Originally Posted by
K.Katso
I'm working with a coach on my TT this season, and we don't have it in the training plan at all. It won't help, but I definitely don't think it will hurt. Just a waste of time to train for it if you're completely focused on time trials. You might do a short sprint to get back up to speed after making a turn on the course, but it's a few seconds max and you don't want to burn any matches going all out. If you're sprinting at the finish, you're doing it wrong- you should be all used up when you get there.
I am also working with my coach on TTs and we don't have it in the training plan either. I spend lots of time at threshold, getting my body and mind used to dealing with lactic acid.
However, I'm probably going to try some track stuff in the summer, and it was my trackie friend that I was speculating too. The track is going to mean working some shorter duration power and coach thinks there's some usefulness to that and to also working on starts.
But my questioning whether the sprint is harmful to my trackie friend has to do with physiology (really more a philosophical question almost, or "what's your opinion?" and opposed to "what's the answer?"). If you don't have it, you can't use it and in a TT you really don't want the power spikes. If you develop it a little, will you need more discipline/focus to not use that sprint? Ie could it be a potential distractor? I'm not talking about sprinting at the finish. I'm talking about inadvertent power burstiness if something distracts you on the course.