Five Ways To Get Ahead

Taken from Triathlon Plus May 2009 Magazine

 

1. DON’T OVER FOCUS. It can sometimes be detrimental to over-focus on one specific race.  Putting you ‘eggs in one basket’ can result in you beating yourself up over one bad race.  Instead, if you have a bad race, look ahead to the next one and focus on ways to improve.

 

1. STAY POSITIVE. Never give up until the race is over.  This applied to me during Millennium Triathlon this past weekend.  The first mile of the run was just brutal.  I was also getting passed by just about the entire field.  Despite how much I’ve trained for the bike-run transition, I just felt miserable.  Instead, I did everything possible to stay positive, and in the end I had a great run.

 

1. PREPARE LIKE A SOLDIER. It’s essential to be organized to have a good race.   Knowing your pre-race routine, and practicing it, will allow you to relax more the day before the race.

 

1. LEARN TO CHILL OUT. A little bit of nervousness is good, too much is destructive.  One reason athletes get nervous is that they worry to much about what other people think.

 

1. PUSH YOUR LIMITS. Don’t expect to improve if you don’t give 100% during your training.  This is very hard for me because I have nobody to train with.  My structured workouts, coupled with a powertap and Garmin virtual training partner, keep me pushing and pushing.