We all experience periods of chaos, and the holiday season is particularly challenging on this front. For me, beginning this blog-venture was an exciting new project, and I was prolific in early November. It was so exciting! Then an avalanche of commitments barreled down on me with the holidays, travel, sickness, busy times at work, and other life things. It was all I could do to keep up a regular cycling and strength training schedule, and I’m sure I’m not alone in that feeling. The blog slid to the back burner, and I decided to make a somewhat dramatic shift in my brain… I accepted that I couldn’t do the blog right now and didn’t perseverate over the delay. Instead, I prioritized being present with family, doing quality workouts when I was healthy, resting when I was sick, and performing my best at work.
And guess what? Nothing terrible happened when I put the blog on pause. Nobody got mad at me, and, most importantly, I’m not mad at myself. Once I accepted that I couldn’t do it all, and I had to make decisions about what was most important, I made the right choices. I trusted myself and leaned into consistency in my training. Rather than getting distracted with all of the fun and exciting fitness challenges at work (side bar: I love working at a fitness company; it fills my cup!), I chose to focus on my main training mission.
Showing up on my bike and in the gym throughout the past two months has paid dividends (finance bros can’t help but use finance lingo; sorry, not sorry). I meant to write about this sooner, but here we are accepting reality. 🙂 Early in November, I set a goal for myself to reach a Functional Threshold Power (FTP) of 200 by the new year. If you don’t know what FTP is, it’s a metric cyclists use to estimate and monitor their fitness level. FTP represents the average power you can sustain over an hour of riding. This is commonly tested by an athlete riding their hardest for 20 minutes, then multiplying the average power from that ride by 95%.
When I first did this test on November 9th, my FTP was 185. I was proud to establish that figure as my baseline, and since I am brand new to training, I expected to see dramatic growth early in my program. Hence, setting a “stretch”, yet attainable goal of reaching an FTP of 200 by the new year.
On Christmas Day, I did a ramp test… because I love fitness and someone needed to break in my mother-in-law’s new Concept2 BikeErg (she approved this, don’t worry!). My new FTP is 205. I am so proud to have reached this goal, especially because it was difficult to manage my responsibilities with training over the past few months.
I learned a few other things during this block of training: 1) Setting micro goals throughout my 10-month cycle training from start to the Green Mountain Stage Race is going to keep me motivated. Right now, I have a stronger belief in myself because I met this first goal. 2) There was a portion of time when I got sick and couldn’t train like I wanted, but I prioritized rest, and that enabled me to meet my goal. That’s huge for an obsessive exerciser like me.
So, friends, as I write this update on a quiet Sunday afternoon, I leave you with a sense of gratitude. I’m grateful for this quiet Sunday afternoon, your patience, and support. Happy New Year!