Perspective

Reading Coach Mark’s recent article on taking our sport too seriously got me thinking about an interview with an elite age group triathlete that I listened to recently. This athlete came into the sport just looking to lose weight and get fit after having a baby. However, it didn’t take long for her to realize that she had quite a gift for the sport. She was experiencing a tremendous amount of success without much direction and guidance and that was only escalated when she decided to hire a coach.

She trained and raced under that coach for four years, topping her age group in most of her races and qualifying for Kona for the last three years, with her best finish there being 10^th in her age group. She described herself as a perfect fit with her coach, believing in and fully committing to his coaching philosophies.

After he left the sport about a little over a year ago, however, she was forced to find someone new. She began training with this new coach and realized she just didn’t agree or mesh well with his philosophies and the way he coached. She stuck it out with him for close to a year and was just miserable and ultimately ended up unmotivated and not enjoying the sport at all.

She has since moved on and is doing much better, but one of the biggest lessons she talked about from having gone through all this is her perspective on the sport. One thing she mentioned that struck me was that you shouldn’t be putting into the sport what you are not willing to give up. In other words, is the time that you are putting into training bringing you the same happiness and enjoyment that other things that you could fill that time with would bring you. It is a focus on the process rather than the outcome.

For the majority of us, we are not out there making money in triathlon, we are in it for the challenge and fun of it. However, if you are not experiencing that enjoyment, it’s something that you really need to take a step back and evaluate. If you can focus on the process and enjoying the journey leading up to your races, then it takes all of the pressure off of you come race day. Of course you will still have goals that you would like to accomplish in your races, but in cases where you have a bad day and don’t meet those, you won’t be devastated, rushing home and listing your bike on Ebay. And on those days when you do meet the goals that you set out, that will just be the “cherry on top.”

All of us came into this sport looking for something fun to do, but some of us have gotten distracted and started taking triathlon and ourselves a little too serious. I challenge you to go out and have some fun this week. Ride a new route, meet up with a new group, or sign up for a race with a friend, whatever you do, just go out and enjoy the sport.