Training for Sportives
Set your goal
Be realistic. If you took up cycling only a couple of months ago and you’re lacking bike fitness, don’t set an unrealistic
goal. Think about exactly what you want to achieve on your ride. Will you be happy simply to finish? Or maybe you
want to improve on last year’s time, or cross the line in the top 30 per cent of the field. Are you completing, competing
or conquering? Again, be reasonable. Set an impossible target and you’ll soon lose motivation.
Stay focused
Once you have your goal sorted, write it down and put it in your wallet, next to your computer, on the dashboard or
fridge door… anywhere you’ll see it often to help keep you focused.
Know your SWOT and work to it
Once you’ve sorted out your target, make a list under four different headings…
Strengths
Your attributes that are helpful to achieving your goal, such as good aerobic fitness or your high commitment to
training.
Weaknesses
Your attributes that are harmful to reaching your goal, such as a lack of climbing ability.
Opportunities
External factors that are helpful; perhaps the possibility of getting a new bike or going on a training camp.
Threats
External factors that are harmful to your goal, like the need to move house or change jobs, or a fellow rider who will
cause you to self-destruct if you ride with them too often.Once you’ve identified each category, you need to think
about how you can maximise your strengths and opportunities, and eliminate or minimise the impact of the
weaknesses and threats. How can you ensure you get onto that training camp? How are you going to improve your
climbing? It’s not always easy, but it’s time well spent.
Get your long rides in
We all miss occasional planned rides – life has an annoying habit of getting in the way of the important stuff – but
even if you can’t do high mileage rides all the time, don’t miss your long rides in the big overload period at the heart of
your training, they’re vital. Bad weather? Go out anyway; you could get bad weather on event day. Bike’s broken? Fix
it, or get your bike shop to sort it – and learn how you could have done it out on the road.Your long rides are when
your body gets used to handling the demands you’ll face on the big day; they help you learn to draw on your fuel
reserves more efficiently, and they get your head prepared for long, demanding efforts.
Develop your technique
Get used to incorporating technique work into your general rides and devote regular sessions to improving your skills.
Find a long, winding hill and time yourself down it over several runs, looking to get quicker by laying off the brakes,
leaning into the corners and learning when to put the power back on. Be careful, though, and do this with a riding mate
on quiet roads where you can easily see any approaching traffic. And don’t think you can make up for poor climbing by
flying downhill.
Group dynamics
Sheltering from the wind in a pack saves you masses of power output from your legs and will improve your sportive
finishing time, so practise in regular group rides and local road races. The more comfortable you are riding in close
formation, the more time you can save. If you spend all your time on the turbo or solo riding, you won’t have the skills
to ride with others on the big day. Turn to page 32 for our top tips on safe group riding.
Develop your lactate threshold and muscle power
Lactic acid is produced when your body breaks down carbohydrate for fuel, resulting in lactate in your blood that
affects your muscles’ performance. Get that? All you really need to know is that the point at which lactate starts to
accumulate faster than you can disperse it is your lactate threshold (LT), and raising this will help you ride a faster
sportive.
Working on your power is important too for increasing the amount of force you can put into every pedal stroke and
also for increasing endurance.As you’ll see from the training programmes, we recommend regular high-intensity rides
devoted to LT and strength work. Get these sessions in and you’ll be rewarded on the big day.
Rest!
You don’t get fitter when you’re riding, you get fitter when you recover afterwards, which is why you should aim to
have at least one day without exercise every week, possibly more if you over-stretch yourself, as well as an easy
week every month.