Book Review: Time Trialling: Fly Through The Pain Barrier

 by Gus Grissom, Combat Correspondent

"To achieve your true potential, and to fully embrace the essence of time-trialling, you must push your mind and your body to the brink of oblivion.  It is character-building.  It is soul-searching.  It is courage.  It is pain and suffering.  The pain cannot be ignored.  It must instead be invited.  It must become familiar.  You must encourage it to stay even though it punishes you savagely for your hospitality."

With this proclamation  -- which straddles a mythical intersection between Mr. Miyagi and Yoda at a USA Cycling Camp  -- Adam Topham gives his reader the essence of time-trialling.  He describes the fundamental tenet of a quest which might very well be the essence of cycling, the effort not to go harder, but to go faster.  He wants his readers to realize what he calls  their “true potential,” that is to say their “true potential given the inevitable constraints” of jobs, family, and limited budgets.  With this simple proclamation Topham explains to his reader exactly what this book is all about, fulfilling that urge to make bike and body come together in a quest to turn the last five minute of a time trial into four and a half.  That is the essence of Time Trialling: Fly Through the Pain Barrier and that is why you should want to read this book.  

So, what exactly is this book about?  Let me start by explaining a few things that this book most decidedly is not.  Topham’s book is definitely not another “Bicycler’s Training Bible.  Though he explains the basics of his own training regimen and provides some rubrics with which one might develop workouts and training schedules, he does not long dwell on the oft-tread territory of what is base, what is build and what is the perfect periodization for your A-level corporate park criterium.  Topham’s book is also not another “Time-Crunched Racer: I Trained Lance; Now I Can Train You.”  Topham is 100% “one of us,”  He didn't start racing until age 38, has a full-time family and a full time job with loads of travel.  His lifestyle only allows him an average of 6-9 hours of efficient training every week and his family budget makes the hard choice between wind tunnel time and Lil’ Johnny’s College Fund pretty simple.  But with all of these very recognizable challenges to realizing his own true potential, he has learned to elevate the “one of us” status to “one of us, but a whole lot faster than most of us” through rigorous dedication to training fundamentals -- which most of us already know -- and a careful study of the fundamentals of time-trialling, how to optimize his bike, body, mind and training to go faster than he previously thought possible.

Topham’s book is simple in its design and writing style making it perfect for amateur racers of all categories, Juniors and Masters alike.  He lays out the fundamentals of how to make a bike go faster in such a way that anyone can grasp.  Sure, science and graphs are great for some of the more numbers-oriented athletes, but simple explanations, the sort which Topham provides, will be welcome by most racers who have not yet attained their PhD’s in aerodynamics and string theory.   Basically, Topham compares time-trialling to flying.  The four fundamentals of flight are “lift, drag, thrust and weight.”  He argues that if you just take away “lift,” you are left with precisely what it takes to go faster in a time trial.  Increase thrust, reduce weight or reduce drag and you will go faster.  It is actually that simple.  There are, however, still four fundamentals because Topham strongly believes that “pain” replaces lift in the essence of time-trialling; “just as insufficient lift will keeps a plane from taking off, insufficient pain will keep a time-trialist from truly flying.”

In teaching his reader how to go faster, Topham deals with these fundamentals throughout his book in a very systematic, if not entirely scientific, manner.  He is, of course, the first to caveat his findings with the fact that he has not spent extensive time in the wind tunnel.  In fact, being an amateur athlete with a family, he is like the rest of us who have spent no time in a wind tunnel!  What he’s done is to approach the problem of how to go faster through exceptionally in-depth comparisons between equipment with the use of cameras, video footage, and proven results on identical courses.  As I said, it’s not entirely scientific, but it is the closest an athlete like us is going to get in that his approach is methodical and his research voluminous.  Topham is a man who has poured his heart, soul and mind into finding ways to improve his time-trial results.  His reader need only be ready to dedicate himself to following Topham’s example; the research has already been done and Topham’s results speak for their accuracy. 

One of the biggest themes you will notice as you read his book is the concept of “aggregation of marginal gains.”  What this means is actually quite simple to understand, but tough to accomplish without a great deal of dedication to the sport.  He freely admits that there really is not one single thing a rider can do to go a lot faster.  There are, however, many little things that will help you go a little faster.  He emphatically states that “if there is a single little thing that you can do to make you that tiny bit more aerodynamic, do not hesitate.  All those little things will add up to at least one big thing.”  These things are, of course, exactly what you think they are: body position, equipment selection, training techniques and mental preparation.  They are what you expect them to be, but they are presented in a way you have not seen them presented: easy to understand, and reasonable in theoretical foundations.  

 A good example of his “everyman’s explanation” style is found in his discussion of how an amateur cyclist, on a fixed budget that does not include line items such as “research and development” and “aerodynamic engineering consultation,” should prioritize his choices when it comes to buying new gear or upgrading current equipment.  Topham spends a few pages discussing the aerodynamic properties of various wheel configurations and weight considerations.  This is a very in-depth conversation that will appeal to the secret geek inside every cyclist.  But, at the end of the discussion he puts it in terms we all understand and appreciate.  He says of the choice to spend money on a sexy TT frame, “it’s an area where you can spend a lot of money for very little benefit... If you are trying to decide whether or not to get the fancier wheels or the fancier frame, go for the wheels.”  Of course, he also appeals to our inner narcissist when he wryly adds “if you are interested in pose value, the latest and greatest is going to turn heads and [other gear] is not.”  As I said, Topham is one of us and understands exactly how we think.  Sure, you could find all the comparisons between gear on-line and you could do your own research into what sort of helmet is better -- for the record, visors are better -- but you haven't and you won't!  You won't actually take the time to do the research Topham is presenting in his book.  So, if you want to know how to go faster, let Topham's work speak for itself and skip your endless questions to The Google. 

That's why "you" need this book.  But who are "you?"  Who exactly needs this book?  I would say that any amateur racer, Junior, Senior or Masters, who is at all interested in the discipline of time trialling will benefit from this book.  You will enjoy Topham’s wry sense of humor, e.g. the definition of skinsuit is “an all-in-one, very tight, very revealing, often disgusting, potentially nauseating lycra suit.”  You will enjoy his straight-forward approach to training, “pain!  It’s fundamental!”  But you will most enjoy watching your 40K times drop over the course of a season or two as you learn how to aggregate all the “little things” that have to do with time trialling and that lead to the big thing: going as fast you can given your genetic limitations and personal off-the-bike obstacles that keep you from training 20+ hours every week.  

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Gus Grissom races for Team GamJams Racing, teaches Greek and Latin at DeMatha Catholic High School, and writes a dissertation in his spare time.  He compiles this column strictly for fortune and glory.