Every new year, we see an influx of the same articles, re-hashed, refreshed and updated for the newest issue of the cycling or fitness magazines. Even if you don’t consume print or digital media, you can be certain that at least a handful of your favourite cycling related social accounts or YouTubers will be sharing all manner of “new” fitness tips, or plugging a particular ‘epic’ challenge they’ve picked for this season. Rest assured, it will be epic, and they will set off to smash it!
While this makes for great headlines and clickbait-y titles, I don’t believe it’s a genuinely good way to build your fitness. Sure, over time you’ll start to see some benefits from training for these challenges, but it’s not entirely sustainable, is very easy to lose motivation with or have a “low” post challenge mindset. Now, I’m not suggesting that we shouldn’t challenge ourselves, and certainly don’t stop striving for an adventure, but it should be your epic, not a perception of what any such challenge looks like or one which you attained from someone pandering to thousands of followers.
My light hearted “anti-epic training” is that when an algorithm drip feeds us this perception of a need for the next challenge to be bigger, greater, faster… more ‘epic’, it can put an unnecessary, unrealistic expectation on us to seek out something that hits that mark. It instils in us this mindset of thinking ‘this year is the one.’
So, book that challenge, train for it! 6 days in the Pyrenees? Sure. Dragon ride? On it! Bike-pack your holiday this year? Absolutely. Take hold of your fitness. But remember, there’s a lot more to training than just doing a great feat. Sure, training can be specific to that one challenge, a ramped 12-week training stint done and off you head into that epic, but then what? Are you going to keep up ever greater epic challenges one after another?
How I train people comes from a straightforward principle I like to call “having headroom in your fitness”. You’ve already worked to a really good level, to be comfortable with your regular activity level. From here we can adapt or increase your training to suit your own goals, whether to push yourself further, or maintain that same level with steady boosts along the way. Sure, you’ll feel the effects, it may not be easy, but you’ll have enough headroom to do that extended 6 day tour with the right adaptations to your current training. Going after that century? You’ll have enough power in reserve to push on a bit more with sustained training. If you fancy filling a pack and heading off for a days hike or loading up the bike for a couple of nights under canvas, you’ll not think twice knowing, with confidence, you’ve enough head room in your overall fitness to be comfortable.
You see, sustainable fitness is more realistic and applicable, it just doesn’t make for good articles or get many social likes. Your post won’t get the algorithm rocking when you’ve finished up another 3 hours at zone 2! No, this is exactly the opposite to ‘epic’, but arguably, it’s more significant long term.
Taking the time to get into the routine of a personalised 1:1 program is of great benefit. You offer yourself the chance to build your long term fitness up, form great habits, and most importantly, transfer that energy from cycling into your daily life. It’s consistent and once those habits are in place, the much more efficient progress granted by a structured program will show to you how much greater you can feel, both mentally and physically. You can still go on those ‘epics’ with a structured approach, but with the knowledge that you aren’t just doing this to have another thing to show off to your followers, but to showcase the fitness you have achieved from the focused training you have put your mind and body into. Your fitness will ensure you have the longevity necessary for all of your pursuits.
Whether it’s hiking, running, or cycling, my training gives you that baseline to work from, fit for adventuring whenever it calls. So go after your next epic, but not just that one, and not just this year.