This year we saw a return to racing as we knew it before COVID-19 brought the world to a standstill. As normal as things may feel, let’s not forget that the virus is still out there and too many people are affected by the suffering it brings. The best way to protect yourself is to keep up with the current vaccination protocol. After that, live a healthy lifestyle. Exercise, eat healthy, and get plenty of sleep. If you are one of the small minority who live this way you have probably noticed how rarely you are sick.
My advice for 2023 is simple. Don’t put it off. Set yourself one crazy big goal, and do everything possible to achieve it. Then, focus on the journey.
This will be the year of the rabbit In the Chinese zodiac. Rabbits are considered to be skillful and quick, as anyone who has tried to catch one knows. To achieve your goals you will need to be determined yet flexible, or else the rabbit will upset your plans. Get started now, by creating and refining a routine that works for you. Stick with it and adjust whenever life takes an unexpected hop, or a year from now you may find yourself wondering what happened to that big goal you promised you would shoot for.
You probably know by now that to train effectively means doing more than just going out for a run every morning. Efforts need to vary in intensity and duration. Skills need to be honed. You are good and some things, and those are the things you prefer to do when you train. If you want to improve, you must determine and work on your weaknesses. A less judgmental term, perhaps, is limiters. If you are like most people you feel as though every skill is a limiter. Trust me, that is not the case.
A so-called “canned” training plan is better than no plan. TrainingPeaks has plenty of well written plans. I happen to like the ones written by Joe Friel and Matt Fitzgerald (80/20 Endurance), but there are many more to choose from.
To get the most out of a plan you should step up to a Premium account. It sounds so special. A better name would be Serious. Your time is valuable. If you are serious enough to purchase a plan you owe it to yourself to have a Premium account.
I had problems with canned plans and I’m sure these are common. Some of the swim and bike workouts did not align with my schedule. I had to move things around. The problem with this approach is that an experienced coach spent a great deal of time working out a sequence of efforts to complement each other. Sort of like putting together a jigsaw puzzle. Then along I came with no experience and moved the puzzle pieces around. No doubt the results were less than optimal.
Since then I have learned a lot about how to train. Please believe me when I say it isn’t rocket science. Magazines and podcasts are filled with the latest, greatest workout, but the truth is, not much has changed over the years. That said, juggling workouts in three activities does feel like solving a jigsaw puzzle.
Having a custom training plan that fits comfortably with your schedule and is tuned to your limiters is just one of the benefits of having a coach. By far the best thing about having a coach is accountability. You know what I mean. You wake up at oh-dark-hundred to do that run you promised yourself you would do, but it’s cold, and raining, and you stayed up late binge watching Netflix. So you blow it off. Who cares? But wait. What if you know the workout on your TrainingPeaks calendar will turn red if you don't do it? You will have to explain to your coach why. Knowing that may help you to disconnect from the electrons and get a good night’s sleep so you can go out there and nail that workout, even in the rain. That is how you reach your goals, not by thinking about them, but by doing the work.
Let’s all get out there and make 2023 epic. Don't put it off. I’m in. Starting with losing all the weight I gained over the last two weeks!