How to Train for Your First Sportive, a 12 Week Plan

James. Hello, and welcome to the WattPlan Podcast. I'm James. When I'm not juggling family life, the day job, the occasional podium and building WattPlan, I'm reading sports science I really don't need. This week is the one I get asked about most. You've entered your first sportive, a hundred kilometres or a hundred miles. How do you actually get ready for it in twelve weeks? Lyra, our AI research voice, has the evidence, and every study is linked in the show notes.

Lyra. Oh, I like this one, because it's so doable. Straight answer, ride three to five times a week for about twelve weeks, make one ride a week your long ride, practise eating on the bike, and ease off in the final week. That's the recipe. The detail is in what goes into the long ride and how much you back off at the end.

James. Twelve weeks. Is that enough if I'm starting from not very much?

Lyra. It depends where you start. Twelve weeks suits a rider who already gets out twice a week and can manage two hours without suffering. Below that, give yourself sixteen weeks, so a longer base block gives you time to build. And if you already ride three hours most weekends, eight focused weeks is enough for a hundred kilometres.

James. And hours a week? Because that's the bit everyone actually worries about.

Lyra. Our view at WattPlan is about four to six hours a week for a first hundred kilometres, and six to nine for a first hundred miles. Most of the extra goes into the weekend ride, not into more midweek sessions.

James. Okay, walk me through the twelve weeks. What's the shape?

Lyra. Four blocks. Weeks one to three are base, with sweet spot midweek and a steady long ride. Week four is recovery. Weeks five to seven build, mixing sweet spot with threshold and VO2max. Week eight is recovery again. Weeks nine to eleven are the peak, the hardest weeks of the plan. Week twelve is the taper and the event. The long ride starts at conversation pace, and from the build weeks it picks up blocks at tempo, close to the pace you'll climb at on the day. How long it runs is the time you give your long-ride day.

James. And for a hundred miles?

Lyra. A hundred miles keeps a rider of average pace out for six or seven hours. You don't need that in training. A long ride of four to five hours, around three quarters of the event, is plenty, so give your long-ride day that much if your week allows. If your long ride is under two and a half hours today, start sixteen weeks out. And once it passes four hours, a second steady ride on the other weekend day helps.

James. Hang on, though. You never ride the full distance before the day? Surely that's the one thing you'd want to know you can do?

Lyra. Ha, it feels that way. But no, about three quarters of the event's time is plenty, and the taper and the fuelling carry you the rest. And I should be honest about the whole outline. No trial has ever compared training plans for first-time sportive riders. So the week by week shape is a coaching judgement, not a tested prescription. Where the research does help is pacing, fuelling and the taper.

James. Go on then. Pacing first, because I think that's where most first-timers come unstuck.

Lyra. Right, so here's the thing. We looked at three studies for this episode. The first is a 2026 paper in Sport Sciences for Health by Sánchez-Jiménez and colleagues. They analysed the split times of 6,589 finishers of the 2025 Quebrantahuesos, a big mountain gran fondo. The fastest riders, the ones home in under six hours, started more conservatively than everyone else, then pulled away on the major climbs and most of all in the final section. [5]

James. So the people who went off like a rocket at the start...

Lyra. Paid for it later, yes. The group with the most up and down pacing was slower through the middle and lost the most time at the end. The catch is that it's one event, and it shows what fast riders did rather than proving the steady start made them fast. But the advice follows. Start easier than feels right, ride below your planned pace for the first half hour, and let groups go. Then ride the climbs harder than the flat, but not at threshold all day.

James. How much harder, roughly?

Lyra. On a long hilly day, WattPlan's pacing calculator puts the climbs at about three quarters of FTP and the flat a bit lower. On a shorter ride, both come out higher.

James. Right. Fuelling. How much should I actually be eating out there?

Lyra. More than most people think, and from the first half hour, before you feel hungry. The second study is a 2011 review in the Journal of Sports Sciences by Burke, Hawley, Wong and Jeukendrup. It set 30 to 60 grams of carbohydrate an hour as the target for longer events, and up to 90 grams an hour for events over two and a half hours. At those higher rates, it says blends of different carbohydrates may help you absorb more. In practice, that means glucose and fructose together. [2]

James. Ninety grams an hour, though? Really? That's an awful lot of gels.

Lyra. It is, and nobody should start there. That's the top end for long events, not a first week target. On a long sportive ride, aim for about 60 to 80 grams an hour, and above 60 that means mixed sugars. Build up to it on every long ride from week five to week eleven. And how much a novice gut tolerates varies from rider to rider. That's something the research can't pin down for you.

James. And drinking?

Lyra. Sweat rates vary widely, so weigh yourself before and after a long training ride to find yours. On the day, a few mouthfuls every fifteen minutes and something to eat every forty five. WattPlan's Route analysis, in Premium, marks a feed zone on your event route every 45 minutes, at 60 grams of carbohydrate and 500 millilitres of fluid each. That's 80 grams an hour.

James. Okay, the taper. This is where people panic and squeeze in one more big ride, isn't it?

Lyra. Ha, the classic. And the evidence here is clear. The third study is a 2007 meta-analysis in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise by Bosquet and colleagues. They pooled 27 studies of trained competitors, out of 182 potential studies they found. Performance improved most with a two week taper in which training volume fell by 41 to 60 percent, while intensity and how often they trained stayed the same. [1]

James. Two weeks. But the plan only gives me one taper week. Why the difference?

Lyra. Because those were trained competitors from several sports, not riders heading to their first event. For a first sportive the peak weeks are modest, and WattPlan plans one lighter week. The rides that week are short and easy. Two days before is rest. The day before, if you've the time, is an easy hour with three thirty second openers. You cut the volume, and the openers keep the legs sharp.

James. So if I'm hearing you right. Give the long ride its day, start the event easy, eat early and often, and in the last week ride less but keep a bit of zip in the legs.

Lyra. That's it, spot on.

James. Let's split it out by who's listening. If you're new to this and FTP means nothing to you, where do you start?

Lyra. If you're new to structured training, you don't need a power meter at all. Every session has a by feel version. Long rides are steady, full sentences. Tempo, short sentences. Sweet spot, a few words at a time. Threshold, talking is hard. VO2max, a word at a time. Do the winter intervals on the turbo if that's easier, and protect one midweek slot like an appointment.

James. And if you train with power?

Lyra. Then set your FTP with a test first, so the percentages mean something. Long rides in Zone 2, 56 to 75 percent of FTP. Sweet spot at 88 to 94 percent, threshold at 95 to 105, and VO2max at 106 to 120. From week five, the long ride carries tempo blocks at about 80 percent of FTP, close to your climbing pace, so ride some of them in your event kit.

James. And if you race, or you're chasing a time?

Lyra. If you're chasing a time, the structure holds, but pacing is where the minutes are. In that Quebrantahuesos data, the fastest riders had the steadiest pacing and the strongest finish. So don't spend it in the first hour. WattPlan's Route analysis, in Premium, paces the event's route from how much you fade over your own long rides, once it has some to go on.

James. And how does WattPlan lay out the twelve weeks, out of interest?

Lyra. It plans to your event date from the hours you've got. Four base weeks, four build, three peak and a one week taper, with every fourth week of a phase a recovery week. Two days before is rest and the day before holds openers when you've an hour to ride. Miss a session and the plan offers to move it to a sensible slot later in the week, or moves it for you on Premium, never two hard days back to back. And event briefings land when the plan's built, in the final fortnight and three days out.

James. Brilliant. So what's the homework this week?

Lyra. Three things. One, book the event and count back twelve weeks. Two, set your FTP with a test, or decide you're riding by feel. Three, set your long-ride day to the time you can really give it, because that's what the plan builds the long ride from. Then ride your longest comfortable ride, eat about 60 grams of carbohydrate an hour, and weigh yourself before and after.

James. Okay, in my words. Get the date in the diary, find my numbers, then go and do one honest long ride with food in my pockets and the bathroom scales either side of it.

Lyra. Perfect. And on the day, start slower than feels right. That's what the fastest riders in that pacing study did.

Lyra. The full article and every study we mentioned are on the WattPlan blog, linked in the show notes.

James. And if you want a plan that's built around the time you've actually got, that's what WattPlan does. Thanks for listening.

Voices produced with ElevenLabs. James's voice is a clone of his own, Lyra is an AI voice, and James reviews every script before it is published.