On the start ramp, the Cycling Australia rep holds my bike steady as I clip in and sit down. I look to my left at the timer which is counting down. 45 seconds to go.

Skin suit on, Bambino Kask (full Aero Helmet) on, I look down the ramp. There are spectators lined either side of the barriers for the first 15 metres or so.

I look down the narrow lane and up the rode.

“Calm. Three easy breaths. Focus. You will feel amazing,” are the wise words my coach gave me only a few minutes ago.

He is right – I do feel amazing. My first Australian National Time Trial is about to start.

The timer hits 10 seconds and I get the call and a live count down from the CA rep.

“Three. Two. One. Go!”

For those that don’t know me, I am 34 and work in the finance game. I am a former rugby union player and I have been cycling for about three years.

After an unfortunate crash in a criterium in Feb 2013, which broke my left collarbone and nearly broke my neck, I decided it was time to give time trialling a go.

I spent winter trying to get as many time trials under my belt as I could, often driving three hours to remote Victoria for a 20km time trial.

My times on several courses improved quite quickly and I started to nab a couple of podiums in the lower grades.

I found the pain of being right in the box and trying to shave time a most enjoyable way to spend my weekends.

Summer eventually rolled around and it was back into the beloved crits.

I made the decision some time at the tail end of winter that the national time trial would be a nice goal to have for 2014 and something to train up for.

I seemed to have come good in crits after the Christmas/New Year break when I had a a week or two to get some steady base ‘kays in and figured training for the time trial would only improve my crit form.

While I am still a B/C-grade rider, I am fortunate enough to train with some of the best riders in Melbourne. One of those riders is Nick Bensley, who came seventh at the 2013 National TT.

Nick had done some maximal aerobic power (MAP) and functional threshold power (FTP) testing for me and gave me some specific time trial programs to train with.

For me, Nick is the ideal coach and his nickname is ‘The Coach’. He is arguably one of the smartest people I know and someone I have an abundance of respect for.

He loves the science and technical aspects of the sport (especially the numbers), is calm, precise and above all else methodical in his approach to training. I am someone that tends to push it too hard and need the gentle (and sometimes hard) tug on the reigns.

My six week training plan
As summer kicked in I asked Nick if he would coach me for a six week period for National Time Trial and he kindly accepted and put the program in place.

The first two weeks were basically spent racing criteriums two to three times a week and a couple of efforts on the KICKR (stationary trainer with a built in power metre).

I made the call to have three weeks off from work for the time trial starting Christmas week, which would allow me to have a well earned break from work and focus on Nats.

Weeks three and four consisted of a mix of long steady rides (around 150-180km) with some repeats of Arthurs Seat, or repeats up the 1:20 on the bars of the time trial bike at a cadence of 50-55 rpm and several threshold sessions on the KICKR – like six lots of 10 minutes at threshold with five minutes easy in between or two lots of 20 minutes at threshold.

A few sessions include a max 10 minute effort (which I was able to push 115% percent of FTP for 10 minutes by the mid point of week four) and a rest day here and there.

The one great thing about not having to work is you don’t have to get up at 5am.

I was sleeping in til 7-8am (some days 9-10am if I had done a big session the day before), having a bite to eat and a coffee and heading out. Thankfully Melbourne has turned on amazing weather so always nice to be riding in warm, sunny conditions.

I fell in love with #Prohours in about two days and was fortunate enough to go on a couple of rolls with Matty Lloyd and also Greg Henderson (Lotto) after a solo 180km roll to Sorrento, who is a mate of The Coach and I hope was as happy for the company as I was.

It also gave me a chance to do some nice relaxed rides with people whose company I enjoy and I don’t get enough time to regularly chat with at 6am mid week.

The Coach was constantly telling me to do as little as possible while not riding and ‘stay off your feet’. No Probs coach. Xbox, Foxtel, social media and a couple of good books can easily keep me entertained for a few weeks.

Amazingly my very understanding wife went along with this and asked very little of me.

Week five was spent as follows (note – this was a lighter week compared to prior weeks):

Sunday: 50km time trial warm up. Three hours rest. 20 minutes warm up. 2×10 minutes at threshold. 1×10 minutes at 115% of FTP with last two minutes at +118%.

Monday: Nongs (from St Kilda) on time trial bike. Two reps of 1:20 on the bars (aero position) at RPM of 50-55. Total ride – 100km and 1500m of vertical.

Tuesday (New Years Eve): 90 minutes easy with the Total Rush lads.

Wednesday: Complete Rest. Exhausted. Slept 13 hours.

Thursday: KICKR session. 60 minutes warm up at about 140 watts. 2×10 minutes at threshold and 2×20 minutes at threshold with five minutes easy in between.

Friday: National time trial course reconnaissance. Rode course and also drove it. Total of about 50km.

Saturday: 1 hour on road. Three hour rest. 20 minute warm up. 2×20 minutes at threshold. 60 minute warm down.

Sunday: Ride to Williamstown for final stage of Bay Crits.

I was absolutely exhausted on the Sunday after three solid weeks of training. I really hit the wall and was very tired and grumpy. I slept for 14 hours that night and had a rest day to look forward to.

Monday: Rest day consisted of sleeping, sitting on the couch with only a 20 minute ride (two laps of Albert Park) with a couple of high cadence (+115rpm) low power bursts.

Tuesday: North road. Smash it. Need to activate your body for tomorrow. One hour super easy after.

For me, North road ride on a Tuesday and a Thursday is a good benchmark if I am fit. If I can hang on comfortably then I know I am running well.

On the Tuesday I was able to ride the bunch off my wheel at the tail end of the ride, which I have never been able to do. This was a massive confidence boost heading into the national time trial the next day.

The rest of the day was spent munching bananas and putting about three litres of fluid down.

National time trial – game day
830am – Meet DK (Total Rush Rider who was also racing the Nats) for a coffee at Dukes, followed by a 45minutes easy roll down beach road – high cadence.

10am – Pack car.

10:30am – Pick up DK. Between us we had two bikes, two trainers, two full kit bags, helmets, food bags, 10 litres of water and a total of eight wheels. The car was pretty full.

11am – Pick up The Coach, who was good enough to take over driving duties. I sat in the back and watched Top Gun and hydrated.

12:05 – Last beetroot shot (I had been loading for seven days), which increases your nitric oxide (NO) levels.

1230 – Arrive at time trial start area. Register and unpack gear. Wind was about a 17km easterly and after consulting Shane Miller and The Coach, the call was made that an 808 would be fine on the front. You can always run a disc as it actually stabilises the bike. The key consideration is the front wheel as that is what you have to ‘fight’ in the wind.

2pm – Half a banana, two no doz and half a bottle of Gatorade.

2:05 – On the trainer. Headphones on and into my 20 minute warm up.

2:25 – Off bike. Quick stop at the gents and off to the start area. The Coach was to follow me in the car. Another of the Total Rush crew carried my bike over to the start area.

I signed in on the board (this was pretty cool) as the CA reps checked my bike and helmet to ensure they were UCI compliant.

Sit down in the waiting area to get the call up. Call up comes at two minute mark. Climb the steps into the starting house.

The time trial itself
Everytime trial I have completed has been 20km and usually in the middle of winter at around 9:30am rather than in 30 degree heat and 2:30pm, so the weather was always going to play a critical factor.

The Coach broke the time trial up into four segments:

Start – one minute: Do not exceed 600W off the ramp. Immediately settle into 95% of threshold. This actually takes a bit of self control.

One – 20 minutes: Sit at 95% of threshold. Unfortunately for me the PM cut out at about the 2km mark, so I had to rely on cadence and HR. Not ideal but you just have to focus on pedalling and keeping within threshold of HR.

I hit the first turn at the 2.5km mark and had a 17km hour easterly blowing behind me, so the first 20 minutes I had a nice tail wind.

I hit the first right hand turn at the 14km mark into the cross wind.

20 – 40 minutes: Plan was to push it up to threshold. I lifted my heart rate (HR) about five beats per minute and was comfortable in the cross wind. I got knocked around a couple of times but have dealt with much worse wind at Tour of South West.

At the 21.8km mark the turn was made into the headwind and up a climb for 7.4km. The average was 1.6% but the start of the climb was more like 4-5% which was enough to pinch the legs. A saddle sore unfortunately flared back up and with the bumpy roads I was moving around on the saddle.

At the 30km mark I was starting to feel the pinch. I was sweating profusely (the Aero helmets have no vents and do not breath), was hot, trying to find a comfortable spot on the saddle and keep a decent cadence and speed going without pushing myself too far into the red.

At this stage my focus survive through to 0.3km section, which averaged 7.0% at the 33km mark at the tail end of the climb and look to finish as strong as possible.

40 – 110 minutes: Plan was to open it up and empty the tank.

The 0.3km 7.0% was not fun. It was up a cracked up old country road with a steady cross wind. Time trial rigs down climb like a road bike so I popped it into the small chain ring and pushed my hardest to get over the climb.

It took me about 90 seconds to get my HR back under control and get a bit back.

34.7km to the 45km is essentially all down hill with some small rollers to get over.

I was very happy with my last section of the race. The speed came right up and I was able to get some real sustained power down through the pedals.

Even when you are exhauted and over threshold, it is an amazing feeling to be hammering along at +50km hr. My max was 61.9km hr.

I really dug into the last 5km and completely emptied the tank. I was holding 55km through the last couple of km.

I hit the line absolutely spent.

I looked at my Garmin. 1 hour 13 minutes. My goal was to go between 110-115 with 110 being a time that would have been a real fist pump.

Roar expert Sean Lee was kind enough to introduce himself after the TT. He wrote in his article he sensed I was a little disappointed in my time.

Initially I was a tad disappointed but after having a good chat with The Coach and a nice 90km solo recovery ride to Frankston, which gave me plenty of time to reflect, I had a deep sense of achievement and satisfaction in what I had done.

I did everything Nick asked me to do over the six weeks and I gave the time trial everything I had. I didn’t crack or get concerned when a couple of things didn’t go my way on the bike and I left nothing on the road.

The time trial was a personal goal to have a solid crack at and test myself in uncharted territory in so far as distance. It was a real mental challenge as well and every club time trial at 20km will look a lot easier.

My focus now is to get back into crits in killer condition and based on how my last National Road Race ride was, I am hoping to grab a few podiums.

A massive thanks to Nick who was with me every step of the way. He got me into the best shape of my life.