{"id":182163,"date":"2021-03-09T13:48:51","date_gmt":"2021-03-09T13:48:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=182163"},"modified":"2021-03-09T13:49:47","modified_gmt":"2021-03-09T13:49:47","slug":"early-season-cycling-mistakes-comparing-yourself-too-much","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2021\/03\/09\/early-season-cycling-mistakes-comparing-yourself-too-much\/","title":{"rendered":"Early Season Cycling Mistakes \u2013 Comparing Yourself Too Much"},"content":{"rendered":"

Comparison is the death of joy, they say. If you started your season by looking at last year\u2019s watts and average speeds, you know what they mean. Wanting to beat your old records is a good motivator, but it has to be applied correctly. Let\u2019s take a look at how to avoid these early season cycling mistakes.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Be realistic about your current fitness<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\"Road<\/a>
Be honest with yourself. \u00a9 Profimedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There\u2019s a lot you can measure as a cyclist, and we all have our favourite metric we are constantly trying to improve. It can be fun to track your power output, heart rate, course time, power-to-weight ratio,<\/a> or number of kilometres per month. The problem is that it\u2019s very easy to focus on the past, the stats from last season. And that takes focus away from how things are and what needs to be done to get you to your new personal best.<\/p>\n

Solution:<\/strong> Take an honest look at where you are with your fitness at the start of a new cycling season. It\u2019s normal to start your season in a different place<\/a> than you ended the last. Maybe you managed to resolve some old injuries and pains and got stronger in the off-season, but you likely didn\u2019t spend the same amount of time in the saddle. This means that you will need some time to regain your endurance<\/a> and power output. Take that into account and work on your base kilometres, gradually include intensity, and watch the numbers improve each week. This approach is going to yield better results and motivate you more than trying to match last season\u2019s numbers right away.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t copy other cyclists<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\"Cyclists\"<\/a>
Cycling is more fun in a group, so if you can persuade a few friends to join you in working through the training plan, you will have a higher chance to succeed and much more fun. \u00a9 Profimedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Some cyclists are all about comparing themselves to their own stats, while others can\u2019t stop measuring themselves against other cyclists. It could be your training partners, friends, members of your cycling team, or your local racing rivals. Every time you hear about what they are doing, it\u2019s far too easy to think that you should be doing that too. It\u2019s easy to doubt yourself and skip over some important elements of training. Every cyclist has to focus on something different in their training to get better. That\u2019s exactly why looking at others and adjusting based on what they do won\u2019t help you most of the time.<\/p>\n

Solution:<\/strong> Have a training plan. It\u2019s the best insurance against getting off track with your training. If you\u2019ve never had one, try our beginner 50k<\/a> training plan. And if you have some experience, you can check out our guide<\/a> on how to build your own cycling training plan. The next article in this series will also help you avoid some common early season training plan mistakes.<\/p>\n

Another thing you can do is get a coach. A coach can help you stay on track with your training and keep you focused on what\u2019s important. You can discuss those cool new things you see your friends and competitors trying because a good coach\u00a0will also help you identify who you should be comparing yourself to.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Comparison is the death of joy, they say. If you started your season by looking at last year\u2019s watts and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":182166,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[332],"tags":[4981,3032,355,2107],"global-categories":[3366],"class_list":["post-182163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health-and-training","tag-early-season-cycling-mistakes","tag-endurance","tag-training","tag-training-plan","global-categories-cycling"],"yoast_head":"\nEarly Season Cycling Mistakes \u2013 Comparing Yourself Too Much<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If you started your cycling season by looking at last year\u2019s watts and average speeds, you may have spoilt all the fun.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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