Below is the AI-generated transcript of the 2025 BCBR Zoom Call #2: Goal Setting. The copy is unedited. Please excuse any errors.
Download the worksheets mentioned in this video:
Goal Worksheet
Annual Event Calendar
Andreas Hestler: Then what we’re talking about is just stretching it out a little farther. So I personally have arrived at stage racing for me as being a wonderful experience that allows me to get a little deeper into both patients and my myself.
Day after day you learn a lot about yourself on the journey. But that’s you know we’re getting ahead of ourselves as we talk about that. That’s the outcome that we’re going to experience. And I will add that, you know. Sometimes it takes a couple of stage races to really find your rhythm and your your personal knowledge of your body. But that’s what biking and bike racing is. It’s a. It’s a journey of exploration and camaraderie that we all share together. We’re pretty happy that you know. We’ve started these Zoom Meetings so that we can share our knowledge base. And on that note I’ll just touch on Coaches Corner. We’ve we’ve been really excited to bring in Karsten Madsen, Adam Walker and Jason Bond.
We also have plans to bring in some more people that are adding some complementary skill sets to the overall program.
We’re gonna go through some basic steps here as we we try to educate and layout what is sort of an ideal, and there’s no one way that is going to be the way to train. There’s many, many ways that you can get there. I mean, I heard it the other day in a we were talking about sales. Sales is well, more phone calls is more sales, more communication is more so well getting ready. And it is about more we all have to. We’re asking more of ourselves at the BC bike race. And so along the way.
We’re going to try to outline some some ways to do more. Now. along that that idea we do understand that there are holidays and birthdays and obligations and work schedules.
Brendan’s heard all this recently, I believe. And that’s okay, because that’s part of life, you know. Colds come along. And and but we’re asking something really cool of ourselves. We’re going to engage in a stage race hopefully at the other end of that. Well, actually, I can guarantee when we get through that we’re going to be stronger, better physically, physiologically, and we’re going to be better people, knowing, you know there’s going to be tears. There’s going to be maybe some scratches, and that’s part of mountain biking. You got to dig into your open the open. We say, open the hurt locker, step inside and close the door, and then, you know, of course, you’re in charge of the door, so you can open it and step out at any time. But you know that’s a self-imposed challenge. That’s the way we like to look at BC bike race.
So that said there are some very very simple guiding principles that allow us to sort of streamline our process. And and you know, Adam said it recently, we don’t start our training program on a on a annual basis in January. Really, you know, we’ve gone through our summer.
And we really want to be thinking about that which why, we’re starting here and now. So November one is really, you know, somewhere around now is a really good time to sort of sit down. Set your goals. Well, I think we have a mutual goal. Here is BC. Bike race. We’ve got some short term goals, midterm goals, and some long term goals. We’ll leave BC bike race as the long term. And there’s some objectives within those. We’ll get to that in a sec.
So, looking forward in our planning really requires that we honestly look backwards at what we, what we have done. So we take an honest assessment of who we are at this moment. Well, how was your summer? Did you have a you know, a progression in your physical ability? Were you over inundated with work holidays. Were you sitting on the beach all summer long, you know. So where are we? Is a really great place at this moment in time to understand. We’ve set a goal.
We’re at ground 0. But you got to look back and say, Yeah, I’ve been riding a lot for the last 3 years. Last 2 years last 10 years, like or I’m a cross country skier. So I get fit. I get unfit. You know this. This is just an honest assessment of yourself.
So call it ground 0. Right now we’re going to look back. You’re going to think about, you know. Where am I? And at this time from a professional athlete’s perspective, you tend to assess. Do you have any nagging injuries? Are you physically rested? Because before you can start into your more is more.
You want to know where you’re at. Am I coming in fatigued from a big summer, a big block recently? So we want to start in a fresh state of mind and a fresh physicality, physiological state. So that as we apply our load, whatever that may be, we’re going to be able to get back and say, no. I started in a fresh place, so I know what energy is. I know what my good is. I’m sleeping X. Amount of hours at a fresh. Maybe you sleep 6, 7, 8 h, whatever your number is. Suddenly you add load. You’re sleeping 10 h. Okay, well, I’m just tracking this right now, trying to understand. When I add load more, how does my body react so again, back to your 8 HA day? That’s just one parameter of understanding how your body’s reacting to the load as we move forward.
I’m going to throw one more piece of information. I feel like we had this conversation before, but it seemed to land well with people last time Christmas. This is a family obligation. It’s a time to be able to enjoy mentally. Some people will arrive at Christmas holidays, and they’ll be trying to squeeze in your training. You got to squeeze in your shopping at all these social functions but if we know that we don’t want to be feeling guilty about our training during that period. We like to do a block of training before, so you can then relax through Christmas, knowing that you’ve done a chunk of work and then you’re going to rest through Christmas, emotionally enjoying it, recharging it and taking that positive as you then come out into January. All the gyms are going to be full. You’re going to fight for every piece of equipment usually lasts 2 weeks before the flaky people disappear. But we’ve already set our goal. We’ve got our base miles or plans in place, so that once that dissipates, we’re back into our swing of things and we enjoyed Christmas. This goes for most holidays, so we’ll talk about that sort of planning, taking into account again. As we said. You know, family life work, schedules, travel schedules, non-negotiable things. But it’s important that, you know, we look down the road. And usually, you know, we’re working from that goal backwards. Right? So that’s our long term goal.
And then we’re looking at some midterm goals. And then we’re looking at our short term goals.
Written plans and written goals tend to get a little bit more respect and deliverable. We hold ourselves accountable to things we write down, and I know that some people who are deep down this path put affirmations on their mirrors, so when they brush their teeth at night or in the morning.
I will add to that that Ryder Hesjedal, who was a junior. Starting into racing, we ended up winning the Giro d’italia, racing professionally in the Tour de France was as simple as writing affirmations down. I want to ride the Tour de France. So, starting from age 14, those simple reminders that some people put around their house. Live like no one’s watching dance like everybody’s. You know these kinds of things cheesy, silly, but effective. This is a very simple sheet. (See Goals Worksheet above).
Now we know that the long-term goal is BC bike race. When we share this sheet with you, you know, the question is, and we want to arrive at some understanding of the outcomes that you wish to achieve. Are you gunning for the podium? Want to shred every day. Want to look around, enjoy the single track you’re here for the the overall experience, I mean, and it can change year to year. It can change day to day. And this is a long way down the road, too, so you know, and maybe write it in pencil, so you can erase it, and you can get back to changing that. But you know we got to think about it a little bit.
Midterm goals are things that you know, are going to help you to get to that long term goal. So those to me in my mind, are like a training camp. A block of training a series of one day races that prepare your body, because while we do train, and while we might do intervals.
It’s often, you know your body does something else. When it’s on a start line. There’s nerves. I’m nervous now, talking to all these people.
There’s nerves, and there’s all the endorphins, the adrenaline that rush through your body which can literally be debilitating. So, having a little bit of practice about, you know, taking a start line, getting your race preparation like, when do you slide on your chamois? How much time before I get registration I get to the start line? Where do I want to be on the start line. These are all just little things, and the more you practice them, the more comfortable you become with them, the less they take an emotional toll and they just become routine.
So midterm goals. And again, we’re going to maybe get back to this in our next meeting. But this is a sheet for yourself, so that you can plan out some of your objectives along the way.
Short-term goals. Well, I’d say, start with writing goals, and then we’re going to get into something else in the next phase. But short term goals would be, you know, a simple statement of more is more. Now, if you don’t keep a log of last year’s November and December for what you did, it’s going to be kind of, you know, starting from Scratch ground 0. So I suggest that you print this punch a 3 hole in it, put it into a binder, and start to take a log of where you’re going. And if you have some ideas of what you’ve done in the past, sometimes athletes are talking about, you know, it’s a 10% overall growth per year. You maybe if you’re lifting weights, you can see through the months of lifting that there’s a steady progression. So this is a this is a reflection of how we progress to an outcome is through small steps.
1st we got to show up at the gym. 1st we have to show up at the start line. But along before that we’re doing a lot of preparation so short term goals.
I think, do we? Do we want to open up a couple questions on this subject matter. So far, Monera.
Moniera: Absolutely. If anybody has something on this, by all means raise your hand. It’s probably the easiest way. Since I’ve got a couple of screens of people here. So.
Andreas Hestler: And this point I’m going to include. Unfortunately, Jason Bond couldn’t come here as our strength specialist. But you know, if you feel if you want to ask Karsten or Adam as well. They’re very well versed and professional coaches at this time, so they’re they’re well up on it. So if you have any questions for any of us right now. Fire away.
Okay, so we’re going to give you homework here.
And the next phase, can we bring up the next sheet, please, Carmel, an annual calendar. (Download Annual Calendar Worksheet above)
And this one is based on weekends that for me it’s always been, you know. Races happen on weekends, and you can sort of pencil in whatever you want. This is again a an annual plan that takes us to our long term goal down at the bottom BC bike race.
And right now we are looking at BC, we’re setting some race schedules. It’s not decided yet, but you can start pencilling in Christmas, January or holidays. These are things where training may be difficult. So you can structure and build plans around that. So these are working documents that will be provided to you links and or mail outs email outs. Digital. So these are just some basic fundamentals for this where we are base, we’re at ground 0. We’re starting our season. Where are we going? What are the big steps along the way, and what are our opportunities to execute those? So this is kind of a dovetails nicely in with the the big goals, the short term goals, and the midterm goals.
What are some of the objectives along the way where I can, you know? Take my progression, 0 ground 0. We’re moving up, moving up. We’re moving towards like a steady progression. Some people, you know, there’s there’s many, many thoughts and processes within the coaching world of physiological progression. And it’s, you know, it’s like, it’s like everything. There’s a lot. And it’s complex. And it’s dynamic.
But that is the basic principle of just doing a bit more, adding a bit more. And don’t forget. No training is effective without rest. Rest is really what enables all that training and all that work to that load to take effect in your body? Your body has to recover from the load before it could become stronger.
All right. Any questions on that.
Oh, yeah, I got to show you my old race calendar, which is pretty shoddy, but funny to look at.
This is my plan, is, it wasn’t starting now, but I do. I have other monthly weekly plans that I was putting into place. But this is an annual calendar, and, as you can see, there was lots of changes late in the season that happened. I’ve got a few different rows, training camps, races, travel plans. But in the in the long run I hope that your calendar starts to look like this, as you, you know. Set your goals, set your plan. It’s not written in stone. The only thing that’s written in stone is that you’re going to come to BC. Bike race and succeed with what your objectives are.
So just for your knowledge base, not recreating the wheel here. We’re just giving you some tools to help you along.
I think, at this point, I’d like to introduce the other coaches and have them talk about themselves and their philosophies and their experiences. And just, you know, now we’ll broaden the team that’s here to help you plan out and strategize your achievement of your goals.
Moniera: And Dre, before we do that, I see Jason has raised his hand. Jason, do you want to unmute yourself and go.
Jason Grech: Yeah, sure. Sorry. I can’t show my video. There’s something wrong with my camera. But so I’ve never done. I’ve done little stage races before, like 2 and a half day. Stage races, you know. 130 K’s over 2 days. Whatever done. Marathon events 60 70 k. 1 day. Things so similar to probably everybody else never done embarked on a big 7 day thing, especially with the amount of elevation per distance that you guys are offering.
So I find I’m very comfortable climbing like 200 meters in 10 kilometers. That sort of ratio.
But I find what you guys are doing is kind of towards double that, or 3 like 50% on top of that. So my question sort of relates to if I have an objective right? And say, like, I’m a 53 year old Guy. I weigh 83 kilos. I would like to weigh 75 kilos for this event, right?
I figure I figure if I lose, and I’ve lost a fair few kilos getting down to 80-85 kilos. I feel like if I got down to 75 kilos. Obviously I’d climb better. And it would give me a chance to reach my objectives easier. I train at the gym. I work full time.
My only chances of riding are pretty much on the weekends, but I can squeeze in 2 h at the gym each day, have an indoor trainer. But say, if I look at my I set an objective. I go. You know what I look at the guys in that age group. And I’m in my age group. And I go. I want to be in the top 25%.
Right? So I picked, I picked a guy who is at the bottom 25%. I look at these times, kilometers per hour, and I go fucking do that. But so that’s my goal, right? And then and then I go. What sort of training do I need to do to achieve that fitness like at a training peaks level. You know, what amount of volume will I need to do? What level of fitness will I need to be at to be at that that’s what I like. You can set an objective. But if that objective is not realistic at the outset you see, setting yourself up for failure because you don’t like. I don’t even know if I can get top 25.
Andreas Hestler: Okay, let’s add, you’ve got a lot of questions in there, Jason, and we’ll use you as a case study. So this is a chance for everybody just to you know.
Echo, what Jason has asked and queried. So 1st of all, Jason, where you live is obviously flatter than where we live. So you have different terrain. You have 10 kilometers, 400 meters. We have 10 kilometers, 800 meters. So you’re coming here. But you said, you had experience at marathons and stage races in the past, so where can I fit in? And how does that affect my objective so empirically from those races that you’ve done in the past. Where did you fit in, and what were you doing for training.
Jason Grech: there’s different styles of events. So we have a classic event in Australia called the convict 100. Now, the type of mountain bike as you get to that, it’s more like a gravel event. To be honest, there’s no real single track in it, but it’s it’s rough to double track in that event came like 20th in my division out of about 80 people. But in a mini stage race I completed recently. I came mid pack. So it was about 50 guys. And I came about 24th-25th
Andreas Hestler: You got some numbers in there, and you are. You have some experience in a in a similar vein, so maybe outlining your objectives, as you know, in one race, a mini stage race, I was 50%. And in the one day I was 25%. So you know that you’re somewhere between 50 and 25% of the field. Those are nice, you know, solid objectives. Now, you’re going to enter into more of an international field, but year to year we don’t really know what we’re getting.
So I think you kind of have to start with what you have as a as a basis is why we’re looking backwards. And then we take the information we have. And we project looking forward, saying, Okay, which day did I feel better? Which one of those somewhere in there? I think we’re looking at some some good data that is, gonna give you some reasonable numbers. Now they’re a friend of ours that Adam knows. Neil Grover was from Winnipeg and Winnipeg is Pancake Flat. And guess what he was a mountain biker. And he went all over the world racing mountain bikes very successfully. Eventually he moved to Calgary because he wanted to be closer to the mountains. But the the way you train is in in anticipation of the the terrain you’re going to, even though you don’t live there, you can physiologically mimic or get as close to that with with your style of training. So you know we’re not you, you know, if you’re riding on a flat plane into the wind, you’re trying to mimic that if you’re on a trainer, maybe you kick it up in the front so that it’s it allows your hip flexors and your back to adjust to a climbing position. So if you’re in the gym, you’re building strength, you’re building mileage on the flats because they come together in combination, maybe you’re doing a tests on Zwift in the hill climbing areas that allow that to sort of find out how you bring 2 pieces of those trainings together to achieve 800 meters of climbing in a slightly shorter period of time or 10 K. So there’s lots of tools, and it sounds like you have all the tools at your disposal. The question is more, how do you put them together to achieve that goal? And then, arguably, in a 7 day race patience is going to be very effective. So run out over 7 days. You’re gonna have to be patiently waiting till your day. 4 day 5.
And then you you know, you’re gonna understand. If you’ve done the right miles and you’ve paced yourself properly.
Moniera: Ray. Is this the perfect segue to sort of introduce the coaches, and then hear some of their philosophies, and how they would address this.
Andreas Hestler: Absolutely. Moniera. Thank you, Jason, for allowing us to case study. It’s a dynamic question, and let’s throw it out to. We’ll go with Karsten first, st and then we’ll hear Adam, and then I’ll introduce or man, Eric, and I’ll introduce Jason’s bio. He’s got a quite nice bio, and we’ll talk about that. But go ahead, Karsten.
Karsten Madsen: Hey? Everyone? So yeah, I’m Karsten Madsen. I race BC bike race on a Knumber of occasions myself in the pro field. Before that I did offer a triathlon professionally, and probably what I have most of my notoriety. Well, through that whole time I kind of started a coaching company called Mad Endurance, and been kind of running that for the last 10 years. And now it’s myself and another coach that I have Kirsten Sweetland. And have a nutritionist as well. That’s a part of the group that kind of. We all work together. To help athletes kind of meet those endurance goals. And so, you know, kind of quickly a little bit, you know for the last kind of 2 years I’ve provided that plan that maybe some of you have done that we provide athletes to have this year. We’re gonna incorporate some more of the different coaching perspectives within that which is gonna be great because one of my philosophies for sure is collaboration. The longer I’ve kind of gotten into it the coaching side of things. I’ve really kind of stayed in my lane on kind of the writing the program component. And I’ve really, you know again, that’s why I have a nutritionist on staff is. Yes, I can do broad brush strokes. But if you actually want that deeper knowledge, there’s an expert in that, because each of these categories there, it’s it’s deep like you can go down the rabbit hole of exercise, physical strength, and conditioning, nutrition and all that. So I really focus on kind of keeping things on a more simplistic look of like, well, what’s the broad brush strokes? Things that you know we should be doing? Really focusing on consistency. If I was to think of what one thing that really builds endurance is being consistent. So that’s day in week to week, month to month, year to year, and it kind of compounds, I always say, like compounding interest. The more you put in, the more you’ll get back.
Now, with that there’s a caveat to rest. We need to rest like Dre said. Otherwise you get into a state where I kind of call it watering a plastic plant, and you’re expecting it to grow. It won’t.
You’re not resting. You’re not absorbing the load and that that includes, like, you know, you’ll get ill more. You’ll have more illness and injury and soft tissue injury. So rest is really important. And you know, like, we want to use things like all this data we all like, whether it’s metric tracking with things like an aura ring or a whoop, or whatever. We have all this data and training peaks and all these different softwares collect all this data. So we want to kind of use what we have to our advantage. And in the same breath, we don’t want to get overly analytical to all of it. There is some some kind of fine line there.
And you know again, ultimately, if we have 10 HA week to train, or maybe it’s 6 HA week. Whatever your situation is, really, what we’re trying to do is maximize the time that you have, so we’re not playing around in the gray zone we’re actually working on building into our upper zones, working on, you know, threshold. And vo 2, Max, and having, you know, solid recovery days. Not just kind of being like, oh, I feel great today. So I’m just going to pound it and do an hour extra. And all this stuff. It’s it’s kind of having that discipline, because that ultimately maximizes the hour. And if, you know, kind of simplistically put to sum up, all of this is, we’re trying to pay pay $8 for something that costs 10, if that makes sense. So that’s my my elevator pitch. So.
Moniera: Perfect thanks, Carson. Adam, do you want to unmute and go next.
Adam Walker: Absolutely thanks. Moniera. Hi, everybody! I’m Adam Walker. I am a mountain bike coach. I’ve been mountain biking, racing bikes and been around bikes for the majority of my life. I’m a master’s athlete myself at I just turned 52. So I think I think the 50 plus category is the biggest category in BC bike race. So I am. I am like many of you out there, many of you on this call. I’ve been coaching for many, many years. I I started a business called the Cycling Co. about 10 years ago. And I’ve worked with many high performance athletes across all mountain bike disciplines. But I really specialize in working with masters athletes.
My philosophy is like it’s based on the fact that it’s got to be fun for it to be effective, and if it’s fun it’ll be sustainable. If it’s sustainable. You’ll find that consistency. We keep hearing that word consistency. Over and over again Carson brought it up. Dre brought it up, and and I would echo, echo those sentiments 100 per cent. But within that consistency. We need some specificity as well. So it’s not just out there slogging away cranking up volume as important as that is, we need to. We need to break apart the components of what areas do we need to be successful? How we create the processes and the daily habits that will feed the performance. And then and how do we create create those performance goals to then feed the outcome? So it’s a real. It’s a real kind of sequence from process to performance to outcome. And when I work with athletes, we start by doing much like we’re doing today, create those those big outcome goals. And once we set those goals, we might put those on a shelf and really focus on what’s it going to take to build those puzzle pieces and put together those puzzle pieces from the process to the performance to the outcome.
I really believe in a lot of real world like being out there on the bike time. Time is time. On the bike building skills have a high value in, I place a high value on skill development on the mountain bike as part of my programs.
And with all the with all of those components. I think it’s a super fun program for athletes to work with. I had. My, I did. BC bike race last year for the 1st time after all these years I’ve known Dre for 20 years dre, and I used to be teammates and roommates. We’re on the National team together. But I finally did BC bike race for the 1st time last year. And it was. It was an amazing experience. I had about 9 other athletes that were there with me that I coached, and everybody had a really successful ride. So that’s a little bit about me.
Andreas Hestler: Awesome. Thanks, guys, yeah, I think we have a lot of experience here. And in the overall coaches corner what we’re going to do. And I like. What Carson said is, we’re going to paint some brush strokes. But the details, you know, if you’re really looking to get down on a personalized program. That’s the big commitment. And that’s really where you get the personalized service. We’re going to paint some big, broad pictures, which is, you know. And like, I said. I remember Lynn Bessette used to cross country ski all winter, and she became one of the top female cyclists. And I, you know I just started cross country skiing a few years ago. Now I get fit in the winter on about 3 h or 4 HA week, and I come out of it, and then I have to transition that into cycling. I also go to the gym because I’m 54, and if I don’t I don’t feel good. So there’s all sorts of ways to train, and you all live in different places like Heidi has. You’re often in the desert, aren’t you, Heidi?
So this is where it’s a dynamic matrix where you have to look at in terms of you know what time is available. As Carson said, 6 h, 8 h, 10 h, and everybody’s a different situation. So. But they’re both, as Adam and Carson said, that using that time effectively is the most effective, you know, and that’s really what balance is. That said, you know you can always squeeze in something extra on a trainer in the gym as athletes. We don’t believe in excuses. You want that consistency, because the moment it breaks down you’re going to get a cold, and then you feel like you’re falling behind. So consistency. There’ll be a hole in the program, a missed ride here and there for work meetings. I think you got some good foundational basis is at this moment. I want to just talk about Jason Bond, who is our strength conditioner. I got to share this screen. That’s what we got to do. And then we’ll loop back.
Andreas Hestler: Okay. This is Jason. I’m just going to read you a little excerpt. Cycling strength and conditioning a good strength program is designed to develop stronger, more powerful and resilient cyclists. It should encompass work that helps develop power, strength, speed, stamina, stability, focus and mobility and enhance their general athleticism.
But most importantly, it should add to the individual’s riding performance with an integrated and consistent training focus. There’s that word again. Training off the bike ensures maximum results while improving the quality and quantity of the rider’s time on a bike. A structured strength and conditioning component will help build the physical strength and endurance needed to excel in cycling add longevity and resilience.
Coach Jason Bond, founder of bond training, is one of Vancouver’s leading bike. Focused strength trainers and coaches. Jason is passionate about all things. 2 wheeled and brings a wealth of experience as a trainer and a cyclist.
Jason has trained and raced across a wide range of cycling disciplines from Marathon, XC XCO. Downhill, Enduro Road, Racing, Cross racing, and BMX. Jason is a certified trainer and NCCP and PMBI Certified Coach.
Having one tip. Having trained a number of BCBR participants and successfully completed it myself, use the gym to help you improve your weaknesses on the bike. If you struggle with short, punchy climbs, the gym can help you improve this area of your riding. If you struggle with bike control and long descents, the gym can help you improve this area, too. Take some time to consider how you want to show up for day one, and use your training, especially your training the gym to help you get ready to show up.
In preparing for BCBR. You absolutely need to maximize your quality time on the bike, the time in the gym should be confident and aid your riding. Not take away from it.
So I think you know, we’re all talking about some great things, lots of tools out there. But really we have to kind of get down on. Where do we live? What time do I have available? And we are at ground 0.
I think at this point we can open up for Q&A. Our overall plan is to kind of create a very broad stroke, template to which we will, as the coaches corner guide, offer tips, offer tricks that will help you within your races and share our knowledge. So this is a general look at how we get ready. And then, as you get into the deeper, deeper specifics, it’s going to be a sort of a personal journey. And those questions, you know, I’m sure Adam and Carson and Jason would love to field some questions about how and what?
We’re excited about starting on ground 0 having a nice goal and lots of cool steps along the way to get there.
Don Arancibia: Super excited. This is my 1st Zoom Meeting. I’ve been wanting to BC bike race like I would say for the last 10 years. And anyway, yeah, I just turned 60 years old this year, and I used to mountain bike and race quite a bit and it’s it’s been a while I still love mountain biking. I actually got myself an E mountain bike recently, just to go out there and and get some longer rides in, which is pretty cool. So I will be racing as a solo 60 plus racer and I am super excited to get training now and hopefully be ready to go in July.
I guess my my question. So some of the skills you know, the North Shore, Vancouver, and and all that amazing writing you guys do up there is inspiring. I live in Oregon, and so the kind of Pacific Northwest. We have some great trails up here, I should say down here, if you guys are up there. But yeah. So I’m gonna I definitely want to get myself fit. I do a lot of running, and I’ve been cycling lately, finally getting back on my bike a bit more.
And so some strength training, for sure, as you guys were mentioning is going to be important. But for me, it’s like, I’m also thinking about skill level. I’ve been a pretty good technical mountain biker for years. But some of the things that you guys do up there.
I guess I feel a little intimidated like some of these like super narrow shoots, and like a super steep drops, and maybe going over some narrow wood features that you guys have. How does that play, if you’re like an intermediate. You know, mountain biker doesn’t have experience doing that kind of riding the North Shore style.
Andreas Hestler: I’ll jump on that one quickly at first, st and then we’ll pass over the other 2 coaches, mostly BC. Bike race focuses on the blue square, the fun, the flow, and most of the wood things will have ride arounds or be wide enough like a sidewalk. So yes, there are a few shoots, but they are few, depending on the state you’re in when you arrive. Walking is always an opportunity or sorry on offer. I’ve walked things all the time myself, up and down, but let’s throw it out to the coaches and hear from them. Adam.
Adam Walker: Yeah, just to jump on that, as I think. Skill wise. There’s a lot of, we see a lot in the media about, about riding in BC. And riding on the north shore, and it can look intimidating, but as challenging as some of the single track is here, and as awesome as it is.
I would say that it’s doable for most people who register for BC bike race. If you’re if you’re up for the challenge. There’s ways to develop the skills to make it doable. And with some of the riders I’ve coached in the past who’ve done this race. I think people surprise themselves with what they’re able to ride once they get here. And like dre, said most of the what you, when you do see the wooden features, the ones that are mandatory tend to be wide and low, and and very manageable, and then some of the others are optional.
And I would say, one of the, one of the biggest things in terms of skill. Development is just really start to develop a good understanding of of stability, balance, and body position, and and how some of the forces that are that are occurring when you’re on the bike, whether those are forces coming upwards through the bike, or whether those are forces that you’re applying to the bike itself, how to manage those, how to create and release forces. So pressure control and body position will get you through a ton of the terrain here.
Andreas Hestler: I just like to add, I love that. What Carson was doing with his buddy last couple of weeks. Usually, I do the same. He was chasing end of the season. All the trails he hadn’t really, you know, poked into for the last bit. What a great way to, you know. Go exploring, challenge yourself, but tell us a little bit about that adventure.
Karsten Madsen: Yeah. So you know, this isn’t something that you want to do when you’re literally, you know, weeks out from BC bike race. But usually the end of the year is a it’s a good opportunity depending on the year, too. Like. Usually the dirt starts to have a little bit more moisture in it. So you get what’s called hero dirt. If you don’t know, look it up, and you’ll soon be very familiar with it, but it’s very tacky. And yeah, we started chasing just some double black lines that you know, I wouldn’t ride typically A on my own or B close to any racing, and I found out what sometimes happens when it doesn’t go right. But that is, that’s you know, everyone’s got to pay that piper. If you want to progress your mountain bike skills. Unfortunately, it’s just like Dre said, you’re gonna take on some scrapes.
But again, can you can you put yourself in good situation? Where, again, are you riding with someone? Because there is a safety element to it? But but yeah, and I’ll echo what dre said about sometimes? It’s just best to walk something in the race if you’re already going to have your heart rate jacked at like 180 beats a minute like.
Is that the best time to ride something? And then, as well, parlaying to what Adam says and go on Adam’s Instagram. He had tons of like really good nugget tip videos about body position and then body position and how it interacted with the bike. So go review those and then implement them yourself, because at some point, you know, can’t have your hand held the whole time. You gotta watch these things and then try them on your next ride. So yeah, we’ll get to the next question.
Don Arancibia: Thank you very much. By the way, I just want to say one more thing over the next 6, 7 months. Are there training, I shouldn’t say training rides, but like any group rides or any kind of rides happening. If I want to drive up to Vancouver or on the weekend.
Carmel: I would say, we don’t have anything organized at this moment, but if people are interested, I think we’re more than willing to make something happen, for sure.
Don Arancibia: Right on. I saw the Maneuver Vancouver video with Hans Ray up there, and I was like, Oh, that looks like some cool stuff right? That close by, you know, right up around grouse. And then, anyway, up there.
Moniera: Can we go over to Bryan now? Bryan’s had his hand up for a few minutes.
Bryan King: Yeah, I really, my question goes along, maybe, what with what Jason said earlier about how? How do you pick a goal that’s realistic right part of me is thinking, wow! Finishing. This would be awesome because I’ve never done 7 days in a row, especially as long as it is. I know you talked about like gauging where you’re at, but I have no idea how to put a 7 day stage race and compare to other folks there. So like, I started racing this past year. I’m 50. So not an early starter in that regard at all. And I noticed, you know, in like the Cyclocross races at the end of the year, and I do not make a lot of improvement, you know, being 17th out of 25 or something. Just looking for like, how do you gauge where your goal should be in that regard?
Andreas Hestler: Well, I would say, goals can be broader than the specificness of top 100 top, 200 top 300. And it’s that’s part of the journey along the way is kinda figuring out, and it is. It’s a big gray target at the end of the rainbow. But maybe you take 3 goals, a bronze, a silver, and a gold, and you sort of you know these are all bronze. I want to finish silver I want to finish in the top 75% gold is, I want to be the top 100 in the 50 plus category. So that you know there’s there’s you’re always going to be a winner when you finish. And that’s your overall objective. But then there’s like, Well, your day. 4 day 5. And you’re you’re actually feeling really good. You’ve done the right preparation. I’m looking at goal objective. 2 is kind of coming in my range. And then maybe you know that 3rd goal, the gold medal.
It was kind of not there. But you. You set yourself up to succeed by being realistic, and then you can always have that aspirational in those objectives 3 goals one can be a very heaty goal, and the other 2 can be sort of benchmarks along the way. But arguably, in your 1st stage race finishing is a really good objective, and then.
Karsten Madsen: I was just going to add to that is that there’s always 2 types of goals process goals and outcome goals, and it’s good to interlace both. And one of the big things. I think over the last number of years. Doing this now and chatting with BC Bike racers is, what do you want to feel like at the end of the race? Do you want to feel like you survived? Or do you want to feel like you thrive, and generally what Coaches Corner is trying to do is like, let’s not have you make all these mistakes that are going to put you in the survival category. Let’s have you make all the right decisions and choices that put you in the thrive.
And I know you know all of us would echo that. That’s how we want to finish like high fives. Rad, I’m super tired. I need to eat. I’m gonna get cranky. But that was sick, and that’s what we want, instead of like you arrive at the finish line, and you’re thinking holy smokes. How am I doing this? Another 6 days, 3 days, whatever it might be. So. Yeah.
Moniera: Thanks for that, Karsten. David, you’ve had your hand up. You’re next.
David Crist: So it sounds like there might be a couple of training peaks programs that we would have access to is there? And I know you guys are still working on them. Is there time to do like a 4 week, a 4 week plan? Because my fitness level is pretty low right now and I’d like to get a start before we start.
Andreas Hestler: Yeah, absolutely. We’re just going to put together the overall and then some ideas. So we’re coming back on the 21st correct Moniera.
Moniera: That’s right.
Andreas Hestler: Yeah, so we’ll have more of a framework. And then on that annual calendar. Here’s some ideas. But for you, David, I mean, you know if you plug in. You got your Saturdays, your Sundays, your couple of weights during the week, and you build it into your calendar. You’re starting. It’s started. You’ve you’ve taken that 1st step.
Moniera: And then there was a question from somebody who wants to bring their 15 year old daughter Dre. And she was just looking for some input on sort of our experience with younger athletes, and how they mentally handle the full week. What have you seen on that that you can talk about.
Andreas Hestler: I saw 2 kids dragging their parents around last year. Well, I think they were a little bit older than 15, but who? The daughter, father, mixed couple from New Zealand.
Moniera: Dulce, Dulcie and Justin.
Andreas Hestler: Yeah, there was a great story, and she was crushing her dad. And then
Paul from Japan with his son. He was getting towed around by his 17 8 year old, son. So kids tend to thrive a little bit better in this environment than the masters. Category athletes, masters. Athletes have to use wisdom to overcome youth and beauty. So we have to be attending to the training and the smarts, whereas the youth have youth on their side, they recover. They have a meal, they still need to manage themselves. Stage racing is all about managing and patience. It’s not that one day send it, and then you got the rest of the month to recover. So it’s more of a process and a patience. But I don’t. I think that you know, as long as the the 15 year old is planning and progressing as well through a sports organized program. I don’t see any problems. Any other thoughts on that Adam?
Adam Walker: I could. Yeah, I would jump in on that. I’ve worked with a ton of youth development athletes and athletes who progress from local level and ended up on the Canadian national team. And it’s remarkable what youth are capable of. I would say that, you know, depending as long as they’re coming from a background where they’ve got, you know, a couple of solid years of riding under their belt, and they’re they are riding on a regular basis. Really, you know, making sure that that load is appropriate and manageable, for where they are in, not only in their chronological years, but their years in sport or their training years, as we would say. So, yeah, certainly can. A 15-year-old ride BC bike race. Absolutely. I would have loved to have the opportunity to do this when I was racing at that age, and it can be incredible as we’ve been talking about some of these stories of kids dragging their parents around. It can be pretty amazing to see on that note. Dre. When are your kids going to do? BC bike, race.
Andreas Hestler: Well, it’s funny that I have 2 boys. One is 11, and one is 15, and the psychology of you know, we’re all here because we have a desire to challenge ourselves, but not everybody looks for a long endurance challenge. My older boy. 15 wants to. It’s not. He could probably do it, but he doesn’t have a willingness to do it. He does one day races and 3 day endurance race Enduro races but a desire to do it from them is really that the wealth of strength that carries him through is, I want to do this. And then, as Adam says, you look at their training. My 11 year old has all the aerobic capacity, but he’s 11, so he’s not quite ready yet. So yeah, one day I hope I’d love to do it with my children, and that would be an awesome experience. And again, riding with friends. You’ll find your people and your groups out there. You may come alone, or you may come with groups, but the journey you will find many people along the way and within the grunts and the sweats and the yee-haws on the downhills. You’ll make some new friends, and that’s probably one of the best parts of stage racing and BC. Bike races that time. Not just a 1 day race where you have a few chats with people you’ll have some time to chat with people and get to know, get some solid relationships built.
Moniera: Great before we wrap this up. Do you just have a couple of thoughts for people to take away, sort of to think about their goals and how we’re going to talk about that on the next call. Just so people can sort of give some thought to. You know what they want to get out of the next call.
Andreas Hestler: Yeah. So we were kind of thinking that there was a you know, sort of, I mean, there’s all sorts of different things. But if you’re thinking about, you know, finishing, podiuming, a good placing in between. And and you know how. Yeah, I mean again, it’s like your training’s going fabulous. You’re breaking all your numbers. You’re doing incredible stuff like, go back, erase them and rewrite your goals. That’s totally awesome. What do you do when you cross the finish line you celebrate, you get back to work. It’s really important that you celebrate successes along the way. This is a path that you’ve chosen, and we’re all here as a team to support each other.
But you celebrate successes, you reset goals and you move forward. And it’s okay to change your goals because they’re still written down. So they’re achievable. So sort of write out some. You know, we can continue to hone in on those they’re not written in concrete. Everything’s subject to change. And but yeah, it’s an honest assessment. And then but sort of try to figure out those sort of, is that kind of what you’re looking for Moniera.
Moniera: Yeah, just so that when we sort of get into things a little bit more in more detail in a couple of weeks, people can connect those things. To sort of strategize towards the goals is what I was thinking. So that’s perfect. Thank you. We’re going to wrap this up here. We’re just at the top of the hour.
I am always available at [email protected] for any questions, and the answers, I don’t know. I have a whole solid team behind me who will have answers, so please always reach out and the recording will be shared in. I understand, Carmel, so you can look for that to come and thank you all for showing up today and for bringing your questions and bringing your enthusiasm. We appreciate it.
Andreas Hestler: Awesome thanks everybody.