Originally Posted by
Voodoo76
A little background. Riding and racing forever but never focused on TT's. I rode a few as a SR (late 80's) and did some Pursuit rides in the 90's but that was the extent of my Aero experience. Picked up a bike this winter. I've been fine tuning position since February. After a shaky start I'm getting closer to the Power & HR I can put out on the road bike. A work in progress.
Rode my first 20K a couple weeks ago and have a laundry list of things I can improve on. A couple of newbie questions for the riders here:
- What do you display to assist pacing? Right now I'm using my normal interval screen. 5s Power, Time & Cadence. Looking for some different displays to test.
- I have a tendency to "float" when the terrain lets me. Habit from years of setting up a sprint. Is that something I need to work on to TT more effectively? What would a good VI be?
Been fun so far.
I display:
Time, HR, instant power, ave power, cadence and distance.
My goal is for my VI to be 1.0 (and it usually is). The exception is a TT in which there is a some climbing and descents in which I spin out. Yesterday's TT for example had perhaps 1:45ish of non-pedaling descending which meant I could push a bit more up the hill knowing a rest was coming. This resulted in a VI of 1.2.
Generally speaking, in a TT my goal (as taught to me by my coach, @
Racer Ex) is to never deviate from my goal ave power by more than 10%. No floating, you stay on the pedals with force 100% of the time. Every moment you allow yourself to back off is a little bit of time lost. But even more importantly, lost momentum that must be regained with a little surge. Since you usually get no rest in TTs and therefore no recovery, surges kill.
Disclaimer: I'm a newby too so take me with a grain of salt. I just happen to be a very well-coached newby.
