Half the riders I coach lost the plot when races got cancelled this summer. Sat on their hands waiting for an organiser to give them a reason to train. Ronan McLaughlin didn't wait — he broke the Everest World Record, knocked Alberto Contador off the top step, and did it while holding down a job and a family.
Key Takeaways
Cycling has this problem where people think the only target worth having is a race result. No race on the calendar, no reason to train hard. That's the wrong way to think about it. McLaughlin didn't need a race. He picked a record, split-tested his tyres, tested aero on every piece of kit including riding off the bottom half of his handlebars, ran three gears on the bike, and left nothing to chance. The season is arbitrary. The weather is still good. The roads are still there. If you're waiting for an organiser to give you permission to train, you're going to drift until October and wonder where the summer went.
Pick one number and go after it. If your 20-minute power is sitting at 300 watts, put six weeks in the diary and build a threshold block around 2x20s and 3x12 intervals with 40 seconds zone 5, 20 seconds zone 3. Retest at the end. Or find a Strava segment that takes about four and a half minutes, which is a VO2 max effort, and build VO2 sessions around cracking it. Or plan a place-to-place adventure, 150 to 200k a day, accommodation booked, roads picked. It's the same with anything — you need a date on the calendar or you'll just drift. The specific target matters less than having one.
You Might Also Like
If you want to know what threshold training actually looks like week to week, the winter training structure episode covers intensity, frequency, and duration. And if climbing is the gap in your profile, the five fixable reasons your climbing is slow episode is the one to go to.