Season Review

by Scot Willingham


So, your cycling season is over. The high points, and the low points, are all just memories now. If you could take the information gained from your past season and use it to determine the goals for next year, wouldn’t that be useful? Payback for all that time and energy.



Before proceeding, let’s discuss goals. There are 3 types of goals in sport:



Outcome Goals (e.g. winning the State Championships), which are subject to uncontrollable events and results.



Performance Goals (e.g. hitting a target time on a training ITT course), which are individual or self-referenced standards.



Process Goals (e.g. handling the “parking lot race” [D. Jordan, personal communication]), which are controllable, self-referenced standards of performance, thoughts, or actions.


This article focuses on the Performance and Process goals, with the understanding that they may help achieve Outcome goals. Do notice these two types of goals can be influenced directly by your training.

TASK/NEEDS ANALYSIS



To determine your Performance and Process goals, you could use your past season and develop a  task/needs analysis. This should be done in relationship with determining all 3 types of goals. As one influences the other. By setting a goal (task) and comparing your past performance to that goal, you analyze the potential needs — how gross or specific regarding your needs depends on you.



A basic approach can be looking at what gross elements tended to limit your attaining last year’s goals, such as keeping up on hill climbs, training hours and quality, sleep, etc. An in-depth analysis can include a bike fit, pedaling analysis, physiological testing, blood work, and neuromuscular/flexibility evaluation. Through proper investigation, you could identify and address these issues. This would also identify the necessary testing to give you the best information regarding progress.



DIFFERENTIAL DIAGNOSIS



Cause and effect are tough to find in the human body. So remember the term “differential diagnosis”  — this means that what you are assuming may be the problem, may actually only be a symptom.



Here is an example of why differential diagnosis can be important: Imagine, in your group ride, you have trouble keeping up on the hills. After berating yourself for eating too much or not training enough, you look at your back brake and see it rubbing your rim. Homer Simpson sound! It takes a critical, systematic analysis to find the real cause.



“Train your weaknesses, race your strengths.” – Some amazing coach



What you are looking for here are not the individual trees, but the groves. Look for trends that rear their ugly heads on a recurring basis. One mechanical at Battenkill doth not a trend make. However, if you see mechanicals popping up at all your races, perhaps your training isn’t the issue. It may be bike maintenance, or equipment choices and use.



For example, you find your ITT times were great, however, you see your hill climbing suffered. What elements could impact on that? Power isn’t the problem, as you recorded nice levels in your ITT and beat many people. So, what else may impact? Since hill climbing favors the strength-to-weight athlete, perhaps weight management would be a more effective focus in your Base season prep.



As you think about cause and effect, just keep in mind that our bodies and our sport are complex systems. While the above simplified examples makes analysis seem easy, it’s not.

So, use your past season data for analysis. But see above “differential diagnosis.”



COACHING?



If you have already addressed medical/health issues as possible causes, a short-term coaching commitment could be a valuable asset in your season review and upcoming periodization. It could pay off in terms of pinpointing an intuitive, shotgun approach focusing on more applicable and substantive causative factors. Many coaches use and have access to research information not available to the public, or if the information is available, it may be simplified for space issues or biased by marketing and economic connections.



Take advantage of the coach programs in your area. If a long term commitment is not available to you, ask for a diagnostic task/needs analysis focusing on past seasons. Either method may be a great way to maximize the return on your previous season’s investments.

Scot Willingham, MA, ACSM, CSCS, USAC is a neuromuscular re-educator that coaches cyclists and other endurance athletes while working as a strength and conditioning rehabilitation expert in NYC. He is a recent graduate of Teachers College, Columbia University’s Motor Learning department. Motor Learning is the field that researches human motor control and is used as the foundation for many pedagogical decisions in physical education, sports coaching, movement teaching and rehabilitation.

References:


Chandler, T.J. & Brown, L.E. (Eds.).(2008). Conditioning for strength and human performance. Baltimore, MD: RR Donnelley & Sons.



Fleck, S.J. & Kraemer, W.J. (2004). Designing resistance training programs (3rd edition).
Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.



Vealey, R.S. (2005). Coaching for the inner edge.
Morgantown, WV: Fitness Information Technology.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Differential_diagnosis