1st Gran Fondo, Training Plan advice

rob39

Entered the Tour of Ayrshire Gran Fondo end of April, my 1st. 70 miles 4,000ft elevation. Need some advice on a training plan.
Entered the 45-49 age group 14-16 mph. Current average is 14 mph (hilly/rolling roads) would love to hit 15/16 mph. Anyone out their give some advice on a training structure, probably get out at the moment x1-2 per week with turbo sessions.

fenix

Just ride a bit more.

Work on extending the outside ride to past 70 miles week by week.

Plenty of guides on turbo sessions you can do. Maybe look up sufferfest or trainerroad.

Midlands Grimpeur

IME there are two parts to training for a GF/sportive just riding more and increasing duration of rides will help with your ability to cover the distance and your ability to manage fatigue (as is probably pretty obvious!). If you actually want to get faster then your training needs to be done at a higher intensity.

For that kind of ride I would be riding 3-4 times a week. I would make sure each ride was at least 25-35 miles and throw in one 50 miler. In order to increase speed I'd be doing 2 rides a week tempo (for me tempo is done on HR, and I would tend to be riding around 80-85% of max HR). Personally for distance rides I not bother with intervals as lots of aerobic riding increases my speed over a longer distance rather than 15-20 minute intervals but that is just personally what works for me.

frisbee

A lot of it is just pacing, fuelling and confidence. A sportive if that size is going to add a couple of miles an hour to your speed if you slip onto the back of a decent group.

SuperHans808

Good point above about finding a group to ride with, although if you're not used to riding in a bunch you'll want to be careful!

With regards to going round a bit quicker I'd suggest finding a 40-60 mile course with similar elevation stats and riding it once a week aiming for quicker and quicker times. I guarantee if you go out and do this every week until April the 1st you'll better your current best of 14mph. Additionally you might want to throw a couple of intervals into your turbo session - for example 3 x 8 minute hard efforts mixed into an hour session. Good luck!

rob39

Thanks guys

rob39

I do have a route of about 41 miles and 3,100ft of climbing and another double loop of 71 miles 3,750ft climbing

https://www.strava.com/activities/676893174

davidof

frisbee wrote:

A lot of it is just pacing, fuelling and confidence. A sportive if that size is going to add a couple of miles an hour to your speed if you slip onto the back of a decent group.

This.

I rode a Gran Fondo in Italy this October 210km with 4000 M of vertical. My training was a couple of 25km lunch rides per week.
Now if I'd wanted to do a competitive time I'd have to be more serious.