Time Trials and why they are important

Time trials are an important part of our training structure as they allow you (and us!) to monitor your progress over certain training periods to ensure you continue to develop and improve.  It’s not just about the time, as conditions can vary over the period of time that we conduct our time trials, however, how you perform and how you recover are strong indications of how you are progressing.

Over the winter months and leading into the main race season, particularly for Sprint, Olympic and Half Ironman racing we concentrate on technique, strength and endurance. Time trials you an indication of how your strength training is progressing and you should expect to see consistency over time or some improvement. For some of you there will be major gains and for others there will be some minor improvements, for others you may even go a little slower. (You cannot expect to PB every time you time trial, however, you should expect to be around a similar time that you have recorded previously).

Remember, these phases of our training are all about building your expertise, strength, endurance and technique, to get you to the start line where you really do want to run your PB. It’s no good being a star on the training track and then leaving it all behind come race day!

It is important for you to attend each 6 week time trial during the year – without these measures; it is hard to know how your training is progressing. They also provide a little variety to your training regime and an opportunity to test some theories that you may want to put into place on a race day, including practicing your pacing, how hard to push your self, where your limits are etc.

Time trial week always throw up a few surprises and of course this week already is no exception, for the disciplined few who attended the bike time trials some great results were achieved, in particular Caleche Watson who was simply awesome and took a whopping 4 minutes of her previous best time, that is a 15% improvement and Tania Davell took 2.55 of her previous best, an 11% improvement, all that hard work with Coach Darren is surely paying dividends (you couldn’t wipe the grin of the big fella’s face!), there were 9 PB’s at the bike, a first timer over 20km and an equal PB for Anthony Churchward.

Lisa McFarlane and Belinda Griffiths both broke 20 minutes for the first time, and Steve Hollingsworth, Paddy Fitzgerald, Geoff Houston, Mary Leahy and Sonia Gregoul all recording their own PB.

Of course I cannot leave out Juliet Vermeulan who left hubby Peet in her wake recording just over 40 minutes for her first 20km TT.

So onto the swim, there’s nothing like a surprise 500m time trial at Northcote for those expecting to swim 1km on Wednesday and what a surprise it turned out to be, with Lee Bethune, Meghan Blakemann and Ariel Grana all posting PB’s. Over in the 1km lane Paul Forsyth not only broke 18 minutes for the first time he produced a mid 17 swim somewhere close to a 2 minute PB, what a fantastic result for a bloke who reckons he can’t swim.  Tracey Linguey and Evelyn Ling also posted PB’s whilst Michelle Reckermann completed her first 1km time trial, for those of you who know Michelle, this is a fantastic result as when she first started a couple of years ago Michelle lacked confidence in the water and could hardly swim. This is testament to all the hard work and perseverance that Michelle has put in.

And finally, Anthony Churchward has added another PB to his repertoire, knocking off a casual 1.14 from his previous best over 1km, again Anthony has been a model of consistency and his hard work is being rewarded, don’t get in his way in Shepparton, he is on track for an excellent race come November.