Jenni Hicks has only been riding her Bike since March of this year, but has already set her sights on a lofty goal: to complete a 30-minute ride with a 300 output by summer’s end. She’s currently at 273.
“I’m hoping to get there by September 1,” she says. “I ride seven days a week unless I feel that I need a day completely off. I usually take two-to-three days of easier or recovery rides. Power Zone helps me to focus on improving all systems and measuring that improvement. If I just pick rides myself, it is too random and I am not intentional about my training.”
Hicks is just one of scores of people who have set athletic goals for themselves this summer. Some are focused on training for fall races, while others see more time at home as a way to use their Bike or Tread to connect with others.
“Having a specific goal gives us a set thing to work towards,” says Dr. Nina Vasan, MD, MBA, Stanford professor and psychiatrist at Silicon Valley Executive Psychiatry, and Chief Medical Officer of Real, a new mental health company for women. “That specificity makes it easier for the brain to decide what to do by decreasing the cognitive burden. Moreover, the more you do it, the more and more motivated you will be to continue.”
That’s certainly the case for Miriam Feffer, a Member who is participating in a virtual race from Vancouver to Peloton Studios New York.
“There are four of us, in two teams of two, who have entered into a friendly competition, which will likely end over the summer as the first one crosses the finish line,” she says. “We check in each quarter to determine the winner, and the loser sends the winner a gift. We maintain a little text chain where we can alternate between dissing our enemies, making dirty jokes, and simply sharing in some human moments of support and friendship.” Feffer says that “quarantine has pushed us to ride much more than ever before, so we’re on track to finish in the next two months. The contest will push us beyond our limits through the summer, but our goals are perfectly clear. Speaking only for myself as a lifelong non-athlete, I never would have imagined taking on anything like this. It turns out that a little friendly competition was just what I needed.”
While large goals like Ferrer’s are admirable, smaller goals count too.
“Small goals are the key to success,” says Dr. Vasan. “Having small goals makes it much easier to achieve your larger goal. Even during the day, if you want to exercise for an hour but find yourself struggling to find that large chunk of time, breaking it up into two or three shorter workouts has the same physical and mental health benefits.”
Amy Bone is doing just that from her home in London. “Like many others I have been working from home since March so I’ve used a lot of commuting time to jump on the Bike or run instead,” she says. “I try to run three-to-four times a week, use the Bike three-to-five times, and do a couple of strength workouts plus a bit of yoga.”
Her program of choice? Power Zone Training. “It’s improved my strength and cardio fitness enormously,” she says. “I started PZ in Jan this year and in that time I have taken about 20 seconds per kilometer off my easy run pace. I think the bigger impact though is mental. Long-distance running is such a mental game and PZ training teaches you to focus and be disciplined but also be aware of what each workout is for. The crossover into running is huge and now when I’m on a long run I treat it like a PZ class and break it up into intervals. It’s enabled me to break through some mental barriers I didn’t even know I had. Plus I feel like the PZ instructors are my personal trainers so I never want to let them down.”
Though these riders and runner make working toward their goals seem easy, there are undoubtedly bumps in the road. Dr. Vasan says this is to be expected and to go easy on yourself in dealing with them.
“Being hard on yourself or shaming yourself makes it that much harder to reach your goal,” she says.” Remind yourself that you’re human and that behavior change is hard. Focus on the positive you did achieve — maybe you...completed 10 of the 30 rides in a month. Think about what got in the way and adjust your plan with that in mind to set yourself up for better success in the future.”