Time Trial / Time Trialling / TT

It’s been a stressful day - up with the toddler at 530. Scramble to get stuff ready and adjust setup in time for my wife to get to an appointment, then meet her afterwards to hand over toddler and get to the start. Misunderstood the email and thought there was no parking at the start, so parked 6 miles away and rode in. Which was fine, just extra stress when you’re short on time.

Managed to set off hard and hung on. It’s a tough course apparently. The tips on my position off my mate really helped, felt a lot better. And I’m sure the helmet and skinsuit also made a massive difference. It’s absolutely roasting too.
Lovely vibe tho, which is the main thing. Friendly, chilled out - similar to fell races in that respect which is exactly what I was after.
Chuffed!

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Told you so...

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Haha, I hadn’t forgotten, in fact it is exactly what crossed my mind when I saw the time! Official time 1:04.46.
Mystic Tester and his crystal helmet, ahem.

crystal helmet

Now I want one...

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Chuffed!

Congrats, you won at TTing! :)

Anyone got any old shoe covers for sale?
Without wanting to go too mad, seems like a rear wheel cover like this and shoe covers are reasonable upgrades for the next one.

One thing that does strike me is that second hand TT bikes are available for a relative pittance, so it seems silly to really spend any money - although after buying a winter commuter, I’m at maximum capacity for bikes (arguably over capacity!).

What size feet are you? You can have both pairs of these for a fiver posted - should suit at least a 9/10.

Oh wow - thanks! Will PM.

Just caught up with this. Well done @Nef, you beat my first ever 25 time by 3 minutes. And seven years after setting that I ended up being able to do a short 56.

Wouldn't be able to do that these days though, maybe a short 1hr56 !!

Bit of an extended ramble on about it here (if you’re that way inclined):
https://www.lfgss.com/comments/17119526/

Thanks again for the kind words. I’m enjoying getting my brain back into the mode where I start planning what training I can fit in, and how to improve etc. it’s that aspect that helps keep me sane in my day to day life.

Great performance and write up - shame you started racing at the end of the TT season!

Yeah I did realise it’s a summer season :(
Something to hopefully keep me motivated over winter. Can still always head out to the course on my own and give it a shot to track progress.

And really this is all just a convoluted way of training for @youramericanlover ‘s HDIJ :)

Good read that. It’s defo not a placebo effect. Less frontal area pushing through the air will generally always mean a speed increase. Ride with a HR and a PM, sit up and keep the same speed, you will instantly see an increase in power and a rise in HR.

And really this is all just a convoluted way of training for @youramericanlover ‘s HDIJ :) my first 100 mile TT

If I cycle 5 miles to and from the HDIJ, does that count as a 100 TT?

I really really feel uncomfortable in the TT thread but have popped into say this year's HDIJ is a bit overdistance so you won't need to ride to and from to get an imperial century :)

For a course that runs latitudinally, I suspect it will be a race of two halves on Sunday. New top speed on the flat might be doable, going under the hour, less so.

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Try mywindsock for wind impact on TTs. Takes a bit of fiddling to understand but can be quite useful

I had a brief look at mywindsock and was just overwhelmed tbh. Lots of terms I don’t understand. Wasn’t sure if I needed a power meter to make more use of the data but I don’t have a PM or desire for one.

Yeah I’ve never really gone deep on it, just looked at the pretty colours of the line to see where it’ll be hard 😂

Will it be a headwind on the outward leg, or the return? I find it easier to pace the latter as a the tailwind at the start helps ease you into it, while the return headwind helps you 'empty the tank' with a negative split in power/HR/RPE.

I use MyWindsock pretty extensively, but the main thing is once you've done a bunch of races then you can get a rough range of its estimated CdA. Don't take any stock in the actual value but if similar distance and traffic levels to your event then you can plug in those ranges and what power you think you can hold (again I do a low and high). This will give you a target speed for the 'fast' and 'slow' bits for the course.

Given it takes into account the elevation profile and the weather on the day, it's been a great guide to pacing. Personally find it much easier to try and maintain a speed for a given segment, rather than monitoring power constantly.

Also the above works if you only have a smart trainer but no power meter on your TT bike, which is great.

Last note, it's probably a bit involved to get into it but I think the whole 'push really hard into the headwind' and then 'save on th tailwind' is a good rule of thumb, but it's unfortunately not as simple as that. If I rode a course with a block headwind then these online tools would suggest to ride some unsustainable %FTP into the wind Vs the taily.

Bit of a clearcut but I have 2 essentially new Canyon SpeedMax Disc framesets + handlebars (the CF variety) for sale.
One in Medium (too big)
One in Small (too small)
I'm just a weird shape.
Small has had some turbo use but not much, and probably 200-300km total.
Medium 150km total, all outdoors, dry.

Looking for £600 for each of those.

Also have some TriRig Alpha Ones- used on the small Canyon, similar miles
£500.

Collection in London please.

What colourway on the Med?