It’s been a long cycling season and many of us are finishing our last major target event. How can we use the early fall to reflect on the season and plan for 2025?
After crossing your final finish line of the year, take a moment to celebrate all your hard work and dedication, no matter the outcome. Breathe, relax, and then shift your focus to preparing for an even better season in 2025.
September was usually an emotionally charged time for me as a racer. Races like the Green Mountain Stage Race, the Buck’s County Classic, and even the World Tour races in Quebec were my last objectives for the season, signalling the start of the off-season after eight months of racing.
There was a sense of relief and satisfaction and smoldering excitement for the following year but also a nagging ambivalence about the season that had been. Had I achieved all I could have? Had I worked hard enough? Did I grow as an athlete in the ways I knew I needed to?
Those questions aren’t exclusive to professional racing. Everyone who commits hundreds of hours to the sport is left contemplating the same things as the season comes to a close. After going through that process a dozen times myself and many more with the athletes I coach, I’ve recognized some ways to make it as effective as possible.
Take Your Time
In my experience, one of the biggest and most common mistakes athletes make when reflecting on their seasons is rushing the process. You cross the line in your final race, make a guilt-free McDonald’s run and excitedly lay out grand plans for next year. “I’ll train thirty hours a week all winter,” “I’m giving up processed food all altogether (after this Big Mac)”, and “I’ll never lose again.” Bold reactions are natural amidst the emotional turbulence that comes with the end of a competitive season, but they are rarely realistic or productive.
The first thing I recommend to athletes is that they take some time to decompress and mull through their mixed feelings about their season’s successes and failures before we decide on anything going forward. After a couple of weeks off the bike and away from racing stress, an athlete’s thoughts on their season usually become clearer and more organized. From there, we can accurately assess the strengths, weaknesses, and areas we can devote time and effort to improving.
Break It Down
Whether you are taking on the challenge of a few fondos or racing as a pro, the cycling season is long and varied. Things change over six to eight months of training and racing. You can progress and make new positive habits, but you can just as easily fall into some bad ones that hinder your performance. It can be hard to sift through all of those small changes to find trends. I find it helpful to break the season down into more manageable chunks in which you prepared for different goals.
Many of my athletes follow a “three-peak” season plan, which makes the process relatively simple. We have a spring goal and the specific training cycle, a mid-summer goal and then a late season/fall goal as well.
If your season isn’t that clear cut, you could focus on your different “A” races and what you put into them, no matter where they fell on the calendar. For example, I have athletes that race the big fondos in British Columbia in June, July, August and September and we can analyze preparation versus results for each.
I like to keep each goal simple. For example, were we happy with the result? What did we do well in the event? Finally, what got in the way of a better outcome?
Ask Why
Usually, asking “why” is an athlete’s first impulse when assessing their performance. It can be a broad question with many confusing and conflicting answers and rapidly send you down unproductive rabbit holes. For this reason, I try to only “ask why” after we have taken the time to do the work above. If we weren’t happy with the result and didn’t do well because we got dropped on the last climb, why did that happen?
Were there too many unlucky things in our way on race day, like crashes, flat tires, or even poor sleep in a noisy hotel? It’s important to try not to fall into the trap of making easy excuses for subpar performances, but sometimes, simple misfortune tears down your goal. In that case, maybe we should try the same preparation again next season, cross our fingers, and pick a different hotel.
If your disappointing result was purely performance-related, we will start to ask questions about racing and training approach, recovery, nutrition, and even equipment choice. If the athlete was in poor position going into the climb and his/her power was lower than expected, maybe we need to work more on fatigue resistance in training, more carbohydrate intake and find some local training crits to improve pack skills.
Analyze the Good Too!
This process should still be applied when you achieved the goal result you wanted for a certain phase of the season. Even if you won the whole race and beat everyone, you should ask why you were able to do that and where your vulnerabilities were.
I remember winning the queen stage of the Tour of the Catskills, and it was a massive achievement for me at the time. Still, I recognized that I had limped my way to the line, completely shattered after hours of high workload on a brutally hot day. Add another five kilometres, and I would have been caught. My climbing form had been excellent, but I knew I needed to take in more calories and do a better job of preparing for the heat if I wanted to win at the next level. It takes some honesty in self-reflection, but often, you can learn as much from your successes as you do from your failures.
Summary
When you cross your final finish line for the year, take some time to enjoy and celebrate a year of hard work and dedication regardless of your results. Take a breath, relax and then get down to the business of planning your best season in 2025.
The post Reflecting on the Season and Planning for 2025 appeared first on PezCycling News.
