Training can be split up into 2 or maybe 3 specific elements:
- Training that helps you go the distance
- Training that helps you get over the hills
- Training that helps you keep up with other cyclists
The first 2 elements are likely to be essential to your preparation for a sportive (unless you are riding a totally flat course?) The third element may not be necessary - depends if you want to keep up with friends who are quick, or are ambitious to get a good time (and there are opportunities for fast, flat riding).
Distance Training
Sportives come in all sorts of lengths from 50km to 150km and more. A common target for the new sportive rider might well be 100km - a good round number that sounds impressive. 160km would be another impressive number as this translates to 100miles.
Its possible as a new sportive rider to pick a distance that is just a bit more than you have ever done. So if 70km is the furthest you've already done then you might be ready to try for 100km. In training you don't need to ever ride 100km - save that target for the big day. In fact you can focus on lots of much shorter rides - plenty of 25km rides and mix that in with some 40kms, and the occasional 50 or 60km - and that sort of training will get you within striking distance of 100km.
If 70km is your longest ride so far and you have somehow entered a 150 or 200km event you may want to think again, or at least make sure you have plenty of time to train up towards those kind of distances.
Hill Training
The new sportive rider may not pay attention to how much hill climbing there might be on a particular event. This could be a problem. A totally flat 100km is very different from a hilly 100km. Most sportives will include some "challenges" and these are usually hills so it pays to look closely at what your event has in store on the challenge front, and then to train accordingly.
Hill training can take many forms, the simplest being deliberately heading into the hills and riding around. If you usually avoid hills then do this as a gradual progression - introducing just one hill per ride as even a single hill can overload you, especially if you are completely new to them.
Hill training should be done after you are happy with your distance training. The distance work will get you ready for the higher demands of hill work. Don't do them the other way around as your body might not be fit enough to conquer the slopes immediately.
Another form of hill training is Hill Repeats. Go find a hill, ride up it then turn around and coast back down, then ride up it again. This can save you a lot of time and you can control your progress and loading very precisely - week 1 ride up it once, week 2 ride up twice, week 3 do it three times might be a way to build this training stimulus.
Speed Training
This comes after Distance and Hill training, and might even be viewed as optional and advanced training for a sportive. If you plan to get around the sportive by yourself, or the event hasn't got any flat bits then you may not need to do this type of training. If you are training for a UK sportive - where the hills generally require strength-endurance then you may not need to do intervals, but if you are training for a European sportive where the slopes are easier but more prolonged then intervals may be more important. If the event has long stretches of flat or you are set to go in a group that you know is faster than you, or you know you are just very slow on the flat then may be you need some speed training.
Often interval training is used to help increase your speed. This type of training involves speeding up for set periods of time, and then slowing down to recover from the effort. A bit like Hill Repeats you are able to control the amount you do precisely so in one ride you might do a 1 minute speed burst, and in another ride say a week later you might do two 1 minute bursts with a 5 min rest in between, and so on. The speed you go at, the length of the interval and recovery time in between hard efforts can all be altered - this summary of training isn't the place for a full description of Speed Training options.
General Principles of Training
All of the advice is based on some basic ideas about training:
- Overload - you need your body to be stimulated by a training load that is just a bit too much for its current level
- Overcompensation - your body recovers from a training stimulus and adds a bit more on top so that next time its better able to cope with what you expect it to do. This means you get a bit better
- Record Keeping - Strava app on your phone, Garmin device, or even a simple handlebar cycleputer will give you information you can use - distance, average speed, height climbed. You need to know what you have done in order to know how to do a bit more
- Training is different from riding around - with training you are looking to grow and using overload stimulus to encourage your body to improve itself
- Training needs to be planned - you need to know what you can do (lets say you normally do 60km a week) and then you need to think of way of extending what you can do (so you might set a target of getting up to 160km per week over the course of 12 weeks). Your plan will increase the load gradually - so it will take advantage of the improvement you are making
- Overload training involves risk - you are taking your body further/higher/faster than it normally goes. You need to know when you are doing too much, and you need to "listen to your body" - the difference between overload and over-training or injury is small
- Rest is when you improve - if you are tired and don't feel like riding you may have successfully stressed your body beyond its limits. If you feel sore be happy - your body is in the process of getting better