Training v Racing

Duncanandthemachine

How do you guys and gals find your motivation to train versus your motivation to race?

Do you look forward to winter and early season when you're doing all the hard miles (figuratively!) but appraoch the race season with a sense of trepidation (pressure to perform and justify all the time spent over the winer perhaps?)

Or is it the other way round, do you dread the winter but come alive when you pin a number on, finding form through early season races?

I'm struggling to translate a great six months of training into comparable results, so interested in the thoughs of the group

Remarkable

Its sort of 50 / 50 with me I think. I like training and it doesn't take me long to find my racing legs when the season starts but this time of year I look forward to winter training. I know that I am not going to improve much more at this point in the season, and its during winter time that I can make my biggest improvements.
This year is my 3rd year as a cyclist, so I'm still learning what works and doesn't work for me, so I will change my approach a little bit again for next year.

E.g. During the winter/ spring months, I followed a training book which helped me improve definitely. In hindsight though, the intervals I did during spring time were just to hard (for me). So I will hopefully follow a similar regime this coming year, but with a few tweaks here and there.

I also love that feeling during the off season of coming home after a cold club run. The feeling of the cold air brushing past me & stopping at the cafe for a chocolate fix & then heading home to get warmed up by the fire. There is always something I love about each season I ride through.

During the racing season, I race for fun & try my best. If I get a good result then its a big bonus, but I don't put pressure on myself to perform. After all, I am an amateur, and I don't need results to get a contract for next year!

So I guess for me, its all about enjoying the process & having a challenge.

displacedaussie

I just like riding my bike.

I don't really do "training". I ride hard, I ride slow, I recover when I need it. I race. That's about it.

Wrath Rob

After the previous year of doing well and getting to 3rds, where I then underperformed, I was motivated to train over the winter and then come out firing at the start of the new season. I started in October and had a good series of blocks through to Janaury, when I entered a 3rd cat winter series race. This was a reality check as while I could hang with the peleton there was no way I had the energy to spare to animate the race. Hitting an NP the same as my estimated FTP for a 55 minute race showed that I had plenty more to do.

That gave me the motivation to get the hours in and by the season's opening road race, a target I'd had since January, I was in much better shape, though I lacked the confidence in my abilities but that's another story. I finished strongly, 2nd in the bunch sprint (a break had got away from the gun and the winners came from that group). That feedback gave me motivation and confidence to keep training hard.

Bizarrely, by May when the season was in full swing I was losing my motivation both for racing and training in-spite of some good placings in crits. I've managed to hold my FTP power but lost some top end. This has partly come down to not having a good challenge to aim for, as Remarkable says, which gave me the focus for the early part of the season. It was only recently once I fully focused on the RideLondon that I got some mojo back and put some time in on the bike again. Now that's finished I can feel my focus waning again.

My lessons from this year is that I need a big target every 3 months to keep focusing on and to keep me motivated. Next year its likely to be the same March road race, something in June/July (Marmotte?) and then something else in September.

Oh, and being able to measure your progress makes a massive difference too! Power FTW!

okgo

Motivations are key I think.

I just had one big one and then a load of little ones, the one big one was always going to take the most part of the season anyway, so it kept me interested.

This year I think I'll use a coach, I am just too lazy, and not strict enough on myself, nor do I really have a clue what I'm doing, I have improved, but I think there is some way to go which I don't think I'd find myself.

ric/rstsport

very hard for many to motivate themselves without having decent goals. if you don't have a goal it's really easy to say, i'm tired, i'll skip this session as i'm not aiming for anything...

Duncanandthemachine

Goals and power both helped me egt through training, very well.

I started to struggle mid season however when my TT times weren't gtting close to the times my coach assured me (and continues to) were possible based on my power output.

Stress at work and home (wedding planning) certainly haven't helped, but I was curious to see if anyone enjoyed the 'security' of training - no pressure to perform etc...

ilovemytinbred

At the moment coming to the end of the season I am looking forward to the last few races as I am pretty strong (given my very average talent) Motivation is high to wring out those last few watts and improve. With training at the moment it is harder finding the mental strength not to do too much, but also do it proper hard.

I can feel the hard training taking its mental toll though. It kind of creeps up on me and while I am looking forward to the next few weeks, I am also already looking forward to a month or so of just having fun on the cx bike mtb and long social rides. I actually love the winter because i is a time of optimism where I can start building a base. The season is still miles away so there is still hope that I will be faster next year...

In an ideal world, if you do it correctly you should be looking forward to the change at each part of the year. I think the main problems are when you have done too much or too little at the start of the season which can cause burnout or lack of motivation (I did this this year, massively undertrained until around July) or you try and keep to sharp all season- again burnout. Also I need to be ready for the winter with appropriate bike clothes and tyres for anything our god awful weather can throw at me.

Herbsman

I find motivation to train a lot higher than motivation to race.

There is no pressure when training, I enjoy doing it, so it's pure self-indulgence. I enjoy working hard especially when the weather's not good. I get a very smug feeling of self-satisfaction when I'm out doing hill repeats in the rain, even though it feels like I'm dying. As sad as it may sound, I wallow in these egotistical feelings of pride that I get when I press the pedals hard. And the endorphin rush is good too; I think I may be a bit of an exercise addict. Most of all it feels really good that I know I'm bettering myself, I'm building my physical ability, slowly growing it, a bit like putting savings in the bank every week and watching the balance grow, waiting for the start of the season so I can start spending some of it.

Racing is an entirely different matter. The entire weekend seems to revolve around this one event. Nervousness the day before. Having to go to bed early and get up earlier than you do for work. Driving. Worrying that your turn to get crashed by some f*ckwit might finally come today. Worrying that you might be late, you might get lost on the way to the HQ. Worrying that you'll get dropped. More nervousness. Worrying that you'll find it so easy that you'll get bored and make a stupid, suicidal attack far too early and blow yourself up. Worrying that you'll miss the decisive break. Worrying that you'll get yet another puncture. Tired, only slept 6 hours last night. Worrying that yet again, you might not win, and worrying about how you'll feel if you don't. Worrying that if you do win, you won't feel good about yourself because the race felt too easy and you only won by half a wheel. Worrying about everything...

I find it hard to relax

Duncanandthemachine

Herbsman - exactly how I feel!!

richk

Generally I "race to train." The rest of the time I just go for a ride. The only time I'll go full out is with a number

uphillstruggle

Mixed views. Started my first TT season late not really knowing what i was doing. Pleased with initial times but then went into training mode, new bike, coaching, bike fit etc and am only now entering the end of year events to see where i stand for next year.

The training is hard but preferable to racing in that the whole week isn't geared around one day where a puncture could ruin everything.

Having said that the training is for a purpose and that purpose is to race.

SBezza

Certainly looking forward to an end of season break LOL. I don't really look forward to winter training as such, but as I know it is where the best gains can be made it is something I just get on with. I look forward to racing, although this year I have trained a lot more and raced less, and as a result fitness is greater, so I have enjoyed summer training greatly as I have seen good results from racing less.

milese

Herbsman wrote:

I find motivation to train a lot higher than motivation to race.

There is no pressure when training, I enjoy doing it, so it's pure self-indulgence. I enjoy working hard especially when the weather's not good. I get a very smug feeling of self-satisfaction when I'm out doing hill repeats in the rain, even though it feels like I'm dying. As sad as it may sound, I wallow in these egotistical feelings of pride that I get when I press the pedals hard. And the endorphin rush is good too; I think I may be a bit of an exercise addict. Most of all it feels really good that I know I'm bettering myself, I'm building my physical ability, slowly growing it, a bit like putting savings in the bank every week and watching the balance grow, waiting for the start of the season so I can start spending some of it.

Racing is an entirely different matter. The entire weekend seems to revolve around this one event. Nervousness the day before. Having to go to bed early and get up earlier than you do for work. Driving. Worrying that your turn to get crashed by some f*ckwit might finally come today. Worrying that you might be late, you might get lost on the way to the HQ. Worrying that you'll get dropped. More nervousness. Worrying that you'll find it so easy that you'll get bored and make a stupid, suicidal attack far too early and blow yourself up. Worrying that you'll miss the decisive break. Worrying that you'll get yet another puncture. Tired, only slept 6 hours last night. Worrying that yet again, you might not win, and worrying about how you'll feel if you don't. Worrying that if you do win, you won't feel good about yourself because the race felt too easy and you only won by half a wheel. Worrying about everything...

I find it hard to relax

Very well articulated and I can certainly relate to.

maryka

I was pretty keen to train and race back when the weather was bad (did some good winter training on the turbo) and I had some early season goals to aim for. Raced from March through early July fairly consistently with some bad luck, a few good but not great results, then when the weather changed to nice and hot I just found I wanted to get out riding and enjoy it rather than specific race training, or racing itself. If you only have a limited time to ride or spend on riding/racing-related stuff, then you start to ask why am I in the car for hours driving to races, pissing around HQ waiting for results afterwards, getting stuck in traffic, etc. on such a nice sunny day when I could be out for a nice sunny social 70miler on roads near me....

So I've had a bit of a break from racing, my fitness/FTP/CTL is still about the same but I'm now lacking top-end sharpness for racing from lack fo racing itself. Doing a crash couple of weeks now then a few more races in early September to round out the season (part of two race series I've been doing all along) then hill climb season is on which is a different focus. The weather and daylight changes will make that mentally easier to train for too.

What Herbsman said, I 100% agree with, but I would add that in the past 2 years since my daughter was born, my outlook on racing has changed a lot and I come home sometimes thinking I would have enjoyed my day on the bike and got more out of it if I'd just ridden 4-5 hours rather than driven 2, raced 2, driven back another 2, etc. Or done a nice evening ride in high summer rather than riding an hour through smog-choked rush hour traffic to race for 45 min then ride home again. Gone are the days when I can be that committed to an entire season, which I think is a bit of a paradox in cycle racing as most people do best when racing often (myself included). So you have this cycle of not racing enough, not getting good enough results because you don't race, enough, getting discouraged and racing even less, ad nauseum.

TTing, again was quite motivated in early season but then got lost in a sea of position changes, not getting out enough on my TT bike, favouring RRing over TTing and some bad weather events which were supposed to be "fast" that put me off the whole DC thing. Will tackle it again over teh winter though and target the early season sporting courses and try to be more consistent next year, especially as TTing is a bit easier to train and race sporadically (if I can make sure to actually ride my TT bike more than once or twice a month!)

Duncanandthemachine

Continues to be interesting to read your thoughts guys and gals, thanks. Managed a massive PB in a 10 recently, this helped, feel half justified in the time and money I invested this season. Now for the 25...

Kubotai

Duncanandthemachine wrote:

How do you guys and gals find your motivation to train versus your motivation to race?

Do you look forward to winter and early season when you're doing all the hard miles (figuratively!) but appraoch the race season with a sense of trepidation (pressure to perform and justify all the time spent over the winer perhaps?)

Or is it the other way round, do you dread the winter but come alive when you pin a number on, finding form through early season races?

I'm struggling to translate a great six months of training into comparable results, so interested in the thoughs of the group

I've personally never cared for racing or competitions, I just train and a lot of it because I love it.

If you're struggling to translate trainings into performance you might want to look at how you build up to racing. One of the reasons I don't care for racing is that it requires a build up and planning. At the end of one season you already have to look forward to the next and plan which races are important so you can reach peak performance in one or two key races. Most athletes can really peak once or twice a year and it can be very rewarding if you hit that peak in your most important race of the season. Working at it from that perspective makes other races important factors in the build up to the peak and prevents you from trying to peak every single race (which won't work anyway).

It's about having a specific strategy in order to reach a goal and then going through the steps required to get there. I used to train track and field with a group of competition athletes and whole years would be planned out in advance. For them that was part of the fun, the excitement and the challenge of going through specific trainings at specific times irrelevant of whether or not they felt like doing those. The higher your goals, the more important these things get. Look at Olympic athletes. Some of them have five year plans to reach that one race.