2016, a year of stuff and things.

What does 2016 hold for me? I’ve made it clear that it’s a new year with new focus and new goals. So here’s what I’ve got planned.

The big factor in 2016 is that I’ve started working. I got a job working at the local airport for Alaska Airlines. I’m sure you’ll see plenty about that to come, but what it means for racing is that I’ll probably racing less and training more. So I’ve shifted my focus away from the big long trips to shorter trips and more local racing.

Here are the races

·         NW Epic Series 5/14, 6/11, 7/16, 8/27
·         Dakota 5-0 9/4
·         Chequamegon 9/17
·         Ore 2 Shore 8/13
·         Whiskey off road 4/29-5/1
·         Grand junction off road 5/20-22
·         US Cup Sea Otter 4/16
·         WORS Cup 7/23-724
·         US Cup Missoula 6/8

JM Coaching - Caleb and 2015: Above and Beyond

Everything I’ve discussed so far doesn’t work for only Caleb, these are pretty general methods. Certainly the actual implementation would be different based on the specific needs of a rider and the specific demands of the events they plan to compete in, but for the most part, the metrics and methods of monitoring is pretty universal. My hope is that you might be able to take some of it and progress your own understanding of training. But now lets talk about what makes Caleb’s training a little bit different from what most would do. Lets talk about what makes Caleb the athlete that he is.

JM Coaching - Caleb and 2015: Intensity

Last time we looked at the role that volume played in 2015 for Caleb. We learned that a consistent and increasing build was critical to keeping Caleb strong enough to complete the workouts, as well as keep motivated, but a certain level of fatigue was necessary to improve. But volume will only build capacity for training. The real side of training that both prepares a racer for races and give them the speed is the intensity. While volume is pretty generalized for all riders, intensity is highly personalized for the individual and the demands of the events.

Setting New Goals

Part of the new approach is a little bit of a change up in the focus, the races I’ll be doing, and the trajectory over the course of the season. Being a coach, I’ve learned help all type of people set goals for the season, but I wasn’t doing this for myself so much. My goals were always vague, which is a sure fire way to miss your goals. So for 2016 I’m making an effort to really set concrete goals and stick to them, make decisions based on them, plan things more carefully and earlier.

Before I go into my goals specifically, I’d like to talk about what writing this blog post has done for me. It has forced me to write all this stuff down. I don’t think that means the only way to reach your goals means writing a lbog post, but what I think you have to do is make those goals real, concrete. Writing them down, posting them for yourself to see and reflect on often, making them public if you have to. They have to be real in your mind, then you start to chase after them. If you’re feeling a little bit lost either on the bike or off, write, talk, look at what you’re doing and make it real. Then you can make the goals, the dreams, the process real.

JM Coaching - Caleb Swartz and 2015: Volume

Even before Nationals, Caleb Swartz was having an exceptional 2015-16 CX Season. As a coach, this is what you hope for, he’s a good kid, he does the work and he’s incredibly positive and motivated. But how did he get there? It was a long time in the making for sure. I’ve been working with Caleb for a few years now, and 2015 and 2016 have been in our sights for a while now. But specifically I want to take a quick look at 2015 and what we did. There is a lot to cover so I'll be splitting this into multiple posts. Today let start with volume.

New Year, new focus, new goals

2015 saw a lot of changes. It’s only been the last few weeks that I’ve started to really understand how the changes affected my life, my training, and my goals.

The move was huge. I was expecting the move would be an instant shift, all of a sudden I’d be training full time and getting super-fast. And to a point that was true, I did see some improvement. But what I did spend a lot of time doing was looking over my old training files and organizing them, and learning from the. As a coach, this is what I do and it only made sense to do it for myself.