We are heading into assessment week, hence time for you all to put your best suit on and hope you get a good judge. It is trial week. Guilty or not guilty, pass or fail. Isn’t that right? Let’s put a little context to things.

Before I even dive in, I realize that many folks are racing next weekend - with events such as Oceanside and Galveston 70.3 signaling the very real start to Northern Hemisphere racing.  Best of luck to all that are competing, remember to listen to the return to racing podcast from this week, and go have fun. I hope that you represent as well as all the initial racers of 2022 so far, who have learned so much and hit some great personal performances already.  For those not racing, it is timely for me to add context to where we are at.  First, let’s look back.  I couldn’t be happier with the effort and engagement across the last couple of months of training. Consistency seems to have been strong, and we have layered on some highly effective training. I know many are, suitably, feeling the initial fatigue creep of the tougher training. This is something anticipated for this time of year, but also amplified with the underlying stress that many navigate with shifting life structure and commitments (kids events, school, travel, back to the office etc). Let’s commit to charge on - with a healthy dose of pragmatism - as you have come so far. As we look forward, our overall training emphasis is shifting. I will cover this in depth next week, but we begin the development of ramping up our central ability to sustain speed and power, building from the platform of technical development and tissue resilience already developed. In other words, it is going to be getting tough.

So what about assessment week? I encourage you to use this week as – globally - slightly lower stress. It sounds counterintuitive, with three sessions being assessments. I mean it. No integrated strength work, overall less training time at higher intensity, and an opportunity to make the rest of the sessions easier. You should actually rejuvenate this week despite the tough assessments. I would also leverage this week to pause and reflect. Look back over the last months, recommit with your purpose, and look ahead to the coming three months and how you will manage your focus and intentions. I would like you to enter the next phase excited and mission driven, so encourage you to reflect before driving forward next week.  It will help excite and engage you for the journey.  Oh, and as I always mention, the assessments are not your jury trial. There are no awards. They act as check-ins and opportunities to highlight correct training intensity, global progression or flag of fatigue accumulation. Consistency is the path to performance, not simply an ability to hit a higher last minute power of a ramp test.  So. Breath easy and enjoy.  It’s a fun week.

Cheers,

Matt

P.S.  Thursday is a wonderful session to attend live - IF schedule allows.  We will be nailing down the ramp protocol of the assessment. It’s so much more productive and fun to do it with friends.  I hope to see you there.