The day before a time trial, it is very important that you “blow out” your legs to a certain extent. The best and most efficient way to do this is by doing some hard intervals. There should be at least one effort in the 12-15 minute range at your maximum sustainable pace for that length of time. You should also include at least 3 intervals in the 2-minute range. These are much more intense than your longer effort, and they are intended to help “open up” your legs to a super intense effort. Give yourself adequate recovery between efforts and be very sure of staying hydrated today and also eating plenty of carbohydrates. Having a recovery drink after your ride today will be critical.
Day of a Time Trial
Once at the time trial- Make sure you are there 2 hours in advance and preferably NO more than 2 hours in advance. If you get there at 9:00 a.m. then, you want to be ready to race at 11. But, don’t get there at 11 a.m. if you are going to race at 3p.m. By the time 3 o’clock rolls around you are not going to be psyched and you are just going to want the whole thing to be over with and as a consequence, you are not going to ride a very good time trial...
Warm-Up
This is absolutely crucial to a good performance. You have to get your body ready for the “shock” of the hard effort that you are about to do. This “shock” will come in the warm-up and NOT in the first 5 miles of the TT. So, Go and do some hard intervals. Push yourself in warm-up! Do some 2-4 minute efforts and sprint in the last 15 seconds of each one. Blow out the “gook” and get those legs ready and going for the start. Your goal in the warm-up is to get your body so ready that when you get on the line, and you take off, it is just like your warm-up and you can immediately get into a rhythm. Be sure to drink a sports drink during warm-up and stay well hydrated. Time your warm-up, so that you have 5 minutes to come back to your car, drop off the spare tube and pump and get a fresh bottle for the event. Then you should have another 5minutes to roll around the start line and be sure not to miss your start time.
PACING - DON’T START OUT TOO HARD!!!
It’s absolutely critical that you ‘hold back’ in the first 5 minutes of the time trial !!! Your perceived exertion will be very low as you are excited and ready to go! BUT, this is a trap!!! In 5 minutes, if you continue this pace, you will blow up! So, it’s better to start out and gradually build up to your Time Trial HR and hit this HR at about 4-5minutes into the race. If you are using a power meter, than once you are up to speed, nail it on your threshold power and hold it there despite the fact that you’ll want to push faster. A properly paced time trial is like a carpet un-rolling. At first it starts un-rolling slowly, then picks up speed as it further unrolls and finally it slaps on the ground. This is what your Time Trial should
