The New Year
January is already racing by. The holiday season always seems to come fast then leave you scrambling while playing catch up.
I know I’ve been thankful to get back to the routine and predictability of “regular” life! 2018 is off to a fast start and we wanted to share what we’ve been working on at DDA.
How to Accomplish Goals
As Data Driven Athlete has grown I’ve been most interested in how we can continue to develop a specific identity as a cycling coaching company.
One of the new projects I’m working on is establishing a curriculum amongst our coaches for how we support the specific goals of each athlete.
The first step has been to break down the typical goals most athletes bring us into requisite parts. Here’s an example of our process.
- Identify the goal and how it will be measured
- Identify the habits required to achieve that goal
- Identify the practices that make up those habits
Goal setting is a simple process that many of us do intuitively, but my aim is to make the process more organized and easier to communicate with our athletes. Check out the image below for an example of how we breakout the goal to “Ride Consistently”.
At DDA we want each athlete goal to be driven by a progression of best practices. We’re all excited about this new project and the potential it has to improve our coaching. If you’ve listed some goals for the upcoming season give this goal break-out exercise a shot!
How to Use an Indoor Trainer Effectively
DDA coach Sam Bassetti has written a great article on how to get the most out of your time on an indoor trainer without loosing your mind. You can head directly to the article by clicking here, but I’ve listed his main tips below.
- Have the right equipment
- Have the right setup
- Find your motivation
- Have a plan
- Set conservative goals
Interested in digging into the full article? Check out the full article here.
A Few Days at Camp
Last weekend we held our second annual DDA Napa Valley Training Camp. In short, we had another amazing time riding, learning more about training, and eating great food. I put together a collection of some of the best moments of the camp you can check out by clicking on the image below.
Here are a few of the key take-aways from our camp weekend.
- Take the opportunity to periodically go “all-out” on your rides. Giving committed and intentional “max efforts” is crucial for continuing to progress as a cyclist.
- Eating more carbs is the best nutritional strategy to improve the quality of your rides.
- Surround yourself with motivating peers. Riding with a group will nearly always enable a peak performance impossible to accomplish on your own.
Take a deeper look at our camp experience by clicking here.
If you have the opportunity we’d love to have you join us in 2019! All the best as you work toward accomplishing your goals in 2018 🙂
Nate Dunn
Founder/Head Coach
Data Driven Athlete