Goal Setting

Di recently reviewed her 2008 cycling goals, giving an assessment of how she fared with each goal she made at the beginning of the season. It made me wish I had done something similar, but the goals I had for the racing season were quite generic and I don't think I actually recorded them on my blog. The good news about this is that, since they were so vague, I didn't have any problems meeting them.

1. Complete the MMBA Championship Point Series. Check. I had hoped to race more, but I did the required number of races to qualify for the series. Currently, I'm sitting in second place, with the last race results still to be determined. The women in first and third places have only completed four races. (Yes, that means there is someone who has more points than I have who has done fewer races.) Provided the two of them race today at Pando, I will finish in third (assuming the current third place gets more than four points, which is pretty much guaranteed). The other women in the group will not have enough races to qualify, even if they race today.


2. Do a six-hour race. Check. Chris and I both raced solo in 6 Hours of Ithaca and had a great time. In my opinion, that race was perfect for an introduction to endurance racing. I didn't place spectacularly, but I completed over and above my goal for number of laps. I'm going to wait until spring to say anything definite, but at this point I'm hoping to concentrate on endurance next season with the ultimate goal of racing Lumberjack in 2010.

That was it for my 2008 race season goals, so I did pretty well on paper. However, I know in my heart I didn't do well enough. That's not to say that I should have been faster or placed higher. It's just that I know I didn't train hard enough or long enough. With that in mind, I'd like to change some things right away, namely improving how I train through the fall and winter, which is traditionally when I become lazy and lethargic and start to pack on the pounds. Here's what I think I should do:

1. Train more consistently throughout the fall and winter and stick it out until the bitter end. Last winter I did much better than I have in previous years. I rode my trainer a lot and I rode outside more than I have ridden in any previous winter. Even so, I had big gaps in my training and toward the end of winter I got so sick of riding the trainer that I just quit.


2. Be consistent with my weight training. We didn't go to the gym at all last winter and bought the Bowflex when it was almost time to taper off weight training, so we barely got any use out of it. This time, there's no excuse. It's just waiting upstairs to be used and crying out for us to get our money's worth out of it.


3. Watch my food intake. This is a constant struggle and extends through all seasons. I know full well that if I dropped 30, 40 or 50 pounds it would make a huge difference in my racing speed. If I drop weight and train harder the results should be staggering.

Over the next couple of days, I'm going to come up with a training plan for fall and winter. Then I'm going to document my training goals in a blog post and keep track of how I am sticking to my goals each week.