To be a successful athlete and find happiness in the sport of triathlon, is it necessary to set goals for yourself? The answer is a resounding, “Yes!” but these goals do not always need to be of the competitive nature. They should be focused on the experience as a whole and what it means to you individually. Sure, the majority of athletes in our sport do dream of qualifying for national and world championships. Yet, not everyone can fall into the small percentage of athletes who are fast enough, strong enough or dedicated enough to qualify for a world championship event such as Kona for Ironman.
Realistic and personalized goals which fit you as a person and an athlete are tremendously important to your direction and individual success in the sport. Of course, in my experience as an athlete and coach, I have found that with more experience on the race course come bigger aspirations and hopes for an athlete. It is the nature of the sport. Our sport is definitely addictive. It’s hard to cross a finish line and feel like your journey is done. There is never really a perfect race in our minds. There is always a faster overall time on the horizon, a speedier transition, a stronger run, a more aero bike, better sighting on the open water swim. We can drive ourselves a bit crazy overanalyzing all of our training data in the hopes that our next performance will be our personal best. But, what if our goals were focused less on the quantitative and more on the qualitative. Let’s talk about the sense of success which comes from the feeling and emotions we get from our adventures in this sport.
I am coming back into triathlon after almost 18 months off from multisport racing. Someone whom I just met asked me the other day what my last race was back in 2017. It was back to back world championship events – Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Chattanooga on September 9, 2019 and then ITU Grand Final in Rotterdam on September 16, 2019 with Team USA. I have been blessed as a woman and as an athlete with some amazing triathlon experiences. Both qualifications were “whisper goals” for me. I did not talk a lot about wanting to qualify for these events the year before. I hoped that I was a strong enough athlete to do so but I also understand that I have limiters and there is never the guarantee that race day will go as you have trained for or as you hope it will. Yet, I always stay true to my training and focus on my desire to have the best experiences I can on the race course. Ironically, my top goals for that season were not qualification but rather to 1) balance my training and family life so I could get to the start line successfully (a bit vague as a goal but still my focus), 2) give back to the sport as a coach by volunteering my time in youth programs such as Girls on the Run, 3) be grateful for my personal abilities and embrace them so that I could shine, 4) trust in my coach and follow the plan. In general, my focus was on my journey as an athlete and what I was capable of doing given my life, my responsibilities and my athletic gifts. And, I was not always sure that these would add up to championship qualification, so I kept my focus realistic.
What sorts of goals can we make for ourselves which involve a deeper appreciation for the sport and those who participate in it with us? There are a variety of ways we can view our training so that it makes it a more rewarding experience outside of those personal bests which we often seek to attain. One of my greatest goals and the one I focus on most often as a coach and as a USA Triathlon National Ambassador is to encourage new participation in our sport and to reach out to people who have never tried triathlon before to see if I can support them. Another way you can give back to racing is by finding a charitable organization with which to train, fundraise and race. I have done this many times with Team in Training through the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Those finish lines are always the most rewarding ones for me. The other huge draw for me? Friendships! You can meet incredible women and men through triathlon and other endurance sport groups or teams. Multisport may be an individual sport fundamentally but the camaraderie and friendship inherent within the training and racing experience is wonderful.
Make some new goals this season- meet a new friend through a triathlon group, do some fundraising for a non-profit and give back through a natural talent, invite someone new to a training session and encourage them to try a triathlon, act as a role model for others in the sport and personify the best as an athlete and not just the most competitive. After all, as years pass, no one is truly going to remember all of your rankings and age group placings but they will remember the type of person you are and how you focus on the quality of experience for not only yourself but others around you.
This season, I am coming back to race some favorite events and some new distances/events as well. My goals this year are not time specific or age group place specific. They are specific to my overall experience in a sport which I love and which I am so happy to be able to continue to race. When I chose to have surgery last May, I knew in my heart that it could go either one of two ways: I could find out that I just would not be able to run again for long course events and need to find some alternate type of sport or I could recover smart, rehab diligently and safely, get back into things slowly and assess how I felt moving back into triathlon. Luckily, I am feeling like option two has worked well for me to date. So, once again, my goals are qualitative for 2019- race my first full Ironman and get to that finish line safely, once again represent USA Triathlon as a National Ambassador and reach out to the youth in our community as well as new adult athletes and support them in a different challenge for themselves, keep perspective and balance in life, revisit some races I have done before and see what my body is now capable of accomplishing as compared to the past, give my all every single day and be proud of the efforts I put forth no matter what the final results. Does “final results” mean an age group placing or a specific time?? No, it means going out there and working as hard as I can to best represent me- as a woman, as a mother, as a wife and as an athlete. I am working with a new baseline now so I have to embrace that notion and see where I am as an athlete. It’s like a new beginning for me. So, a new framework of mental training works well here as well 🙂
What are your goals for your season (whatever season or year that is for you)? Not everyone who reads my page is a triathlete. Goals are important for all of us to become better people in our daily lives. They keep us on track and they keep us motivated. It’s difficult to find success without a plan – framing your goals and how you want to achieve them starts you on the correct path. That path may change and you may veer off course at times. But, with your personal plan, you can always reflect on and modify these goals.
As my year moves on, my goals will become more specific as I think more deeply on them and as I start to accomplish them. They may change all together at some points as my life events change from day to day. There’s an ebb and flow here which is reassuring to me. It is what I need now.
I think you will find this interesting to think about for yourself. It’s a great time to start journaling if you do not do so already. Formulate/reformulate, ponder, reevaluate, feel, write, share.
Have a great day all. You are always amazing.
TriAptitude Coaching 
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