Originally Posted by
chasm54
OK, here's a real idiot-boy question.
For a TT newbie, what would you suggest for an initial training regime? 20-minute threshold intervals were mentioned in the linked thread, which sounds intuitively right, to me; but intuition isn't always the best guide.
And would you think it possible to train both to improve one's performance in crits and TTs at the same time? Obviously, bumping up the threshold power would be good for both, but the character of the events - lots of accelerations in the crits, sustained smooth delivery in TTs - is pretty different. Thoughts?
How tall is a tree?
Because TT's come in distances from 5 to 200 km, you need to pick your distance then run with it.
What seems to be a standard non championship event these days is a 20km; using this as an example you'd want to train in part at a maximal effort for this duration, or slightly longer, along with adding in shorter, higher intensity aerobic intervals and strength work on the TT bike.
There will (hopefully) be an aerobic improvement as you progress, along with becoming familiar with how your body reacts and learning how to pace yourself to this distance.
Any aerobic improvement will be beneficial in crits, and learning how to pace will help you in bridging and OTF efforts. I won the TX state crit several years ago by riding off the front and going into TT mode for the next 40 minutes.
But TT work wouldn't be my sole advice for crits because most people are dealing with pack dynamics; short, sharp bursts which create completely different power profiles. Some TT type work will be beneficial, but really you need to work more on the anaerobic side.
All this has a caveat: What type of rider are you and where are you on your progress.