Pick a target event to meet your fitness goals this year

If you set fitness or riding goals as part of your New Year’s resolutions, signing up for a race can be a great way to make sure your plan stays on track. Training through winter in Canada can be hard on body and mind, with cold temperatures and short daylight hours making one more episode of Rick and Morty look more appealing than getting on the trainer, or getting dressed to go outside. Picking, and signing up for a target race can be a great way to kick start your winter training program and keep it on track when your motivation wanes and life’s distractions drag your attention away from the bike. Pick one standout race, one that you’ve always wanted to do or one that you really want to get a better result at, and plan your training around performing at that race. Here’s just some of the ways setting a target race for your season can help your riding this year.

Focus

Picking one event provides focus for your training. This helps structure your workouts to build toward a specific goal, instead of just always trying to do more or go faster. Sometimes the hardest part of a training program are the rest days or easy rides, but knowing that rest day will help you on race day can make it easier to follow your program.

Motivation

Having a race date in your calendar works like dangling a carrot on a string: it gives you a goal to chase during workouts all year. Knowing the race you want to do well in, or complete, will help you push harder on hard days, and ride longer on volume days.

Accountability

At some point, you’ll miss a workout, or go too easy when you should have gone hard, (likely you’ll go too hard when you should have gone easy!) or simply let the program slide. Putting off training until tomorrow, or next week doesn’t work when there’s a set race day in your calendar. The start gun will go off, whether your legs are ready or not. You’re only being accountable to yourself, but knowing your own race goals will help keep those missed workouts to a minimum.

RELATED: 12 top notch events to put on your calendar for 2018

Technical improvement

Signing up for a harder race than you usually do can motivate you to push yourself technically. Whether that’s an enduro race, trying out your local downhill event, or a more technically demanding cross country race like Pemberton’s NIMBY 50, knowing you’re going to be pushed technically under race conditions can give you that extra nudge to try trail features that make you uncomfortable in your everyday riding. As a bonus, unlike fitness, these technical skills last long after the race is over.

Motivation Pt. 2 – the finish line

A vague, year-round fitness goal can sometimes end up feeling like riding on a hamster wheel: no matter how hard you work, there’s always going to be more to do. Setting a target race gives you a concrete finish line to work toward. It’s always easier to work hard knowing there’s an end, or rest day in sight. Whether you take time off after the race or continue riding to enjoy your hard-fought fitness is up to you. You, and your coach.