tetonrider

in response to mattm's 2013 season recap/goals thread, i figured it might be time to start a new one for 2014 goals.

i'm a believer that putting goals out there increases commitment. i'm mostly curious what others' outlandish (bike-related) goals might be.

i could list a bunch of race-related goals, but i'll start with one that means the most to me:
i'd like to go 29:59 (or less) in my local hill climb. it is ~5.5 miles @ 8-10%. my best time this year was 32:08 on race day, and in prior years was 38:05.

chopping a full 2' (>6%) off my time would be a huge stretch, but i think it is doable in the future.

to do it, i'll need to:

• increase my power by a few percent (working on this anyway, but 3, 4, 5% might be possible)
• get really lean (although i'm pretty lean, this year's effort was probably done about 5# higher than where i could have been)
• maybe shed a pound off of my gear...without ditching the front brake and big chainring.
• get a bit lucky with favorable weather (neutral wind) and mass start tactics

i want to be in position to do it with a solid, not 'best-ever' (=unpredictable), day.

one downside is that the hill climb is held the 2nd day of a 2-day event, and i don't know what other races are in the weeks before or after it. this is just for fun, so i won't sit out any races in order to do it. it has also sometimes been scheduled for the same weekend as cascade, which is another event i don't want to miss.

i would benefit from encouragement along the way.

anyone else have any stretch goals they want to put out there? sometimes it is cool just to read what everyone is working towards, and to know that others are out there working really hard.

UmneyDurak

Get 10 points and upgrade to 3. Those don't expire now, right? Otherwise that would be 20 points.

danielrbaer

I plan to start racing in 2014, beginning with the collegiate season in early spring, and extending to 'normal' USAC races through the summer. Will see how racing things go before I am able to make specific, informed goals, considering I have little experience racing. However, as a general training goal, I am aiming to raise my FTP to 270 before the start of my season.

globecanvas

Upgrade points in each of my first 4 races, podium in at least 2 of them.

rbart4506

Get my Master2 upgrade, enough of this racing at the crack of dawn stuff.
Consistently hit 40kmh average in the club 15km TTs.
Do some 40km TTs.
Survive GMSR.
Drive south and do 6gap.

jsutkeepspining

Real goals for next year:

Enjoy racing, and race more often.

Other goals that will only make the year sweeter:

Cat 1 upgrade
Get strong
Blah blah blah. I just want to get back to enjoying racing and riding in general. (Have the riding part down).

Jandro 

- Race 30 races (double the number I've done this year)
- Podium at least 5 races, win at least 1.
- Have enough points by the end of the season to get to upgrade to cat 3.
- Have a solid club presence at all (relatively) local races. We just got our EZ Up and I want to put it to good use.
- Start an actual racing team that spawns from my club
- Get to raceweight (135-140lbs, currently ~148lbs - I'm short, 5'7 and some change)
- Break into the 18' mark on Old la Honda, currently my best (and only try) is 19:38.

- Stretches: win from a solo or team breakaway, win more than 1 race, enter and finish a stage race, do a race outside of CA (just seems fun), win a race at Hellyer, get to Cat 3 on the track.

Looking forward to 2014.

spectastic

go pro

uh.. I mean, record more videos with my gopro... and hopefully upgrade to a 3.

i;m not listing too many. next year might be real busy

echappist

As for equipment, i'd check out Cameron Cogburn's set-up for his Mt. Washington Climb. I think he got it to maybe 13lbs.

i was wondering who was gonna start a thread on this. btw,
Those are my goals for the past season, with results in bold. Going forward, i'd think the following are more or less doable.

-Break 1125W for 5". Increase of 50W from PB
-Get over 410W for 5-min. Increase of 15W from PB
-Get over 330W for FTP. Increase of 10-15W from PB
-Cut weight down to 66-67 kg for climbing races. About about 4 kg away right now.

-Keep on getting in race-deciding breaks. I ended up in quite a few of them last year.
-Learn to finish races. Had a few podium spots this year, would be nice to get a win.
-Earn 15 points for my cat-2 upgrade; stretch goal: get my cat-2 upgrade
-Learn to time trial and do some stage races.

furiousferret

At least one century a month
Do a few training crits (I had a bad experience a few years back and just stopped doing them)
Compete in the local TT Series
At least 2 Road Races
Don't get injured

I was going to say Everest Challenge but I'm not sure if I'll be up for it. I'm going to take a serious look at my form in March and see if its doable.

pjcampbell

if all goes well

Ascutney <30'
Equinox <46'Washington 1:07?

Possibly lead BUMPS series at some point , this would be part luck part strategy

Race to the top of VT- top 3 30-39

caloso

I'd like to not get dropped like a hot rock at Nevada City.

hack

Might be too ambitious, but here goes:

-Train before the racing season starts
-Win a race
-Podium 4 times
-Get some Cat4 teammates/Help a teammate win a race
-Accumulate enough points to move up to Cat3
-Enjoy racing

mattm

As for a race outside of CA, Cascade up in Oregon is a great one!!

Plus it's a stage race so you could axe that goal at the same time.

mattm

Teton, glad you asked! I've been thinking lots about goals for 2014 lately. I guess we all have..

In no particular order..

1) Take the overall in the 2/3's for the Red Kite Crit Omnium (was tied for 3rd this year)

2) Win the cat 2 Cascade crit (was top 10 this year)
a) hang with the pack (is there even one?) in the RR stage at Cascade

3) Win the cat 2 San Dimas crit
a) Don't give up and get dropped on the last time up the climb in that RR

4) 10+ more upgrade points towards cat 1

Stretch goal: Win San Rafael p/1/2 crit.. ok maybe just a podium.

thechemist

This has been a tough one for me.

No real order:

1) Increase my support system. My team is falling apart, my wife is supportive but I would like to work on more of that and my daughter is interested in cycling so I would like to get the family to more races. As far as the team, well as a Cat4 I am not to worried but I will be keeping a close watch on the teams as I upgrade.

2) Upgrade to Cat3

3) I would like to podium at the state RR. Normally I place a bit better on the early races of the year but with my injury, I am going to have to refocus on the later races. Fouche Gap and Hell of the South would have been big races for me but they may just be to early in the year for me to do well

4) Work on my flexibility and injury prevention.

5) Attend the 3 mountains event. I also would like a 3-5 day cycling vacation in the blue ridge mountains.

6) This is my second year racing and I will need to access how serious I want to get.

topflightpro

My goal for 2014 is simply to race.

I missed almost the entire 2013 season recovering from knee issues. I only did two races - one I DNF'd because I was in too much pain and one I finished solidly in the field. But after both races, my knee swelled up enough to knock me back a lot in my recovery.

The one great advantage I have now is that I can race two to three times at each event, since most races around here have 35+, 3-4 and 3 or 1,2,3 fields.

Creatre

I'm going to hold off posting up some goals for a bit. I need to get back to training and start evaluating what I want for next season.

kensuf

Ride my bike more.

Work less.

merlinextraligh

Podium Masters Nationals Mixed Tandem 110+ TT.

rkwaki

My goal?
Well not riding or racing but to be here to at least have 1 post in 10 that has content and helps some out a little.

rkwaki

I imagined this was going to happen. I emailed him to say congrats and see what was going on but never heard back.

MDcatV

well, teton did say "outlandish" was OK. hiiiiiiiaaaaaooooooo! ba da bump.

echappist

Oh, one more thing. One of my sides goals is to make MDCatV hurt when we go up minute-long hills

Ygduf

I will learn to trackstand.