Most of us are all pretty familiar with time trials and the basic concepts behind racing a time trial. However, even the most seasoned road racer can struggle pulling in the time they’re capable of in their first or even first several time trials.

Most of us are all pretty familiar with time trials and the basic concepts behind racing a time trial. However, even the most seasoned road racer can struggle pulling in the time they’re capable of in their first or even first several time trials. Time trials are animals in and of themselves and go against some of the common knowledge and strategies we use in road racing and criteriums. In a road race or a criterium, you’re often trying to conserve energy while letting your opponents do the bulk of the work, until an opportunity presents itself to put pressure on your opponents. In a time trial, you’re gradually emptying your tank the entire time, strategically targeting where you put down more power in some parts of a course while slightly conserving in other parts of the course. You’re always flirting with that fine line of blowing up, which is why it takes experience racing time trials and crossing way over that line before you really figure out where that line is. While there is no substitute for just getting out there and trying your hand at time trialing, there are a few tips that can help you increase your learning curve as you start mastering the art of time trialing.

Warming Up:

A good warm up for a time trial is crucial and the shorter the time trial is, the more important a good warm up will be. In a time trial, you will quickly progress up towards your lactate threshold, so it is important for your body to be primed and ready to process lactate efficiently before you ever start your time trial. Typically some long tempo or threshold level efforts will trigger the energy system responsible for creating lactate in the blood stream. While you want to introduce some lactate into the bloodstream during your warm up, you don’t want to spend too much time accumulating lactate in the bloodstream, again you just need to prime your body to be able to process lactate. You shouldn’t have to do an effort that builds up so much lactate that you are starting your time trial with lactate already heavily present in your blood stream. This is why you want your warm up to consist of relatively short repeated efforts with equal recovery time, giving your body some time to process lactate between efforts. My favorite time trial warm up routine is what can be referred to as pyramid intervals. These start with a short interval at tempo to threshold pace with equal recovery time and progress to longer intervals with equal recovery time before working back down towards the short interval you started with. Below is an example of what these look like:

1min @ tempo-low threshold - 1min easy spin

2min @ tempo-low threshold - 2min easy spin

3min @ tempo-low threshold - 3min easy spin

2min @ tempo-low threshold - 2min easy spin

1min @ tempo-low threshold - 1min easy spin

I prefer to keep the top end of these intervals no longer than 3 minutes for myself as I tend to feel a bit of lingering fatigue rolling to the start line if I do anything beyond that, which you want to avoid going into a time trial. Typically, you’ll want to spin for 15-20 minutes on the trainer or out on the road before starting these intervals. However, more time may be desired if you’re going into a shorter time trial. The tricky part about a good warm up is getting it done close enough to your start time that you don’t cool down between your warm up and your start. Every race will have their own requirements as to when they want you in the start house, but if you’re in the start house 5-10 minutes before your listed start time, you’re typically good. I typically suggest doing the pyramid intervals on a trainer near the start house (or at least within your line of sight), so as soon as you finish your last interval, you can throw the rest of your gear on and go straight to the start house with 5-10 minutes to spare and spin around the start house till your called to the line.

Pacing:

Pacing is one of the biggest components that can contribute to a successful time trial or blowing up prematurely. Good pacing comes with a combination of experience and targeted training. As you get more time trials under your belt, you’ll start to get a feel for how hard you can go at a given point in a time trial without blowing up too early. With targeted training, you can improve efficiency at threshold so you can go into time trials with a higher threshold and with a greater ability to recover from short bouts slightly above threshold without having to drop down to a recovery pace. The training component is very handy when you have to power through a headwind section or up a hill by going slightly above threshold then dropping just below threshold to recover in the tailwind sections or on a downhill. Hills, headwinds, and crosswinds are great places to do a little extra work to make up some good time on your opponents while downhills and tailwind sections often result in smaller time gains (if any) for the same level of effort, which makes them great sections to hang just below threshold to conserve for the next hill or headwind.

All of this is a fine balancing act between putting down a few extra watts where it counts and letting off slightly where it counts less, with the idea that you don’t want to blow up before the line, but not have anything left in the tank by the time you cross the line. Let’s take a look at a couple example files that show what poor pacing and good pacing look like:

Poor pacing:

There are a few glaring mistakes in pacing in this time trial. One of the more obvious is that this athlete went out too hard and also did it on a downhill where the gains in time from the increased power would be minimal. You can see this athlete started out well above what they were capable of maintaining for the duration of this time trial as at about the halfway point, their heart rate hits the ceiling and pretty much stays there despite the reduction in average power in the second half. Take note of the initial heart rate spike at the beginning and the subsequent drop in power below the average power line. This athlete really had to back off to get that heart rate back under control, which is not what you want to have to do. Now let’s take a look at what a properly paced time trial would look like.

Good Pacing:

Looking at this file, you can see this athlete clearly stayed within their limits for the first half of the time trial while gradually increasing their output and always keeping their heart rate under control. There are no massive spikes in heart rate that result in the athlete having to back off the power drastically to get the heart rate back down. As a result, this athlete was able to consistently increase the power through the entire time trial all the way to the finish, topping out his heart rate near the low end of his VO2 max by the time he crossed the finish line. He gradually emptied his tank and calculated his pacing correctly so that he would be on empty by the time he crossed the finish line.

Aerodynamics & Proper Bike Fit:

One of the really cool aspects of time trialing is the role aerodynamics plays in the race. Let’s face it, we all secretly (or publicly) admire those super aero TT bikes rocking rear disc wheels and a deep dish front wheel, even if we prefer to race the Merckx category. There’s something Formula 1esque to those setups. The truth is, equipment does make up a big part of the aerodynamics component, but it doesn’t make up for poor pacing, training, warm up, and a fit that gets you in an aero position while allowing maximal power output in that position.

When it comes to finding the right fit on a TT bike, it really comes down to 3 things: aerodynamics, power, and comfort. You’re seat will typically be positioned a little bit further forward allowing you to engage the powerful quadriceps quite a bit more. It allows for a more powerful position and opens the hips up a bit so you can lower your torso a bit and reduce frontal area without having too closed an angle in the hips at the top of the pedal stroke. You can typically work from there a bit on how far forward or back you want your seat or handlebars to what feels the most comfortable and powerful. The truth of time trialing is that a good TT setup will never feel very comfortable for more than 1-2hrs since the longest race you may ever do would likely be a 40k TT that may take around an hour. TT positions are different from tri-positions as you don’t have to run after or be on your bike as long, so expect a more aggressive position when it comes to a proper time trial fit. Maintaining your flexibility by putting a good stretching routine in place, will help you generate power in the aero position, so don’t skimp on stretching. I know most athletes cut out stretching when they’re tight on time (I’m guilty of this as well), but if time trials are your focus, don’t skip out on stretching following your workouts. A good consistent stretching routine will pay big dividends on race day.

Hopefully you’ve come away from this article with a good idea of what to expect from time trials and what you can do to improve your ability to do well in a time trial. Time trials are great fun and are a good racing option if you’re not interested in rubbing elbows in a large pack. There’s never ending challenges when it comes to looking for that extra half a second that the next guy had on you from better equipment to more targeted training. While we can’t sell you a bike or wheels, we can help you develop that engine. Feel free to scope out one of our Power Improvement Training Plans in our training plan library geared at building a stronger threshold that can be used by those training with either heart rate or power. All our plans include the contact info of the coach who authored the plan so you can have an extra level of guidance as you go through any one of our training plans.

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Post Author:

Jason is a level 2 USAC coach and time trial specialist. He has coached several athletes to state TT championship titles and has extensive first hand experience in the Individual Time Trial & Team Time Trial.