially as I have a toddler and another baby on the way. Tend to do a lot of lunchtime or evening work on the turbo, lots of intervals (2x20 threshold, shorter VO2max intervals, billats, etc.) Really need to plan the training as I'm quite time limited. Would recommend a power meter of some sort as this really helps with effective training if you are time constrained.
It is quite sociable after the races when people hang about and chat (our club usually provides cake!) Before them everyone tends to be quite focused on their prep.
Edit...
Reached a 'ceiling' though, and could not get any better. That's when my enthusiasm waivered.
I did wonder about this. Quite new to it so seeing some good gains, but I can imagine reaching this point in a season or two.
do you have lots and lots of disposable income?
do you like very expensive shiny carbon things?
do you have OCD?
if the answer to all three questions is yes, you will love time trialling
I'd add "do you have lots of free time to train obsessively" to that list!
do you have lots and lots of disposable income?
do you like very expensive shiny carbon things?
do you have OCD?if the answer to all three questions is [b]no[/b], you [s]will love[/s] can still enjoy time trialling
As others have said ,go for it.
If nothing else it teaches you about how little changes can sometimes make a big difference ,and when you are in 'the zone' ,it's teh awzum 🙂
when you are in 'the zone' ,it's teh awzum
^^This.
When you get a 'float night' you feel like a god. I had one in five years of testing 🙂
Thurman Merman made me do it 😉
Met Thurman at a quantocks STW ride a few years back. Noticed he was ridiculously fit and not out of breath. Told me road cycling was great for fitness. Cue a few months later and he tells me about Time trials and his club is running one nr longleat. Just so happens i was on hols with the family at centre parcs.
Turn up on a £50 steel raleigh ritmo in banana yellow.=, peaked helmet, hairy legs, and ill fitting lycra. Tells me not to go too hard... So i go to hard from the off.. hurt like hell. Could taste blood the whole time. didn't warm up enough.
Did a 29.07 and that was it.. I really got into road cycling in a big way. Joined a local bristol cycling club, Won the time trial cup 2 years running, rinsed everyone at the hill climb. Did some races. Now more into cross (again Thurman merman introduced me to this)
if the answer to all three questions is [b]no[/b], you [s]will love[/s] can still enjoy time trialling
^^This too.
There was a guy who joined in on our Tuesday 10s for a year who rode a steel-framed cross bike. Beat the field on a couple of occasions.
It's not about the bike (as they say). It's about legs and lungs.
And technique.
And stamina.
And suffering.
And tasting blood etc.
Wotcher, TD 😉
tuesday night club ten for me.
Only racing myself and a few mates with similar limited ability.
I have one road bike, carbon frame- ok yes, but other than that its nowt special, no tri bars, no dish or deep section rims.
the only real gains will come from me.
Great social side to the tens, pub start and finish helps. families there with maybe just one member riding and everyone else having a laugh.
Even a few keen types on MTB's
It's not about the bike (as they say). It's about legs and lungs.
And technique.
And stamina.
And suffering.
And tasting blood etc.
And occasionally vomiting on your shoes 🙂
Thurman Merman made me do it too - that fella has a lot to answer for!!
edit - He made me do cross too!
Ha! Wotcher AH 🙂
I hear you're getting very serious these days. Gone sub 21"?
Too right I have, 20-53 for a ten and 51-48 for a twenty five (both done this season)
You really do have a lot to answer for though as I've just only minutes ago bought a second TT rig to turbo on during the long cold months and also now own not one but two powermeters!!!
ps I even bet DK at an open 10 on the U47r (only time ever I fear though)
More on here than I expected!
Perverts 😉
Too right I have, 20-53 for a ten and 51-48 for a twenty five
F me...
Way to go, buddy. Nice to beat DK ain't it? Managed it a couple of times, but not on the U47...
I'm just generally interested in TTing at the minute, I'm aware of a couple of local clubs that regularly run 10s in my area, I sort of fancy trying one on my road bike just to gauge my performance and give me a bit of a baseline...
I think the whole sustainable pacing of yourself over the course distance, thinking a bit more tactically, rather than reacting to other riders and breaks, sort of appeals to me...
I did have a slightly [I]"whacky"[/I] idea about assembling myself a cheap Fixed TT bike, just changing the bars on a fixie to get a good position but otherwise not bothering with much in the way of aero or light weight parts... Turns out it’s not that original an idea but it could be a good way of doing TT on the cheap, if I decide I like it (could also be a gateway to deeper obsessions though).
Turn up on a £50 steel raleigh ritmo in banana yellow.=, peaked helmet, hairy legs, and ill fitting lycra...
Sounds like my sort of thing...
I have no illusions about my fitness or abilities, I'm really just a generally unfit MTBer who's found a bit more road cycling and road commuting beneficial over the last ~ 6 months and maybe wants to add something else to target some training on.
I'm trying to set myself a few more goals so I've got some stuff to aim towards, I can see club 10s being a good way of charting any progress... Winter is coming and motivation will be in shorter supply, so some goals to target make sense. Sounds like I've missed the main TT season for this year, but I could start planning to do some Feb/Mar 2014?
Cheers for the responses...
I'm just generally interested in TTing at the minute, I'm aware of a couple of local clubs that regularly run 10s in my area, I sort of fancy trying one on my road bike just to gauge my performance and give me a bit of a baseline...
Do it! it doesn't matter what biek you use. Our club 10 is a friendly affair. We've had people turn up on mtb's before and we've got a few younger kits turning up and retired people. You don't need all the fancy gear
I really prefer doing tt's on a standard road bike now. Find it easier to gauge how fit I am rather than getting more aero
Time trialing at the club level can be a really friendly and approachable way to start racing.
It does take a certain type of mentality to do them though. I dont have it, in a race i find i can maintain high levels of effort then dig even deeper to follow a wheel or launch an attack but pacing and pushing myself if it is just against the clock i find very difficult to do. Its not just about not being able to dig deep its also that i find my mind start to wander onto other things rather than concentrate fully.
Just started at the beginning of this season. Me and a few mates challenged ourselves to a few roadie challenges including do our first road 100 miles and do a timetrial.
It's a good way to up your fitness. I can't think of any other scenario where you will go b***s out for 10 or 25 miles unless you're on the clock. However I get this bad feeling it may be like my Rugby career where I started playing to get fit, but at some point it changed to 'get fit to play'.
I don't bother with any of the aero gubbins. Ride it on my steel Genesis. Don't even use Tri bars.
It's the race of truth, that race against yourself. That's how I treat it first and foremost. Beware it's addictive and I suspect I'll start lusting some aero bling at some point.
It also introduced me to my local road club. They seem a really good bunch and a few of the lads are MTBers too.