Goals Outline
For a decent training plan in any sport, you need to know your overall goals. We’ll start at the macro level and work our way towards the micro.
Macro goal: Become a professional cyclist.
Yeah, yeah. It’s the focus of this whole dang site. But, what does it mean? Well, to some it means to get paid to compete (aka. profession -Al). To others it means competing at the highest level of your sport, whether you get paid or not. For me, it is all about competing at the highest level, and since the former does not usually come without the latter anyway, I will aim for the latter (Competing at the highest levels – Pro category Mtn, US Pro license on the road).
I will be focusing on peaking for key mountain bike races this year. However, I will still be racing on the road. I am a category 2 road racer, and find that the experience and fitness gained from racing on the road unparalleled. If I get picked up on a road team, or find that my desire for road outshines my desire for mountain, I can always switch my emphasis (I’m ambidextrous like that).
Next, what micro goals do I need to have to accomplish my macro? I’ve established a few tiers that will help me get to this level:
- Win races:
- Key races, not just any races
- Unabashed self-promotion
- Rinse and repeat!
Winning!
The season is long and the country is big, so which frickin’ races do I plan on racing in? Well, OBRA has a pretty sweet mountain scene. It’s perhaps not as buff as California, but it has produced quite a few studs on knobby tires over the last few years (Adam Craig, Ryan Trebon, Barry Wicks, Erik Tonkin, Evan Plews, blah blah…). So, this is where I’ll start. If it’s good enough for them, it’s damn good enough for me.
Again, I start from macro and work down to micro on importance of races. For my mountain schedule, I would like to set my focus on the Oregon State XC Championships. For this year, it’s at “Return on the Jedi” in Grants Pass, June 28-29th. I hear this is a pretty tight course with lots of single track. So, I’m looking forward to it. I would like to say that I will be going to Nationals in Vermont (July 16-20th), but I have to qualify first. So, if I win, I would love to go to Nationals, but we’ll see how finances are.
Before the State Championships, I would also like to do the Mudslinger (race that’s close to my house) April 20th, Ashland’s Spring Thaw (race that’s close to my heart) May 3rd, Cascade Chainbreaker (May 11th), and the Falls City Firecracker (May 18th). Wow! That’s a busy end-of-April-middle-of-May month. And, since these are the races that lead up to the State Champs, I can add some more races later as well, as the season progresses.
Currently, I’m an Expert on the mountain. I’ve been an “Expert” since I was 14 years old (over 13 years now), and now I need to work towards my upgrade points into the Semi-Pro class (they didn’t used to have Semi-Pro class when I turned Expert). So, the category that I will be racing depends very much on whether I happen to upgrade prior to the Championships.
For road, I would like to perform optimally at the Cascade Classic (July 9-13th). This race I did very well at 4 years ago, and I haven’t raced it since. It is also an NRC race, which means that if I perform real well, then I may get noticed by someone other than my lovely wife who supports me no matter how slow I am (Love ya Stacey!).
I would also like to do the Cherry Pie as a season opener (February 17th *coming soon*), but I really just want to do this race for fun – not peak for it (especially since it’s traditionally a sprinters’ course). I also might add in to the mix the Willamette Stage Race (April 3-6th) since it’s not too far away from Corvallis, and would be a great experience to go out there and test my legs against some major players. Of course, I have to add in the (in)-famous Mt. Ashland Hillclimb (September 14th). I have such a weak spot for this race that even when I get smoked, I love it.
So, that’s the main outline for my racing season. Let’s recap:
- February: Chery Pie (17th)
- March: Ummm…nothing? *interesting*
- April: Willamette Stage Race (3-6th), Mudslinger (20th)
- May: Spring Thaw (3rd), Cascade Chainbreaker (11th), Falls City Firecracker (18th)
- June: State Champs (28-29th)
- July: Cascade Classic (9-13th), Nationals? (16-20th)
- August: nada
- September: Mt. Ashland Hillclimb (14th)
Not too bad for “goal races.” Of course, to spice it up I may pepper it with a few events like Elkhorn, the Banana Belts, Mary’s Peak, or some others. However, the above races are my focus for the season, and the ones that I will aim to design my training around.
Unabashed Self-Promotion
While I’ve spent a majority of the time outlining the races that I will be doing, I need to make sure that I also let teams/sponsors know exactly how I will make them money. Of course, I could always tell them how sexy I am wearing their colors/logo/name, and how my butt is a perfect billboard for their business, since it has the magical power to convert anyone who sees it into a paying customer.
I’m sure this site will also be a big part of my self-promotion. I also found much success getting sponsors back when I was a Junior writing to companies (you know, the gold old fashioned pen and paper). I remember then how small SRAM was, and how awesome they were to give me free parts, enough for multiple seasons, Stoker bar and how even when they denied my request – gave me enough energy bars to last an entire season of training, American Classic with their awards sponsorship, Specialized with sick discounts on awesome M2 (now M37 or something) hardtails, and Ibis whom ruled the world when Scot Nicol and co. bought my Dad and I burritos, introduced us to Bobby Julich, and let us ride Scot’s fully set up Ibis Ti road and mtn bikes *sweet!*.
I’m not sure which tactics will prove to be most fruitful. But it doesn’t hurt to try writing, calling, emailing, stalking, blackmailing (okay, maybe the last two actually do hurt). But, once I accomplish some studly “winning,” I can try some of these methods (not the stalking or blackmailing) in getting sponsorship to help pay for my races.
Rinse and Repeat!
The most important thing is to make sure that I persevere. Accomplishing these goals is only a matter of taking a series of “first steps.” And, now that I have a good set of goals, I can move on to form and fitness…
