Training Progamme For 100 mile Sportive

llen

Hello All

This is my very first post on this forum and I'm also pretty new to cycling and I'm looking for some advice on training.

Essentially I got into duathlons and triathlons this year but absolutely got hooked on the cycling element and so would like to focus more on that discipline going forward. I've entered the cymru etape in October and so I'm looking for a structured training plan to help me complete this.

I'm the sort of person that likes to follow a plan devised by experts and I like the structure and routine. I've not been able to find anything online and would appreciate your help.

I've got a turbo and have enlisted in a track course at the Newport velodrome and so a plan that incorporates those elements as well would be ideal.

Many thanks in advance for all your help.

Llen

Bronzie

You'd be best off getting a qualified coach to draw you up a plan, even if it's a one-off 3-month plan. Will probably cost you about £100.

ianlash

Try the one on the website you are looking at:-

http://www.bikeradar.com/feature/article/training-take-on-the-cycling-plus-sportive-at-bikeradar-live-25833

I used it for the Bikeradar 107 mile sportive last year - worked for me.

Herbsman

Bronzie wrote:

You'd be best off getting a qualified coach to draw you up a plan, even if it's a one-off 3-month plan. Will probably cost you about £100.

£100 for a training plan to ride a sportive? Are you insane?

Bronzie

Herbsman wrote:

Bronzie wrote:

You'd be best off getting a qualified coach to draw you up a plan, even if it's a one-off 3-month plan. Will probably cost you about £100.

£100 for a training plan to ride a sportive? Are you insane?

I'm not, but the OP wants a plan and the only people that post on here that are qualified to give him one will want paying for their services.

The other option of course is to forget the plan completely and just go and ride your bike as much as possible gradually increasing the distance of your long ride each week and you'll probably end up in a similar place.

Alex_Simmons/RST

Herbsman wrote:

Bronzie wrote:

You'd be best off getting a qualified coach to draw you up a plan, even if it's a one-off 3-month plan. Will probably cost you about £100.

£100 for a training plan to ride a sportive? Are you insane?

For a tailored plan that takes into account an individual's available training hours per day, available training days, current state of fitness and strengths/weaknesses, tailored for specific event dates and type, with training scheduled daily, sounds reasonable to me.

Herbsman

It's a sportive.

ozzy1000_0

try "time crunched cyclist" by chris carmichial. I bought a copy from amazon to train for my first century, i didn't 100percent stick to the plan, but it defaintely gave me somthing to fouc on. i ended up manageing 5hrs 33mins after about 10 weeks back on a bike.

the most important thing for me was trying to get all the elements in. i did a long ride at the weekends of increasing distance, then i did a mid week ride of about 30-45miles as fast as poss, then i did to turbo sessions a week to try and build speed... i tried to space things out so i'd get rest days, also factored in the easier/recovery weeks as per the plans in TCC..

the book is great, even if you don't follow it to the letter its a good intro to thinking about training and all the variables....

llen

Hey guys

Thanks for all the responses. I think i should quickly nip the coaching in the bud. As much as I'd love to have one, I'm certainly not at a level that could warrant paying £35 more than i did to enter the event on coaching.

I was hoping that there were some generic (in terms of audience but quite specific in terms of activity) plans out there similar to those that I used when preparing for triathlon / duathlon events. The bike radar link posted is very useful and definately along the lines of what i was looking for.

Also a I mentioned earlier I've enrolled in a beginners course at a velodrome and so I'm hoping there will be plenty of insight and experience I can tap into there.

Many thanks all.

Llen

Bronzie

65 quid for a sportif! FFS! :shock:

llen

Refering to the 'The Time Crunched Cyclist' and in the words of cheryl cole:

"That is right up my street"

I've just read the reviews on amazon and it seems exactly what I need. Just a quick question to those who have read it - there seems a few references to a power meter??? Is this necessary or a nice to have. I have a heart rate monitor - would this suffice???

Thanks again

Llen

ozzy1000_0

llen wrote:

Refering to the 'The Time Crunched Cyclist' and in the words of cheryl cole:

"That is right up my street"

I've just read the reviews on amazon and it seems exactly what I need. Just a quick question to those who have read it - there seems a few references to a power meter??? Is this necessary or a nice to have. I have a heart rate monitor - would this suffice???

Thanks again

Llen

HR is fine. all the training plans have HR and power threasholds. he asks you to do a field test and then you set you threasholds from that,
o

Retroman10

Dunno if its any help butI recently got the cycling fitness mag summer edition ( about £5 from a good magazine shop ) and that had a booklet in it with 3 training plans and one of them is for a sportive.

Can't remember if it is as long as 100miles but it certainly gives you a step in the right direction. If I can find mine I'll post the jist of it.

Probs not as good as these £100 planning sessions but if your on a budget and doing it for fun

Ron Stuart

Just practice going up and down bloody big hills for about 6 to 7hrs a day, descending narrow pot hole ridden 16% gradients (around Eglwyseg Mountain) with grass and loose shale in the middle of the road along with 3000 others and you will be fine.

Oh! And don't forget to well insure both you and the bike. :shock:

P_Tucker

A training plan for a 100 mile ride? I can do a simple 2-step plan for no fee whatsoever.

Step 1: Ride 100 miles
Step 2: er, thats it

vorsprung

Bronzie wrote:

65 quid for a sportif! FFS! :shock:

I believe that the etape Cymru is on closed roads

Still a bit dear IMHO

ut_och_cykla

100 miles might not be far for some but for others it might seem a long way to cycle under competative conditions. I can understand the OPs request to be a bit organised about first time round - even if they have done tris before.

ozzy1000_0

ut_och_cykla wrote:

100 miles might not be far for some but for others it might seem a long way to cycle under competative conditions. I can understand the OPs request to be a bit organised about first time round - even if they have done tris before.

ditto the above..

i don't like all the sarc'y "just ride it" "its just a sportive" censored .... 100miles is tough and if you've not done it before then its a fairly intimidating benchmark... surely training and riding for most people is about personal bests and personal goals..?? the OP just wants to make advances in thier fitness and is looking for advice on how to do that efficiently and well, surely thats what everyone on here wants to do regardless of the level they're riding??

maybe we need a "my cocks bigger than yours" thread so that neaderthals can just cut to the chase without trying to belittle other peoples achievements......

Chris James

Also, originally coming from Chester, I know the roads on the Etape Cymru. They are pretty lumpy, so the OP is not just talking about completing 100 miles, but also doing a lot of hills.

It is an altogether different proposition ot the Etape Caledonia for example.

Having said that, if I were training for it then I would just try to get as many miles in, with as many hills, as possible! Not very technical but it will ensure he gets round the course!

llen

I didn't realise that a simple training post would cause so much comotion.

I thought this forum was open to individuals of all abilities where the less experienced could learn and seek advice from those more qualified to give it. Had I realised that i needed to have completed a grand tour in order to use it i would not have bothered.

Crikey - imagine the attitude I would have got if i mentioned that i was going to complete it on a 2nd hand, 3 year old, entry level Giant!!! :shock:

Thanks to those that providing the helpful suggestions - I've bought the TCC book to be going on with.

Mettan

Llen - make sure you do one or two hilly ~ 60 milers in the build up to the event - some might say to do a 75 miler (which is a good idea), but you could definitely get away with a couple of hilly 60 milers - on the day, group riding, camaraderie and the adrenaline will carry you through to 100 miles. (Obviously) the above rides should be done in addition to plenty of shorter rides. Looking at the course profile I see its a nice modest 6191 ft in 100 miles - (its not something crazy like 10,000ft +), so try and get in a good 2000-4000 ft on your larger training rides.

Cleat Eastwood

llen wrote:

I didn't realise that a simple training post would cause so much comotion.

I thought this forum was open to individuals of all abilities where the less experienced could learn and seek advice from those more qualified to give it. Had I realised that i needed to have completed a grand tour in order to use it i would not have bothered.

Crikey - imagine the attitude I would have got if i mentioned that i was going to complete it on a 2nd hand, 3 year old, entry level Giant!!! :shock:

Thanks to those that providing the helpful suggestions - I've bought the TCC book to be going on with.

Ha ha indeed. Its a bit like real life on here( a bit but not much), some are helpful some are not.

When I did my first 100 I practised up to about 70 miles I think. I figured if I could reach 70 then the last 30 I could at least have a stab at.

One bit of advice I would give is to try at least to give your self a long ride in the saddle. Even if you have to go round at 10 miles an hour, it'll do two things; firstly get you used to the encroaching aches and pains and secondly it will help you to gauge when you need to refuel. Good luck, let us know how you get on.

ozzy1000_0

Mettan wrote:

Llen - make sure you do one or two hilly ~ 60 milers in the build up to the event - some might say to do a 75 miler (which is a good idea), but you could definitely get away with a couple of hilly 60 milers - on the day, group riding, camaraderie and the adrenaline will carry you through to 100 miles. (Obviously) the above rides should be done in addition to plenty of shorter rides. Looking at the course profile I see its a nice modest 6191 ft in 100 miles - (its not something crazy like 10,000ft +), so try and get in a good 2000-4000 ft on your larger training rides.

as above. I reckon you can get by on 60 mile training rides, but ideally its worth doing a couple of 75 mile ish ones. if you only manage to get to about 60-65 then try and focus on making everything else you do really hard and of good quality.

I did my first 100 recently, I based my training on the TCC, but I also went out with a very fast group of local guys on a weekday evening most weeks. we would only do about 40miles but it'd totally killed me I reckon on the day this extra power saved me from redlining on every hill.. which in turn kept me going

another bit of advice that I felt helped me was to think about tapering before the event and eating well on the day. I rested for a few days prior to the event which i felt left me fresh on the day... try to eat well on the day, start nibbleing regularyly early on on the ride, bananas, gels, flapjack ect.. also lots of fluid... I was totally knackered around 70-80miles, so I had one of those 100mg caffine gels, which completely sorted me out! we sprinted the last 3 miles

good luck and let us know how the training goes! the TCC is very good, if you can approximately stick to it you should be fine

millster

If I were you I would definatly try and tackle the horseshoe pass section of the ride before the event. It's a very tricky switchback ascent with steep turns. plus coming back down will give you a good idea of the speed (probably faster than cars go down it). I was considering entering myself, but 65 quid for a ride you could easily do yourself seems a bit steep.

El Grosso Bastardo

Given that there are people who ride the London to Brighton each year with probably less training then you have done for your duathlons/triathlons - you can start doing rides of that distance NOW.

Keep the rides at relatively low intensity and also use them to experiment with what food and drink you can get in you regularly without chundering. (Tip - using the latest hi-tech cycle foods won't make you that much faster than a bit of Soreen/ banana etc and very dilute squash in your bottle).

If you have time during the week do a couple of shorter rides at a higher intensity (i.e. puffing quite a lot) preferably with hills in.

Up the distance of your longer ride a little each week.

Ride low gears rather than trying to power a big gear.

Bosh!

Getting a coach in't gonna make that much difference over 2 months.