For 2023 I’ve got a few goals that I want top achieve. My Zone 2 project is about me improving my fitness and endurance and health in 2023, you can read more about the project here.
I’ve set some goals and key measures that I’ll review regularly throughout the year which will help motivate me and track progress. In my day job I’m a big fan of Agile methodology, without going in to detail. Agile is a software building methodology. It allows you to track and demonstrate progress, and to change priorities or direction. Work is broken down in to blocks (sprints in Agile terminology). Progress is reviewed and measured at the end of each sprint and the plan for the next sprint agreed.
My training plan for 2023 can be found here.
My goals for 2023
My goals for 2023 are based on fitness, endurance and health.
Fitness and endurance goals
The starting point for my goals for 2023 is to complete Paris-Brest-Paris or another multi-day long distance cycling with a time limit. This will build on my achievement of completing London-Edinburgh-London last year.
Goal 1 – Endurance
Complete multi-day long distance cycling event within time limit
Success will me measured by completing the event within the time limit. I’ll measure progress by participating in a 200km event March. This is followed by a 300km event in April. A 400km event in May and a 600km event in June. These are also a qualification requirement for PBP, so works towards the main goal.
Goal 2 – Improve aerobic capacity (Zone 2)
I want to include a Zone 2 Fitness goal, to make sure I am building that strong foundation that will help my endurance goal but also will contribute to my overall health and fitness.
By doing the Zone 2 training I should increase my anaerobic threshold over time. I don’t have a set idea of what I’m aiming for in terms of increasing my threshold as I don’t really know at this time what to expect for me specifically. The only sure way to test this is through a VO2Max test in a lab, that looks at either a lactate test or a test of the interchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide. I will do this test in the next 3 to 6 months to compare to my recent results here.
As these test aren’t cheap, I’m going to measure progress using a proxy of average heart during a Zone 2 session against a set effort. To make sure the effort heart rate is measured against is consistent I’ll be doing a regular test on a bike turbo trainer with the power set at a fixed level for a fixed period of time. A reduction in heart rate should indicate an increase in aerobic capacity. I’ll increase the fixed power in the test if I get to a point where my aerobic capacity has increased to a point where my heart rate doesn’t reach Zone 2 during this test.
Goal 3 – Improve Fitness
This may be a bit controversial, as overall fitness probably means different things to different people. For me this is just a means to show that I’m improving my overall cardio vascular health and capacity.
The key measure for me here is my VO2Max. My VO2Max was measured at 45.2 during this group of tests. This is an expensive test I’m planning on only doing it every 3 to 6 months. As a proxy I’m going to use the VO2Max estimate that my Garmin Connect App provides. Again this might be controversial, as the App is using a propriety algorithm based on the data it has (I assume heart rate and power output).
My Garmin estimated my VO2Max at 46 whilst I did a VO2Max interval session on a turbo trainer during the same week that I did a proper VO2Max test. This compares closely to the 45.2 that the proper test gave me. So whilst not perfect, a regular review based on my VO2Max intervals feels like a good proxy.
While VO2Max is key for me, this should closely correlate with 5 min max power, which I’ll also be monitoring. I’ll be measuring this on my turbo trainer during VO2Max intervals to keep the conditions consistent. I’ll also be measuring average speed in these sessions (and my Zone 2 sessions) as ultimately improvements in performance should translate to improvements in speed (all other things being equal). I understand that speed on a turbo trainer isnt the same as speed on the road, typically it seems to measure up to 30% higher for me, but it’s progression that I’m looking to see. I’m not expecting it to be equate to the same speed on the road.
Goal 4 – Improve strength
Strength training isn’t something I’ve done for a long time. I actually can’t remember the last time I did weights in a gym prior to 2023. Strength training should help improve or maintain bone density and will help with fat reduction as well reducing the risk of injury and improving explosive power.
My plan is to keep the measurement of the strength element really simple. I enjoy the big compound muscle movements like squats, dips and bench press. Measuring progress of my 1 rep max of each of these over time as the main meaure for strength. In addition I’ll review lean muscle mass in a DEXA scan every 3 to 6 months.
Health Goals
Goal 5 – reduce body fat (including visceral fat)
One of the worrying items that came up during my DEXA scan at the end of 2022 was that my visceral fat was too high. My training and nutrition now has a focus that will hopefully help reduce visceral fat as well as overall body fat.
The key measure I’ll be using is a DEXA scan every 3 to 6 months. At the moment I don’t have a great proxy for this. My body fat scales are well off when compared to the DEXA scan. I’ll continue to use these to measure body weight but will need to investigate other options for body fat that are cheaper than DEXA scans.
Goal 6 – bone density
During my DEXA scan my bone density was shown to be on the low side. I’ll be doing strength training and some running to help with this. To measure progress I’ll do another DEXA scan in 3 to 6 months. As of right now I don’t think there is a decent proxy for this.
Summary
To summarise, I’ve put my goals and measures into a table below:
| Goal / Objective | Measure | How measured |
| Goal 1 – Improve Endurance | Complete cycling event in excess of 1000Km within time limit | Primary focus is to complete Paris-Brest-Paris in August 2023 |
| Goal 2 – Improve aerobic capacity (Zone 2) | Increase anerobic threshold. Target TBD | Measured by VO2Max test in lab environment Proxy through average HR during Zone 2 training |
| Goal 3 – Improve Fitness | Increase VO2Max. Target 50 | Measured by VO2Max test Proxy through Garmin VO2Max estimate as measured during intervals |
| Goal 4 – Improve strength | Increase 1 rep max for squat, dip and bench press | Measured monthly in gym |
| Goal 5 – reduce body fat (including visceral fat) | Reduce body fat to 15% and visceral fat to 100cm squared | Measured by DEXA scan every 3 to 6 months |
| Goal 6 – bone density | Improve bone density | Measured by DEXA scan every 3 to 6 months |
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