I’m looking at getting back into structured training on the bike after 5 months of just free riding on Zwift. I’d typically spend about 4-5 hours riding per week but am training for an off road triathlon in Sept and a half Ironman in Nov so do have some swim / run sessions per week (total training about 9 hours per week). I’d consider myself a mountain biker who does like swimming and running sometimes. With the MTB season approaching soonish in Australia I want to get faster on the bike as I feel my bike fitness may have dropped.
Trainer Road got me faster but I got soft
One of the big pushes to free riding on Zwift was actually Trainer Road last year. After progressing to higher FTPs the workouts just got too hard for me to complete (low 200s to 295). I’m sure there is a big mental component to this and I just need to toughen up. I notice this in races too.
I want to sign back up to Trainer Road but have noticed The Sufferfest have structured training with mental toughness modules. I have read Alex Hutchinson’s Endure and am reading Matt Fitzgerald’s book currently.
Finally, my question…
Does anybody know of any good resources for goal setting, visualisation and goal motivation? With this info I will sign back up to Trainer Road but gee The Sufferfest is tempting with tools targeting my weaknesses.
So I’ll go with the visualisation part of your question
Visualisation is such a big part of your training and reaching your goals.
Have you had a great experience on the bike? Can be a win, place, completion of a ride, riding through a rain forest. Anything that makes you feel good. Recall this time. You could say it will release endorphins that will enhance your current ride, task, etc.
Struggling to sit on the trainer, listen to a podcast. (Recommendation is Trainer Road) or up beat music.
Unmotivated to ride, meet up with a local group and do a group ride, enjoy the ride no doubt there might be sections to “race” against everyone.
Or look at Strava and see if you can do Pbs or even take a KOM. This can be fun and motivating.
Are you able to pre-ride any of the courses you’ll be competing on? If so, go and do it.
With that in mind, you can use that experience to spur you on during the tough sessions ahead. You’ll be able to place those intervals into a real world context and be mentally prepared, knowing you can deliver the power when required. Good luck
The workouts in TR shouldn’t become too hard to complete. If you could complete the same sessions before (when you had less power), you should have enough toughness to complete them again when you got stronger. Maybe your ftp was too high? You might have had a good day for your ftp test and overtested. Or maybe, after a few months of constant TR training, you were a bit fatigued and needed a break?
The ‘mental toughness’ aspect is in some of the TR workouts, when you read the instructions along with the workout. I’m not quite sure what TSF could do differently, though they have a very different style of talking about it.
Did you find what you were looking for? I have a few trainings coming up on mental toughness training for cyclists but I also have a free mini-course on imagery if you’d like it?
