Winter training is upon us, but fear not, intrepid athletes. Winter need not be devoid of fun; you just need to get a little creative in how you train. An easy way to keep things spicy? A winter or holiday challenge designed to keep you engaged. Here’s how to create a challenge that will bring a bit of levity to an otherwise dull season.
Step 1: Find Your Challenge
Watching all of the Star Wars movies in a single setting is impressive, but it’s not going to help your splits. Pick a challenge that will improve you as an athlete, like a run streak or swim streak targeting, say, 40 km in a single month. Or maybe you can rack up the Zwift meters to get the coveted Tron wheels!
Important: Set yourself a stretch goal but build up to it gradually. The last thing you want is an overuse injury by trying to achieve your goal in the first five days.
Step 2: Get Your Mates Involved
Let’s not forget that we are competitive animals — especially us athletes. Getting your mates involved means the odds of you quitting the challenge mid-way are much lower! It’s also much more fun to train with pals, especially when there’s some good light-hearted banter to boot.
Step 3: Track and Brag
Once you’ve got your mates involved, make sure that everyone can track their training so there is accountability and a bit of competition. This can be as simple as a spreadsheet or as sophisticated as a Strava group to allow people to see each other’s progress and to create some form of a leaderboard. Watch the comments fly as quickly as the stats go up!
Step 4: Celebrate the Wins!
My club, the Piranha Triathlon Club, does all of the above for a November swim challenge and it does get competitive. And why? For the glory of winning the coveted swim goggles trophy (actually not a trophy but simply new goggles!), mainly because they come draped in the accompanying bragging rights for the beginner/intermediate and advanced categories!
Make a big deal out of who wins, who’s the top newcomer, and who’s most improved from the last challenge, and hit your favorite local pub for the prize giving. You never know — it could become an annual tradition!
