Training Motivation - setting goals / targets ?

andyrr

For about 15 years I raced road / TT and had more plenty of motivation to spend hours riding to from work, chain gangs, Sunday runs and solo rides. This got canned as life got in the way for about 5 years but over the past 12 months or so, and in particular from the start of lockdown, I found motivation to do some more serious riding including frequent turbo sessions. I've now come to a point where I recognise that I do have further improvements to make but just riding my bike with no real purpose, as I currently do, will probably result in me reaching a plateau.
I am not totally sure if I want to return to racing - I might do but getting the fitness to comfortably survive even a Cat 4 race will be mighty hard and the prospect of such events in the near/mid future seems unlikely. Same also for sportives etc and I've always shied away from paying £50 for a ride around the countryside.
I'm wondering what sort of activities other people are putting in as motivational targets for them ?

(This also kind of links in with a possible search for a new bike and then potentially a power meter or smart trainer purchase to assist with measurement/motivation of my continued riding and training.)

N0bodyOfTheGoat

If you have a premium Strava account, use the new power goals feature and then start training to achieve and surpass them.

maryka

Cyclocross!

ugo.santalucia

TT are open to all abilities and they have restarted in July... the season is soon coming to an end in September, unless you enjoy the more painful hill climbs :-)

ugo.santalucia

maryka said:

Cyclocross!

I thought that had been canned until next year

mpatts

My personal experience, for what works for me is this:

I only have short term goals, all around enjoyment and tracking progress (almost as a side effect). I used to have long term goals but I came to realise that these were the root of my cycle of 3 weekly motivation slumps. I was forever disappointed in my race performances, which sucked the fun out of training, which made racing worse, which sucked the fun out of training, which made racing worse (continue ad infinitum)

Since lockdown I do have found my mojo again, and my weeks go something like this:

1) 6am zwift rides monday - friday with Team 3r - they are genuinely fun and I look forward to them (side effect, fitter, gets me in a good mood for the day, keeps my weight down)
2) 1 TT a week (my local cycling cafe has a strava timed ten mile section), which I target to get faster on (side effect, see some people, track real world speed, ride my lovely bike in the coutryside)
3) 1-2 zwift races a week (side effect, great training for whatever IRL racing happens, good for tracking progress, great for fitness)
4) A mooch around on a bike whenever I fancy - maybe a sunday ride, maybe 10 mins round the village with the kids

I've lost 4-5kg with the above, and increased my FTP from low 3 wpkg to mid 4's, all without targetting either.

I used to have a coach, a structured training plan, and a set of goals, but nothing has got me fitter or happier on a bike than the above.

maryka

ugo.santalucia said:

maryka said:

Cyclocross!

I thought that had been canned until next year

No, some leagues have decided not to run but some have and there may be individual races too that aren't part of leagues. There are some mitigations to running them, but they lend themselves much better to Covid-19 restrictions than bunch racing (not as well as TTs of course). Think the season will start a bit later though whilst everyone gets to grips with the new normal.

mpatts

maryka said:

ugo.santalucia said:

maryka said:

Cyclocross!

I thought that had been canned until next year

No, some leagues have decided not to run but some have and there may be individual races too that aren't part of leagues. There are some mitigations to running them, but they lend themselves much better to Covid-19 restrictions than bunch racing (not as well as TTs of course). Think the season will start a bit later though whilst everyone gets to grips with the new normal.

I race in the central league - they went early in cancelling the season, but I suspect there may be a few individual non-league races. TBH I'm just writing off this year, and whatever happens is a bonus.

andyrr

N0bodyOfTheGoat said:

If you have a premium Strava account, use the new power goals feature and then start training to achieve and surpass them.

I don't have a premium account but Strava has been something that has impacted my riding - mostly for the better I think, as without races I've found that it does allow me to measure myself - against other riders or my own previous rides over routes / segments and seeing my pbs on local climbs drop is a motivation. The flipside is that my rides often result in trying to best my pbs on some of my favourite segments when I intended that ride to be an easier one.

andyrr

mpatts said:

My personal experience, for what works for me is this:

I only have short term goals, all around enjoyment and tracking progress (almost as a side effect). I used to have long term goals but I came to realise that these were the root of my cycle of 3 weekly motivation slumps. I was forever disappointed in my race performances, which sucked the fun out of training, which made racing worse, which sucked the fun out of training, which made racing worse (continue ad infinitum)

Since lockdown I do have found my mojo again, and my weeks go something like this:

1) 6am zwift rides monday - friday with Team 3r - they are genuinely fun and I look forward to them (side effect, fitter, gets me in a good mood for the day, keeps my weight down)
2) 1 TT a week (my local cycling cafe has a strava timed ten mile section), which I target to get faster on (side effect, see some people, track real world speed, ride my lovely bike in the coutryside)
3) 1-2 zwift races a week (side effect, great training for whatever IRL racing happens, good for tracking progress, great for fitness)
4) A mooch around on a bike whenever I fancy - maybe a sunday ride, maybe 10 mins round the village with the kids

I've lost 4-5kg with the above, and increased my FTP from low 3 wpkg to mid 4's, all without targetting either.

I used to have a coach, a structured training plan, and a set of goals, but nothing has got me fitter or happier on a bike than the above.

The Zwift thing isn't something I can do yet - well not properly as I understand as my trainer is a 'dumb' Kurt Kinetic - but I might look more seriously at this as the enforced indoor training that I started at the start of lockdown became a real energising thing for me and I now kind of enjoy the focused training that this provides. As the dark winter days approach having greater variation available, such as online races, would, I think, be a novel way of spending time in the saddle and help not lose the recent fitness gains.

I think if foreign riding was something I could plan for then a good sportive would be a nice goal but I don't think we can know what the prospects for any of these actually taking place. I might see if a UK based event or even self-designed endurance single or multi-day ride could be planned.