Training to ride faster

[Marek]

Toks is right, go out and beat yourself up. Maybe target a couple of sportives where you say to yourself I am going to go out with the fast boys and try to stick with them as long as possible, if you blow then you blow and your time will be bad, but that is the point. Might be best to do that on local sportives just in case you need to get the misses to come and scrape you off the floor. I have had to get my wife to come and pick me up once or twice when I was literally 5km away from home but could not face turning the pedals any further.

Cheers

Marek...

[Alan M]

Are you over 40? Why not race with the LVRC. Even if you get dropped you can probably find a group trying to get back to the bunch. You can race out of category if you are a younger vet. The competition is a motivator in itself. The attacks create their own intervals and it is only £8 to enter. My club run niche is the 19/20s and although I am not very competitive in the Vets I'm not the worst either. Also the track is quite a good way to push you harder. You get good speed work. Notwithstanding what everyone was saying given you want a better time on Sportives maybe your winter base work and length of rides isn't sufficient. Club runs of 45 miles don't really leave me that stressed because of lack of intensity and distance. try throwing a sickie one Tuesday to ride out with the over the hill group for an 80+ ride. They usually include 3 or 4 hard efforts punctuating a relatively steady ride. We race up hills and always reform. My hardest effort last year was a Surrey Handicap. The nature of the race tends to motivate trying to stay away or hang on.