January is done and dusted. One month of 2025 has flown by already! Have you set yourself any big cycling goals yet?
Looking back, I had a very successful 2024. I hit both my distance and elevation gain targets. I put in decent performances at both the Tour de Brisbane and the IRONMAN 70.3 Cairns relay. I couldn’t have wanted for a better year on the bike. I don’t think I’ll have another year like that again for some time.
Closing the chapter on a bittersweet January, it’s time to start looking forwards. This year, I am not setting any distance or elevation targets just yet. I am unsure as to what the rest of 2025 holds for me. My current aim is to simply enjoy the available time I have on two wheels while maintaining a level of fitness I am happy with.
I did have one goal and I’ve achieved it already. That was to put in a solid performance at the Adelaide Epic at the Tour Down Under. I rode well and was very pleased with my performance. That was essentially my only target for the year, and I’ve ticked it off in the first month!
I doubt there’ll be any more big trips or racing on my calendar this year. I will need some aim or goal to keep me on track though. I like to be able to “tick off” something each week or work towards a target. I’ve already started browsing through training plans on TrainingPeaks to see if anything suits me. Maybe I’ll just have to target some local Strava KOMs instead! 😂
Do you have your “A” race or target events locked in?
Two Wheels with TC 
My aim is to continue to enjoy riding my bike
LikeLiked by 1 person
The best aim to have, for sure!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I did just sign up for the Horribly Hilly Hundreds, my first big ride since breaking 8 bones, puncturing a lung, and tearing a muscle and a few ligaments in September. Just finishing the ride is a big enough goal for now. And I’m with Sheree.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Good luck! I’m sure you will crush that ride. And yeah, enjoying riding your bike should definitely be a goal for everyone. Have a great year! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
💙❤️🤍
LikeLike
I have sort of set a distance goal, but not a hard target. The bottom line for me is to ride farther and faster. But, at my age, the numbers are modest and don’t reflect preparation for competition, that ship sailed long ago with knee injuries. In the past year I figured out my performance boundary was not where I expected it, but my fitness had moved the markers. That set me to pushing to gingerly explore my limits. The good news is I don’t think I’ve happened on them. That is not to say I’m on my way to a world championship, but rather I have a lot of room to improve. That result isn’t unexpected. I had gotten into and still do get into my personal lower zone 2 rut.
I figured out I not only had to make changes to my diet and stick to them, but to also kick up my riding intensity a few more notches. The last three months of last year I managed to do that pretty well and even more importantly continue that into this past month. February. was always going to be a down month with family stuff scheduled. Weather and a new bike, then construction activities all combined to knock the numbers down, but not my resolve to continue to hammer out time and distance in the saddle.
Now that the very disruptive part of the construction is completed and my garage is slowly evolving back to usefulness, I’ll be adding weight training back into my life. The weights will work my antique old cyclists arms and upper body and add some more focused core work.
There is still weight to be lost, muscle mass to be added to and maintained, balance to be improved and aerobic capacity to be increased. All easily achievable by an old man on a bicycle with a few weights rolling around the shed.
The one big for me goal out there is to complete a solo 100 mile self supported ride. I have a lot of confidence I will be able to do that this year and likely repeat it a few times.
LikeLiked by 1 person