Originally Posted by
Doge
How old are you and how many TT miles you got in your legs? Do you know how to TT?
If <30 male, I think many could in a year of < 7 hours a week of focused training. Not including diet and sleep in the training part but that matters.
If you are north of 40 you likely cannot recover from 14 hours/week if you are just starting out. You might dig yourself into a hole - the more you train, the slower you get.
Yes. Lots of folks don't ramp their CTL properly over time. They ramp it too fast into big negative form then wonder why they can't hit numbers in their tough workouts.
Part of this also is I usually ask people if they spend any hours taking video and photos of their bike fit. Or working on their aero. In any manner. Doesn't have to be super nerd like some of us, but anything. Soooo often the answer is "no", they just prefer to bash out miles and workouts. What a waste of fitness that is!
I'm also a fan of doing a "club run" or self timed TT about twice a month. Practice getting in the kit (or most of it) and looking over your route, then executing your game plan. Familiarity with the pain of the 20ish min of a 10mi and the mid 50's min of a 25mi TT is worth a LOT. If you're not comfortable being uncomfortable you likely won't be able to utilize the same % of your fitness.