Sportive training...

... and yes, I know it's a mountain bike forum! Perhaps this should go in 'off-topic'?!

I may have just done something stupid and entered the Etape Cymru (100miles, 6000 ft climbing). I've not done one of these before and yes, it looks like I've entered one of the harder ones in the UK!

Has anyone got any training tips? I'm getting a proper bike fitting next week to make sure my bike is set up properly for me. I'm also following the bikeradar.com sportive training plan (11 weeks, so should finish nicely in time for the sportive).

These two (solo) rides that I did on consecutive days probably give some idea of my starting level of fitness (the first one was into a headwind the whole way... at least, that's my excuse!):
http://tomdavis.smugmug.com/photos/i-mp3hLVv/0/O/i-mp3hLVv.jpg
http://tomdavis.smugmug.com/photos/i-dbLkGnb/0/O/i-dbLkGnb.jpg

So... what do you think my chances are?! Any advice gratefully received.

Tom

Ask Big Gav!

Did you get to Bourton and was too knackered to ride home so stayed over the night

Seriously, in terms of starting fitness you’re in a pretty good place.

I’d suggest building up your time in the saddle on your long ride, with the aim of getting to 6 hours by 25th September. Add 20-30 mins extra each week to your ride and you’ll manage this easily. If you can’t motivate yourself to do this solo then ride with others (this will give you experience of riding in a small group too which you’ll find yourself doing on the event). Do you still live in Stony? If so, go ride with Team MK at 9.30 on a Saturday. Doesn’t matter if you’re not a member. Or ask on here if anyone fancies a road ride, there’s bound to be a few closet roadies, I’m happy to ride with you.

Don’t forget to try and also do some shorter rides e.g. hills/tempo rides. Go find a nice hill, there are several leading up to the woods or the one coming back from Whaddon, and ride up and down them a few times. Boring but effective.

Lastly why not enter another event between now and the Etape? This will give you an idea of what to expect on the day. There are a few localish that you could try out and they usually have a few choices in terms of distance.

Good luck.

Dirty roadie.......

Jase wrote:Did you get to Bourton and was too knackered to ride home so stayed over the night

Kind of - my parents live there, so it was my intention to stay over!

Thanks for the advice though - definitely planning on joining Team MK for a Saturday ride sometime as I've never ridden in a group on the road before.

Little Gav wrote:Dirty roadie.......

Yeah... yeah.. How long can I keep rolling out the excuse that I'm only riding on the road to improve my fitness for mountain biking?

Tom

We'll catch up & chat about training!

.......if you're at Thetford we'll talk & give you some advice.........

if not give me a bell and we'll sort it over a beer!

cheers! bg