TT Warmup Guidance -- Lord of the Flies

aarondavidson1

First off anyone else racing the Lord of the Flies stage race this weekend?

Friday night is a 4mi TT. Its a fun weekend of racing, so I plan on going as hard as I can the entire time. Somewhere north of FTP. However I have no idea how to warmup. I think I am bringing my trainer along, but the plan is:

• Easy ride the course
• Hook up the trainer
  • Spin for 15min
  • 5x (30/30)
  • Easy spin 5min
  • 3x(1min/1min)
  • Spin for a few min.
  • Sit for 10min
  • Race

I would like to do well, it is such a short effort which makes it more difficult. Saturday and Sunday are a sprint and then 'olympic' distance triathlon.

doddsj

Hey Aaron,

For a TT that short, you need a long warm-up.  Shorter the race, longer the warm-up.  Think about your training rides and how long it takes until you feel as though you are really going along.  Your warm-up needs to be at least that long.  Yes to including some hard efforts.  I always included some spin-ups in my warm-ups as well.  Overall plan looks pretty good.  The only change I would suggest is taking out the 10 min sit time.  You want to get to the line as if you were in the middle of a ride.  The only downtime you want is the time that they force you to stand in line for your start time.  You should be riding right up until you have to line up.  Another way to think of it is that your warm-up should produce a good sweat and you want to still be sweating when you are on the start ramp.  This means that if you use a trainer for most of your warm-up that you will have to finish it on the road.  Alternative is to do the whole thing on the road if there is space.

Good luck, Jeremy Dodds

Michele Cellai

 Hi! I did the entire weekend of racing last year.

Not sure if you know the course, but it is flat for about 1/3 mile then all downhill out, flip it and come back- all uphill til flat again.  Or it was last year due to road conditions. I would say to warm up on the road for a while just to have fun, then get on the trainer. It can be a long wait in line until your start. The line moves fast, but my number was around 130 IIRC, and I was cold with the setting sun and standing around all sweaty until my turn came.

Otherwise the tri courses follow the same route- out and back, but the Oly course has a hilly lollipop section. So all down, all up.

Have fun. I am off to IMWI camp.

jwpicciotto

You might focus some more of you warm up on getting to LT level. Rather than doing 3x(1x1) you might do a stair step to get yourself up to the rate that you are going to ride the TT at. The idea is to get your body to engage the same systems that you are going to use for the entire race. Since you want to ride north of FTP, then you are going to want to get your warm up to get you north of FTP for a couple of solid minutes. Like Jeremy said, take out the sit time. Once you finish your warmup on the trainer, you are going to get on the road and spin easy until it is your time to go to the line. Sitting will just cause your legs to start to lock up.

aarondavidson1

The goal would be to minimize the sit time as much as possible, just not sure how the queueing will work. So instead of the 1min efforts, do maybe a 10min effort, bumping up the watts by 10 each minute with the last minute at LT.

doddsj

Hey Aaron,

Not sure if you have done any stand alone TTs so please excuse any stuff you already know.

Almost every TT will post or communicate start times for each racer ahead of time (never seen it done any other way).  That gives you an idea of when to start your warm up (e.g 30 minutes ahead or whatever you have decided).  I would advise you to check your watch against the race clock to make sure they are the same.  Adjust your watch if you need to do so.  (You don't want to be late to your start time - the time starts whether you do or not.)  The officials will start calling race numbers as the start times approach.  Start times are usually 30 or 60 seconds apart and they may start calling numbers as long as 5 minutes ahead of time so you may have as many as 5 to 10 riders lined up.  Here is the key: you don't need to line up as soon as your number is called.  They are giving a warning and getting riders set but you don't need to line up right away.  Having said that, don't push it either.  If you know the race clock time coincides with your own watch, just keep an eye on it.  You can roll back and forth pretty close to the line up area.  If an official tells you get in your spot, do it, but otherwise roll around to keep your legs moving as long as possible.  Once in line, you can do any final stretching as you move closer to the front of the line.

When you get to the start line, there should be a starter to hold your bike while you clip in.  Remember to keep your brakes on while the starter is holding your bike.  They will give a count down warning till the start signal.  You job at that point is to go as hard as you can until you cross the finish line.  Someone once said that time trialing involves reaching your pain threshold as quickly as possible and then holding it there.  It is only 4 miles.  Have fun!

Jeremy

Michele Cellai

Some of the advice above will not work. Having done this, you are starting on a ramp in a parking lot and making a large U turn from the start ramp in the lot, go 100 feet then right turn onto the exit road from the resort then 100 yards and a right turn onto the actual road. You are not allowed to be riding on the main road or resort road once the racers start. That's why I suggested the trainer.

How did the event go?

Michele Cellai

Some of the advice above will not work. Having done this, you are starting on a ramp in a parking lot and making a large U turn from the start ramp in the lot, go 100 feet then right turn onto the exit road from the resort then 100 yards and a right turn onto the actual road. You are not allowed to be riding on the main road or resort road once the racers start. That's why I suggested the trainer.

How did the event go?