So you are long and hopefully the successful cycling season has come to an end. Your first step is to get a well-deserved rest. You can still ride, just take it easy and have fun. This is a great time to ride your bike with friends and family who can’t stay with you for training rides. It’s also a good time to engage in other activities you enjoy, such as running, swimming, skating, walking, and rollerblading. Your second step is to honestly assess your performance. This is vital for setting goals and developing a training regimen for the upcoming season. Evaluating your performance is a relatively simple process. Just answer 5 questions and remember to be honest with yourself.
1. What goals did you do? achieve during the season? This is an easy question to answer if you have SMART goals (meaning goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time bound). Just make sure you’re clear on how you achieved a particular goal. For example, did you achieve a goal because of a significant improvement in a particular physiological ability, such as lactate threshold or anaerobic capacity, or did you achieve the goal because you set it too low? Try to understand the specific reason why you were able to set each goal.
2. What goals did you do? fail to achieve during the season? First, don’t get discouraged if you don’t achieve some of your goals. This is normal when you set challenging goals. In fact, if you’ve achieved all of your goals, there’s a chance you’ve set the bar too low. Try to understand why you fell short in some areas. Were your goals realistic? If they were achievable, what was the missing element? Was there a problem with your training? Were there external barriers that got in your way?
3. which were your best strengths during the season? Think in terms of the 6 key physiological abilities: aerobic endurance, muscular endurance, lactate threshold, aerobic capacity, anaerobic capacity, and neuromuscular power. What was your strongest skill during the season? What skills enabled you to achieve your goals? For example, if your goal was to finish your first race of the century and you were successful, aerobic endurance was a definite strength.
4. What were your most significant weaknesses during the season? Conversely, of the key physiological abilities, where were you weakest? For example, if you wanted to perform well in time trials and it didn’t meet your expectations, you probably need to improve your lactate threshold power. If you expected higher criteria scores, you may need to improve your anaerobic capacity and neuromuscular power.
5. As feel about your performance? In a nutshell, are you excited about how the season went? Do you feel good about your performance or do you feel a little disappointed? This is a very important consideration because many athletes become discouraged about their performance if they don’t achieve their goals. This can have a negative impact on your preparation for the upcoming season. No matter what your results are, always try to keep things in perspective. Use these questions to identify the steps you need to take to achieve your goals next season.