What Type of Cyclist Are You?

The New Year has come and gone as we now rapidly approach race season. For cyclists, it's a time to plan training schedules and determine what you want to accomplish in the season ahead.

Sure, every cyclist wants to do well in the big events of the race calendar. But before you can get there, you'll have to do more than just build a plan. Sometimes, in order to achieve success, we need to think about how and why we spend so much time training on our bikes.

Before you set your training plans in stone, ask yourself these three tough questions to train smarter in the year ahead.

More: Questions for Your Cycling Offseason

What Type of Cyclist Am I?

A couple months ago, I sat down with one of the cyclists I coach for his end-of-year wrap-up and to discuss the season ahead.

This particular cyclist is an accomplished racer. He trains and races throughout the entire year in multiple disciplines. He has a positive, upbeat attitude, enjoys riding with the camaraderie of friends and loves to train hard year round.

Since he lives in California, he is able to ride outside during most of the year with only the slightest inconvenience of rain and shortened daylight in the winter months. This kind of training environment makes it easy to maintain a high level of fitness throughout the year. But this can be good and bad.

A cyclist's fitness will stay at a reasonably high level for an entire year, but he or she will never meet the performance ceiling that they're capable of.

More: 4 Offseason Cycling Tips

And this is exactly what I wanted to discuss.

When we sat down, I asked him a simple question: "Do you want to do well all-year long, or do you want to be unbeatable for shorter periods of time, peaking only for a few key events?"

To my surprise, he couldn't immediately answer the question. "I don't know," he said. "I'll have to think about that."

A few days later, we set up another meeting. After discussing the issue with his wife, he told me that it was a difficult decision, but that he wanted to pursue being "unbeatable" for shorter periods of time.

This decision wasn't without some concerns. To learn to be unbeatable at a specific time takes practice, and, it's more of a risk. If you time your peak fitness incorrectly, you won't get the results you expect.

More: Do You Need Performance Testing?

To be your best in a certain race, you must be single-minded, focused and be prepared to sacrifice. For this cyclist, it meant doing less of some of the aspects of cycling that he loves the most. To be successful, he needed to cut down on the amount of long rides he did with teammates and friends.

So before you plan what you want to accomplish this year, ask yourself, "what kind of rider do I want to be?"

How Much Time Should You Spend on Your Weaknesses?

A common goal among cyclists training to race is to improve upon their weaknesses. Whether you're looking to improve your sprinting, climbing or time trialing, it's important to ask yourself how much time you want to spend, and, if it's worth the effort.

More: 6 Ways to Track Your Training Progress

If you're a pure climber it probably won't make sense to spend a significant amount of time trying to improve your sprinting. By doing so, you take valuable time away from the areas of cycling that are your strengths as well as other areas that may be more valuable to your overall success.

When you decide how much time you should spend to improve elements of your cycling, first consider these guidelines to determine which elements of your training will be worth the effort:

• Sprinter: Work on sprint training with less of a focus on climbing at or above threshold.
• Time trialist: Concentrate on threshold training with some sprinting mixed in.
• Breakaway rider: Emphasize threshold workouts with some sprint training.
• Climber: Focus on heavy threshold training that includes hill repeats and very few sprint workouts.

Schedule a consultation with a coach if you are unsure what's right for you.

More: 20 Questions You Should Ask

Why Do I Race?

Have you ever sat down and asked yourself why you race? Why do you spend the time, effort, money and risks to do it? Personally, I believe that bike racing is without a doubt the coolest and most brutal sport there is. The feeling of being fit relative to your competition and playing the game of chess that cycling often is during a race can be a ton of fun.

Perhaps your answer is similar. Maybe you're just competitive, and to some degree, we all are. Jimmy Connors, the great tennis champion once said, "I hate to lose more than I love to win. I can't stand the looks on their faces when they beat me."

Competition is a great measuring stick and can provide a cyclist with a goal to shoot for. But it isn't for everyone. Make sure you have a reason to race before you spend all of the time and effort it'll take to be successful. You can have plenty of fun on a bicycle without ever rolling up to a start line.

Remember, there are no right or wrong answers to any of these questions. You are who you are. But it's important to understand why you spend the time training that you do. Once you've determined why, it will make your efforts to plan a schedule and decide what approach to training you'll take that much easier.

More: Evaluate Your Cycling Season With 5 Simple Questions