Time Trial / Time Trialling / TT

I'm entered into the National but I don't know how much slower that course will be. 300 possible on that?

Isn't it the 24 course? You must know it as well as anyone! When I did Newbury 12 and 24 in the same year I found the 24 course significantly slower than the A31.

Brave to go for it. When I tried to do a second 12 in a season I started well but ran out of power half way round. But everyone's recovery is different, and you are still a bit younger than I was then, so hope it works!

the first time it'd been outside for 2 years which definitely isn't the best prep for me.

Doing the distance you did, with dehydration, etc, suggests it was pretty good prep, no?

Nope. We went through it the other night. While I may have ridden bits of it for 2000mi some bits I've never ridden. It's far more complicated than this year's Breckland course and is going to make support with 1/4 of the team very tricky.

I may still bin it. It's still pretty painful sitting down and I only just managed to get through two 8min intervals at SS today. So recovery is slower than it used to be. Also, I started too hard at Breckland so in theory if I paced better I should be in a far better state than I was in last weekend. First long TT I've messed the pacing up on or at least first one in a really long while.

I went further but my power was down, so I would equate that with mostly poor prep or dehydration but on a faster course with more aero kit.

Oh and poor pacing - 5 years since my last 12hr and 2 years since my last TT of any kind (25mi) so I went off too hard which probably compounded with the dehydration for the collapse towards the end.

Are the TTs that are running having anything like normal HQs, with sign-on, cakes, etc?
Or is it all being done outside?

is it all being done outside?

The RA directs event secretaries to do everything outside. Riders are supposed to arrive dressed to race as there will be no changing rooms. If there is an HQ building, it's only there for the toilets.

Did the F1B/25 the other week and it worked well. Bring your own pen for sign-on, couple of portaloos with sanitiser everywhere, no drinks etc. afterwards and everything outside. Everyone seemed sensible and no dramas! Weather was great though, might be more tricky if it’s tanking down. Was lovely to be racing again.

Breckland was at a hall but everything was done with no contact - you used your own pen to sign on and picked up all the race numbers in a ziplock. They had a toilet in there but no changing allowed and no cakes (in the toilet or the hall)!!!! :(

At the finish, you just dropped numbers back into a bucket so they could clean them.

I'm DNSing Nat 12.

Recovery ain't fast enough and now I have an issue with my wanking dominant hand.

Ah that's a shame, heal up mate

Yeah, I'll live, but there's enough wrong with me after Breckland I figure it's best to cut my losses now rather than climb off after 4hrs having spent all the dosh to get up there.

Sounds like the right call

I think if I'd had a normal year of training it'd have been fine. I'm pretty good with volume. But with this indoor/turbo only, the first 12hr knocked shit out of me.

Yes, you have to base it off your own recovery experience. I tried doing a second one, when I was mid-40s, and it didn't work for me, so that colours my views, but your recovery has to be good given the multi-ultras you've done, etc. Although I do also remember the E2 12 in 2013 when I think you'd just won the 24 but couldn't get what you were aming for then - despite overtaking me!

The other thing is that I get the feeling that course might not be nearly as fast, so you could be 10W up on the other day but just be on for 285! As I'm sure you know, you know if that is going to be the case within the first hour, so it then becomes 11.5 hours of a special type of purgatory! Again, I'm basing off my own experience - my last 12 hour was like that (with the numbers scaled down a bit), and that is probably why there hasn't been another one!

That was when I was still trying to get the club record, which was something like 273mi. I'd got within a mile or two on two occasions (Wales and ECCA) but both of them were done within a month of the 24hr so it's a lot harder to train up for that and THEN add the speed needed for 12hr. When they introduced the Newbury, which ran BEFORE the 24hr, I was flying and smashed the record by 20mi.

Yeah, the course record for D12/1 is much slower so I could very well ride the whole thing, set a power PB and still not break club record or 300. But then, it's the National so I'd have tried to better my last result which I think was a 7th place. So, there's always some little nugget of a goal I can work out to aim for to keep me going. But in this case, my hip stuff is back, my undercarriage is still healing and I have some weird lump on the palm of my hand which makes holding handlebars quite painful. Then there's the fact it's further away, slower course, we'd need extra accommodation and I only have the missus instead of 3 helpers and she'd have to drive all over the place for handups. In my head I'm not up for it, so there's just no way I'd commit to all that hassle with my body being in this condition.

and THEN add the speed needed for 12hr

Genuinely interested here but I’m surprised that the prep for a 12hr and a 24hr are that different? What’s the difference in average power and how does the prep change to add the extra speed on top?

I riding 12hrs at 25mph, whereas I'm riding 24hrs at 20-21mph. There's a substantial difference in power required.

12hrs at 25mph

mindblown.gif

Joe Skipper bloke was doing 27mph to set the comp record the other week.

Yep. Equivalent (sort of) to 13 mid-55 25s in a row. Bogglesome.

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This!

I suppose it’s similar to running in that (to me) you can’t run a marathon without speedwork and there is very little drop of in pace from a half mara. Obviously we’re talking far longer races here, but most people who run marathons just try to get round and the idea of running it fast is anathema. I just find it mind blowing to hold that speed for that time cycling (and my aeros aren’t even that bad...).

Still not good enough, need another 0.5mph

Yeah, but he's a pro. I think.

He is, but a pro triantelope rather than pro cyclist. He was absolutely flying when he went past me last year though. Felt like I was going backwards.

That's still 1/3rd pro cycling :)