How do I choose a target event?

From my personal and coaching experience, having a goal to train for is essential to get the best from a rider and there is no better goal than an event. As soon as the event is entered or the plane ticket booked there is a flood of motivation and as a result we train harder, more consistently and eat better.

Setting a personal goal is also great, for example: to ride your first 100km, or increase your threshold power are both excellent targets, but it is easy to adjust the time frame and even sack it off altogether if things don’t go to plan. This is where an event comes in. It gives you a specific goal with a fixed timeline. It’s harder to put off as you have invested in the price of entry and probably told lots of people you’re doing it, so you had better make sure you do the training and get to the start line!!

The tough bit is picking which is the right event for you, and for this I always turn to the well-used goal setting acronym SMART when choosing your event.

Specific

You want your goal to be clear, so you can set out what you need to do to achieve it. An event ticks this box as it will have a set duration, distance and ascent so you know what you need to do on the day.

This then gives you something very clear to work towards in your training. When you start with Kudo Coach it will ask for your event details when you sign in to build your profile and will adjust the workouts to suit your goal and available training time.

Measurable

There are many ways that cyclists can track their progress and measure improvement, from average speed to heart rate and power. For example, if you need to ride 150km with 2500m of ascent for your event, it’s easy to break this down into training steps to build up your distance and time spent climbing.

Kudo Coach suggests and tracks a weekly training load goal, and uses this to establish your current fitness level. This is an excellent measure of your training and whether you are on track for the big day.

Achievable

This is the toughest decision when setting a target event and one which you need to think carefully about. For a goal to be motivating and to encourage you to get fitter, it needs to be challenging; however it’s also easy to bite off more than you can chew!

Think about what you’ve done in the past, what events you found overly difficult, what training you enjoy, and be realistic with the time you have available to train. For example, a rider decides to enter a 250km hilly Gran Fondo, but in reality the longest ride they can regularly do is 3-4hrs long. This rider may be better off picking a 150km event and aim to complete the ride at a 30kph average speed.

Relevant

A challenging event is going to require a lot of hard work and commitment so it needs to be truly important to you. In other words, the outcome must be worth the effort.

If one of your friends suggests an event, I would suggest you mull it over for a couple of days before committing. An event can often sound like a marvellous idea in the pub but far less appealing when you’re training in the cold and rain at 7am.

Time Based

One of the motivating factors behind using an event as a goal is that you cannot put it off. There is nothing like a deadline for motivating you to train hard and prepare as best you can.

However, part of picking the ideal event is that there’s adequate time for you to prepare. For a challenging goal that will require an increase in fitness and endurance I would suggest a minimum of three months of training and ideally five to six months. This gives you plenty of time to work on your base fitness, and then adequate time to build the event specific fitness required.

Whichever cycling event you decide to do, remember to start training early and train consistently. Kudo Coach will help you train for every cycling event, whatever the discipline, distance, or your level of experience. We have a personal plan for you.

Good luck!