Bit of a hijack here but i’d like some pointers to getting ready for the tour o the borders. Basically i’ve not had much bike time since July last year due to injury and then a new baby on the 31st Dec. I have never done any road biking just mtbing. When i was riding a had an ok base fitness nothing special. I bought a croix de fer off Iainc on here last December and am using this as my road bike, my plan is to commute roughly 30k a day 3 times a week and as the nights get longer maybe ride a bit further, plus a ride at the weekend. I have been doing strength training in the gym, squats and kettlebell routines since October but am still pretty overweight at 88kg for my height 5’8. Hopefully this will drop off the more time i spend on the bike. I have entered skinny tweed which is the middle of May. So would the best thing to be to ride a much as possible till Skinny Tweed then after that start a proper 12 week training plan for Tour o the Borders?

eh? it’s just a Sportive. there’s no need for a training plan just gradually increase the distance on your longer rides as and when you have time.

monkeyninja – with that plan you’ll be in the front half no problem. Especially with the CDF 🙂 . Sportives aren’t races, apart from the chosen few… Just ride within your limits and grab a few wheels for some rests. A few of us did Etape Caledonia last yr with av speed over 19mph and lots of social chat on the way round 😆

Thanks iainc, I know it’s not a race I just want to be able to make the distance the most I’ve ridden in one day is about 60k so this is something completely new to me. Was just wanting to get an idea if I was on the right track.

eh? it’s just a Sportive. there’s no need for a training plan just gradually increase the distance on your longer rides as and when you have time.

Despite Sportives not being races many people want to ride them as fast as possible. Having a training plan will help to get the most out of the riding that you do in the time available. Just riding more is not a good way of getting faster.

So would the best thing to be to ride a much as possible till Skinny Tweed then after that start a proper 12 week training plan for Tour o the Borders?

Sounds reasonable. As mentioned earlier the usual suspects in road mags have 12 week sportive training plans which usually start off fairly easily then adds more distance during the weekend rides each week for 12 weeks while doing intervals mid week. Something like that will build your endurance base while also training your body to recover quickly from hard efforts/hills etc.

An Olympic level coach (admittedly not cycling) told me you can get close to full fitness in 12 weeks.

I think that rather depends on the starting point
An olympian who has been out from injury may be able to but a couch potato who is 3 stone overweight has no chance.

My advice do the ride enjoy and next year be faster ..I have agreed to do the Fred whitton this year but not on race day.

Quick update.. Feel a lot fitter in just a week.
Basically just been pushing myself on every ride.
Riding to work has really helped as there’s 1000 ft of Climbing in 10 miles.
Average speed is now up around 16mph but don’t know if I could do that for 75 miles.. Yet

Still haven’t committed to entering.

Intervals. When riding attack hill or better do a hill repeats. Pick a hill that is 2 to 3 minutes and sustain a constant hadd pace. For me and mh low heart rate thats 150bpm. You want it to be below threshold and use a high gear so cadance is below 60 rpm. This builds strength in your legs and allows you a later date to build higher intensity threshold or past threshold intervals. Doing high kntensity trianing without sufficent base miles and strength work is like having jam without toast. Yoh need a base to build one and doing the base work will improve the pace you can ride at if that is your goal. It will hurt though.

What you need to do is avoid that zone where you pushing your self but yoh get little fittness gain. That is somewhere between threshold and your endurance pace. Base miles at endurance while spinning at high cadance pace and do puchy strength intervals and that will see you right.

8 weeks will get you in a decent enough shape to survive it and even enjoy it at a decent pace >>

There are some dammed hard intervals to complete in the 8 week plans but they are based on that goal of doing a race/event at the end of the eight weeks.