Setting and achieving specific goals

Setting and achieving specific goals

Introduction

I’ve included a personal example here, not to pat myself on the back but to demonstrate that I walk the talk. I hope that from this example, you will be inspired to set some ambitious goals of your own i.e. “If he can do it, so can I”.

In the beginning

Some friends that I’d met on an Italian cycling tour in 2017 encouraged me to join them on a tour of Spain in the second half of 2019. With my wife’s encouragement I committed to the trip about 12 months out.

I subsequently ascertained that riding up the Alto de l’Angliru, the mountain most feared by professional cyclists, was on the agenda. As an aging recreational rider, this was one part exciting and four parts intimidating!

The process

I resolved that I was going to ride up to the top of the Angliru, a formidable challenge. The first step was to find out more about this mountain, a task made simple by Google and You Tube. This research produced much stomach churning – at a distance of 13 kilometres long, 1266 metres of climbing, average gradient 9% and gradients of up to 23.5%, the Angliru is a formidable challenge indeed.
I created an 8 month training program, commencing in January 2019 and going through to the end of August, which featured month by month progression. This was not so much about total distance, although that did increase, but in the amount of hill climbing undertaken each week. In the last couple of months, this included mountain sessions on both Saturday and Sunday, topped up by commuting to and from work during the week. Apart from the odd sick day, I stuck to the program for the entire 8 months.

The outcome

The Spanish adventure was a very enjoyable trip, reconnecting with old friends and making new ones. We were blessed with good riding conditions on the Angliru day. It seemed surreal passing early markers of the trip that I’d seen on You Tube. I duly made it up to the top, albeit with taking a breather about 75% up. It was great to celebrate with friends at the summit and then to undertake a thorough debrief at a cafe down amongst the Angliru’s foothills. All in all, it was a deeply satisfying moment to savour, coming as it did off great preparation.

Fortunate indeed were we that our trip preceded the COVID pandemic, which turned off global travel 6 months later.