Training for my first ever sportive!!

michaelatkinson

Hi Guys,

Just about to sign up for my sportive at 77 miles. It the peak district punisher and its got an elevation of 7400m roughly. Its not till August 2014 but I sure could do with some advice on training etc.

How many times per week and what types of training do people recommend. Please bear in mind that I only got my bike in October 2013 and have been on a total of 10 rides and then got ill. So i am a right novice!

Sorry if this advice has been posted elsewhere.

Mick

marcusjb

I am going to assume you have your feet and metres mixed up a little for the ascent. I have climbed nearly 7000m in a day, but I had to go to rather bigger hills than the Peak District to manage that! Some cracking climbs on these routes by the look of it though.

How far are you riding currently? How are you feeling?

michaelatkinson

Very early days as got bike in late October and got it due to sale, always planed to start properly in 2014.

I have been doing 13 miles 4 times a week.

Gradually feeling better but still unfit.

imposter2.0

No mystery really - just ride your bike a lot, or as regularly as you can, for as much time as you can. If you can link up with a group or a local club, then even better..

kajjal

77 miles by august should be no problem. At the moment just try to get out on a regular basis and do one longer ride at the weekend. This will give you a good base fitness over the winter so come spring you can pick up the training. Once you get into it you can increase all your rides distances but just remember resting is just as important as riding. Over training will lead to illness and injury.

Eating healthily most of the time will also help.

When it comes to hills it is as much confidence in your ability as actual fitness after a certain point. Try to practice similar hills and to begin with take it easy to get used to the bikes gearing and your own ability. Soon you will find all hills become much easier and it is only down to how long it takes you.

An example of things not to do is too much drinking before you go on a long ride. I drank half a bottle of red wine the evening before a four hour ride and it was painful dragging myself round. Same ride with nothing but a good nights sleep and it was easy enough including the big hills.

michaelatkinson

thanks chaps.

Mikey23

And perhaps schedule in a shorter ride earlier in the season so that you can gauge your progress and get used to the big event dynamic

markhewitt1978

Mikey23 wrote:

And perhaps schedule in a shorter ride earlier in the season so that you can gauge your progress and get used to the big event dynamic

Particularly as you tend you go faster on an event than you would do riding on your own. But I would say as long as you're putting in regular (e.g. twice a month) 60 mile rides, then 77 miles won't be a problem.

bahzob

The training you are doing is fine and you should have no problem getting fit in time for the event.

If you feel the urge to do a more structured training program then the book below good for beginners, especially with limited time and teaches you most of what you need to know about following a structured training plan given the real world constraints of balancing training with real life.
(The only problem with it is the author's history but the content is good)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=the+time+crunched+cyclist&tag=googhydr-21&index=aps&hvadid=32630840945&hvpos=1t1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=1554059937110616256&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_3khzmpvt48_b

It includes a 12 week "Beginners Century" and "Advanced Century" training plan. You have enough time to follow both, one after the other, before your event which would set you up very well.

One other thing to do is some group rides as riding with others requires some skills/knowledge that can only be picked up by doing it. There should be at least one cycle club nearby that runs group rides you can join. Another option is to do an "Audax" event. These run from all distances, shortest being 100km which would be perfect preparation. They are pretty laid back and cheap compared to sportives, the folks riding in them tend to be pretty friendly and are a useful source of advice. Events run throughout the year, check here for more

http://www.aukweb.net/events/

Good luck, hope the training/event goes well.

supermurph09

Mick, I'm sure in time your endurance will come but its the hills you'll need to work on so don't avoid them! Embrace them!! If you are from the area then come April time try to practice some of the big ones as knowing them will be a huge advantage, knowing when to push and where the top is will save you wasting alot of energy thinking about it. Not sure the exact route, but even the shorter climbs like Monsal @ 14% average for 0.3 miles are leg burners.

Baby Trek

You will be fine if you put the road miles in consistently and get up some hills regularly. When I started cycling 2 years ago, I had never cycled before at the grand age of 38! I got my bike in the April and my husband challenged me to be fit enough to ride to the Lake District over 2 days in the September - 150 miles from where we live!
I did my first 100m ride from Matlock to Liverpool by July and managed it okay really.
The thing that helped me was regular mileage and increasing the weekend longer ride mileage each week. The hill training was no problem as we live in the Peak District and are surrounded by them!!!
You have plenty of time, so set out a plan to increase base mileage and get stuck in! I have recently started consistently doing 80 miles each week and this has brought my speed and endurance on no end.

dw300

Strip as much fat as possible!

Also pay attention to you elevation on the rides you're currently doing, you need to build that up. It's not going to be the mileage that kills you, i'll be the fact that barely any of that will be flat.

You'll probably be in a situation where you're getting about half or a third as long resting as the efforts you put in in the climb (due to descending faster obviously). So some intervals like that would be good training if you are indoors. ie. 3 mins Effort, 1 mins Rest, 6E, 3R, 12E, 4R, 1E, 0.5R, etc etc .. it'll give you a good idea of the pacing you'll need to survive.

dw300

http://app.strava.com/activities/73878778

This is probably the closest I've done to what you're talking about. Notice the profile .. 70miles with no flat road. We also did the first half at 18mph which wasn't a great idea .. the 2nd half must have averaged about 14mph. I bonked and could barely put out 150W for the last 20miles .. it wasn't fun!

pandazoo

Hi, I'm doing the same sportive for the first time as well. Depending on where abouts your located could do some rides on the weekend leading up to it. Pm me if you like.

All the comments on this thread are a good help, cheers all.

ednino

You'll do that mileage easy. I'm sure most beginners could do 77 miles if they didn't fear it & just had a go

You split it into smaller rides anyway. 25 miles odd then stop at a feed station for food then do another 25 etc...

The climbs might be hard for someone that hasn't done many uphill miles before. That's where most struggle because after 50+ miles a hill feels a lot bigger than it would on fresh legs.

You can always sit behind people to make it easier. As long as they aren't going faster than you can keep up with easily