Diaries of an Aspiring Ultra-Distance Cyclist: Dealing with Setbacks

I really want to talk about dealing with setbacks; as with any endeavour in life, setbacks will happen – it’s inevitable & totally unavoidable – the only thing that matters is your response.

Setbacks come in many forms; illness, injury, life events, work, bike malfunctions etc. Luckily I haven’t had any major setbacks as I start my 2022 racing preparations – however what I have had is a continuous series of minor disruptions that need two or three days out to put right. Whilst not really problematic, its disrupting my consistency which I find just as frustrating!

I think of my training as building an aeroplane. Follow the instructions from start to finish, with no steps skipped & you’ll end up with a perfectly produced aircraft that’s not falling out the sky. When you start skipping steps and doing an ad-hoc job here & there, the aeroplane may not look too dissimilar at the time – but the finished job will probably look wrong & likely wont fly either. I use this metaphor as it’s what I do professionally, there’s any number of relatable comparisons!

Building aeroplanes is what puts a roof over my head – riding bikes unfortunately doesn’t. So whilst riding bikes is important to me, I’m not a professional athlete & therefore have other things to prioritise in my daily life. As such its rare I have a week where I carry out my training exactly as planned. Often I’ll have to switch sessions around to fit it in. My point is that maintaining consistency is hardest part of training – when you factor in that training isn’t just the 3 hours of doing, it’s the prep & maintenance beforehand, then eating right & resting well afterwards. Actually doing the training session is relatively easy, making time for it & all the other aspects of training lifestyle is the hardest bit. Throw a setback into this & the headaches start all over again!

I think about ROI a lot – especially when it comes to training. What’s the effect of me doing this now on my ability to do something tomorrow? If the effect is negative, I don’t do it unless it’s a race. Simple as. I want positives outcomes during my training. A recent personal example would be saddle sores. I tweaked my bike position a little bit after some professional consultation earlier this year, so getting rid of my old habits on seating position & adapting to the new has caused some discomfort in the short term. On one hand I told myself to keep pushing through it & make the most of some spring sunshine to get some big big rides in – knowingly worsening the saddle sores. Or take a few days out & let my body recover. I’m 3 weeks away from a race – so the thought of not getting some longer conditioning rides in scares me. But thinking rationally, what’s the point in training to build myself in preparation for a race if I can’t then make the race. The overall ROI of training this weekend would have been negative.

I recently read a thought provoking article from James Hayden about mental fortitude. He articulates that just enduring adversity is not enough to consider yourself having mental, that you must thrive in adversity. He also explains mental fortitude isn’t something you can just call upon – like fitness and skill to clear a climb. It’s something that comes into play when you’re really up against it. It’s deep within, only revealing itself when we choose to keep pushing on through adversity. In order to do this, you have to choose your battles. Saddle sores isn’t something you can thrive on, not during a training phase where I only want positive ROI. I’m not going to use any mental fortitude to try and win this battle, instead I’m dealing with this setback by taking time to recover & repair, making sure I’m healthy before racing in a few weeks.

The same hold true for illness & other setbacks; if I wont get any performance benefit, the negative impacts are likely to be higher than any possible positive outcome. As I learnt with ultra-distance last year, overall average is better than moving average. So if I can use this downtime to plan a more efficient strategy & bike set up, then that more than makes up for any performance losses. Positive ROI.

The onset of spring has seen me get a bit carried away – I’ve lost my discipline a little. In a good way. With the longer evenings and much improved weather, I’ve kinda said bollocks to the training plan – choosing to just get out and ride after work, rather than a specific structured interval session on the turbo. I get carried away once out on the bike – often not getting home till 8-9 o’clock, meaning by the time I’ve eaten I cant then get to sleep at my usual 10pm. The knock on effect is usually feeling more fatigued when it all catches up a few days later. It all sounds trivial as I write this – and I guess its just a consequence of trying to fit as much into a day as possible!

I’m not aiming for perfection, but improvement; accepting, learning from and dealing with setbacks as they happen. I’m slowly learning about my body – what the effect of X is on Y. Diet influences mood. Mood influences discipline. Discipline influences routine. Routine influences diet. You get the picture… it just becomes a case of chasing my tail, sort of loosing sight of the overall goal. I mean, the sole focus of my training is volume – so just going out riding is never ever going to be a bad thing. Maybe I’m over thinking it. I guess the day I choose discipline over fun when it comes to bikes is probably the day I’ll give my bikes away!

In summary I wanted to conclude that balance & working out the sweet spot between positive and negative outcomes is the key. I don’t get frustrated with myself when it comes to dealing with setbacks like I used to; one of the goals I wrote down this year was around empathy, being kind to myself. I found last year my strongest performances on the bike came when I was at my most comfortable with myself. So I figure I’m not going to beat myself up about inevitable setbacks, responding positively and dealing with setbacks is what determines overall outcomes.