happybday29475

What are your cycling goals for 2016? I'm curious to hear.

I am goal-oriented...maybe to a fault. In 2015, I had an audacious goal (win 3 races), and it really motivated my training all winter and spring.

This year, I'm struggling to adopt a goal. I'm rehabbing from a big surgery, and also at the end of last year I catted up, so I'm expecting to be the nail and not the hammer...and I haven't yet adopted any compelling goals. Ideas?

valygrl

Here are mine as I wrote them to my coach, although, I don't know if looking at someone else's goals make any sense, since they should be YOUR goals.

Continue to have fun racing. Be a safe and sportsmanlike competitor. Win more consistently. Be a good team mate, execute some team plans (not sure if possible, I don’t have any cat 3 teammates any more). Climb better and have some podium finishes in races with climbing. Win another state championship. Improve positioning in the last laps of crits to be in contention to win. Forced upgrade to 2.

Cleave

Given how work is looking for 2016:

Race
Don't get dropped (too much)

OldsCOOL

More miles than last year. Also, to lose an extra 5lbs over last year so to be a little quicker. Would love to see my avg speed increase over last year. There are routes I routinely ride with Strava and journalling so to keep track.

This is the first year I have rode through the snow and frigid weather on my MTB. The leg strength is much offseason improved compared to previous seasons just spinning. The first of March will be an interesting revelation.

Heathpack 

Ok, I finally had a chance to go through some of this with @Racer Ex and we have a plan.

I'm going to finish the SoCal TT series. No real goal for that, but a 2nd place finish seems pretty realistic. Two to three more 20k races, it ends in April. It would be nice to beat Nemesis once, I suppose.

Then I'm going to dip my toe in the water and do some longer TTs, with the goal events being the Southern California State TT Championships in May and the Northern California State TT Championships in June, these are both 40k's. Of course Nemesis won the SoCal jersey in our age group last year. Hopefully it will go ok and I will like the distance. I've never done a 40k.

I'm also going to do an event called Breathless Agony, the first week in May. Its timed, 114 miles and around 12000 ft climbing. Interesting in that you ride around the San Gabriel Valley and do a few small climbs there, then ride 30 miles up from the valley to Onyx Summit to an elevation around 8500 ft. The clock stops at the end of that climb and then its 40 miles almost all downhill back to the start. I did it last year and finished mid pack, I think around 20th of 40 women. I'd like to way improve my time over last year.

My endurance-oriented club has a series of club climbing events this spring that might work as training rides. Nice for me because they are fully supported (and timed), so I can just go out and try to hang with the fast people and failing that just ride with the normal people. They are Feb, Mar, and April. 65 mile/5500 ft, then 80 miles/10000 ft, then 108 miles/17000 ft. I've never done more than 13k feet in a single ride, so I'm not sure about that last one. Yikes.

There are also a few 40k local TTs that I can use to prep.

After that, I will call it a season and go to Colorado and just ride for fun. Then easy stuff in July. Maybe some chance for 3 team time trials in August, a club fun race series. I tried to do it last year but it was pretty disorganized. This time, I'm going to feel out some of the more serious women and see if they want to put together a team. Then see if we can have a women's team vs a chapter team, which is the normal organization. I'll only do it if I can find teammates to take it seriously, even if we had no other women's teams, it would be fun to do.

Hermes

This year is about getting ready for Masters Track Worlds in 2017 and 2018 in Carson, CA. Normally, this championship is in Manchester, England or Sidney, Australia. One year, it was in Anadia, Portugal and I had the opportunity to race there. Masters Track Worlds is a very pro feeling event. Each country has its own area and it has a lot of pomp and circumstance and draws a lot of talent. Since it has not been in the US for many years, IMO, there will be a large contingent of US racers.

Race most of the LAVRA Time Trials in Carson, CA where Worlds will be held next year.

Race select 20K and less time trials in NorCal and SoCal.

Supplement LAVRA time trial with track sessions at Carson.

Focus on lower body and upper body strength.

Supervise track sessions and train at Hellyer Velodrome in San Jose, CA.

sarals 

I have no real goals this year, other than the Huntsman Games in October. I don't plan to contest Pasadena Senior Games. I won't be doing any National level races, either. It's looking like the first half of the season is going to be building for the second half. I'm in a constant work induced state of fatigue right now and I'm not getting good training as a result. I have good days on the bike, but they're far fewer than the ho-hum to bad days. Mentally, I'm not there right now, again, fatigue induced. I'm trying to keep myself from the dread "unrealistic expectations" based on my current level of fitness, which has the potential to really wreck my season for me. That includes not living in the past, but just enjoying myself in the now and being accepting of where I am on the fitness ladder right now

I'll race less than I did last year, probably a lot less. We'll see how that goes. I do know what courses and races suit me, I'm speaking of crits, mostly, and I'll try to take advantage of that. I will support my team, going to as many of the races that we target as I can. I'll ride in a support (sacrificial?) role, playing to what I can do and working to get the strong riders on the team to the podium.

I plan to do more time trials, my schedule permitting, than I did last year. I've said it before, I'm not a threat to anyone as a time trialer, but for me it's all about my PB's, pushing my personal envelope. Besides, I really enjoy riding my TT bike, and the pain cave while competing in the TT is quite satisfying, as is looking back after a race and being pleased with how hard I worked.

Mostly it's about being adaptable. Who knows when work is going to settle out and allow me to get back to reasonable schedule? When it does, I'll alter my training and racing accordingly.