Goals for Triathlon Training

Today marks the third day of triathlon training for me and so far I am both excited and scared. I have never done a triathlon before but I think I am going to really enjoy doing them. There are a lot of aspects to triathlons and triathlon training that are very new for me and I want to make sure that I go into my races feeling confident and prepared.

1. Don't succumb to the fear of failure. I often don't put in as much training as I should and quite frankly I am sick of it. I don't want to assume that I am going to fail anymore. The sport of triathlon is completely new to me and I am excited to be going in as a complete newbie without any pressure. It doesn't matter if I am slow because right now I am learning. Failure only exists if I let it.

2. Train consistently and don't let small things derail me. I frequently think that all of my training is ruined because I miss one or two workouts. I can no longer have this mentality if I want to train successfully. When I ask both running and triathlon veterans what their secrets are to successfully training for events I am always told consistency. Consistently training is the thing I need to work on the most.

3. Practice the things that scare me or I have never done. I am a complete cycling newbie so pretty much everything regarding cycling is included here. I want to practice climbing hills, practice clipping in and out, practice going downhill, pretty much everything. I want to practice open water swimming, figure out how to fuel during training, and how to run on tired legs.

4. Make training a priority. There have been so many times where I have missed crucial runs because I wanted to please other people. It is not fair to myself to commit to training for a race and then skip workouts because of outside distractions. Even though I have never done a triathlon before it is important to me.

5. Lose weight but fuel my body properly. I am not starting some crazy weight loss plan but I would like to take off a few pounds. I am not comfortable with my body and one of my goals for this year is to build confidence. I want to lose weight the safe way by working out, not starving myself. The other part of this goal is to balance losing weight with training properly. I know how important eating is for training so don't expect me to be giving up food any time soon.

6. Take things one day at a time. In life in general I am constantly thinking about the future and what it has in store for me. This often causes me to forget to enjoy the present because I am always worrying about the future. I don't want to let one missed day of training to derail my entire training. I need to take each day as it comes and focus on the present.

7. Don't forget about the big picture. I need to remember that my goal is to do my first Olympic distance triathlon to the best of my ability while having fun. The most important thing is that I enjoy both the training and the race. I don't want to let sticking to my training plan suck all of the fun out of this experience.