Setting Goals

Each Thursday during Daylight Savings Time, I meet a group of other cyclists for a 40 mile ride through the edge of Francis Marion Forest. And while this may sound quite lovely, I can assure you that it is nothing more than a pain-fest (at least for me).

The ride starts with a brief warm up and promptly turns to moderately hard speed followed by ridiculously fast. It is during this warm up that I'll know what the night will be like. I'll know how my legs and chest feel, I'll know which guys there will make it painful, I'll know if this is gonna suck! My thoughts at this time generally range from "Wow, I feel pretty good" to "Man I don't want to do this tonight" and "Crap, I can't believe that guy showed up". You see, some guys will use this ride as their recovery ride. By all accounts these dudes are strong, but for me, this is my hard-paced training ride.

For me, the goals are to get in a hard ride, ride respectably, assess my fitness level, and not get dropped. The hard ride is a given. It is going to happen. The latter three are not exclusive. To feel good about my fitness, I must ride respectably and not get dropped. To ride respectably, I must not get dropped. I must not get dropped. To ride respectably, I feel that I must do my share of pulling at the front. Maintain the pace and pull for what I'm comfortable doing. This is longer than some, shorter than others. Faster than some, slower than others. I must go until I feel tired, go a little bit longer without exploding (this is key), and then pull off.

The next goal becomes survival. At this point, I'm usually hurting. I have to glide to the back and grab onto the last wheel. Thoughts become "Get that wheel, come here wheel, don't stare at his wheel!" to "Quit, don't quit, quit, don't quit, man this sucks". I usually do some yo-yo-ing until I get recovered and it is about this time that I'm second to the front again and have to do it all over. Doubt creeps in. "I don't want to do this". "I can't maintain this pace". "Ah screw it, it looks like I have to". So back to the front again and back to the key point I made earlier.

At the front, I set goals for myself. I'm going to pull this far, this fast, for this long. I try to maintain the pace and be comfortable for as long as I can and then some. I do this with small mental games. I say my ABC's, count lines on the road, change my breathing, or go until it hurts and then pick a road sign to pull to and pull off. Here's the thing. If you make it to the goal that you've set for yourself an amazing thing happens; you recover, you feel better and stronger, you can go a little bit more. It seems as though the power of the mind and making it actually gives you a boost. You no longer have to worry about catching wheels in the back either. You are revitalized. But if you quit before your goal, you are beaten down, down trodden, defeated. No matter how well you actually did, you're a failure. And that is how you'll feel until you get another chance to redeem yourself and break the cycle.

Goals. I can't wait for Thursdays this summer.