2. What to give up for 0.4 seconds?
Dear subscribers - so excited to have you here and thanks to those who have sent ideas for what you want to hear about! I’ve been challenged on whether I should be writing this at all too because I listened to Anne Helen Petersen discuss on her podcast that the coolest people are the ones who have hobbies quietly without fanfare. So I’m sorry for being uncool. I can’t even be secretive and quiet about learning Bridge now because I’ve had some nominations for trying to tie Bridge and Flying 200’s together here!
I have done pretty minimal training this week as the weather has been grim, work has been busy and some other life admin has had to take temporary precedence. On Sunday Women’s Session got cancelled and it was only the fact I’d sent my public commitment to this goal that very morning that made me get on the turbo and do some 20/40s - continuing my first Bridge lesson that afternoon was serious competition for my time that evening, although wow, the bidding process is opaque and complicated!
A few years ago a friend of mine told me about his attempts to learn Turkish. He bought a book, opened it up and there was some surprisingly coach-y advice at the start. The author asked him to write down three reasons he wanted to learn Turkish, three reasons he hadn’t learned Turkish so far and three things he would give up to learn Turkish. The latter question stumped him so he closed the book and has never again tried to learn Turkish. It’s a conversation I always think about when I set myself goals - what am I prepared to give up for this one? And if there’s nothing on that list, should it even be a goal?
In the couple of years in the run up to the Olympics in London 2012, and before Gen Z made it socially acceptable to be teetotal, Chris Hoy gave up drinking alcohol. I can’t find the podcast where he discussed this, but I remember he said during this period he only had a drink on Christmas Day and Hogmanay and it felt like a commitment to his bigger goals for him because drinking is such a big part of our culture and he felt like it mattered even when he was on rest weeks.
I think this is often something we don't talk about enough - maybe because of narratives around “pursuing your passion” - if you really love something it shouldn’t be a sacrifice? Or only those at the very top of the game are perceived to make sacrifices? Or we only talk about the things we give up when our goals are successful and not when we fail or are still trying because we feel silly for investing in things that don’t work out? True, when you enjoy something it is easy to forget that you are giving up at minimum time, and usually money, to do it. My vague, unformed ambitions to ‘get better at track cycling’ in 2020-2022 didn't feel like they needed me to give anything up because I enjoyed going to track sessions, could afford them and there wasn't that much to do in 2020-2021 anyway. But every time I did a downward dog my hamstrings told me that I was giving up hamstring flexibility for cycling.
When I entered World Masters in 2023, I did have to think about what I would cut out to make that happen because proper training is time consuming and tiring. The low point in the sacrifices tally was sitting in traffic at 11.30pm on the Dartford Crossing trying to get home from Lee Valley Velodrome on a weeknight when the Blackwall Tunnel was closed. Sleep, down time, sanity, proper meals are all ‘easy’ sacrifices to creep in, but they don't have the best performance outcomes long term. I did seriously consider whether a better designed goal sacrifice strategy for World Masters would have been to give up some salary and work part time until the event. A half day to sleep in and do some healthy meal planning and prep? The dream. Cold hearted pragmatic Calvinism (you need the money and you won’t win anyway) won the day. However, looking at the sacrifices that other people did make for that competition it’s been easier to not compare myself to other riders since. You do the best with the time and resources you have - if you don’t want to commit any more to it that’s fine - boundaries are good! Your performance will be reflective of whatever you invest in it - and that’s still OK.
I don't want to give up money, sleep or sanity this year but here are my ideas on what I am giving up to try and find those elusive 0.4 seconds.
Watching TV. Unless I'm doing a zone 2 turbo ride, which would actually currently represent an increase in my current screentime anyway. Means I'm going to have to come up with something else to discuss in the work canteen though!
Competing in non sprint Saturday racing leagues. Might do them for the lolz (the Sequin Special is ON!) but I'm going to go to Saturday Sprint training and/or the gym first and likely have no legs. Going back to Dropsville is going to be hard mentally - I wasn't in the place for it last year at all after spending most of the 2023 season being dropped. However, the HHV coaches have been telling me for two years that I can't focus on endurance racing and sprinting and I maybe owe it to them to listen to their wisdom and experience for once.
Wearing trousers that fit. High street sizing doesn’t work for people that go to the gym and do squats. I just paid a tailor to do some alterations to a couple of pairs of trousers and am going to try and embrace the self inflicted changes to my body like Emma Finucane. (But at the back of my mind I am still saying, I want to be good at sprinting, but not so good that my legs look straight out a Simpson’s episode…I’m not THAT committed to this goal)
My goal to improve my FTP is now for autumn/winter as I probably can’t improve my FTP and my peak power simultaneously (but please tell me if I’m wrong!). I adore the friends I have that insist on telling other roadies that I’m a “sprinter” as an excuse for how slow I am on long rides (I’m slow because I’m terrified of cornering and descending but that’s a whole other story).
Are these worth such a tiny increase in speed? Is that even a good question? Will I die and wish I had watched TV shows instead of training for infinitesimal microsecond gains? Should I instead pay £31 per month to watch the Tour de France, 900 shark programmes and Meet the Rees-Moggs?
What do you think? What do you specifically give up to make your goals happen? Where are your boundaries? Let’s discuss!
p.s. thanks for bearing with my technical difficulties - getting used to this malarky.