Coachinginterview

HOW TO RIDE FASTER THAN 98% OF PEOPLE | JOHN ARCHIBALD

with John Archibald

40:13·9 December 2024

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JOHN ARCHIBALD

John Archibald is one of the fastest UK time trial riders of his generation — multiple British national TT titles, Commonwealth Games team pursuit medallist, and a long-running Hour Record contender. He sustained a near-pro performance level for years on roughly 15 hours of training a week alongside a full-time job — which is exactly the volume that the Roadman audience is realistically training to. His perspective on aero-first decision-making, interval work in the skis, and pacing by course rather than by power number is one of the most actionable on the show for any rider chasing a 10- or 25-mile TT PB.

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KEY TAKEAWAYS

Train around 15 hours a week and protect recovery. Archibald balances a full-time job at this volume; pushing past 20-25 hours stops paying back because you cannot absorb the work, even when he was full-time pro.
Do your intervals in the skis, not just on the road bike. Holding aero posture under VO2 and threshold loads is a trainable skill; if you have to come up onto the base bar to keep pushing, the effort is too hard.
Stop chasing weight, chase CdA and watts. Below a 10kg swing, mass barely changes a 10-mile time once you are over 50km/h; aerodynamics dominate, so spend the budget there.
Buy gains in the right order. Tyres, a big single chainring, oversized jockey wheels and a waxed chain are universal wins; helmets, skin suits, overshoes and bar position are rider-specific and need wind tunnel or aero testing before you commit.
Pace from the course, not the power number. Model the route in Best Bike Split, push above threshold on draggy climbs you can recover from, and treat tight corners as forced recovery so you can hit them at speed without braking.

TOPICS

John Archibald has clocked one of the fastest 10-mile time trial times in the UK at 17:19, and in this conversation he breaks down exactly how he got there. We dig into the training volume that actually works around a full-time job, the equipment that's worth your money, and the pacing strategies that separate the fast from the very fast.

Key Takeaways

You don't need 20+ hours a week to be competitive—8-12 hours with consistency and recovery will get you results; the sweet spot is finding what you can sustain without overtraining
Do your high-intensity intervals in the TT position (75-80% of your session time in the skis), not just on the road bike—this is the only way to learn how to hold power and breathe properly when it matters
Skip the expensive gear lottery: test your helmet, skin suit, overshoes, and calf guards at a wind tunnel or testing facility first; tires, big chainring, and oversized jockey wheels don't need testing because they work for everyone
Weight loss below 10kg makes almost no difference to time trial performance—aerodynamics and power matter vastly more, so don't stress minor diet changes
Pace strategically using tools like Best Bike Split, but adapt for terrain: go hard on hills that drag or have no recovery, and treat corners as free recovery zones by coasting through them rather than braking
Fuel conservatively for a 10-miler: eat 2.5-3 hours before the race to avoid rebound hypoglycemia, take modest caffeine (150mg for most people, not the 3-6mg/kg recommendation), and skip gels unless you're racing 25 miles or longer

Expert Quotes

"If you reduce your frontal area by lowering stack height and saddle and moving things forwards and backwards, you realize you've reduced your CDA but now you can only put out 20 watts less than you were doing last week—you lose power."

"If the intensity is so hard you have to come out of the skis, it's too hard—that's fast."

"It's only as good as what you can put on paper—results are what matter, not who you could have beaten."

CLAIMS FROM THIS EPISODE

Each tagged with the strength of evidence behind it.

ANECDOTE
A 17:19 ten-mile time trial puts a rider among the fastest in the UK, and that level is reachable on roughly 15 hours of training per week alongside a full-time job.
Source: John Archibald, elite British time trialist
EXPERT
Going above roughly 20-25 hours of training per week consistently stops producing improvement because recovery and absorption break down, even for full-time professionals.
Source: John Archibald, based on his time as a full-time track and TT pro
PRO PRACTICE
Nearly all structured intervals should be performed in the TT position; coming out of the skis mid-effort is a sign the intensity is too high rather than a useful adaptation.
Source: Archibald's training practice
EXPERT
For a non-professional 10-mile time trialist, a one to two kilo change in body weight is functionally irrelevant to finishing time because air resistance dominates above 50km/h.
Source: John Archibald
PRO PRACTICE
Eating 2.5-3 hours before the start and taking around 150mg of caffeine (well below the 3-6mg/kg textbook dose) avoids rebound hypoglycaemia and caffeine jitters for riders sensitive to either.
Source: Archibald's pre-race protocol

KEY QUOTES

“I think there's a training commitment and then is what you're physically able to do so uh I'm quite fortunate in that I don't have a wife and kids and a very demanding job or physical job manual labor job so I'm able to commit something around 15 hours a week to cycling and so that's just unrealistic for some people but I think I also do that because I like to Road Race and do some other things and because I enjoy riding the bike it's not to say that 15 hours a week is the requirement or the Baseline”
John Archibald — Elite British time trialist

“if I was doing a 90minut session I would never spend more than three or four minutes out of the skis at one time um and certainly in the end of won't come out at all because it's you're capitulating really it's if if you're if the intensity is so hard you have to come out skis it's too hard”
John Archibald — Elite British time trialist

“to make a substantial difference you're talking 10 kilos or more okay so for example if you say oh I know I could lose two kilos uh and be and I might potentially lose some power with that I go not bother don't bother two kilos is going to make no difference in terms of your your uh race time because you know once you're up 50k hour the overwhelming things L you down is air resistance”
John Archibald — Elite British time trialist

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT2 SECTIONS

Meet Britain's Fastest Time Trialist

Road man welcome back to the podcast today I have the pleasure to introduce you to one of the fastest time trialists on the British cycling scene John Archie balls today we try to unlock the secrets to going fast against the clock we talk about pacing strategies we talk about technology Wheels tar Choice drivet train efficiency aerodynamics training regimes and exactly how to fit all this in around a busy full-time job John is ridiculously fast against the clock clocking some sub 173 10 m time trials making him one of the fastest riders in the UK I think you're going to love this conversation John archal John archall welcome through Rob my podcast thank you it's nice to be here you might be the fastest Rider I've ever talked there a few that's a tough accolate what's your your 10 my PB uh 1719 yeah I say you're up there you're definitely on a Podium with the the fastest Riders you're faster than Bingham uh I'd like to think so but I've had my bet over I've had the best of them recently but no I think definitely is our record in his IP times he's definitely got some if he come to a fast 10 now he smash that time for sure look it's only as good as what you can put on paper defin yeah the gauntlet Set uh I wanted my goal of the podcast for this one is somebody that's stepping into time traling to give them a foothold on what it takes to be good at time trialing or somebody who's already in time tring but they feel like they've hit a bit of a plateau and some of these questions are a little bit self- serving because I got a Time TR bike just before the end of the season and now I'm looking at next year's calendar going oh I haven't done a 10 miler in about 10 years I can't even remember what this feels like I can't remember warm-ups I can't remember pre-race meals I even had a playlist back in the day I'm so far needing a playlist right now so that's my goal uh so we'll break it down and maybe start off talking about training to do those sort of times what's the training commitment because I know you're balancing a full-time job with this as well I think there's a training commitment and then is what you're physically able to do so uh I'm quite fortunate in that I don't have a wife and kids and a very demanding job or physical job manual labor job so I'm able to commit something around 15 hours a week to cycling and so that's just unrealistic for some people but I think I also do that because I like to Road Race and do some other things and because I enjoy riding the bike it's not to say that 15 hours a week is the requirement or the Baseline so I think it's a case of some people do a lot better or sorry do very well of 8ers or even if you stretch that up to 12 you're talking you know that marginal difference of 8 to 12 that 50% increase is is a big difference um so I guess is in alignment of realizing where you're at now and then what you can real to achieve and so if you're at 8 hours a week now and you go okay I'm doing these times I've got this level of Fitness so I can do this 20 minute per or hold the position this well for this long um can I dedicate more time to it and can I recover from it because equally when I was full-time as a as a professional in the sense the amount of hours I did only went up to around 20 it's not like I suddenly started doing 30 hours because once I go above 20 25 hours I mean I could do the odds 25 hour week but if I start doing them consistently I won't recover well enough to actually improve and absorb it so I think there's that realization as well and I know you've those twin goals you are ballot and still do some road race but how focused on time trialing is your training is that like the main priority for you yeah so I see that the r thing is fun it supplements it supports it I get to you know it's more social in a sense so I enjoy doing the road racing just as a thrill but it's not by no means necessity or my my season Focus so with the time triling I like to say well during the season definitely minimum two times a week on the bike um if I was less experienced and initially when I was first getting into time in it would be more than that I feel like I've built up a bank of whatever you want muscle memory whatever you want to call it I have a bank now where I can get on the bike after weeks off of it you know after a few weeks I feel pretty comfortable in the position and putting out the power the hip angle all the keeping my head low all the basic things around that but certainly for the season minimum two times a week maybe three uh and then my structured sessions would always be on the intervals on the TT bike I wouldn't be doing them in Road Race position interesting so you're holding the position for the efforts yeah absolutely um so it for me I know some people like to take the attitude of say a V2 interval where you're just trying to get that Max a capacity and you don't care you just want the High breathing rate the high heart rate okay maybe I'll come out the position for that but personally uh I've got a bit of a track background with the IP and things and I quite like to do even the high intensity efforts I'll do them in the skis and um there's that it's just something you don't learn to do otherwise so for instance when you're you know going on a 10 m time trial and you hit a a hill and used to do 50 wats over your threshold to get over the hill um it's a V2 effort you need to stay tued head down able to breathe put out the power and if you don't know how to do it there's only one way to learn and that's training and will you write the entire session in the position or you just come into the position for the effort say like a you know a typical session is like a 2 by 20 threshold session it's 60 or 90 minutes long on the indoor trainer the 2x20 you're in the position full talk head down but for the recovery in between them and the balance of the session which you're probably riding in zone one zone two would you stay in a position for all that so I would say maybe it's 75 80% I would say I get on the bike start loosening off on the base bar not worried about it I mean I'm not I'm not uh totally OCD about it where I go right minute one in the skis let's go but um basically all available moments I'm trying to be in the skis so if it's a 20 minute interval and I come up for Recovery yes you're five minutes on the base bar then back in again I would say if I was doing a 90minut session I would never spend more than three or four minutes out of the skis at one time um and certainly in the end of won't come out at all because it's you're capitulating really it's if if you're if the intensity is so hard you have to come out skis it's too hard that's that's fast I hadn't realized you were going to spend or you're going to say you're spending so much time in it and if you go on a long endurance right is there a benefit to the time TR bike and staying in the SK for that uh I could see a benefit it's not something I do regularly uh so if I was doing a 4our insurance ride I would take the road bike uh so if I'm saying I'm doing my two or three inter or my two interv rides a week on the TT biking position then my endurance rides I'd ride to work for example I'd be on the gravel bike sometimes so for that I haven't focused that much recently on it in the past I I've done so I've done say a three or four hour ride on the TT bike and I can definitely see a logic for it I know there's other riders that do that and if especially if you're doing a longer time trial something uh people manag to get away with at 10 for example having not done that type of work uh but once you get above a 10 you start going towards 25 people's glutes pack in their lower back things that you just you you can only well your body can only put up to so much and so doing 2 by 20 you know once or twice a week in the skis isn't enough to support that so if you're someone that's really fresh to the bike um then also the handling of the bike is another aspect where those long endurance rides there's certainly a role for it there and do you supplement your on the bike training with off the bike training for like you're saying there I know as soon as you said that I almost got PTSD flashbacks to my last time TR which is probably eight years ago and my lower back's just been cooked on a 25 mile are you implenting you're on the bike with cor work off the bike so personally I've not because it's never been an issue for me uh and I think I'm lucky with that because there's something many other people where they cramp or they have lower back issues or their neck they really struggle to strug their neck naturally personally it's just never been an issue so I've never had to do it um I mean I I've got in terms of flexibility I'm very poor I struggle to touch my toes you know every time I climb stairs my cads feel tight um I'm not a flexible person you're real but uh when it comes to just talking my head and putting out 400 watts and and and seeing how you know how far it takes me I've never the only times that um I have real problems is the longer time travs once you start going to 50 mile then you know I'm not walking for the next two days um but uh I don't think strength training would be the full answer to that because it just seems to happen to a lot of people and you know you're saying you're kind of 15 hours a week dedicated to cycling is there off the bike tinkering that needs to be done equipment wise is that a constantly evolving process it seems like anytime I'm chatting to someone they're testing new cranks they're testing new bars they're testing new helmets is that time you're building into your week no I would if you want to take almost I would consider that a side hobby it's definitely part of the game and you need to be involved or enthusiastic about it or just genuinely like the chase of that because it's ever evolving and it's never stagnant you can't you'll never have a setup where you go this is it I'm done I've bought my dream bike and it's over I can just ride this for the next five years because there's people like d out there just running spot for everyone but um uh yeah you can't you can never just s your laurels there so personally I'm on my I have my eye out for things and I and I've done loads of testing over the years to try and find those little games uh and it's frustrating because you can Al with too much tining you can go backwards so there's you know the the low hanging fruit your helmet skin suits tires Wheels bike frame C covering your cables you know all the the things that are obvious to the eye you can take those off first but then you get to a point where you go okay well if I reduce my frontal area by you know lowering stack height and my saddle and moving things forwards and backwards but then you realize hold on a minute I've reduced my CDA by this but I've uh now I can only put out 20 watts less than I was doing last week you know you lose power and so there's this this balance that need to be aware of so how do you find that balance like do you find the theoretical gains in the wind tunnel and then test them real life in a VR or using some realtime thing like you were talking you're using Aeros sensor so I guess there's several ways you can do it um ultimately what you're trying to end up with is this what's the CDA equation of these are the watchs I can put out and this is the CDA I have so if for example I know that my first 10 m time I do 400 watts and my CDA is .2 um I mean you divide those numbers and you get CDA value and watchs the CDA value and um you can either reduce the CDA or increase the watts to improve that number um and so that's a really crude sort rudimentary way of looking at it because there are other elements of you know your rolling resistance your the air density affects things the traffic flow all these things have an impact but if ultimately when weight isn't that much of an issue you just either try increased Watts or low CDA so if I go okay I've taken one off my CDA in the wind tunnel and then I come home and realize actually minute I've lost 30 Watts because I'm so well tucked and and um uh poly positioned with my hip angle I can't put the Power it anymore um and that's a cruel learning process in the way but uh you have to be testing things like your 20 minute power or your or your race representative power and how that's affected by these changes in your your position this podcast is sponsored by whoop it's the world's most advanced health and fitness wearable whoop is the only wearable that actively coaches you towards your goals and it shows you the impact that certain behaviors and habits have on your health and right now is a great time to get started with wo because they've just kicked off their sober October challenge so why not give your body and mind a little bit of a recess with a one month break from alcohol sounds tough but I can tell you it's not last 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Why Weight Barely Matters Aerodynamically

Woop.com roadman and it's going to be in the description below try it and let me know how you get on and you said wait's not an issue is it no issue at all or it's like a quite a trivial issue I think in in your and I's experience it were trivial because to make a substantial difference you're talking 10 kilos or more okay so for example if you say oh I know I could lose two kilos uh and be and I might potentially lose some power with that I go not bother don't bother two kilos is going to make no difference in terms of your your uh race time because you know once you're up 50k hour the overwhelming things L you down is air resistance but um if it was a very hilly time trial and you're professional on the world tour and um you know you're talking two kilos then can make a difference but um for you and I doing your like 10 mile time TR I wouldn't consider it an issue at all and so if I've got an option between choosing a heavier bit of equipment that's more aerodynamic I choose it all day long or at 10 kilograms it makes a difference because you're starting to shift the type of frame you have and that's impacting your ability to cuture the air um no I I guess I picked an arbitary number there just because um the scale of difference so say I know when I was doing uh an individual Pursuit on the track um you know a a kilo if I put on an extra kilo it's worth about a lot the four kilometers okay and so if I mean if you get up to 10 kilos and it's 10 watts then then you're only talking that's 2 seconds Flor in a 4 minute IP but I was just just trying to illustrate the scale of the issue that you know if you're one or two kilos if you're worried about your diet and saying or I really want to be careful not to eat that so I don't gain weight and it's only a difference of a kilo either way don't stress it because it's far too as Min and also like you're saying if using that same individual Pursuit analogy If your weight's going up 5 kilograms your time's going down 5 seconds but then is that getting Maybe offet by some strength gains with those five kilograms as well yeah exactly and so I mean i' when I was was on the the H Team there was a I had a teammate Johnny for example who physi physiologically we were very different he was a very anerobic Rider a bit heavier than me I was a total diesel maybe a little bit lighter and we put out almost the same power in an IP um and we sort of met in the middle uh just different ways of achieving the same thing but um yeah I think uh you don't want to over engineer the weight in time traveling I would almost not disregard it like don't go home and start all the cakes but uh it's just not not a real issue you're far better way uh putting your energy into element of the equation so when you we touched it on training but when you zoom out and we think about sort of a macro overview of training how important is it to be just spending time at or around race Pace how how much how much do you prioritize that over say what a regular cyclist would where they'll go through maybe you know reverse periodization is quite popular someone might do a Sprint block V2 block a threshold block and then into more of a race specific block is that more occupied by you by just threshold block I would I would say so in my experience but that's not for everyone for instance if if you're a very anerobic writer um uh or sorry if you're I should say that the other way if you're a very threshold Rider uh like I am I do need some up top end work otherwise I will just stagnate at that level and not be able to push above it because ultimately when you're doing a time trial um it might seem like it's a flat Pace but ideally there should be periods way above threshold and way below it um so you have to have that capacity to push above threshold uh but yeah I think what you outlin there becoming more specific to the event as you approach the race for sure and the good thing about time trials is you can practice them very easily you can go to CTT website and enter one every week for the next six weeks um and you know do a very representative race uh or or rather a simulation I guess in the sense yeah I wouldn't want to just necessarily Peak for two time trials a year i' want to do some practice so I definitely want to get on to talking about pacing and sort of game day exactly what your approach is to all that stuff but let's just keep go on equipment for a second uh Dan was talking about Vortex skin suits have you gone have you gone there yet uh well I was very fortunate when I race on the track that we were supported by vortek so I have ridden in those skin suits and so I'm aware of what it can do and um you it's it has to be seen to be believed um because you know there's an element of when you see these Pros saying oh I gained five wats in this 10 was that you know you add it all up and go well should beeding by no that's how I just look at those guys I'm like what are you talking so you're telling me I can add 200 Watts onto my threshold here I can take the hour record so I mean these things have never work cumulatively um same as when people say oh well if you take caffeine Beach TR and buy carb and you add them all together you're it's the same it's the same thing once you start taking three things they they don't cumulate like that but um with the vortex stuff it's a very very uh marginal win uh if you had £66,000 to spend I wouldn't be starting there um I think uh I've been fortunate that I've used it and I've seen the difference it can make but also we've given them PR of head scratching moments where we've gone to them with the problem and said can you make this suit faster and they really struggled so it's also so specific to the rider where you can't Bank on a skin suit being fast on on everyone it's uh so specific to their body shape and so we ended up in a scenario for instance where four of us in the team Pursuit Squad and uh you know we all test a skin suit and it's fast on some of us not others and so I had cut bits out of mine for example to make it to make it uh on par with the rest of the guys um so it's just a real head scratch on that one see you said if you had 6,000 you wouldn't spend it there if you had 6,000 where it would just spend um Co everything else assuming you have the B already you have the main frame already sort wheels so I mean there's a great chart I think watch have one a coach have one of like a pound per wat breakdown of where where it's best where you best get the most gains for your money and so the one that's always overlooked is tires for example um you definitely be starting there for your your p for what um things so what is you buying um so at the moment I've been running the GP 5000 TTS I think um there's more scope and options now to have other TT tires so originally everyone was in course of speeds um it was just the rolling resistance on them just outweighed any other benefit you were getting from other tires like at the time when those quter speeds came out I'm sure there was you know three or four what difference to the GP 5000 at the time which was just a road race tire and so you're just throwing away Watts whereas now there's an element of the Rolling resistance distance and also the aerodynamic profile with the wheel so and different uh jaw angles when you're actually riding so I'm not an expert on that I think Dan will have far more uh expertise on that but um personally I've been running the GP 5000 TTS um uh yeah and does the amount of or the brand of salent does that give a rolling resistance difference I'm not aware I'm not aware of it I'm not sure um I wouldn't yeah I wouldn't like say I don't know but I'm assuming not I know that if you go tubless or latex tubes uh you're in a similar ballpark but soon as you start putting a tube in there you're you're just diminishing all the well a lot of the effect Ro man I know how serious you take your goal setting whether they Fitness or 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like Topeka sunfair seed coconut and more the best part is the flavors there's eight crazy beautiful flavors iced coffee is what's in my backpack right at the moment you can get hu directly to your home all you got to do is head on over to the hu website here .c Roan okay so where you go next for your gains for that 66,000 um so I mean if you could get a win not a winon test but a track test I would say um certainly and you they quite often if you go to watchop or another one of these providers uh where they'll have equipment you can test they'll have helmets there they'll different skin suit options they'll have overshoe options uh and so that would be the the first place I would go after you've optimized things like your tires and your chain and um things like that uh to actually test variables so if I for instance I say to you okay uh a big chain ring that works for everyone so get a big single chain ring uh Takeo the way your front Mech get a wax chain um like oversized py Wheels they don't need tested you don't need to go to a Val test those know they work whereas your other elements your skin suits helmets overshoes calf guards um hand positions bar position all those things can be tested at a a v or um you know one of these or wi Tel so that would where I would primarily go and what what about cockpit CU it's an expensive one to change out and a lot of people are buying the bike with the cockpit kind of pre-installed if you're looking at a canyon or a factor hands or any of these are would you be saying to someone buy a frame and get a cheap cockpit and go to one of these testing sessions and then figure out which cockpit you need and then pull the trigger on it uh I probably would I mean that's what I've done is I paid no attention to the cockpit when I bought the bike because I knew I was going to uh find un it with uh custom bars it does open you up to the fact that you are going to spend more money down the line but it does seem like a necessity because as adjustable as these bikes are for instance I've got sp5 and the cockpit it comes with there's adjustable riser for the the bar tilt so I can have 5 10 15 degrees if I want um there's a bit of tow in tow out of the the the skis and there's you know adjustability up and down but it's still not a solid platform or uh adjust will beond 15 degrees or there's an element to how narrow you can get as well so it's not perfect the the stock setups are a lot better than they used to be but it's still not perfect so there's an element for the just nearly market for someone to bring out a a shitty cheap we'll call it disposable Arrow bar that you can buy stick on the bike get the position dial and then go and buy the fancy cockpit well I guess that's what you can do with the stock setup um and then also I know there will there must be cheaper Solutions coming out eventually it can't go on like that forever I don't imagine but um yeah you're right that you want to get get the position set first before you start investing in the the the custom stuff because a lot if you take for example there's no adjustability in that so the stuff that's like kind of generic that just works regardless it's the Big Chain ring single speed oversized jockey Wheels uh tires what else am I missing in that that it doesn't need testing um no uh no I think that's that's about of those things I mean in terms of Wheels again they're not going to be specific to the rider you're going to know a fcet wheels faet wheels yeah maybe slightly specific to the course but I think most General doesn't need to worry about that and then you're going You're testing so you wouldn't buy helmets speed suits gloves C guards shoe shoe covers Aeros socks you would go and get all that tested I think that's the the safest way to go if you know if you had a bank of £6,000 and you spend at all if you didn't have that and you had gamble then you go with rle brands because that's all you can do um but I would say if terms of what you're what you're looking at Skinit certainly helmet skin suit first then you start looking into your over shoes and calf guards um I think uh there's there's lots to be found in overshoes and things like that but um more so in helmets and skin suits but the problem with a helmet is you're you're gambling because I've tested so many helmets over the years and um it's just not a widen size all yeah I have ched to a couple of people that have spent a lot of time to winon and they yet they fully agree agree with you they were saying if you were to buy a helmet and you didn't have a possibility to ever Arrow test it probably the zurro Arrow Head And The Cask Bambino they seem to be the fastest helmet on quite a lot of people okay I would have said the cas Mist maybe slightly better sorry I'm me Australia okay yeah I think yeah those like they fill a lot of Gap in the shoulders if even if you move your head position there's no tail to interrupt the flow and as a general rule um the castr particular just everyone gets a reasonable result on that even if it's not the best helmet they test yeah and for me it's the same it's not I ride the pop for example but the difference between that and the C isn't massive I mean it wouldn't um I don't wear it but it wouldn't be a if I was sponsored by them it wouldn't be a total deal breaker so let's fast forward to race day what's your warmer protocol I'm on the camp of keeping it uh very minimal so 20 to 25 minutes and I will do gradual ramp starting from noodling uh well spent that ramp will be about 8 to 10 minutes starting from noodling up to towards zone three effort and it will finish off with doing two minutes above LT1 so you're talking like maybe 350 to 360 Watts 2 minutes there a minute in zone four uh right at threshold so 95 100% threshold and then a 30 second effort above that so you're talking like a 10-minute ramp where 2 minutes in Tempo one minute threshold 30 seconds of do2 and then I'll dial back a bit and then uh take to a few minutes easy and then do two 15sec high Cadence rev outs um which will be high power just by function of the Cadence I'm doing but it'll be something around 15 seconds at 550 to 600 watts but just going at 115 120 RPM or more and then that'll be it for me and obviously you're racing in UK and Scotland quite a bit heat dissipation isn't as big a factor as some people that are you know racing in valrs on the continent do you still warm up in an ice vest or do you still drink slushies andu on the way to races uh I've not I think you're right it's definitely an impact to it and so if it's um you know if you're abroad for sure you need to be doing that stuff and if you're in a summer that you know one of these Summers we have here occasionally where you get a day it's in the high 20 degrees yeah you definitely want to be approaching at that way and if you're on the V drum you want to approach it that way um so in the past I've used ice vests I've I didn't know about the slushy thing when I was racing in 2019 or whatever it was I mean that stuff technology been around but I just wasn't that aware of it so I didn't do that but ice vest for sure I've tried over the years and would recommend a fan if you can plug a fan in uh so I've got for example in the back of my car there's a cigarette lter with an adapter in it and so I can put a normal plug into my car and use the I use a kicker turbo trainer to warm up but I could put a fan in there if I wanted to and I'd recommend a fan if it is hot because keeping cool is important what you say yeah that's a good idea and then we get into so we're actually into the start gate now what's your pacing strategy how hard are you go to get up to speed and then what determines how you're going to Pace this 10 Mile effort so I use um online tools is my wind sock this best bike split you can take the pick um and I like to put the GPX file in there model of course with what variables I've got in terms of the weather my equipment my physiology what my threshold is what how far I want to go over my threshold and so I I put that into the model and see what it spits out as the optimal pacing plan if I just a robot and then I sort of accommodate for that and say okay well it's asking me to go 20% over threshold here I know that if I do that I will need a full recovery afterwards it's not giving me that so let's ignore that or let's dial that down and I sort of adjust it and tweak it finesse it but um yeah so I get in the in the gates and you're talking you want to get speed quickly um you want to accelerate fast um but you don't want to to be an allout effort um and some people that will naturally take them longer and I'm one of those people where if you put me in a group of 100 people I will I will take you know I'll be in the in the first percentile of people that take ages to speed up I just don't have that physiology but I am trying to get get up to speed quickly you want to spend uh a lot of energy getting up to speed and then cruising and holding it there um and so then you're looking at things like Hills descent and corners and saying okay if there's a hill coming up it's all very well saying well the gravity force is a lot more important than the air resistance to that point therefore it's it's more beneficial to you to put Power in on or put more power into the hills or energy into the hills than on the downhills um but you have to realize that if you go above threshold for a hill then need to be a section where you go below threshold uh you have to counterbalance it because if you go above threshold up every Hill and don't go below it you'll never recover and just below so there's certain Hills for examp example if I know it drags over the top or you know you're not getting another recovery for 5 minutes then that Hill has to be above threshold but to a point where I can carry on afterwards um similarly if I hit um I know there's going to be three bends through this section and I'm not going to be able to Pedal very hard I think oh that's going to be a recovery section I need to go work hard before it and after it interesting I never would approach Corners like that even yeah I mean because ultimately there's only so much when you hit a corner at 55k an hour on a TT bike um it's scary and um there's also an element of the fact you're in such a mindset of not losing any speed that you take them very aggressively uh whereas when you're in a road race and the pelon's moving through everyone's looking out for each other up to a point where you just cruise through the corners and there's not unless it's a crit you know you're not railing them whereas on TT bike there's no one to follow so you're setting your own pace and you're at 55k an hour you don't really want to be playing the brakes uh because it's a lot speed or a lot of energy to get back up to speed so you want to say right this is my chance to recover because the energy is better placed elsewhere so let's try and not use the brakes try and Float through this freewheeling and then use it where it matters so pre- riding is obviously important for that because you know then you aren't going to have to get up to speed after that corner because you can carry 55k an air through the corner but if it was a dead stop Corner where you had to get back up to speed after the corner you might dial that back a bit more or you're going into the corner yeah I think uh certainly if if it's corner where you're breaking heavily and you having to accelerate back out afterwards you also have an element of freeing into it so you're going to get a recovery regardless um and so C and like you say when you come out of it you're having to burst up to speed I think it's just being that's where race simulation practice those elements come into it and realizing how hard can I go and then still drop into threshold afterwards and so you can do structured intervals towards that a very common one that people like to do is you know something like three or four by eight minutes where the first minute is V2 and then you drop into seven minutes of threshold um and that gives you that element of you put that like the system and then you got to sit and hold it threshold and just endure it and so that's an element of or that's kind of what it's like and for a 10 mile time sh how do you approach you 10 mile time sh starts at we say 11 o' in the morning how we approaching breakfast that morning gels caffeine leading into it and fueling if any during the 10er so because I'm doing say I'm doing 15 hours a week uh for me that's a relatively high volume and so I like to have a cob load the day before um and that might not apply to everyone if you're doing six or eight hours a week you just might not need that youve got enough rest days in the week where you're not glycogen empty at all and you wouldn't benefit from it but personally I do um and then the morning of the race I'll need to eat at least two and a half to three hours beforehand I'm one somebody that gets uh I'm sort of self diagnosed this but like rebound hypoglycemia where if I eat too close to activity um I will get this insulin sort of rebound where I go hypoglycemic um during a warm ya yawning and stuff uh no worse I get laded uh very dizzy um shaky uh like like you are bonking okay um so I like to eat a minimum 2 and a half hours beforehand and then um I mean that would just be carbohydrate focused that's that's purely it you're eating white white processed Goods um and it's not healthy but that's the way it is and um caffeine again uh I know a lot of people that take 3 six milligrams per kilogram and that's the recommended dose and so I don't actually fall into that I take about 150 milligrams which is probably two milligrams per kilogram um or even less than that um just because I get the Cy effect again where if I have too much I get shakes and anxiety and it doesn't help me um so that's what I do for the caffeine um caffeine do you want caffeine gum or anything like that dur under rice oh no so I have a coffee in the morning and then maybe uh like a 50 milligram caffeine pill um at some point in the in the in the era leading into the race but um the caffeine gum is is good I like to use that if I'm stuck in a pinch somewhere um and I've not coffee that morning or it's crap coffee or whatever it is but um uh Caff and gum yeah for sure R like that um bikar is another one which I've I've used over the years I'm not a fan of it but if it was my aace and I really wanted to dial everything in then I probably would use that um beat's another one I was gonna ask just for a rasers uh yeah purely because the the effect is just it's just so unpleasant if I mean it's just one of those things where I just don't really want to use it if I don't have to um it's it's a real uh I guess I've not tried the new Mor product so I don't know how that rolls but I mean the ways I've done it in the past of the I can't remember the coating it's it's esoteric uh coating that helps you absorb it through the gut so you take these pills um and uh it's helped to improve digestion and I'm sure it's fine but you're still swallowing 30 pills um and it's there is a bubbling in the stomach you're burping a lot you're you you're having to look for the nearest toilet just the kind of thing you don't want to be doing I've done on the track it's miserable and in terms of you wouldn't take a gel during a 10 miler uh not during no uh the last jail I take would be during the warmup so about 10 minutes into the warmup I would take a jail at for 25 mile no you would need e in 25 nothing no no I'm it's Tak 45 minutes yeah um up until recently I was doing 50s a jail as well um so what I would say for that is I've done the carbohydrate load the day before um I'm coming in eating well fueled uh I should have enough just to get through 90 minutes um but definitely I know I'm risking it at that point um but with a 20 25 M for example I'm not taking my hands off the bar to take a gel there's no way I'm not doing that but a 50 I would for average person I would definitely recommend it yeah and so that's if everything goes well so if you're in the start gate you get up to speed you're halfway in you're looking down at the parameter you have the bottle plan and you're like [ __ ] I this isn't like I'm not on this pace I can't hold the you know my best bikes play to spit out something here that whatever happens cortisol levels sleep that night I just don't have those power in the leg today how do you think about adjusting the strategy and not totally trowing the rattle out of pram I think um the the close experience I've had to that kind of thing is when parent has not worked at all and so like you come worlds this year as well actually yeah yeah yeah um it's always at high-profile events so I've had one at the national championships where it's died I've had it at the World Championships where it's died um and I think it's to do with the signals or or whatever else is going on at the event but anyway so you start the event power is not working and you go right what do I do now you have to dial into RP and Sensations and and so if you're if you're permited reading something you don't want to see and it's saying you know you've not got it in your in you today you've got to St the optimistic view and say maybe it's wrong and so let's dial into RP I know RP feels it's not it's not it's not that that far wrong actually I mean there's plenty of times where I doding parameters but you've got to take that attitude and say right RP is this let's let's write that and I know uh this has to feel below threshold on this descent this has to feel at threshold on the on the the flat and has to feel above threshold and the clim and work for those RP scales I love that I'm going to start doing that in training spins now like no that par is wrong I'm Ming mine's been wrong for a few years I think I've lived in in group chats and atmospheres over the years Whenever you set a par ofv someone goes that's over reading mate what you talking about it's just uh everyone has one or two friends that you know their parameters wrong because you ride with them and you're like you're getting dropped that like 60% of power you were saying you can hold yeah it's it's a sad fact to life at these things still can't be uh precise in that sense or or rather you can you can accept one or two% but when someone's got one that's just way out you go what's going wrong here uh just finish up where do you think you can get your biggest improvements now because you're in a state of Chase in seconds if not milliseconds uh so I guess for me it's some of the other aspects like you say the if it's nutritional intervention like the bikar if it's the things like heat training if it's um smaller equipment gains uh and also something for me that I'm looking over the winter is is strength training so it's something that I've put on the the back bur over the last few years I did it a lot in the past and didn't really I hated it I don't enjoy it at all but I did see a benefit from it and so now I'm going to try look back into that in terms of uh improving well not just my muscular power but that top end whereby um you know if I have to do 500 wats up a climb it's not maximal effort still within my capacity have you played around with heat dep of trainer i' I've not and um it seems like there's lot of people having good experience with that and um there's definitely lot of studies and literature around it it's becoming very well known now how how beneficial it is not just for climatization but actually General SE SE um normal room temperature yeah I had a guy Ross mcra on the podcast he's one of the founders of core body temperatures actually work on back and listening to it his claim now obviously it's a you know you need to take out a pinch of salt because it's a totally bias claim but he thinks the response from heat training is more predictable than the response from altitude training altitude training can go totally per shaped it's amazing but you know if you're playing on that fine line where you don't have enough red blood cells or raw byproducts to create those red blood cells going into the altitude block it can go totally per shaped and you can come out it worse whereas he training and elicits pretty consistent gains for people across the board is his claim that's interesting yeah I know that if you go to if you go to heal you've not you know not got enough iron and and you don't eat well enough then you're going to put yourself in the hole Yeah the RO after altitude training um yeah I've I've I've done altitude I've never done a proper BL I've done two weeks altitude in stin but never a proper threee blocks I don't have a fair representation of it but um yeah heat training I've not tried at all and it does seem it has a or there's not going to be a negative effect from it like you say it's at least always going to be positive yeah John I've really enjoyed this I'm going to be tracking your times next year and uh painfully compare and my slow drer or formula one like 10 MERS oh look seeing the results see you later M see you cheers if you enjoyed this conversation please click up here there's another video I know that you're absolutely going to love and click over here and subscribe to the channel so you don't miss any of our amazing upcoming guests

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

How many hours a week should I train for time trials?+

John Archibald trains around 15 hours per week while holding down a full-time job, which he considers a practical ceiling for someone balancing work and recovery. He notes that pushing beyond 20 hours weekly starts to compromise recovery without delivering proportional gains for most amateur riders.

Should I do interval training on my TT bike or road bike?+

John Archibald does nearly all of his interval sessions in the time trial position rather than switching to a road bike for hard efforts. He treats holding an aero posture under VO2 intensity as a trainable skill in itself, so doing intervals on the road bike would undermine that specific adaptation.

What is a good 10 mile time trial time for a club cyclist?+

Sub-25 minutes is considered competitive at club level, while elite British riders push well under 20 minutes. John Archibald has recorded a 17:19, placing him among the fastest in the UK and requiring both exceptional fitness and optimised aerodynamics to achieve.

What equipment makes the biggest difference in a time trial?+

Wheel and drivetrain choices are among the highest-return equipment upgrades in time trialling, with deep-section or disc wheels reducing aerodynamic drag significantly at race speeds. John Archibald covers these choices alongside positional aerodynamics, making clear that no single piece of equipment replaces the gains available from optimising overall body position on the bike.

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Holding aero for two hours is a training adaptation, not a stretching test. Here's the progression that lets you stay low without losing pow…

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