Hi Reader,
If you ask a sat nav to take you to "the north-east", it has nothing to work with. Give it a street in a suburb of Newcastle and you've got a route in seconds. I used that comparison in this week's podcast, but it deserved more room than I gave it, because it's the step most athletes skip.
At this time of year, most of the athletes I talk to start with the sessions. Turbo a few evenings a week, a long ride at the weekend, the track on a Tuesday. All sensible, but none of it is connected to anything. Ask what it's for and the answer is usually "to get fitter" or "to be faster". That's the north-east.
A real goal has a race, a date and a picture of what a good day looks like. Once you have that, you can work backwards: the fitness you need on race day, the blocks that have to happen between now and then, and what the first few weeks need to do to set it up. Without it, winter is just filling in time and using up energy.
That's the reframe. Winter isn't a holding pattern between seasons. It's the first block of next season, and it should be planned like one.
The second half is being honest about where you are now. My own ambition for a winter is usually 12 to 14 hours a week. My training diary, which goes back 15 to 20 years, says eight to ten. The plan has to start from the diary, not the ambition.
Before your next session, write down the race, the date and one sentence on what success looks like. Then write down what you've genuinely managed in previous winters. The gap between those two is your winter.
That gap is what the winter base plans inside the SWAT Inner Circle are built to cover. They're live now, and you get my eyes on what you're doing, so you're not guessing whether the route is right. It's £65 a month, there's no minimum term and you can cancel any time. Find out more and join here https://www.simonward.co.uk/swat-inner-circle
Hit reply and tell me the street in Newcastle, so to speak. I'd like to know what you're aiming at next year.
Train smart,
Wardy
P.S. In this weeks podcast I'm outlining the Perfect Winter Training Plan for Triathletes Over 50.
If you prefer to read then I have shared it as an article as well. Read more here: Winter Training After 50: Be Harder to Break, Not Smashed to Bits
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Simon Ward
Performance coach for endurance athletes over 50
Helping you train smarter, race stronger, and stay in the sport for the long haul.
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