England : North Yorkshire Sportive.......

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I would love to do my first sportive next year. Luckily for me, there is one setting off in my home town of Ripon at the end of June in 2015. (Anyone here doing or done it???) So, there are 3 different distances to choose from, 102, 77 and 65. I would like advice on which one I should enter...... The 102 to me is a bit like entering a marathon.... The training for it would be (I imagine) very time consuming. I work full time and have a family (who don't understand my cycling addiction!) So committing to it may cause problems. There are also some nasty hills in there and I am a wuss when it comes to big hills! I have only been cycling since July and the furthest I have done so far has been 40 miles, and that took some doing (walking up one of the hills that is in the 103 miler).... Do I bite the bullet and take the flack from my family and commit to the big one or go for the 77? I think the 65 is not so far out of my league as to make it a challenge so I don't fancy that one too much.......
Also, does anyone know of any good training schedules that would help me? I'm not sure of what kind of training I should be doing, apart from doing the miles.......
Thanks! :smile:
 

MikeW-71

Veteran
Location
Carlisle
June next year is plenty of time to train up for 100 miles. It will involve steadily pushing your distances up and not being afraid to tackle hills. Take your current 40 mile route until you can make it up that hill non-stop. Once you`ve done that a couple of times, start to extend the distances.

For that hill though, consider your gearing. I`m assuming a compact chainset, but what cassette? If it`s a fairly high gearing, changing to a 12-30 or 11-32 cassette could make a lot of difference.
 

Fubar

Guru
I would love to do my first sportive next year. Luckily for me, there is one setting off in my home town of Ripon at the end of June in 2015. (Anyone here doing or done it???) So, there are 3 different distances to choose from, 102, 77 and 65. I would like advice on which one I should enter...... The 102 to me is a bit like entering a marathon.... The training for it would be (I imagine) very time consuming. I work full time and have a family (who don't understand my cycling addiction!) So committing to it may cause problems. There are also some nasty hills in there and I am a wuss when it comes to big hills! I have only been cycling since July and the furthest I have done so far has been 40 miles, and that took some doing (walking up one of the hills that is in the 103 miler).... Do I bite the bullet and take the flack from my family and commit to the big one or go for the 77? I think the 65 is not so far out of my league as to make it a challenge so I don't fancy that one too much.......
Also, does anyone know of any good training schedules that would help me? I'm not sure of what kind of training I should be doing, apart from doing the miles.......
Thanks! :smile:

Based on what you've said about commitments I would go for the 77 miles, with a view to doing the 100 miler the year after once you have conquered the sportive! As well as the good advice given my @MikeW-71 above just getting any miles in will do you good - not sure there will be any flat routes round Ripon so you will be tackling hills at some point. Even shorter rides (at increasing pace) with 1 or 2 hills thrown in will do you good, and don't let bad weather put you off - it might be in June but could still be hellish on the day!

Also don't be put off if you have one or two bad rides up to the event, that's natural and adrenaline on the day counts for a lot and helps to get you through. Good Luck! Keep us posted. Regards, Mark
 
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Mike_P

Guru
Location
Harrogate
East of Ripon is straight into the Vale of York so its posible that one of them could be relatively flat, just might not be the shortest!
 
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NorvernRob

Senior Member
Location
Sheffield
If it's the Ripon Revolution I'm doing it. 6000ft or so of climbing in 102 miles really isn't a lot, the last 35/40 miles are pretty much flat or downhill so look at it as more of a tough 60 miles then the rest shouldn't be a problem.

Just get out and ride plenty of hills, you'll be fine.
 
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