Busy Triathletes: 5 Steps to Your Optimal Schedule
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Calling all ambitious triathletes. When you’re driven to be the best you can be as a triathlete, parent, partner and in your career, it can become overwhelming and stressful.
Frustrated that your endeavours aren’t paying off?
Worried that you’re not going to improve and succeed as you’d hoped?
I’ve helped many clients in this situation manage stress, increase productivity and ensure they’re focusing on the right task at the right time, but most importantly they’ve found better balance, achieved their goals and feel much more fulfilled.
If this is you, follow the exercises below to optimise your triathlon training schedule (hint: you can use this for your career and family life too).
Step 1. Define your performance statement
When I start working with a client, the first thing we do is figure out that individuals’ triathlon performance statement. This statement explains succinctly what they have to do as a triathlete to succeed - no matter if they’re training or racing.
When I ask a triathlete: What do you have to do to succeed as a triathlete?
They ream of all the different things they think equals success, from getting sponsors and increasing social media following, to winning races, getting a course record, breaking their personal best, become more aerodynamic and more.
The downside of this?
It takes focus and attention away from the very simple thing they need to. For a triathlete, this is usually to swim, cycle and run as fast as possible.
Once you’ve defined your performance statement, it will guide you in optimising your performance in training and races.
Need help creating your performance statement? I’ve created a worksheet to help you, download it below.
Step 2. 5 Key aspects that will fulfil your performance statement
Focusing on the right thing at the right time is key to a successful triathlete mindset.
Pro Golfer Doug Sanders famously missed a three-foot putt in the 1970 Open Championships, because he was focused on winning and which section of the crowd he would bow to when he won - he wasn’t focused on the putt-process he needed to execute to a world-class level to win.
Grab a notepad and pen and write down the 5-key aspects of triathlon you need to focus on to achieve your performance statement. You might write:
- Swim as efficient and as fast as possible
- Optimise Recovery
- Sustain powerful run pace over race distance
- Consistent frequency during off-season
- Excellent nutrition plan
- Maintain focus and motivation and keep pushing in the last 10km of the run
And so on. Choose your 5 key aspects, then move on to the next exercise.
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Step 3. Rate each aspect
It’s important to track and measure your performance in each aspect in an objective and consistent way.
Look over your list, for each aspect give yourself an average score on a scale of 1- 10. 1 being you’re not doing it to the best of your ability and 10 being you are doing it to the best of your ability.
For example, let’s look at ‘Swim as efficient and as fast as possible’.
On a scale of 1-10, 1 being that you’re not swimming as efficiently and as fast as possible and 10 being you are swimming as efficiently and as fast as possible, what average would you score yourself?
Step 4. Identify one action
Once you’ve scored yourself an average, it’s now time to think about the one thing you need to do in the next 4-weeks to improve in each aspect.
Ask yourself this question: What one action do I need to do to increase my average by one?
For example, if you scored 5 on ‘swim as efficient and as fast as possible’, what’s the one action you need to take to increase to a 6?
It could be, hire a swim coach, or ‘maintain positive, helpful and productive voice’, talk to your coach or something else.
Step 5. Schedule
It doesn’t happen unless it’s in your schedule, so schedule when you’re going to complete or focus on the action.
If it’s ‘hire a swim coach’, chunk this down and scheduled it in your calendar:
- Research swim coaches in my local area - Monday 7pm
- Contact each coach and find out which one can best help me - Wednesday 8pm
- Attend first swim lesson - Tuesday 6.30am
If it’s something to work on in your training, set your intention before each swim session, so it’s at the forefront of your mind.
Do you see how it all comes together?
By simplifying all the different actions and tasks that are taking up your mental energy, you’re now effectively committing to just 5 key aspects that will bring you the greatest results (and a more peaceful mind).
