Originally Posted by
Racer Ex
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.
The local clubs are pretty traditionalist, they tend to organise weekly TTs at 10 miles, so a bit short of 20km would be the easiest distance at which to get some competitive experience. However, the medium-term target for me would to go under the hour for 40km.
All this has a caveat: What type of rider are you and where are you on your progress.
Ah, well, in Friel's terms I'd say I was strongest in muscular endurance and weakest in anaerobic endurance. The latter is why I struggle in the crits. My limiter on climbing isn't so much force, as weight - I'm too big to be a true climber, but as I continue to drop the weight that will improve somewhat, at least. The anaerobic stuff definitely needs a lot of work, though.