TT Plans, Should I Overlook what seems the Obvious

Hello, after using TrainerRoad over the last couple years mainly focusing on road race plans, this off-season and into next season I am solely going to be concentrating on TT’s. I am based in the UK and from what I hear (forgive me if I’m mistaken) what differs to the states is that the most common and accessible distance here is a 10mile event, although I would like to point out I will also be competing in a number of 25 and 50 mile events as well. I am in the process of working through SSB 1 and 2 and although I presume the sustained power build and 40k specialty plans would be the obvious choice for me to choose, I didn’t know if other slightly less prolonged interval style workouts and higher % of ftp filled plans may be a viable way to go, maybe like general build or a hybrid of the two?, especially for the 10 mile events which will last in the region of 20 minutes at higher percentages of FTP than would be found for a traditional 40k event. My concern is being able to cope with these more intense efforts if only ever training in and around my one hour power?? Maybe I’m trying to be to cleaver for my own good and if so please tell me, any thoughts would be much appreciated, thanks.

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If that were me I’d be doing the obvious as you suggest :grinning:

It depends which events you see as more important but if you want for focus predominantly on 10’s it might be worth looking at the general build instead of the sustained power build as there’s more work over threshold. If you’d place more emphasis on the longer 50’s the sustained power build might be a better fit.

I suspect the differences between the two wouldn’t be huge by the time you’ve gone through the whole process and get to the Speciality Plan, you’d be pretty fit for those distances either way.

I’m also looking to improve my 10 mile TT, Merckx class for now so duration is longer at 25-28 minutes. We have club TTs every two weeks in the summer, on a flat course, and I consider these B events. Still considering my specialty plan. If it was more of a rolling course then I might consider Climbing Road Race because it has more VO2max work. Interested to hear what others have to say.

I did Sustained Power Build (MV) around February / March last year to prepare for early season, substituting a few weekend workouts for club rides etc. There’s plenty of vo2 work in that at well above 10-mile power (I have particularly “fond” memories of Shortoff +4), it isn’t just threshold, so I wouldn’t worry about finding a plan with more intensity.

It worked for me anyway - knocked 30 secs of my 10mile PB, going under 21 minutes for the first time, and saw my power in events up on the previous season too.

Maybe if you’re targeting a 10, substitute a threshold session for an extra vo2 max one, just in the week or 2 before your taper.

And put a note in your calendar to stretch your hamstrings every day.

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My first A Race is a 13mi/21km TT; it was suggested by the TR crew that perhaps I should consider doing the Sprint Distance Tri plan as the SD TT is 20km.