I love that Michael Jordan quote.
It fully captures my approach to triathlon (and life in general). I think there is real pressure (perceived or real) to be perfect. I know athletes that are stunting their potential because they are deathly afraid of failing - messily and in public.
While we are on quotes here is another:
"You can never make the same mistake twice because the second time you make it, it's not a mistake, it's a choice"
Failure is part of developing as an athlete (person), but only if you heed the lessons along the way.
For a triathlete, this mindset is vital. As I see it this sport is too complex, too time consuming and too damn hard to be perfect all the time. You WILL fail. You WILL have setbacks. So you'd better start getting your mindset in order to cope with adversity, overcome it and learn the lessons. In fact you could argue (and I would) that at its core, triathlon is just one constant struggle against adversity: physical; mental and metaphysical, which is why it attracts the type of person it does, but that's another post for another time
So, assuming you have the mindset and you are prepared to fail and learn. Great.....but how do you know what the mistakes were? You will occasionally do dumb things that are obvious..........you didn't warm up before your VO2max session and now you have a niggle............you trained through a cold and now you are in bed with the 'flu..........you said "just one Haribo" and now you are holding an empty packet. As I said, obvious and easy to fix.
But triathlon is often a sport of grey compromises..........should I cancel tomorrows swim and get some more sleep?..........should I do an extra rep when I feel great or stop the session as planned?..........should I add another race to my schedule next month?
Adding to the problem is that physical and mental feedback is often delayed and mistakes made days or weeks ago may have become bad choices without you even realising. How do you know where the line is between mistake and choice?
In season I try two things. Firstly I am always evaluating my decisions. The advantage of not having a coach (there are a few) is that I don't have to accept blind faith as a method of getting through a training program. I can debate the pro's and con's and if I really think something doesn't or didn't work then I can adjust immediately. Secondly (and this is vital) I back my decision 100% at the time. No regrets and no looking back (at the time). It is onto the next session/week/month taking the lessons forward with me. This constant evaluation and adjustment doesn't have to be time consuming or overly analytical, just ensure your actions are always consistent with achieving your goals, be honest and back yourself when you make your decision. Rinse and repeat.
The offseason however allows a much deeper reflection on the season as a whole. Without the mental clutter of racing, heavy training and fatigue, you can evaluate your mistakes at a 'macro' level - something which can be harder to do in season.
For this evaluation I also try and do two things. Firstly I look for patterns in training prior to results. Starting with races that I underperformed at, I look through the training diary in the period leading into the race and attempt to understand the reasons why I performed badly. Sometimes (most times) the reasons are plain and obvious: didn't swim/bike/run enough; didn't rest enough, not enough race specific work etc etc. Again it is important to be honest. I am surprised how often I am caught lying to myself. It is natural to want to avoid the truth sometimes and despite initially thinking a race went badly because you had a slow T1 or biked a bit too hard (easy and convenient reasons) you dig a little deeper and admit you neglected specific training in the run up to the event. Or you neglected your nutrition and raced in the Walrus category. Or whatever. The answers are there, it is up to you to find them and fix them, or be condemned to repeat them.
Secondly I look for general patterns across the entire season, not specifically in the build up to races. This is important as it provides me with clear feedback about my mental and physical state over the year and how that compared against my initial plan. Did my training load decline through the season? Did I stagnate in my test sessions through the year? Did I structure too much or little rest between/after races? Not every season is identical but I guarantee you will have tried to do something this year that didn't work the way you envisioned it when you wrote it down. Ask yourself why and be honest with your answers.
Summary then:
You will make mistakes
Evaluate constantly
Perform a season evaluation at the end of the year
Be honest and identify the lessons leanrt
Take those lessons forward with you
Make good choices.
So that's the theory, and theory is great until you actually do something. Theory won't help you when you are in the final km's of a race and your lungs are coming out of your ears. How about some reality?
How did I do this year? Did I make mistakes and did I turn them into choices without realising? What did I learn?
Rather than go through every detail of my mistakes (many) and lessons learnt (lots), i've listed the main three below:
I learnt....that when I'm tired I default to aimless swimming
Far too often I would arrive at the pool fatigued from training (as I should be) and instead of working on race specificity and quality, I'd do the minimum distance I had to do and get out. 3km is 3km right? No. Not for me. Not for my swimming. The data shows that this 'aimless' swimming allowed me to get a good level of general fitness but in specific race buildup periods I lacked the specific work to cope with the demands of the event and lo and behold I never swam to my true potential in races. Lesson learnt - more race specific work in the pool before events.
I learnt....that a DNS is way better than a DNF
I logged my first DNF this year. I went into the MK Olympic distance Tri at the end of July with a calf injury. It was three days before the race and I was doing a standard midweek long run - nothing special, nothing new. In the last 3-4km my calf pulled tighter and tighter and by the time I got home it had passed through the niggle phase and straight into an acute injury. The next day it was not much better. The day before the race I could jog but as soon as I began to push the pace it started to tighten again. I wanted to race so badly. It was a course I knew well and a I had a good chance to test myself against some quality local athletes. Pushing aside the negative thoughts, I started the race and the moment I arrived back in T2 (in 4th) I knew it was over - I could feel pain simply running with my bike to my racking point. As I was putting on my trainers I remember asking myself why I was putting them on - no way could I run, right? But before I could physically stop myself I had already run 30 paces. Only then did I slow to a jog, a walk and then stop. Limping back to transition felt truly horrible. I was so angry with myself. Stupid. I made a bad choice deciding to race, I made another by putting even putting my trainers in T2 and I made a final one by putting them on and trying to run. Three howlers in the space of one morning = bad day at the office. Lesson learnt - if I can't go at race pace the day before my race, I'm not racing.
I learnt.....that 2 weeks is more than enough taper for a 70.3
My buildup to Mallorca 70.3 in May was pretty spot on. Not much I would change about it except the horrible timing. I planned a 3 week taper from a 4 week block of 20hrs per week down to 10hrs per week, then 7hrs per week and finally into race week. In hindsight I started the taper too early. Despite racing fairly well and registering a PB I felt weaker than the previous week - in fact that week before race week I had felt amazing. Lesson learnt - a 2 week taper is plenty for 70.3, even from a sustained block at 20hrs/week
Of course there were more but I'll spare you the gory details, suffice to say taking on the lessons learnt should provide a significant performance uplift this season. After which I can sit down with a new set of mistakes to unravel and learn from!
Like I said - one constant struggle against adversity.
Thanks for reading!
Rob
(p.s. I know I promised season goals this time but I've written enough and you need to get back to work/sleep/training. Next time. Promise)
Thanks wheezy, glad you like!
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