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ROUVY Time Trial mode: What it is and top ROUVY workouts to improve your TT times

Jenny Lucas-Hill
Content Director
Published on

Time trialling is growing in popularity, particularly in the UK. Whether it’s the short, sharp lung-busting effort of a 10 miler, or the longer gritty effort of a 50- or a 100-mile TT. Training for these max effort, you vs the clock, races takes focus. Raising your FTP and working on your speed endurance, with a mixture of threshold sessions and VO2 max work.

But doing that work out in the real world can get tricky – there’s nothing like traffic at a junction or a pothole ridden road to distract you from your efforts! Which is where mixing in some indoor cycling can be majorly beneficial.

We’ll talk you through how to use ROUVY to improve your time trialling.

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Time Trial mode on ROUVY

You can get all the details you need on what ROUVY is and how to use it in our dedicated article – so we won’t dive into that here. But something to be aware of if you want to use ROUVY to hone your time trialling is the difference modes on the platform.

Just Ride mode means you can draft other riders, skip sections of a route and adjust the reality level to make gradients easier (or more difficult). Time Trial mode is essentially the ‘competitive mode’. You can’t hit pause, and you can’t teleport your avatar around the route. You’ve got to ride the full route from start to finish if you want to get your times on the leaderboards. You also can’t draft in Time Trial mode. So it’s a true you versus the course (and the clock) effort.

Picking a route with a profile similar to your target time trial course – or even using the new ROUVY route creator feature to create your own virtual version of the real life route you’ll be racing on – can be a great way to test out your target TT power or heart rate, try different pacing strategies and track your progress. And that’s one of the many reasons that indoor cycling is beneficial all year round: it’s not just about avoiding bad weather. It’s about being able to get the most out of your training hours to put the work in when it counts.

GET A 5 WEEK FREE TRIAL WITH CODE SUMMERONROUVY

ROUVY cycling workouts to improve your TT times

ROUVY’s workout library has seriously levelled up over the last year or so, and it’s easier than ever before to find specific workouts and training plans to develop a certain skill or work a particular energy system. That means that, very conveniently, there’s a dedicated section for TT-specific sessions which (at the time of writing) has 16 different workouts for you to get your legs stuck into.

You can find all of these here (you’ll need to be logged in, but for a limited time you can get an extended free trial with code SUMMERONROUVY). If you’re not sure where to start, here’s our top five TT workouts on ROUVY.

‘Your sweet spots aero position’

ROUVY-cycling-indoor-training
This sweet spot workout on ROUVY is useful for getting used to pushing watts in the aero position. [Photo: ROUVY]
duration
45 mins
tss
44 TSS
TRI247 DIFFICULTY SCORE
5/10
SUITABLE FOR
Improvers

Let’s start with this sweet spot workout featuring 2 blocks of 10 minutes. It’s important to do the efforts in your aero position – being able to perform at your best in a TT is as much about having the neuromuscular development to push power in your TT position as it is about having the mobility (and bike set up) to get nice and aero.

The 10 minute efforts are at Zone 3 – not too hard, not too easy. Just at the right level to feel like you’re putting in a little bit of effort, without putting your body under significant stress. This is a great workout to get used to pushing on a bit in the aero position early in the season. And for those of you looking to take on 50 mile TTs and above, doing some work in Zone 3 will help to raise your first lactate threshold which will ultimately make your endurance pace faster.

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‘Over-unders’

ROUVY over unders workout
Over-Unders workout on ROUVY
duration
56 mins
tss
72 TSS
TRI247 DIFFICULTY SCORE
7/10
SUITABLE FOR
Intermediate

Once you’ve got comfortable with pushing a bit of power in the TT position, this over-unders workout is a good next step. You’ll be doing 2 blocks of intervals alternating between being just above and just under your functional threshold power. Each block totals 14 minutes – broken up into 2 minute over, 2 minute under intervals – with 8 minutes of recovery in between. This workout will feel pretty tough, but by working around your threshold intensity you’ll boost lactate tolerance and start to bump up your FTP. That’ll help you to go faster for 1hr all-out efforts, and it’ll have a knock-on effect on your longer time trials too because you’ll have more capacity to push power before lactate starts to accumulate.

‘Tempo lifter 3’

duration
78 mins
tss
63 TSS
TRI247 DIFFICULTY SCORE
6/10
SUITABLE FOR
Improvers

For longer time trials, being able to sit at a ‘comfortably uncomfortable’ effort for a sustained period of time is key to success. This tempo workout features sustained, steady efforts that will help to develop your muscular endurance. Really try to focus on your head and body position during the efforts, particularly as you get further into the session. Are you keeping your head low and your core tight by the end, or have things got a little bit loosey-goosey as you get tired? Practicing holding a good position from start to finish will only benefit you come TT race day.

‘Let the beast out’

You’ll be tempted to come up out of the TT bars in this workout, but hold steady! [Photo: ROUVY]
duration
64 mins
tss
81 TSS
TRI247 DIFFICULTY SCORE
8/10
SUITABLE FOR
Advanced

If the name didn’t give you a hint, this is a pretty hard workout that’s going to require some mental toughness. It’s particularly useful for getting ready for flat, straight time trial courses where there’ll be very little let up from your aero position. You’ll tick off 2 x 15 minute blocks at your FTP. Try to focus on keeping your breathing steady and your body position controlled – this will make it easier to push the power efficiently. Over time, sessions like this will help you to develop your ability to push harder for longer.

‘TT warm up’

ROUVY indoor cyclist
Don’t skip the warm up! Practicing a TT-specific warm up routine on ROUVY will help you to replicate it out on the roads before your next TT [Photo: ROUVY]
duration
24 mins
tss
24 TSS
TRI247 DIFFICULTY SCORE
3/10
SUITABLE FOR
Improvers

A good warm up is essential for being able to perform at your best in a time trial – especially over the shorter distances where you really haven’t got time to wait for your legs to wake up and get with the program. Chances are you might not have your turbo trainer with you on race day, but using the TT warm up workout on ROUVY before your key workouts in training will help you get to know a really solid warm up routine you can replicate out on the road before your next time trial. By ramping up to and just above your race effort, this warm up will get the blood pumping and the legs firing so you’re ready to go full gas as soon as the timekeeper starts the clock.


Using indoor cycling platforms like ROUVY can be a really effective way to get maximum quality out of every training session and dial into specific energy systems to see strong, steady improvements in your TT efforts. A solid block of consistent training and you’ll be ready to get that new personal record time in the bag!

GET A 5 WEEK FREE TRIAL WITH CODE SUMMERONROUVY
Jenny Lucas-Hill
Written by
Jenny Lucas-Hill
Jenny Lucas-Hill is Content Director at 247, working across CYCLING247, RUN247 and TRI247. A 5-time Ironman triathlon finisher, she's happiest when adventuring on two wheels.

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