Goal Setting in Triathlon: How to Maintain Joy in Training & Racing Ep 81
14 Jan 2025 · 34 min
In this episode of the Find Your Edge podcast, host Christina Fiumara Newport welcomes Coach Carly to discuss a structured approach to triathlon goal setting that goes beyond generic SMART goals. They introduce a three‑tier framework—outcome goals (the final race result), performance goals (discipline‑specific targets needed to achieve the outcome), and process goals (the day‑to‑day training actions that build confidence). The conversation covers how to break big, intimidating goals into realistic, stretch, and minimally acceptable targets, accounting for uncontrollable race‑day factors. They emphasize the role of a coach in fine‑tuning process goals, providing accountability, and fostering joy in training. Real‑world examples illustrate how athletes can stay motivated when plans change (e.g., a canceled swim) and how focusing on process achievements leads to greater satisfaction than chasing a single time number. The episode also promotes the Endurance Edge Triathlon Training Camp (April 22‑26, Lake Jocassee, SC) and invites listeners to share their own goals via Instagram or email. Throughout, the hosts stress intrinsic motivation, community support, self‑recognition (high‑fives), and making triathlon accessible and enjoyable.
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Every endurance athlete remembers the moment when things finally click. Your swim feels smoother, your pacing makes sense, your fueling works, and suddenly the sport feels not only easier, but more fun. And for many athletes, that moment happens at training camp. That's exactly why we created the Endurance Edge Triathlon Training Camp happening April 22nd through 26th at Lake Jocassee in South Carolina. For 4 incredible days, you'll train in a small group with expert coaches, sports nutrition support, and sports psychology guidance, all designed to help you train smarter, race stronger, and finally connect the dots in your performance. We swim in crystal clear mountain water, ride beautiful and challenging roads, run scenic trails, and spend the rest of the time recovering, learning, laughing, and eating some seriously amazing chef-prepared food. Mm-hmm. Camp is intentionally small, just 20 athletes, so you get real coaching, true connection, and amazing breakthroughs. So if you want an experience that can transform your entire season, we invite you to join us. Head to theenduranceedge.com and click training camp and reserve your spot with just a $100 deposit. Come train hard, learn a ton, and leave stronger than you ever imagined. I'll see you there. Welcome back to the Find Your Edge podcast and happy New Year. I'm so excited that we are in 2025 and today's topic is all about a new year, new goals, setting triathlon goals the right way, not the smart way, but the right way. And to go into detail on that and how maybe you could rework the way your goals setting process is, is Coach Carly, to get into our sports psychology and the inner workings of our brains, which is always so fun. Welcome to the show, Coach Carly.
Hello, hello. And we love a good sparkle, by the way.
Yeah, I mean, nothing against sparkles.
Yes, they're great, and we'll incorporate them into what we talk about today too, just sort of maybe a new layer to those of you listening that you can add to how you're setting your goals this year.
Yeah, no, I love that because oftentimes when people come to us for coaching, they're like, I wanna do Kona, or I wanna do, yeah, which is totally great, right? Like have big goals, dream big, totally into that. But what is maybe a better process of breaking down a goal. So tell us about that.
Yeah, number one fan of big scary goals over here. Love 'em, love to set 'em, love to reach them. We don't reach them unless we set them, right? So if we wanna go to Kona, the first step is saying we wanna go to Kona.
Yeah.
Um, but the important part of being realistic about what it takes to get there, and certainly won't use Kona as an example for the rest of today cuz I know that's not on everyone's radar, but we do.
If anybody doesn't know what we're talking about, Kona is the— is typically where they've had the Ironman World Championship, but now it switches. Mm-hmm. One year it's in Kona, Hawaii, and then the next year it's in Nice. And what they've done, and this was starting as a 2 years ago, I think, is that they flip-flop them. So the men will do Kona and then they'll do— while the women are doing, uh, Nice, and then they switch. So anyway, let's just say Ironman World Championships. Right.
Big scary goal.
Go big. Go big.
Yep.
Yes. But how do we break that down a little bit more into, you know, edible pieces? Yeah.
And maybe your version of Kona is your first sprint or your first 5K. Yeah. Whatever, whatever that big scary goal is for you and how we break that down into manageable chunks and how we use that to build confidence along the way. So when we get to the big scary goal, we feel confident that we're gonna take it on and accomplish it.
So cool. All right, so you have outcome goals as the first piece. So tell us about outcome goals. What are they? How are they important?
Outcome goals. Outcome goals are what we just said. I wanna go to Kona. Yeah. I wanna, I wanna accomplish X, Y, Z. Being that it's January and the new year, a lot of times someone's New Year's resolution will be an outcome goal. It's the end result of what we wanna accomplish. It's kind of named aptly, it's the outcome, right? So I wanna do a sprint triathlon, I wanna finish a sprint. That's what I wanna do. That's the outcome of, of what you're gonna accomplish. How do we break it down and what other goals do we set along the way to achieving that outcome goal? I'd say for most of our athletes that have been working with us, outcome goals typically look more like time goals. So I've done maybe a 70.3 a couple times and I'm now shooting for a sub 5:30 or something, whatever. Again, make this relative to wherever you are in your triathlon or endurance journey, but oftentimes those'll look like time-related goals for the athletes that we're typically working with. But again, outcome is just what we wanna see after a race is finished is what that outcome goal looks like. And it's typically where people start and finish their goal setting and they say, oh my, yeah, my goal for 2025 is a 5:30 70.3. I'm gonna, I'm gonna apply my SMART goals and make 'em, you know, achievable and all of that great stuff. Beautiful. How do we break it down? We break it down into performance goals and then we break it even further down into process goals.
Ooh, walk us through this.
Yes, they are also very aptly named and I love particularly when this form gets broken down into triathlon because it it's so simply applied in a triathlon context that it makes it really digestible for triathletes to understand. It gets a little more nuanced with other sports cuz it doesn't just fit so perfectly. So in triathlon, I, the most simple way I can explain this is your outcome goal is typically that time goal, what you want after the race is done. You say, yep, I achieved this goal because of this. Your performance goals are what you're gonna accomplish during the race that allow you to accomplish that outcome goal. So if we're gonna do a 5:30 70.3, what do we need to do during that race as a performance goal to accomplish a 5:30 outcome? Does that make sense?
Yeah, totally. So like if I am, uh, swimming, like if I swim like a 2:30 100 yard and I'm biking 14 miles per hour and I'm running 11-minute miles, 5:30 is probably gonna be a stretch. If we were to work backwards of like, okay, if I'm gonna perform at 5:30, I need to have sub-3-hour bike and I like, okay, that's, that might be too big of a leap for where I'm at currently and that's okay, but maybe that's it. Is that meant to like totally deflate us or is that meant to rework our performance goals?
Great question. We'll, I'm gonna get into that part in a second.
Okay.
So the performance goals also easily break down to, and most commonly break down to, This is what I'm gonna do for my swim. This is what I'm gonna do for my bike, and this is what I'm gonna do for my run. Maybe you have some transition things that you're working on. Maybe that, maybe that's a goal.
Mm-hmm.
Maybe it's, it's heavily skewed to the swim. I don't know. It, it can vary. But again, to most simply break this down in triathlon, a swim, a bike, a run perfectly create a performance goal as you're heading into this A race. So we have something we're focused on in each discipline. If we can accomplish each of those, we get the outcome we're looking for. We break that down even further into process goals, and this is where the magic happens. What are we doing in training in the process to get to this race that help us accomplish the performance goals? So if we need to swim in 30 minutes for a 70.3, what are we focused on in training that helps us get to that pace? Maybe you need more time in the open water. Maybe you need to activate your lats more. Maybe you need a better catch. I don't know what it is, but it's something, right? Something we're gonna focus on in training.
That's also, uh, shameless plug, why you should get a coach. Oh, but that doesn't mean that you have to, you can't accomplish your goals without a coach.
Totally.
Right? Yeah.
And that's, um, sort of the magic of the coach and I will leap forward and sort of say, sometimes why we get better at accomplishing our goals when we have a coach. On top of like the accountability, your coach is really nitty-gritty with your process goals. And you might not outwardly talk about it, you might not be focused on it or realize that that's what your coach is doing, but your coach is, is nitty about these process goals. That's what their job is, right? Is making sure that all of these things are targeted. So when we get to the performance, we know what's gonna happen and we're ready to go. We really wanna focus on the process goals and that we're checking those boxes when we're doing them, cuz that's where we build our confidence. Performance too. So that's also the magic of process goals. So if you're working with a coach, if you're not working with a coach, either way, making sure we break that down into what am I doing right now that focuses on these performance goals that I have, and making sure that you're acknowledging when you're doing them. So yes, I swam this week and I focused on activating my lats, or I focused on my catch, whatever it was, right? Insert whatever is applicable to you. but taking the time to acknowledge that you worked towards that goal each week and let it accumulate over time. Now, by the time you get to your race, you're like, hey, no, I know I put in the work. I have the evidence. I checked in with myself, I checked in with my goals, and I followed up throughout the whole thing.
And then, I mean, obviously it sounds like we can apply that to bike, run. Oh yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. And it, I mean, this structure. Again, it really lends itself beautifully into triathlon because it, it triathlon breaks up so easy, but it can, if you have a solely a running goal, maybe you're going for a marathon or half marathon, 5K, I don't care what it is. It can be broken down into any sport in any context. What do you know? Maybe you're focused on staying in aero longer. That's a big one.
That's a good one.
Cycling efficiency. Maybe it's eating while you're riding. Maybe it's drinking while you're riding. I don't. Insert whatever it is that you're focused on that's gonna help you get to your performance goal and result and your outcome goal. But that way we don't just have this big scary thing that we're looking at of this massive goal that we wanna accomplish. We have something that we can do today in this week that we can focus on that will build up over time to accomplish that goal.
And what's coming up for me is so often we have people who come to us like, I wanna get faster and I wanna get stronger, which in my mind is great, but super nebulous. Mm-hmm. One of our clients who came into us is like, I wanna get faster on the bike. And the things that are coming up in my mind, what does your fit look like?
Mm-hmm.
What's your gear ratio? What's your RPM? What's your FTP? What's your lactate threshold? And you know what, what's your power to weight ratio? Like so many different things that are coming up for me in terms of, okay, how can we get this woman faster? Who is, who is newer to cycling and which, that's the fun part about being new is that you make leaps and bounds of improvements. Mm-hmm. In the first couple of years of your training. And then we have to, you know, get a little bit more nitty gritty perhaps with them, some of these process goals of like, okay, how can I dig into this a little bit deeper? And same thing, like, I don't know what this woman's strength training, like, is she doing any strength training? Like, does she have any imbalances? There's so many different things that you could dive into, but I feel our typical strategy is like, okay, I wanna get faster, so I'm just gonna pick this training plan and do it and then be upset when maybe it works, maybe it doesn't. I, I don't know. So this sounds like a way of ironing it out so that it can give us more direction and therefore more likelihood of achieving it.
Yeah. And making it specific to you, right? So if two athletes are shooting for the same time in a 70.3, their performance and their process goals aren't gonna be the same. They're gonna be totally different. Their outcome goal, they could both be shooting for a 5:30, but what they need to do on race day to get there could be totally opposite ends of the spectrum. You just don't know. So, and that kind of comes into this next portion that you were hinting to of sort of having a range within your goals as well. So in each of these layers, what is a realistic expectation? What is minimally acceptable for you? And then the other end of the spectrum, I like to say when the stars align, what is this stretch goal? As we all know, particularly in long course triathlon, there's a lot of outside factors that can influence our times outside of what our abilities are. So it might be a super windy day, maybe you have some, some extra choppy water, things like that that are out of our control.
Drop a water bottle. Yep. Yeah. I mean, yeah.
One railroad track and, and there goes your nutrition that you have planned, right? Yeah. So things like that that are out of our control that we don't want to derail our accomplishment of a goal because they're not in our control. So setting a realistic goal that if I do all the things in my control on this day, this is what I'll be capable of. A stretch goal being if the stars align and, you know, the waters may become— and there's no crazy bottles lost or wind You know when you just have that perfect race day and the weather's great and everything just, it's, it's what we all dream of, right? Those are those kinds of goals. Like it's real nice when they happen, but we don't go into race day expecting that we're gonna have a perfect outside factor type of day. And then you're minimally acceptable. So if I go into this race and a couple things do go wrong, What is minimally acceptable to me to feel like I still succeeded at this race? Because again, we're out there for a few hours. The longer the race, the more opportunities we have for things to go wrong. And what do we find acceptable for us to overcome and sort of maintain a level of acceptance in? It's okay. Things came at me today, I handled them, and I still came out at the best that I could. So we kind of have these 3 markers that we go in with, with our eyes set on this realistic goal of this is what I'm capable of on an average day, average outside conditions if you will, but I show up and I bring my A-game. This is what I'm capable of, and that's what we focus on, not the stretch goals. We really like the stretch goals because they're really fun and really great, but it's hard to get those perfect days out there, you guys. It's not You, you, if you've had a, if you've had a race day where it was just an awesome race day, you know what I'm talking about. When the weather's perfect, you don't hit any big congestion pockets on the ride and you just fly through and you nail your execution, but the day itself pans out well too. That combination's just magic. But we know it doesn't happen every time we race, which also is what makes it so wonderful when it does. But we can't expect it to happen that way every time cuz it's just not gonna, it's reality. Yeah. So let's not set ourselves up for failure by planning on it to be this perfect day and we, we perform to our best, but the day's not perfect, right? So we're setting ourselves up for failure if we go and expecting the day to be perfect too.
I love that. And I also love sort of coming away from like, and there's nothing wrong with an outcome goal, but I, another athlete is coming up in my head who just Did, uh, Clash Daytona and they canceled the swim like the morning of. So here, if you had an outcome goal of a 5:30, like now your brain is like, uh, what?
Yeah.
You know, now is it 5? Is it like, you know, everything gets thrown off, including your, like, now your T1 is removed and you're starting off going 2x2 on the bike. You never know what time you're gonna start. And so it's like all of these things that are out of your control. And I am just so proud of how he handled it and how it was like, well, that doesn't matter cuz the outcome goal was like so last on the rung.
Mm-hmm.
But my process goal was like, okay, we had very specific heart rate and power goals for him to, and he still did it even regardless of like, you know, these packs of people, which again, outta your control.
Yeah. Right. Yep.
You can't control who's drafting and who comes up and like, it is what it is. And one of the first things he said to me was like, you might notice that there's some fluctuation in the power. I was like, no, I, that to me was all normal stuff, right? It didn't look unusual. I was like, you executed beautifully. And then for his run goal was like, just trust himself and listen to his body and maybe we luck out with a negative split. It like didn't perfectly work that way, but it was just like, it was so nice to see that using these process goals instead of the outcome goal, there was so much more enjoyment Yeah. Training enjoyment in the racing and like more enjoyment and happiness in the outcome.
Mm-hmm.
Irregardless of a time.
Mm-hmm. So, well, and I, it's kind of magical. Yeah. And I am a big fan, big, big fan. If you're one of my athletes, you know this. I don't let there be just a number. What else goes along with that number? How do you wanna feel when you cross that finish line? What do you wanna gain from this training? When we get to the start line, what do you wanna look back and be like, wow, I did, I did those things. I feel like this. I, you know, I feel accomplished. All of those things that come along with it because the number is only to a certain extent in our control, but we can control focusing on what we're building towards, how we're growing, you know, all the progress that we're making and helping ourselves feel happy and accomplished in the sport that we're doing. To feel happy and accomplished through, right? Like, that's, that's why we're here, to be healthy and have enjoyment in something that, that keeps us healthy. So if we're including those things in our goals, it helps us bring them to the forefront and feel that way. And that way, when the day hits— and again, you can perform great and the day is just poo, it happens, you guys, it's out of our control— but we can still walk away feeling like you showed up and you did all the things. And I think the example you just gave is exactly that. Like the swim was canceled and I still went out. I, I know I focused on my process goals. I came in, I hit my performance goals anyways, and I can walk away being like, I did it. I did what I came here to do with the circumstances I was given. Oh, that's great. Totally.
And I mean, not, you know, not to be woo or anything, but maybe I do like to be woo, but you know, you don't go to your deathbed to be like, man, I'm so glad I accomplished that like 5:30 triathlon. But no, I'm glad that I grew through that process of how to challenge myself, how to take care of my body, how to listen to my body, and how to pass that along to your kids, to your partner, to the people around you. People feed off of your energy, and if your energy walking across the finish line is like, oh, I can't believe that I missed my goal by a second— no, it's Wow, I hydrated so well and I feel so much better. Yeah, I missed it by 1 second or, but whatever it is. Yeah. Okay. I can be like a little disappointed in it, but man, I'm so proud of myself for doing X, Y, and Z. I'm so glad that I smiled and high-fived. This is, this is my new thing is to smile at every single person I see on the race course because that is why I'm there is to bring some joy and encouragement to other people who are doing hard things. Like we don't have to have like super game face on all the time and nothing wrong game face. I totally have been accused of some massive game face, but like, enjoy it. Like, be in the moment and love on it. And you know, it's so meaningful to also like hand out a high five. And I know I'm sort of again adding in the woo and doing my usual like going in 10 different directions, but it's just so meaningful to— to— I just see so many people quit because they're not reaching these outcome goals. And they're disappointed in themselves or disappointed in— and therefore they're disappointed in their coach, they're disappointed in the sport, and it just like tumbles downhill. And it's like, it shouldn't— it doesn't have to be that way. No, at all.
No. And that, that's what's so great if we can, if we can break these down and bring in other elements. And again, focusing on what you're— what did you do this week? And you know what, it was just, it was just Christmas, right? There's a lot of, there's a lot of red popping up on training plans right now. And I love to see it.
I love it.
I'm so glad you guys are spending time with your families and going out and enjoying yourselves and taking some time to relax and recover and, and live life outside of sport. But also there's green in there too. Like, we can't just be like, oh, but look at the red.
Like, your week was a Christmas tree.
Yeah. You know how many people got up on Christmas and went out for a run? I'm like, you guys, like, that's awesome. I'm so glad you You enjoy running enough that you wanted to do that on that day. You know what I mean? And can we just also be happy that you're doing some movement right now? There's always good things happening that we can pull out. And that sometimes includes that it's a good thing it was read.
It's a—
sometimes it's a good thing it didn't get done. Ultimately, breaking these goals down in a way that when we look week to week, We're taking a minute to see how we're growing, how we're improving, what we're doing well. And if we only look at an outcome number, we don't have a full view of what we're doing in sport. And just like you're saying, we skip over so many opportunities to bring happiness and fulfillment into our sport if we're not taking a whole view at it. We're only looking at the negatives all the time. We feel negative about it, and that's no fun. Now, do we need to check in? Do we need to see where we can improve? Because we want to get faster and we want to set these big goals. Absolutely. That's part of what we're doing, right? Like, again, it's the why you have a coach. That's, that's why you're setting big goals. They're supposed to be hard, but let them be a point of growth. Let them be a point that you look at and see, wow, I'm growing, I'm improving. I, like you just said, I trusted myself on the run. To trust your body on a race day is like, it's magic. It's so cool. And that's hard to trust. It's, you guys, how many of you can go out for a run without your watch and feel confident that you're executing it the way you want to? It's hard. But when you can do it and you can get out there and be like, oh, I got this, it's so cool. Yes.
It is so cool. And that's, that's a lifelong skill.
Yeah.
Like that can take you so far. There are a couple questions that we had written down prior, or I should clarify that you had written down prior about whether a goal is worth pursuing. So can you go through some of those and maybe talk a little bit more about how they tie into this process?
Sure. I think firstly, let me tie it into what we were just talking about. Joy, satisfaction, accomplishment, and sport, right? We don't wanna set big scary goals for the sake of setting big scary goals. We wanna set big scary goals because they fulfill us in life. And when we get to the end, we're like, man, I did some really cool things that made me feel really good. Maybe they made me travel, maybe they made me, you know, stretch and grow. But also there's a time and a place for it, and it's not always, it's not always the best time to go for your first Ironman or your first ultra or your first 5K. It, yeah.
Distance is irrelevant. Yeah.
Yeah. Whatever it is for you. But also, you know, if you're, you're flirting with an idea of a big scary goal, how do you know that it is time? How do you know that it, it's worth it and that it's time to You know, turn the green light on and go all in. So yeah, I had a couple questions written down here as talking points, but one of the main ones being, particularly if we're going to talk about a big goal that's going to take time and financial resources, particularly if you have a family and others that are impacted by this goal, is this a goal that you want to be accomplishing for yourself, or is it something your best friend wants or your partner wants, or, uh, I don't know, maybe your mom wants you to do it. I'm not sure. We bring in this intrinsic piece of, is this something that you want to be doing? Because if it's not, again, we lose the enjoyment. We lose, we often lose motivation because of that. That's a, a big one with that. But are we seeing, or you see a lot of red on TrainingPeaks? Right.
You just don't do it. That's your response is you're just like, I'm, boy, I'm gonna ask for help and have somebody else write me a training plan, but then I'm just not gonna do it because deep down it's not yours.
Yeah. And 100%.
That's, yeah.
Period.
And that's okay.
At the end of that one.
Yeah. That's okay. And it, you know, we, we as triathlon coaches have struggled, um, here and there cuz sometimes people fall off the planet and then we're like, hello. Like we, we still wanna serve you and we wanna write a meaningful training plan for where you're at and meeting you where you're at in your journey. But yeah, sometimes it's okay to like take a break or to say, I don't wanna do this anymore, or I wanna do something different. Or, you know, finding what really speaks to you is important.
Yeah. And taking in all the factors to something, you know, we, again, we've had people come in and be like, yeah, I'm gonna go to Kona and I've never done a triathlon and I don't know how to swim, but I heard this person say that they did Kona. And now I want to do it too. And it's like, okay, cool, we very clearly have a big spike in motivation right now. How do we tie that into what you value in your life and how you want to spend your days? And is that still a goal that you want to accomplish when you understand what it really takes to get there? Because it's a lot of dedication. Anyone that's been there knows that it takes a lot of sacrifice and time to build yourself up to race at that caliber. But, and again, that's not, uh, that's not us saying that that's not for you. That's just a, we need to be real and understand what that takes before we set it as a goal and go all in on it, right? Again, are you gonna get enjoyment and satisfaction out of it? And are you gonna be able to find that within the times that are a little less joyful? You know, we don't always wanna go ride our bike for 80 miles, or, you know, we don't wanna go do our sprint intervals to get our 5K time down, then that's fine. Are you still finding the joy and satisfaction on the other days? You know, generally, do you enjoy running? Then great. If you always hate it, maybe not so much for you. That's okay too.
Or choosing a different process goal, right? Like maybe it's like, okay, let's focus a lot on, you know, a performance goal or on the bike and then the run. We're just, you know, we're getting through it.
Yeah.
And that's okay. Yeah, I wish I could like magically wave a wand and just be like, everyone loves running, but I know that that is not the case. And also it's not for everyone, nor is triathlon, but I'm trying to make it more accessible to more people and make it less intimidating through this process.
Yeah. Well, and again, if we're able to break our goals down into manageable bite-sized pieces that are realistic for our life. Realistic for our life.
Yeah.
Let me emphasize that again. Then they can be fun and enjoyable and fitting great. If we bite off more than we can chew and we're committing too much and we're far overstretched, we lose the joy, we don't accomplish the goals, and then it, it all around feels terrible. And that's no fun for anyone. We don't want that for you, which is why we wanna help you set achievable goals that are real for you, that you will accomplish and will help you feel good about being in a sport. Love that.
If someone were to walk away from this and take away 1 to 3 things at max, what would you want them to walk away with? Or just an overall idea. It doesn't necessarily have to be tactical.
My key takeaway from this conversation would be breaking things down into your process goals. Again, if you have a coach, your coach is likely doing this already. If you have a swim-specific block that you're doing, then that's likely the process goal that you're focused on right now. But open it up for conversation. Have a focus on it and check in with yourself that you're doing it. You're putting in the work cuz that's how we build the confidence. If we just glaze through and make green boxes in TrainingPeaks and show up on race day without recognizing that we're putting in the work, then we kind of show up like, did I do the things? Did I, am I ready? Am I, am I here? Is it happening? Just check in with yourself. Check in that you're doing it. I'm sure that your coach is gonna be real with you and tell you, yeah, you're doing the things, or no, we need to pivot. Either way. You'll know that you're in the— going in the right direction to have the confidence on race day. I love them.
And yeah, like, give yourself a little high five because we're so used to being focused on what I have to do or the bad stuff, and so rarely do we check and be like, hey, I did that and I'm doing it. Yeah, continuing to do it, continuing to show up.
Yeah, I cannot express enough how difficult it is for people to give themselves Self high-fives. I'm like, hey, tell me what'd you do well this week? I got a blank stare and I'm like, you're not bragging. I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna think that you are vain. Like, I just, I just want you to look at what you did this week and tell me what went well. How'd you improve? What'd you focus on? What'd you try? Did you, I hope you failed at something cuz it means you tried something new. Like, what did, what'd we do? And it gets easier when you practice, but it does not come natural.
No, it doesn't.
It feels real weird at first.
It does feel real weird. And yeah, going against sort of what we are innately programmed to do, which is like looking for the big scary things and keeping ourselves safe and only doing what we know that we can do versus— and that might not even be good for us, but we know it and it's familiar. Yep. Just keep doing it. And then it's not like, oh, what did I do that's helpful for me? That is one of the things that I do in my strength class every week, and I don't let people get away with not saying something. Like usually they'll like hide in the back and be like, I'm not gonna share something. Oh no. Uh, one of our athletes today, she, uh, we're working on increasing our squat strength and she did an amazing set. Like this woman is so strong and she's relatively new to the sport and she like comes over and she like whispers to me. She's like, I just lifted that. I'm like, I'm sorry, what? She's like, I just lifted that. I'm like, say it loud, girl. Like it is so, and And everybody in our group, which is why I love our group, is so supportive because what is typically happening in triathlon in particular is that we are just, oh, so like hard driven to judge and to like, if you don't have the $10,000 bike or run a 5:30 mile, then like don't even try, don't even bother. And that is, could not be farther from the truth. Show up. There are people here to support you. Totally promise. And you can, you can do it. But breaking it down in this way, focusing on the good things and, you know, giving yourself your own little personal cheering section. And then, you know, hopefully sharing it with, sharing it with us too. So if you have a goal or if you have something positive to say about, I wanna hear, like share it with us. Yes, please.
I like, I wanna cheer for you. What, what's going well?
Yes. So you can DM us on Instagram at the Endurance Edge. Give us either a process goal, a performance goal, and/or something that you're like— I know I'm giving you way too many things to do, but give us something that you're like, you did, you accomplished, and shoot, send it to us every week. I don't care. Every day. We'll take it. Or you can email podcast@theenduranceedge.com. So that's y'all's goal as we finish up our goal setting podcast. I love it. Awesome. So I'm high-fiving Coach Carly and I'm high-fiving you because you out there are amazing. You are far stronger than you think you are. We believe in you. So thanks for listening and be sure to check out our triathlon coaching, theenduranceedge.com/triathloncoaching, or just our website in general. And good luck. Have an awesome 2025.
Woo.
Thanks for listening to the Find Your Edge podcast. If you like what you heard, don't forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode. And if you're interested in learning more about our endurance coaching, sports and wellness nutrition, metabolic and sweat testing, triathlon training team, or our triathlon training library, be sure to check us out at theenduranceedge.com. And don't forget to follow us on social media at The Endurance Edge. Thanks again. And we'll catch you next time.
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