1. How hard is your event really?

It’s tempting to judge a ride just by the distance, but the true challenge comes from a mix of factors: long or short climbs, the road surface, the target pace, and even the weather. Two rides with the same distance can feel completely different once out on the bike.

Climbing often changes the whole experience. A ride with a lot of elevation isn’t just “a bit harder” than a flatter ride, it’s a completely different kind of effort. Building experience with moderate climbs prepares you for longer days. It teaches you how to pace yourself, builds endurance, and develops the mental resilience you need when your legs start feeling tired. Most people understand that climbing is harder than riding on flat roads, but descending brings its own challenges too: cornering at speed, braking control, and handling in bad weather are all skills that are difficult to practise in a flat environment, and they can make a big goal significantly more demanding.

How the climbs are spread matters as well. Rolling hills allow small breaks and easier recovery between bumps. While long and steady climbs demand consistent effort and smart pacing. Gradually building up to these kinds of climbs is more effective than jumping straight into a very challenging route.

The weather can add an extra layer of difficulty on race day. In recent summers, heat has often been the biggest opponent. You can acclimatise by doing more training in higher temperatures, but even then you’ll need to lower your intensity, drink more and be more conservative in your pacing. That means you need some margin in your fitness: if you only just scrape within the time limits on a cool day, a hot day might push the event out of reach for now.

The ideal ride strikes a balance, challenging enough to push limits but still achievable, leaving enough energy to finish with confidence and satisfaction.

2. Matching your goal to your training reality

A good goal needs to fit your current training schedule. Start by being honest with yourself about where you are right now.

Have you been riding regularly over the past few months, or did life get in the way? If you've taken three months off, you've likely lost most of your fitness. Can you put in the same training hours as before, or even more? If you have less time available now, expecting better results isn't realistic.

Think beyond just finishing. A smart goal isn't only about getting to the end, it's about how you get there. You want to finish tired but not completely wiped out, recovering within a few days rather than needing weeks to feel normal again. If you think an event will leave you absolutely drained for ages, it's probably too much for right now.

3. Using the JOIN level as a guideline

This is where JOIN becomes very practical in selecting your next goal and how to prepare for it. For each event in JOIN, we show a recommended JOIN level range. In an ideal world, your own level on the day of the event sits in or close to that range. Inside the app, you can see your current JOIN level, how it is expected to develop with your current training availability, and how much more you will progress if you can free up more training time.

If your level is lower than the recommended range, it doesn’t automatically mean you can’t finish. But it does mean you’re likely to be riding at or beyond your limit for a long time. In that case, you might be better off choosing a slightly easier event this year or aiming at the same event next year with more build-up time.

Being outside the range shouldn't stop you from pursuing your ultimate goal. If you're preparing well in advance, you can increase your availability in JOIN to plan longer sessions that will help build your JOIN level.

4. Think in phases: build, improve, peak

Once you’re confident that the event fits your level and timeframe, the next step is to structure your preparation. In JOIN, we use three types of training phases that follow a logical progression: build, improvement and peak.

Build plans are your foundation. They are ideal if your goal is still far away or if you’re coming back from a break. If your event is, for example, nine months away and you haven’t been training consistently, it makes sense to start with a Stamina builder or FTP builder. These “build plans”, help you rebuild basic endurance and strength so your body is prepared for the next training block.

Once you have that base, you can move into improvement plans. These focus on a specific area you want to develop, such as improving on short climbs, long climbs or other performance aspects. They are perfect if you already have a decent fitness level and want to target a particular weakness.

The final step towards your event is a peak plan. This phase is designed to bring you into your best possible form for a specific goal and usually lasts three to four months. A typical path might be: build plan → improvement plan → peak plan. If you are already in good shape, you might move straight from a build plan into a peak plan.

After you’ve completed a peak plan and reached your goal, you can start the cycle again. Sometimes that means going back to a build plan to refresh your base before aiming for another peak. It’s usually not a good idea to string together peak plans after peak plans without a foundation phase in between. Long-term progress comes from repeating sensible cycles, not from trying to be in peak form all year round.

5. So… is this goal right for you?

The right goal isn't just the biggest or hardest one you can imagine. It motivates you every single day, inspires you to push through tough sessions, and builds excitement as the event approaches. It should match your projected JOIN Level, your recent training consistency and the time you realistically have available, pushing you beyond what you've done before without being a wild leap into the unknown.

If the event's altitude, distance, and conditions are just a step up from your previous experiences, your JOIN Level sits close to the recommended range, and you expect to recover within a few days, you're in the right zone. If not, you don't have to give up on the dream, simply shift the timing, use this season to build up with smart plans in JOIN, and come back stronger.