At Wattbike we’re keen to help you unleash your potential through structured training and effective indoor workouts. But no matter how hard you intend to train, factors like fear and self-doubt can creep in and stop you from realising your full potential.
Have you ever said to yourself;
“I’m not good enough for that sportive?”
“I could never race downhill?”
“‘I just don’t have the time to train!”
Then read on to find out how to overcome common limiting factors and start achieving your goals.
Inability
If you’ve ever been defeated by a hill climb, you might simply feel like you’re not born to be a climber, therefore you never try any mountainous sportives because you’re destined to fail and face embarrassment of being swept up by the support van.
But who says you can’t become a climber? If you put in the effort and improve your power to weight ratio you will start to see improvements. They may be small at first, but with the correct technique and lots of practice you will start to notice a significant difference.
TOP TIP: You don’t have to win an Olympic medal to celebrate success. Look for the small victories like not being out of breath halfway up the hill, or beating someone to the top, and use these as motivation. It makes every difference and before you know it, you’ll be completing the Haute Route!
Fear
Fear is a big limiting factor for so many people. Whether it’s fear of failure, fear of not knowing enough and looking foolish, or fear of the unknown, it can stop you dead in your tracks when setting goals for the coming year.
For example, in an ideal world you might like to take on something like The Alpine Challenge - an exciting four-stage endurance event with nearly 7,000m of climbing. When you start to think about it you realise that you don’t look like the cyclists in the picture gallery and doubt whether you can really do 7,000m of climbing.
Then you realise you’ll need to take your bike apart to pack it for a journey abroad, but you have no idea how to do that. Then you discover that no one you know has been to the event and you’re not really sure what you’re getting yourself in for. So, you drop the dream and go for something smaller instead.
So how do you overcome this fear?
TOP TIP: Step one is to prepare as much as possible. If you’re unsure how to take your bike apart, ask a friend who is a maintenance whizz or enrol on a bike maintenance course. Starting small is a great way to prepare, but it doesn’t mean you have to drop your big dream altogether! This leads us to step two which is to build your confidence in your ability. Make sure you train smart and follow a training plan, after a month or two you’ll notice you feel fitter, stronger and ready to take on the Alpine climbs. Look to incorporate some smaller events into your training plan to prepare you for the big day.
Time
Time is a limiting factor because you don’t have an endless supply of it. The key is to prioritise, and spend more of it on the things that matter most. If you need to spend time training in order to realise your potential, the truth is, you must be prepared to make a change and reduce your time spent doing other less important tasks.
Can you swap a car commute to ride into work? Spend less time on social media or in front of the TV? Could you get up an hour earlier before work or at weekends?
In today's world of convenience it’s so easy to get swept away with YouTube videos, social media and on-demand TV. However, is that time spent watching someone else achieve their hopes and dreams for the 100th time going to help you achieve your own goals?
TOP TIP: If you really can’t squeeze anymore time into your schedule consider training indoors. It’s shown to be more time-efficient than outdoor training as it removes external factors like traffic lights and wind directions which slow you down. Unlike a turbo, if you use a Wattbike at home there is no set-up time required other than the initial adjustments.
Now you have some helpful hints on how to overcome some common limiting factors it’s time to set some solid goals and put a plan in place to achieve them!
Let us know in the comments below what you will be conquering this year.