Last month I read an article called “How to Wrap Up Your Racing Season” on Active.com, and I thought it would be a fun exercise to run through their process of reflecting on this season and planning for the next. I know I’m a little late on this, considering that my race season ended over a month ago, but I figure better late than never.
1. What were the best parts of this season? Try to list at least three items. The items might include your favorite race experience, speed improvements in events or training, staying healthy, consistent training, traveling to new events, finding new training partners or purchasing new equipment.
The best parts of my season were bumping up my FTP number, shaving 4 minutes off of my mile swim time, and the first two thirds of my Chicago Triathlon race.
2. Get specific on the highlights. For the items you listed in step 1, try to state them in a way that someone else could easily identify what you're talking about. For example, if you wrote "Had a Great Race at the Round the City Crit", expand that statement to say what made the race great. Did you place high in the field? Did you help a teammate do well? Get on the podium? If you wrote "Had a fantastic century ride", describe what elements made it fantastic?
- Bump in my FTP number - After an almost year long plateau on my FTP number I finally saw an improvement in the spring. It wasn't a huge jump (only 5%) but it was still a big moment for me.
- Shaving 4 minute off of my mile swim time – After taking almost 9 months off of swimming last off-season I had pretty much written off my swim for the year. But through personal training sessions I managed to improve my form and I shaved ~11% off of my swim time!
- Chicago Triathlon – My improved swim and bike fitness came through in spades during my last race of the season, putting me on track for a monster PR. Unfortunately the intense heat fizzled me out on the run, but I was still happy with the huge improvement in my two ‘weaker’ legs.
3. Why did the specifics in step 2 trip your trigger? These elements may be covered in step 2; but if they are not, get specific about why these highlights were important to you. Perhaps you made it on the podium for the first time and this has been a three-year goal? Perhaps helping teammates in races made you feel good about giving fitness to help someone else? Maybe you rode a century with someone that really struggled, but you helped them through it. It is important to identify why results, behaviors or situations are enjoyable to you.
Again, the improvement I saw in my two ‘weaker’ legs made these accomplishments really important to me. The run is definitely my strongest weapon, and I tend to rank pretty high in the field when it comes to the run, but normally my bike is only average and my swim is really poor relative to the field. This year my bike went from average to good, and my swim went from poor to average, and overall my performance has gone from MOP to slightly behind the FOP, so I’m getting there.
4. What were the greatest disappointments of your season? You may not have any disappointments or you may have a few. Go ahead and list them.
I didn't have a complete triathlon race I was happy with this year.
5. Get specific on disappointments. Similar to highlights, do your best to identify the specifics of a disappointing situation. If you didn't train consistently and that was disappointing, define inconsistent. For example, "I'm disappointed that I rode only two days per week for 12 of 16 weeks. There were two weeks I didn't ride at all."
I just can’t seem to bring it together on race day and put together a complete performance I’m happy with. I know I’m capable of a much better Olympic PR than I have today, but things never seem to line up right on race day. I’m not sure if its nerves, bad luck or lack of preparation, but it just doesn't go down the way I envision it going down.
6. If you could have changed anything about this season, what would that be? Improve nutrition? Include more interval training? Get more structured about training? Less structured? Improve nutrition?
Given my erratic schedule with school and work I was pretty happy with my training during the season. What I wish I could have changed was improving the consistency of my training during the last off-season, especially with the swim and the bike.
7. Get specific on improvements. If you want to improve nutrition, what does that mean? An example of a nutrition improvement would be to eat two whole fruits per day, at least five days per week. Notice that the improvement or goal allows for some imperfection. Be careful about aiming for improvements that are all or nothing, requiring you to be perfect.
I didn't swim for 9 months last off-season! That’s simply inexcusable. I still managed to shave off 4 minutes from my swim time this year, but imagine how much better I could have gotten if I had actually put in some pool time before summer got here. As for the bike, I wish I would have put in more solid base hours during the off-season.
8. What do you want to accomplish next season? List three to six things you want to accomplish next season. What are your goals? Perhaps you want to include strength training in your workout plan. Maybe you want to complete your first week-long event. Want to try racing? Perhaps you want to stay healthy next year--avoiding illness or injury.
My goals for the next season are the same as the ones for this season. I can’t do long distance right now, so I want to work on my speed and power on the short course. I’m closer to being in the FOP this year and next year I want to solidify my position there. That means getting faster on the swim, bike and run.
9. Get specific on goals. Goals can be related to a training plan, workout details, race results, lifestyle changes or stress management, to name a few. When you write down your goals, be sure you can measure success. How will you know if you've reduced stress? What will that look like? Can you see it? Feel it? In the stress example, you may need to add a descriptor. For example, "Reduce stress by attending yoga once or twice each week."
There’s still a lot of room for improvement in my swim time, and this off-season I’m taking swim clinics and continuing my private lessons to work on my technique. My goal here is to shave off another 4 minutes (12%) by next season.
On the bike I’m shooting for a 3.5 W/kg power rating. I have to improve my wattage by 15% in order to get there. That’s a bit of a daunting challenge but I’m going to take it 5% at a time and chip away at it. Slowly but surely I’ll get there.
On the run I feel like I’m reaching a point of diminishing returns but I’m stubborn and really want to crack the 19 minute mark on a 5k soon. I’m going to put this as an incidental goal for next year, if I hit it, great, but if not that’s OK too. The focus is on the swim and the bike and as long as I can keep improving there I’ll be happy.
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How would you fill out this checklist?
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