I have a whole bunch of people that rely on me, I try to mentor and support each and every one of them. As business people one of the most satisfying things we do is give our senior clients all the support they need. So who supports me? Aside from my wife, that would be no one, I don’t even think about it.
Craig Upton is great friend and a great coach, we know each other so well for the remote communication to work. What I wasn’t expecting was the support that I received from him. Whatever I did was always okay with him. I suddenly had someone who was with me, all of the time, all of the way, at the same time there was always a sense of honesty, if I was crap he said so, but being crap at that time was okay, we’d be better tomorrow.
I didn’t even get it at first, I guess I just didn’t recognise it for what it was! However I gained so much personal confidence, I was someone who was worth supporting. It didn’t occur to me that I needed support too, it is good for the soul. Who would have known training for the etape would enable that to happen.
So making the list was easy now the hard part was the training. I had bought a PowerTap power meter 6 months ago and it was finally going to get the use it was intended for. I can honestly say any powermeter is pretty much useless without a good coach who knows how to make use of it – good for bullshit sessions at the café after a ride though!
I like training but mostly I like to learn how to train better and get faster. There is nothing like learning new things about stuff you thought there was nothing more to learn about.
With my training I now had goals, objectives and structure. It is something I am very familiar with, I run an advertising consultancy that is how we work on a daily basis, it requires discipline and rigour but it pays off, we wouldn’t work in any other way.
Why are we so reluctant to do exactly that when training for a sport?
When you have goals and objectives, you have something that you can be measured against, it ups the ante, requires commitment and that is demanding, there is no hiding from the results. It is even worse when those goals are made public. To many people training without structure is fine, just don’t expect to ever go close to achieving your full potential.
The programme did change my riding dramatically I stopped riding with my normal group of guys, my training programme didn’t match theirs and I enjoyed riding alone and without the clashing of multiple ego’s. I did a lot of high intensity work, which was something I hadn’t done for years – it’s bloody unpleasant that’s why. I also had recovery days where I rode slowly – really slowly.
I trained longer and harder, it was easy to manage and easy to be motivated. I knew what I needed to do and when to do it.
Riding for hours in the rain, getting up at 5.30am in the dark for an early morning training ride was doable and perversely enjoyable. I got fitter and stronger. My programme was focussed on climbing, lots of it, so I even started to climb well!
The last few weeks before departure involved a couple of local races, I was going well, getting into the top 5. I was looking forward to the big day in France, I felt prepared.
Three weeks to go to lift off and the weather really packed up in a big way, driving rain, gale force winds and freezing cold, no problem that wasn’t going to stop me.
As I rode in the freezing rain, I thought about the problems that I may have acclimatising to the heat – little did I know…
Craig Upton is great friend and a great coach, we know each other so well for the remote communication to work. What I wasn’t expecting was the support that I received from him. Whatever I did was always okay with him. I suddenly had someone who was with me, all of the time, all of the way, at the same time there was always a sense of honesty, if I was crap he said so, but being crap at that time was okay, we’d be better tomorrow.
I didn’t even get it at first, I guess I just didn’t recognise it for what it was! However I gained so much personal confidence, I was someone who was worth supporting. It didn’t occur to me that I needed support too, it is good for the soul. Who would have known training for the etape would enable that to happen.
So making the list was easy now the hard part was the training. I had bought a PowerTap power meter 6 months ago and it was finally going to get the use it was intended for. I can honestly say any powermeter is pretty much useless without a good coach who knows how to make use of it – good for bullshit sessions at the café after a ride though!
I like training but mostly I like to learn how to train better and get faster. There is nothing like learning new things about stuff you thought there was nothing more to learn about.
With my training I now had goals, objectives and structure. It is something I am very familiar with, I run an advertising consultancy that is how we work on a daily basis, it requires discipline and rigour but it pays off, we wouldn’t work in any other way.
Why are we so reluctant to do exactly that when training for a sport?
When you have goals and objectives, you have something that you can be measured against, it ups the ante, requires commitment and that is demanding, there is no hiding from the results. It is even worse when those goals are made public. To many people training without structure is fine, just don’t expect to ever go close to achieving your full potential.
The programme did change my riding dramatically I stopped riding with my normal group of guys, my training programme didn’t match theirs and I enjoyed riding alone and without the clashing of multiple ego’s. I did a lot of high intensity work, which was something I hadn’t done for years – it’s bloody unpleasant that’s why. I also had recovery days where I rode slowly – really slowly.
I trained longer and harder, it was easy to manage and easy to be motivated. I knew what I needed to do and when to do it.
Riding for hours in the rain, getting up at 5.30am in the dark for an early morning training ride was doable and perversely enjoyable. I got fitter and stronger. My programme was focussed on climbing, lots of it, so I even started to climb well!
The last few weeks before departure involved a couple of local races, I was going well, getting into the top 5. I was looking forward to the big day in France, I felt prepared.
Three weeks to go to lift off and the weather really packed up in a big way, driving rain, gale force winds and freezing cold, no problem that wasn’t going to stop me.
As I rode in the freezing rain, I thought about the problems that I may have acclimatising to the heat – little did I know…
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