Which training block do you recommend for special time trial training?
Hi Teufifel,
Good question. A question like this tells me a lot about the athlete. My guess is you will be doing a time trail in the upcoming months or even weeks!?
Like everything in life good things come to those who work. So the longer you prepare for a race the better you will be. I’m talking years. like olympians do. These athletes are planning their next victory in 2028.
So, depending on when that time trail is, there are different training blocks.
Which means a lot of basetraining with a healthy mix of tempo and threshold work. If your race is shorter than 20km I would even put in a serious high intensity block.
Under -overs, a workout where you systematically go over (and under) your threshold is a very nice way of training for a TT. But that would be in the last two months before the TT.
Just remember, it is always a mix of building a big base and putting your intensity on top of that.
It depends on what kind of rider you are too. Are you the punchy type of rider or the diesel that steady paces the race. It is funny, because in cycling we don’t really talk about schedules this way, but in speed-skating (yes, I’m Dutch) it is very common to talk about a descending schedule or an ascending schedule, meaning there are riders that start fast and end slow, while other riders start slow and and very fast.
Both of these riders become champion. I know I’m burning myself to a hold if I would start fast. My power comes after 10 minutes, than I’ll ride faster and faster until the end.
Finally there is the course that you will be riding. Is it hilly, are there many curves. That all makes a difference in how you train. In Holland we have those small town TT’s. It is usually a square route with 4 corners. That means you will ride 4 rounds, meaning 16 corners to accelerate. That is quite different from the Dutch TT nationals that take place over a straight, out and back route.
So look at yourself and take a look at the course and make a list of what you need to do to be at your best.
Have fun, Coach Robert
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Ok, thanks! Which block would you recommend for me about 8 weeks before the time trial, which lasts about 30 minutes?
I mentioned else where I help the trek racing team with time trial strategy and you ultimately want to be as specific as possible to your event. I have built code to do this race strategy and race strategy relates to training. So it’s pretty complex for 30 minute efforts as you will be spending a decent percent of your time over your FTP. This means your anaerobic work capacity or W’ balance plays a serious role and you get your most bang for your buck putting that energy into your uphill sections, the steeper the harder the effort. This gets especially important as you get to higher speeds. So your personal aerodynamics (CDA) obviously plays a significant role in this as well.
So I know that may sound like gibberish 
BestBikeSplit is for sure the best at determining your race strategy and your race strategy dictates your training strategy. Because of all this, this is why we have avoided build a specific TT block in Coach Jack. To simplify generally you you have a hilly route you want to focus your last block on 100-120% and if it is flatter it’s probably more like 100-110%.
I would do a custom plan (click harder) like below, starting about intensity level 3-7 depending on how long it is and how you feel.
This creates some serious blocks.
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Agree! I would also test how big your anaerobic capacity is, so you can completely empty the tank in those 30 minutes. You can do this at the end of an lsd training or a zone 4 training.
The VO2 max training should feel very uncomfortable when you are doing them. Save the longest blocks for the last four weeks and don’t forget to use a short taper, so you will be at your fittest when you race.
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