Selecting Events

[John Hughes]

It's the new year and ambitions soar.  I'm getting clients started and many have big ambitions for 2012.  Nothing wrong with big ambitions but we can't do everything.  I encourage my clients to set priorities among events.  I also ask for a couple of years of riding history since as a rule of thumb increasing total riding by more than 10-15% / year may lead to burnout and / or injury.

Years ago I developed the concept of athletic maturity, which is a combination of:

• Years you've been riding
• Riding volume per year
• Big events for you
• Dialing in equipment, clothing, nutrition, etc.
• Developing a personal sense of pacing
• Experience solving the inevitable problems

Your maturity as a rider is the biggest determinant of how many and what kind of events you should plan.  I've just published on my website an article on Event Selection:

     http://www.coach-hughes.com/resources/eventselection.html

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Cheers,
John Hughes
www.coach-hughes.com
PO Box 18028
Boulder, CO 80308-1028