I have a tendency to go way too hard in a TT without power - so I use it as a cautionary tale for the first few minutes. I have my target number and stick to it very closely for the first five minutes, then I re-assess and see how I’m feeling and adjust the target and stick to that number for five minutes. I repeat this process for the duration. I find this particularly helpful in stage races where I may be a few events into the race and am never 100% how my body will be dealing with the stress.
The biggest TT pacing advice I can give you though is to go race a bunch of TTs. Learn how your body responds to a variety of scenarios and learn to listen to it. Pick a C race and go out harder than you think you can sustain and see how long until you blow up - you shouldn’t care too much about the results there and you’ll learn a lot about your capabilities and how things feel when you are burning matches too fast
Also it is good to learn how awful you truly should feel for the last quarter of a TT - if you are finishing and feel like you can raise your power because the finish line is just a mile or two away you haven’t been suffering nearly enough
Nailed it @JulianM. This whole post is very much in line with what I’ve seen in riders I’ve coached, ones I ride and race with, and myself. Power is a tool, a highly useful one, but it can be a hindrance if you’re too rigid in your training (and racing) approach.
I use my power meter, as lots have said above, to try and keep me calm in the opening 5 minutes… Without it, I’m pretty sure I’d be convinced I was super man every time and push 200W over threshold from the start.
Pretty much every TT course I race on is undulating, windy and with a poor road surface so holding a consistent power based on my power meter simply doesn’t happen, so I have it there as a guide… Once I know I’m on the ‘home straight’ I try and empty the tanks, and on my best efforts that means I don’t speed up nor slow down! But that is done by RPE!
Thanks all. This thread has been VERY informative! I appreciate the time people have spent typing out their advice and experience.
I’m now thinking out a strategy for next season. Thinking along the lines of the first 10% of the race keeping it steady x% below FTP. Then basically pacing by RPE/feeling/legburn, ensuring I don’t fry myself on hills (maybe limit 130% above FTP). Ultimately i need to educate myself on my RPE rather than wahoo watching.
Depends on how long the TT is, but for anything over a few minutes (yes, even 6 minute hill climbs!) going out too hard has been my biggest pacing disaster. Obviously check out the course, if you start going up the only hill then you will need to adjust accordingly.
The only TT I did without my power numbers in front of me (messed up my Garmin screens just before) I planned on going out quite hard and recovering a bit on the downhill that was a few minutes in before riding the rest of the course at a sensible pace. I went off too hard, didn’t get much back on the downhill and slowly died over the rest of the course.
