Big Ride Next September Prep ?
kingrollo
Posts: 3,192
100 mile sportive next september. My weekend ride is currently 35-45 miles at an average of 14-15mph - and I commute once or twice a week around 14 miles. i go to gym 4-5 times a week doing strength work.
I d like to finish the sportive with a good time - in general I d also like to get a bit faster......
What should i be doing right now in prep for this event ? - I did wonder if just to keep pedalling through the winter months - then up the ante sort of next march time....?
I d like to finish the sportive with a good time - in general I d also like to get a bit faster......
What should i be doing right now in prep for this event ? - I did wonder if just to keep pedalling through the winter months - then up the ante sort of next march time....?
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should have said - I am very lucky to have a workplace gym - so my gym time is mainly of a lunchtime that i do the gym session - so I can't easily swap gym for cycling.
Perhaps not, but if you are doing strength work 4-5 times a week, then surely that is going to affect your ability to train on the bike at other times.
Of course. - and probably in the lighter warmer evenings thats an easy swap. But this my dilemma - do I drop a gym session or two and go out cycling in the dark - which living in a high traffic area i don't really enjoy ? - is that a productive swap in November ? with the event 10 months away?
I obviously won't be able to do a 200+ mile ride beforehand so I'm doing a couple of Hilly 100 mile Sportives plus a training camp in Mallorca in May with some of the lads from the Team who are also doing the big one.I'm also going to try and ride at least 100 miles a week mixing flat and hilly routes.
I need to up my averages a bit so I'll do the flat routes as fast as possible and build up speed on the hilly routes over the next few months.
Lastly (but most importantly) I'd look at diet - if you have fat to drop, drop it, it is the single most useful change you can make. Cutting alcohol etc and eating leaner, Then I'd spend a lot of time making sure you actually cycle efficiently, perhaps find a coach or join a club.
Stretching & Workout Vids
I wouldn't make any massive changes over this winter. Stay healthy, maybe sacrifice a few gym session for cycling if the weather is good.
Jumping in to a training regime just as the weather is turning bad or hitting the indoor trainer hard is a morale killer, and you'll have mentally lost the will by next spring when you should really be upping the training.
Spend the winter planning. Research training plans or specific sessions. Maybe trial a few different sessions and see how they feel; how will they fit in to you routine? Figure out a way of testing your fitness, and set some "SMART" goals for improving that. Identify and enter a few build up events to keep your focus over the summer and track progress. Your end goal is still a long way off, set having some stepping stones on route will keep you on track.
For a September event you'll really want to be hitting the training around March - April. Apart from keeping healthy I wouldn't say there is a massive benefit to structured training over 6 mouths away. If you really want to perform well I'd be cutting out the gym work and focusing on event specific training from three months out.
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Stretching & Workout Vids
It depends on what your goal is. You mentioned in your first post that you would like to go for a good time and get faster in general. If this is the case then IME you need to start putting in more miles on the bike at a higher intensity now. As others have suggested, it sounds like you already have a decent level of fitness, and completing the sportive with a decent time (around 7-8 hours) would be something you could do with a training plan starting in spring based on this.
However, if you want to target something more ambitious, say around the 6 hour mark, making the jump from where you are now to that would require a fair bit of work as I would guess you are at the fitness level where to get that extra 2-3% requires a lot more work than it took to get you to this point (the good old law of diminishing returns!).
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Raising the prospect of weights is often contentious on the forum, which I get because having strong arms doesn't make you a great racer. But I want strong arms and ride a bike and I don't find the two mutually exclusive.
Are you doing conditioning as well as strength - stretches, rollers etc? I found it really helpful to make sure I could keep doing both cycling and weights.
I went from strength & conditioning training to getting on the bike. I maintained S&C - although intentionally plateaued in terms of weight - whilst doing lots of miles on the bike. The more I rode the faster I got.
This was all in training for the Ride London 100 at the end of July. I did 3 rides per week, which was one long one on the weekend, and two shorter ones mid-week and 2 or 3 S&C sessions.
What with the summer and then a month of man flu, I've only just got back into riding seriously as I decided I didn't want to lose all the hard work I put in for RL100, so I'm trying to do 2 rides per week now, and have upped S&C to 3 times per week.
In terms of riding in the dark in built up areas, I've decided to keep up riding early mornings when the roads are quiet. So this morning for eg I got up at 5, out the house by 5.30 and then rode for a bit more than an hour - including a couple of laps of Regents Park (I'm in London). I was home by 6.45, showered and out for work at usual time.
I find riding at that time of the morning fine, as long as you're well lit up. I was surprised to see a couple of shmucks in the park use barely any lights.
Doing strength work on your legs more than once a week will impact on your ability to train properly for cycling though. You have only so much resilience - best use it to gain cycling-specific gains by focussing on on-bike training.
1.I don't consider myself fit - Im always disappointed in my 15mph average.
2.I've got a bit of a belly - so don't know what my body % fat is - probably not good
3.The gym I use does have a spin bike - I only use this to warm up. I don't like these type of bikes I always get injuries if I try to hammer it on such bikes
4.Im 53
5.The sportive is the birmingham velo on closed roads...
Find a friendly local club and start doing the club runs with them. You want to aim for 50/60 miles or so, building up to 70/80 over the summer. If you can do those then stepping up to 100 miles on closed roads will be no bother.
If you struggle with the pace, doing interval work on the bike will help - so get yourself a turbo or start doing hill repeats. If you hate riding in the dark/cold/wet then might be a good idea to look into Zwift, as a lot of people find this a great motivator.
Stay away from the gym for a couple of days after your big weekend rides - give your body time to make the adaptations. No leg work within two days of your big rides, you want to go in with fresh legs.
If you can start bicycle commuting to work more, that'll help, especially if eg you have done a big club run on Sunday it is good to take an easy spin to work on Monday - getting the blood moving through tired legs is much better for recovery/adaptation than being sat in a car/train/etc.
Key thing to keep up pace on the sportive will probably be to shift that belly, as it looks a fairly bumpy route - I'm not sure what'll work for you but daily commuting certainly helped me, I ride fasted in the morning.
Reaffirming what others have said though, September is a really long time away, so don't go too mad with training over the winter - main thing is ride a bit more, bit less time in the gym, and a bit less food.
I always found big weights sessions gave me a huge appetite - better to take a gentle spin on the stationary bike, walk uphill on the treadmill, cross trainer, that kind of thing.
2. If you have a belly then cut down the calories. Simple.
3. Are you setting the bike up incorrectly then ? Its only a bike it should be hard to injure yourself on it. What revs do you use ?
4. Almost a youngster
5. I'd really want other goals along the way. September is too far away to focus. There are plenty of other sportives around - and I know Bham didnt get a great reception. What if they cancel it ? Check your diary and get a few shorter sportives in there along the way. Just to motivate you.
I don't find cutting the calories easy. Ive always been a big eater !
the bike doesn't have a rev counter - there are I believe non fly wheel bikes with a rev counter - but these have a great big padded saddle and IME are impossible to get comfy on....
Yes a few other sportives might help
I used to commute every day - but got really tired and ended with a really bad hip injury - thats why I don't want to commute more than 3 times a week - which I will do in spring.
A lot the weights I do come from a recover program for my hip injury - I then recruited a personal trainer who sorted me out a full body work out - but accounting for my injuries. - its been pretty good I feel better on the bike for have a stronger upper body and core...
If you can't watch the calories daily, then just do it 2 days a week - I increased my avg speed 2mph on a 100 mile MTB event by cutting 5kg off my body weight and I wasn't fat to start. Made a massive difference to my placing.
If you have a pelvic injury then you first need to see if you can actually do that long in the saddle - could it cause you an injury?
Stretching & Workout Vids
I can empathise, but it's the only way to cut weight effectively.
Try using something like MyFitnessPal to create an effective food diary - it's very illuminating.
Obviously it was a cardio workout. Why would it be a leg workout?