AT Endurance

Have you ever set a goal only to find that when you’ve got to the end of the month, 12 weeks, year etc. you’ve failed to meet them?

We’ve failed to be consistent with the habits, processes and training. We’ve changed our minds half way through and gone off on a different tangent. Plans have changed, things have cropped up and basically the goals haven’t stuck.

There are several reasons why we tend to fail at our goals-

Lack of strategy- we might start with a goal in mind but we don’t have a roadmap; a clear vision of what we want a month or a year or three down the line, just a vague notion of what that goal is and how we might go about getting there.

Too many options- whilst we are embarking on a plan we start doubting, rather than stick with it and remain consistent we start googling for the latest new way of training or latest nutrition fad et cetera. Before we know it we’ve gone right off track, taking some bizarre ketone supplement and doing some obscure exercise.

Contradicting goals- If our goals aren’t compatible with each other or they are unrealistic, something is going to go wrong. We can’t be doing a very intense or high volume block of training and putting in a big calorie restriction for weight loss. Work or home life might be really stressful yet you feel the pressure as your goal dictates a big block of training. Something has to give. At best it’s usually the training but at worse it can be your physical or mental health. Or both.

Lack of motivation or ‘Lost Mojo’ – Right. We’ve got ourself the latest new “QuadZilla Monster Threshold Power Doubler 12 week plan” from a magazine and absolutely nailed it for the first week or three. Then the enormity of what is set begins to take hold and before you know it you’re sat on the settee in just your bib shorts crying into a tub of Nutella watching a box set on telly that you have to keep rewinding because you were also watching a cat video on your phone. Motivation has gone. Might as well have an Aperol Spritz too “because CBA.”

We often get ‘the fear’ that we’ll never meet that goal, we get bogged down in the minutiae or start looking at obscure websites for secret training hacks or supplements.

These are all mistakes I’ve made myself, (except it was Ben and Jerry’s Cookie Dough, not Nutella) but thankfully through the experience of others you don’t have to.

Planning a year’s training, racing or anything really starts with identifying goals to aim at; our overall strategy. This gives any plan to achieve a goal a sense of purpose. If we start by looking at the How –

for example what I’m doing in today’s training session, or how many carbs I need to eat, or how long should I spend stretching, what I call the ‘operational’, ground level stuff we lose sight of what we’re doing it for. We become bogged down. Yes it all matters but it only matters because of the context in which it sits.

Firstly need to look at the What and Why then we can work out the How (i.e. A training plan). Forget about the How for now.

When looking at the detail of a goal I use the age old, well used acronym – goals should be SMART

Specific – eg: ‘I want to ride 25 miles under 55 minutes’ or ‘I want to ride the Fred Whitton Sportive in a gold standard time’. Goals that are vague eg: ‘I want to be a bit faster’ or ‘to lose a bit of weight’ lead to the failure issues alluded to in the Part 1 post.

When setting a goal, write down WHY you want to achieve the goal. It could be any number of reasons and not just one or two. Be brutally honest. Some examples-

· Personal satisfaction

· Personal development

· Respect of your peers

· Tales to tell the grandkids

· To look freaking awesome with ripped quads on the photograph when crossing the line at the finish of a big sportive

· To justify all the money you’ve spent on all your cycling gear and coaching

When choosing a goal it should get our juices flowing. We need to be excited by it. When our motivation dips we need to be able to remind ourselves WHY we are doing it. Whenever we aren’t feeling it, CBA, whatever, we can refer back to the why to refocus and get on with the training.

Measurable – The desired goal should be measurable in some way. Furthermore, progress towards that goal should also be measurable, so we can see how we are doing in relation to the goal. This in turn provides further incentive. If we watch sport, we need to know who’s winning, we need to know we’re 1-0 up, we’re this position in the league table etc.

Scores, numbers, data makes sense to us, we like to know what position we’re in.

We need to know whether or not the process we are following is working and we need to be able to look at that at a moments notice.

Fortunately cycling and endurance sports are great for this, particularly with the advent of a plethora of training metrics, strava, computer programs etc.

Some examples – Increase in threshold power, average speed, weight loss, PBs on climbs/Strava segments, performance against past performance in sportives.

A series of minor goals, to be achieved within a specified time, leading up to a major goal is a good way to provide progression, as well as a means of assessment.

Attainable – Goals need to be attainable however if they are too easy, they will provide little incentive; too hard and they may lead to discouragement. The major yearly goals should be decided after an appraisal of performance up to and including the current year. They should constitute a realistic set of targets, which may need revision later in the year, it may be necessary to downgrade

or upgrade goals in the light of what actually happens as the year unfolds. A good coach can look at a number of factors to help decide what should be attainable.

Relevant – When I work with athletes I find that they are more likely to accept goals if they themselves set them, rather than have them set by me. Goals should be performance-based rather than outcome-based. That is, we measure whether we’ve achieved our goal by attaining a desired level of performance which is usually directly under our control rather than those that rest on the outcome of an event. If you set yourself a goal of beating rider X in a particular event but they don’t turn up, where does that leave you?

Time Bound – There should be a time set by which the goal is to be achieved. The goals should be challenging, and be of some importance to us. I find it is important to commit the goals to paper, or on an online diary. I make sure my athletes have their goals input to TrainingPeaks so they even get a countdown. This helps to increase commitment by being a constant reminder.

We need our goals to have flexibility, with contingencies. Experience tells us that life/work/circumstances get in the way. We need to incorporate contingencies so we are able to adapt, rather than have a panic when plan A goes wrong or isn’t working and try and reassess at the time. Being coached enables us to ‘stay stupid’ – so we can just follow the process without second guessing. If not being coached we can ‘stay stupid’ more easily if we have pre-planned contingencies invoke as issues arise.

Finally, and this is something that affects us all, is a need to balance our goals.

We need to factor our goals and training around our jobs, our families/social life and our own being.

Garret J White in ‘Wake Up Warrior’ calls this Body, Being, Balance and Business. It’s good to have goals in each of these areas and it’s something I can work on with you.

As to the How? Well, that’s where a good coach comes in…