Covid 19: Readjusting your Cycling Goals - CPT Cycling

Covid 19: What Now For Your Cycling Goals?

Zwift is just one place where you can still get your training and racing fix indoors.

31st March 2020, By Richard Rollinson

Cycling is not cancelled, but how do you reset your goals? The good news is that there are still several options, but which is right for you? Let's dive deeper into some alternative ideas.

What are you now training for?

With what is going on in the world right now, it can be hard to re focus, as the focal points in many areas of our lives shift. What counts is how you react to a situation and how adaptable you are. This will no doubt be true for just about every area of your life at the moment. 

The good news is that your training plan can adapt and, as a training plan is not a training plan without a goal to plan on training towards, your goal events can adapt too. Even if you are completely stuck indoors for all of your cycling. 

Keeping your goals on track also relies on accurate measurement of your efforts, so that your future training goals remain relevant to keep your progress on track. Verve InfoCrank ensures that the progress you see in your daily and weekly training totals are true. 

Keep the purpose of your training, even if your goals have changed, with an effective training plan.

Rebuilding the structure of your training

The first thing to look at is; are you going to stick to training towards your originally planned goal event that may be postponed, or are you now training for a different event? It may be the case that your goal event has still not been postponed or cancelled yet. In which case; keep training towards that event as you will still keep the purpose of your training, aiming towards a peak of form that you can use that will get you closer to that peak once new dates are announced.

If you change your goal event, then you may need to build towards a different type of specific fitness. Identifying the power demands of a goal event will help towards setting new training goals. The biggest impact on your training will then just be the type of workouts that you do to work towards those new training goals. 

If, however you decide to train towards your original goal event, then the type of workouts should remain the same, but the structure of how you build your training will be different. This would be in the form of shifting your bigger weekly training totals and final taper, closer towards the new date of your original planned goal event.

Be prepared to move your goal event and training weeks forward by some weeks, or even months in your Annual Training Plan (ATP).

Exploring goal event alternatives

Keep a close ear and eye out for updates from the event organiser of your goal event if there has not yet been an announcement on postponement or cancellation if you still intend to compete in that event.

Some events at time of writing have already been rescheduled as some are more affected than others, so if you still want to ride a similar event to your original goal race, then now is a good time to start looking around for similar alternatives if your current goal event organisers have still not made announcements.

Keep your mind open to alternative events that are outside of what you would normally compete in. This is a good time to make the use of different opportunities that you may usually not consider. Who knows, you may find an event that is better suited to your strengths than your usual events.

One such alternative may be a good option if where you live has restrictions on total lockdown. That being online racing on an indoor trainer, which of course has grown dramatically in recent years. More people are now racing these events through the 2020 crisis, so these will be extra competitive, giving you more of a challenge to get stuck into.

Keep your daily structure to build purpose and keep your motivation

For most, the covid situation not only brings a change in cycling goals, but for possibly your entire daily routine. As CPT Cycling has been open for online cycle coaching since 2010, I have experienced working from home for many years now. This might be a new situation for you. 

So, not only may your training need restructuring, but your work and life routine at home is likely very different at the present time too. One of the most effective things you can do for your whole day is to create a weekly and daily structure. Alocate set tasks for certain days or even work through a weekly to do list that is in order of priority.

It may or may not be suitable to copy the exact routine you had, but now could be your chance to set times for daily tasks and your time for training to be at a more preferred one for you. Whichever time you choose, bear in mind that a bike ride is a great way to kick start your day!

Sometimes when one door closes, many windows of opportunity open. Seize the moment during this time to try a new cycling event or stick to what you know you are good at. Whichever you choose though, continue with conviction, proven structure and purpose.