Usually I do a weekly review. At the end each year I’ve done a yearly review. And I did say in my 2022 year in review post under the “My Goals For 2023” section that I would review my goals more often.
I will throw in my weekly review pictures for the previous week just because why not?
In my head I had it down that I would look to review my cycling goals every 3 months, seeing how I’d done and adjusting accordingly. This was, in part, because I didn’t have any big goals in mind at the time. Not sure I do now, even, but let’s crack on with this and see how we get on.
What Goals Were Set?
Here is a recap of the four goals I set back at the end of December / start of January:
- Achieve an FTP of 3.72 w/kg or better
- ✅ Continue blogging every ride
- Complete 20 or more Zwift B Category races
- ✅ Revisit these goals in 3 months time
I’m going to say #2 is a given.
And here we are doing #4.
That’s two ✅ already. What a great start.
How are we doing on the other two?
Racing
With a target of 20 or more Zwift Cat B races, I’m going to assume I meant “for the year”. Nothing quite like being Specific with your goals.
By the way, as a side note, S.M.A.R.T goal setting is pretty useful, if a little “business-y”.
I mean, I guess it is possible to have done 20 races in the last three months, but I’m fairly sure that wasn’t what I had in mind. We’ve only had 12 weeks and I only race once a week.
As it is I have done 10 races, I believe. That accounts for two week’s out due to injury back in January during the Flat is Fast series.
With ten down in the first quarter, hitting a target of 40+ in the year should be very achievable, even accounting for a week’s out-of-the-country holiday here and there, and any downtime for injury or whatever.
I’ll say I hit this goal: ✅
I’ve also thoroughly enjoyed my racing so far, and have no plans to stop. It’s one of the big rides each week.
FTP Target
I’ve set a target of 3.72w/kg or better.
It looks like I meant that as a year goal.
In my most recent FTP test I managed 249w average.
At the time I wrote down:
If I take that at 67KG then that’s 3.72w/kg.
If I can get back down to 66KG then that’s 3.77w/kg.
Me, on my most recent FTP test write up
So, given as of today I’m at 67kg and change, I guess I’ve hit that. Or, at least, I hit that back then.
I’m not sure how I feel about that 🤣🤣🤣 On the one hand, that’s great. I smashed my year goal inside the first quarter. And on the other… I’m fairly sure I thought that was going to be a big ask, so what on earth?
I’m going to say I hit this goal already: ✅
Goal Summary
Of the four goals then, all have been hit.
- ✅ Achieve an FTP of 3.72 w/kg or better
- ✅ Continue blogging every ride
- ✅ Complete 20 or more Zwift B Category races – kind of, on target for 40 this year, goal was not specific enough but I think I did what I meant at the time.
- ✅ Revisit these goals in 3 months time
New Goals
Right, so I wasn’t expecting that.
But we have a new quarter ahead, so let’s set up some new goals.
And yes, future Chris, I do mean these are goals to be achieved in Quarter 2.
- Achieve an FTP of 3.75 w/kg or better
- Continue blogging every ride
- Complete 10 or more Zwift B Category races
- Revisit these goals in 3 months time
- Ride the Trough of Bowland
- Keep the weight under 68kg
- Run a 5K indoors (without stopping)
Mostly the same here.
The scary one is #1 for sure. I’m not entirely sure what that equates too in terms of power output over the 20 minutes, but I’m thinking it’s possibly 251w, and right now 250w is the big milestone / barrier to breakthrough.
That one feels like a big ask.
But then I guess 3.72 w/kg did also. So who knows?
I’m very confident on #2 and #4.
#3 feels very achievable, but is injury / illness dependant. As I guess they all are, but there will be no racing when recovering.
#5 would be lovely. One thing the UK gets in the first 1/2 of the year is a lot of Bank Holidays. We actually have a 4 day weekend at the end of this week, so I am aiming to use one of these extra days off to do a big outdoor effort. Also the weather should keep improving.
#6 is actually the challenge really. Right now my weight is steadily increasing, but I can’t say it’s intentional. I’m not eating more, so unless it’s muscle (which I don’t think it is) then something I’m doing is unintentionally causing me to put weight on. I’ve not figure this out yet, but it bugs me.
#7 is more shoe dependant than anything else. God knows I’m having enough trouble with my feet from walking outdoors, but I figure with a properly fitted / gait analysed pair of runners, I might actually (dare I say) enjoy an alternative form of exercise. It would be good to “be able to” run, for holidays and times when I don’t have easy bike access, but still want to exercise.
OK, that’s me out. See you in three months.