End-of-Season Evaluation and Reflection
The changing leaves and cooler temperatures mark the end of the “competition” season for many cyclists and runners and signal the beginning of the “off season,” which is typically a period of reduced training stress and more time spent resting or cross training. For many athletes this is a good time to do a mental and physical “reset” and reflect on how the last year of training and competition went.
Whether we are conscious of it or not, after every competition and season of training we create a story about that experience and who we are as an athlete. This influences our motivation, confidence, and future expectations moving forward. We should therefore be deliberate about the stories we tell ourselves.
Completing an end-of-season evaluation or reflection helps ensure we create a story that supports, rather than hinders, our athletic growth and development. Sometimes we get so caught up in the minutiae of individual workouts and training data that we lose sight of the big picture and how things are progressing overall. Zooming out and looking back on the last 6-12 months allows you to pull together overall themes and trends in your training and competitions, take inventory of your strengths and weaknesses, and start to create a rough sketch for what you’d like next year to look like. It’s also an opportunity to recognize and celebrate the wins you’ve had and how much you’ve improved during this time. Lastly, going through this process is a good way to get “closure,” helping you let go of the struggles and disappointments of the previous season so you can start training and working towards new goals with renewed confidence and enthusiasm.
I’ve been doing post-competition and season reflections since I first read about them 2 years ago in Carrie Jackson’s book, On Top of Your Game, which I think is a must read for anyone serious about their training and improving their “mental game.” Here are some sample questions to get you started, many of which are taken from the chapter on reflection and feedback:
What are some of my accomplishments from this season?
What went well this season?
What were my biggest challenges?
What are my strengths?
What was my biggest area of improvement?
What are my weaknesses or areas that I should improve?
In what ways did I hold myself back or hinder my progress?
What would I have done differently?
What is the most important thing for me to work on right now?
What am I looking forward to next season?
Am I better than I was this time last year?
Ideally this should be done in the 1-2 weeks following your last major event or competition of the season, which for most people will be in the “transition” period or early off season. Pick a date to work through a post season evaluation and reflection and put that date on your training calendar.You can either do this in one sitting or over a week or two block, like I did. It can be helpful to look over your training log and post race evaluations as well when working through this, particularly when reviewing things that happened earlier in the season (you are keeping a training long and reflecting after competitions, right?).
I think everyone can benefit from going through this process, even if you aren’t competitive or very structured with your training. I recently took a few days to do this myself using some of the questions above as guidelines. You can read mine below to get a sense of what one could look like, but there is really no wrong way to do this. As you’ll see, it isn’t the most polished or coherent piece ever written, and that’s ok! Yours doesn’t have to be either, and it certainly does not need to be as long. Feel free to experiment with different formats and your own questions and find what you like best! Remember, nobody else has to see it, though if you have a coach or close training partners it could be helpful to share it with them as well!
End-of-Season Reflection (October 2022 - September 2023)
What are some of my accomplishments from this season? What am I most proud of?
-Performing better than expected at the Mount Greylock Time Trial (58 min) and Peacham Fall Fondo. Also comfortably completing my longest ride of the year (D2R2 105k to Rowe) in a respectable time and feeling good afterwards.
-Consistency. Throughout this time I averaged 3-4 rides/4-6 hours on the bike every week. These numbers are far from impressive, but at this stage of my life I found that it was enough for me to make progress but still have time for work and other things in my life. Just being consistent was a big reason why things went well this year and I was able to make good progress, despite my average ride or training week not being too exciting.
-Staying injury free/listening to my body. This is always a struggle for me, but I tried to be proactive and address little niggles early before they could become full-on injuries and derail my training. Sure things came up, but nothing too serious. I wasn’t a slave to the training plan and adjusted things as necessary. The most time I had to take off from riding was 3 days consecutively, and even then it was usually because of travel or weather, not because I wasn’t physically capable.
-Not dwelling on Rasputitsa. This event was the focus of my training for several months, so of course I was disappointed that things didn’t go as planned. However, I was able to accept what happened and move on pretty fast, knowing it was out of my control. I was still proud of the training I did leading up to it, even though I couldn’t put it to the test on race day. I still took a few days off to reset mentally and physically, but since the race ended so early I had very little fatigue and could get back to training as usual without much downtime.
-Getting on Strava KOMs and leaderboards. This is kind of silly, but it still felt good to sneak onto Strava leaderboards for segments that even just a year ago seemed way out of my reach. At the end of the day these things don’t really mean much, but it’s a sign that things are at least heading in the right direction.
What worked well this season that I want to keep doing/carry into next season?
-Strength training 1-2 x a week. Maybe this is just my bias as a strength coach, but I feel a noticeable difference in my on-bike performance when I’m lifting heavy (for me) and consistently in the gym. In particular, I find that heavy strength training improves both my time to exhaustion/fatigue resistance on longer rides and intervals by improving cycling economy, as well as my power output on short anaerobic efforts and sprints. I also think the variety that strength work provides helps to balance the cyclical/repetitive nature of cycling and makes me more durable overall.
-Polarized training. 70-80% of my riding (2-4 rides/week) is zone 1 and 2, either on the bike path or gentle rolling terrain. The other 20-30% (1-2 rides/week) is zone 3 and above (usually 4 and 5) in the form of structured workouts (VO2, threshold, Anaerobic intervals) or Strava segments/KOMs. This weekly distribution seems to work well for me, and I’ve come to enjoy keeping my easy days truly easy and going hard just once or twice a week. This distinction between easy and hard days also prevents me from spending too much time “in the middle” and overdoing it by adding in too much intensity throughout the week. *Note that this is mostly based on heart rate and rate of perceived exertion when I ride outdoors. I only have a power meter for my indoor trainer.
-Focus on improving “every day level” of fitness, rather than “peaking” for specific events. For this block I wanted to maintain a relatively high but sustainable level of fitness, and not stray too far from what I considered my “ideal” training week (3-4 rides and 4-6 hours a week). I wanted to feel like I could show up to most any event under 100k with little notice and still be able to comfortably complete it, with maybe just 1-3 weeks to “sharpen up” and taper for it. I still took recovery/deload weeks occasionally, particularly after big efforts, but there weren’t many huge spikes and dips in my training. I think this allowed me to continue building fitness while still remaining relatively “race” ready.
-Prioritizing shorter, more frequent rides over longer, less frequent rides. This was a bit of a shift from how I had been doing things the previous couple of years, where I focused on big rides (30+ miles) and long days on the bike, 2-3 days a week. While I probably could and should have done a few more long rides this year, they weren’t too necessary for the events I wanted to do, and overall I find shorter rides more enjoyable anyway and easier to recover from. Aside from the Competitive Edge Gravel Grinder, D2R2, and the Peacham Fall Fondo, I rarely did a “long ride” greater than 25-30 miles or 2-3 hours.
-Consistently getting out on the bike. This is obvious, but if you want to get good at anything you need to spend a lot of time actually doing that thing. The majority of the progress I’ve made this season has come from finding a way to consistently get out on the bike 3-4 x a week, month after month. The collective body of work is more important than any individual ride or workout.
What were my biggest challenges/things that did not go well that I want to address going forward?
-Sleep. I read a great quote by Brad Stuberg recently: “If you are worried about any kind of performance ‘hack’ and you are not sleeping at least 7.5 hours a night you should probably stop worrying and go to sleep.” I felt a little called out by this. My sleep has never been great, and I am sabotaging my progress on the bike (not to mention other areas of my life) by not getting more. Consistently getting more sleep is something I will prioritize going forward.
-Weight. This is a touchy subject, and really until I get other things dialed in there isn’t much reason to stress about this. Still, I have a few pounds of fat I could stand to lose, and improving my body composition would be a relatively easy way to improve my cycling performance aside from just training more/harder. I don’t plan on doing anything drastic, but I would definitely like to improve my strength/watt to weight ratio.
-Nutrition (on/off bike). Related to the previous point. I’ve gotten better about my peri/intra workout nutrition, but I still tend to not take in enough during longer rides at higher intensities. It’s hard to play catch up later in a ride once you’ve already dug yourself into a hole. Practicing fueling before I feel like I need to during long rides and workouts is something I need to practice more in training so it becomes second nature in race/competitive environments. Off the bike I just want to clean up my diet a bit by eating less sugar/processed carbs, more vegetables, and more protein throughout the day.
What are my strengths that I should continue to develop?
-Strength. I am by no means very strong, but likely a little stronger than the average cyclist, which is a result of lifting 1-2 x a week for the last 10+ years and trail running as well. This benefits me most for sprinting, hill climbs, and punchy 1-3 minute efforts.
-Climbing. Even though I don’t have the build of a climber, I both enjoy and do well going up all kinds of hills, from short and steep to long and gradual and everything in between.
-Fatigue resistance. By this I mean the ability to complete hard efforts at later stages in a ride/race. Strength training definitely helps here, but I think this also comes from doing most of my intervals and big efforts later in the ride (for example, after an hour + of zone 2 riding) and things like progression long rides (90+ minutes of zone one and two, ratcheting up the intensity in the final 20-30 minutes from tempo, threshold, VO2, and a “sprint” finish).
-Ability to suffer/pain tolerance. I’ll preface by saying that I don’t like calling this “pain” or “suffering,” since this is all voluntary, and makes light of all the real suffering going on in the world, but I hope you get what I’m saying. I’m definitely not the most talented athlete, but even in my trail running days I’ve been able to “flip the switch” and find another gear when necessary (during a hard effort or competitive environment) and race/perform beyond my pay grade. I’m comfortable with being uncomfortable on the bike, and have found that I can usually endure more discomfort and time in the pain cave than most others. I have to be careful not to do this all the time, of course, but I admittedly love the feeling of “going to the well” and crossing a finish line with nothing left in the tank.
What are my weaknesses that I can improve upon?
-Technical/fast downhill riding. I don’t do this much in my training because it scares me (especially ever since my accident 2 years ago), which means I feel unprepared in group ride/race environments when other people are flying past me on steep downhills and class 4 sections. I don’t need to be reckless, but I should try to safely push the descents more often and venture onto class 4-like sections to improve my bike handling.
-Sustained efforts at higher intensity (stuff in the 5-20 minute range). For example, going after a Strava segment that is under 5 minutes is probably within my abilities. But if it’s anything longer than that, forget it. That’s not to say I’m horrible at these longer efforts, but I’m weaker here relative to my 1 or 3-minute power.
-Longer rides (4+ hours). Particularly if the intensity dial is turned up a bit. These rides are not just a challenge for me from a cardiovascular point of view, but I also find it uncomfortable to be in the saddle for that long. In both instances the solution is probably to just do long rides more frequently, but I also suspect that a proper bike fit could possibly alleviate some of the physical discomfort I start to experience 3+ hours into a ride.
What has been my greatest area of improvement?
-Climbing has always been a strength of mine, but still I’d have to say this was an area I improved upon this year. Some of this is just from spending more time riding and getting stronger on/off the bike, but I think most of the improvement has come from learning how to properly pace climbs of varying lengths and learning what gear/cadence combinations work best for different grades. Especially on the longer climbs, I’ve gotten better at holding back early on and not blowing up right away. This was definitely the case at Greylock, where I held back just a little in the steeper sections in the first few miles and was able to drop the hammer in the last few miles when things leveled off a bit.
Is there anything I would have done differently?
-Honestly, there probably isn’t too much I would have done differently. I probably could have done a couple more longer rides (~40 miles/3+ hours) just to be a little more confident going into some of the longer events, but they weren’t really necessary. I also could have had a little more structure with my training schedule (focused blocks to improve different areas, like VO2max and FTP), but again, this wasn’t too necessary for my goals, and is perhaps a reason why I was able to be so consistent, because I wasn’t over-doing it and injuring myself. I probably could have spent more time doing other forms of exercise as well (hiking, for example, which I didn’t do a lot of this year), not so much because I think it would directly help my cycling, but for other health benefits off the bike and greater variety and resiliency.
What am I looking forward to next season?
-Participating in new races/events in New England. I really enjoyed all the events I did this year, and plan to do most of them next year, but there are a few others on my radar that I’d like to add to the calendar as well. Probably nothing too long though. 3-5 hour long events/races will probably be the upper limit for me. In general I prefer a ride/race that is relatively shorter and more intense than a longer ride/race at a lower overall intensity.
-More hill climb events. I really enjoyed Greylock and would like to do more uphill races next year (maybe 3-4 from the BUMP series). A new bike is not in the budget but I’d like to get a different wheelset/tires that I could throw on my gravel bike that is a little more appropriate for this discipline.
-Try cyclocross (fall/winter 2024)? I have been intrigued by cyclocross for a while, but have been too nervous/intimidated to try it. I feel like I could be ok at it, or at least have fun doing it. Trail running experience could help, and naturally being a more anaerobic rider would probably lend itself to shorter/more intense events. My old gravel bike with some slight modifications could possibly be well-suited for this.
-Some indoor riding. Of course I love riding outdoors, but I also kind of look forward to indoor riding (3-4 months) when the weather gets colder (I still use my old bike on the bike path occasionally during this time if the weather is nice). At least for me, indoor riding is more convenient, allows me to be more consistent with my riding, and is great for structured workouts. It’s also nice to be able to train with power as well indoors using the Wahoo Kickr, since I don’t yet have a power meter for outdoors. I use The Sufferfest and love their workouts and race simulations (and the sarcasm/cheeky humor). The winter months indoors have actually been the time I’ve improved my bike fitness the most, and I feel great when I return to the roads in the spring. This is also when I’ll take a fitness test to get updated HR/power numbers, so I’m interested to see how these have changed.
Other comments
-Overall I am very happy with how this last year has gone. I’m a better athlete than I was this time last year, and it’s the most consistent my training has ever been. My goal for next year is just to have another year like this.