How to debrief your season
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As humans, we tend to label experiences as either good or bad, but in reality there are very few things that fall exactly into either category. Almost every experience has some nuance. A race or an entire racing season is no exception.
As many of us wrap up our racing season for the year, you may be desperate for a hiatus or already anxiously planning for next year. Before you stray too far from this season, however, take some time to reflect. Looking through a season is not just a cathartic exercise for some, but more importantly it allows us to see the season through a new lens and opens up opportunities for improvement in the years to come. I’ve heard, read, and participated in many conversations about analyzing a season, and sometimes it just seems too complicated to attempt on your own. So here’s my best attempt at removing all the noise and simplifying what we’re really seeing.
Identify the ups and downs
Whether this has been the best season of your life or you feel like you’ve faced more than your fair share of adversity, there have been both ups and downs associated with your season. Take some time to figure out what you think are the best parts of your season and what made you a little discouraged. We can learn from both instances and take them with us. Here are the things you can look at to identify these areas of your season:
- Wins vs Losses: The most obvious things that come to mind first are the races you’ve won (or hit your goal) or the races you’ve lost (or missed your goal). This is a great place to start your analysis, but it’s important to dig deeper into those moments and relate them to other things that were going on at the time. What else was in your life in the races where you achieved your goals? How was your training before this race? What was your stress level and what do you attribute that to? When we answer these questions in relation to the circumstances we encountered, we find scenarios that we can try to recreate.
- The way you felt: There’s a lot to be said about how we feel over the course of a season. This is one of the reasons it’s important to leave notes in a workout journal, as you may not be able to remember how your legs felt during that particular workout for several months later. When we’re feeling good, we can ask ourselves similar questions to how we felt when we won to repeat the scenario. When we’re feeling bad, we can use that feeling in conjunction with performance evaluation to see if our feelings are in line with our performance. For example, if you were feeling tired but still achieved a personal best, this can be valuable insight for future reference and for setting expectations around sensations.
It’s also important to note your feelings about the season in general. Have there been times when you felt more motivated than others? Were there moments when you felt you needed a break? Identify those periods and analyze why you may or may not have felt this way, and adjust your season accordingly next year. For example, if you spend tons of hours in your trainers in the winter and then feel burnt out in the spring, maybe cut back on your winter training a bit next year to stay motivated when the weather turns.
- Key Performance Indicators: While wins or losses can be influenced by external variables and feeling is a subjective metric, performance metrics allow us to take an objective look at how the season is progressing. When were your performance numbers highest and was that when you felt your best? Was it also when you felt motivated, or did it lead to burnout when you were actually at your strongest? Take a moment to look at the season’s objective metrics, see which workout got you the fastest, and correlate it to other, more subjective metrics as well.
- Chronic training load and form: For the data tilted out there, we can also look at slightly more detailed metrics like chronic training load (which exercise or TSS measures over time) as well as shape, which balances out training stress and fatigue. We can look at when our training load was highest and when we were at our best, and we can try to plan a similar schedule for next year. We can also look at the form we’ve had during our best races and training sessions and use that as a blueprint for future A events.
Identify your biggest obstacles
After analyzing your year, you may find some trends. It may be that your training suffered when work was at its most stressful. It may be that you were most motivated when the weather was best. Finding the obstacles to your success is key to being able to remove them or plan around them in the future.
Set yourself new goals
Now that you’ve analyzed your year and discovered the keys to an optimized season, jot down a few goals while you’re still fresh in your mind. While you have plenty of time to set goals during the offseason, it’s important that those goals are balanced. In other words, you may be too enthusiastic after your off-season and you may be a little too shy while still tired of the current one. Setting goals at both the end of the season and the start of a new season can help you find the perfect in-between.