Marginal gains, you break down the challenge into little pieces, deal with each one and then, by doing so, maximise your performance over the whole event. In the British Cycling Sportive Training Plans your aim is to apply this philosophy to certain aspects of the challenges facing you.
Comprehensive advice regarding aspects of preparation is covered in the British Cycling Sportive Training plan or in the Insight Zone. Below are three key areas for you to cover and top tips for how to do this and have a great sportive experience.
Top 3 areas:
Organisational
You need to find the website or contact the organiser of your event, find out what time you will start and what facilities they have. Also ask if they have feed stations and what will be available at them? From this information you can start to build a plan of action of when to wake up, when to travel, what time breakfast is, when you will set up your bike, warm up times, food and drink strategies.
Nutritional
From your questions regarding nutrition, you can then start to use their brand of sports nutrition or if you don’t like that brand of product you need a plan of action to get you round the event. As Head of Nutrition and Insight Zone Expert Nigel Mitchell suggests:
“The biggest mistake riders make on the day of an event is not eating the right food or making big changes to their normal big ride nutrition”.
Psychological
If you understand everything about your event and prepare accordingly you won’t have any worries. You have committed to and completed your training with the British Cycling Sportive Plan, ticked the box by researching event characteristics, and you have a plan of the whole day. Trusting this knowledge will make you more confident on the day and facilitate success.
Take care of the small pieces and the bigger blocks will fall into place. Prepare properly and methodically and you can guarantee success at your sportive events this season.
