{"id":16804,"date":"2023-06-27T14:02:42","date_gmt":"2023-06-27T21:02:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/?p=16804"},"modified":"2025-06-19T06:52:16","modified_gmt":"2025-06-19T06:52:16","slug":"two-approaches-to-triathlon-a-race-preparation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/two-approaches-to-triathlon-a-race-preparation\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Approaches to Triathlon \u201cA\u201d Race Preparation"},"content":{"rendered":"

We triathletes are deep into the 2023 race season with many big races approaching rapidly. For me, those include the World Sprint Championships in Germany in a few weeks, the USAT National Championships in Milwaukee in August, and the World Standard-distance \"\"<\/a>Championships in Spain in September. For long-course triathletes, it might be the World Ironman or 70.3 Championships in the fall. For still others, you have your own \u201cA\u201d races on your schedule. You\u2019ve been aiming for these big races all season, working hard in training, and doing your best in \u201cB\u201d races. Hopefully, you feel you\u2019re ready to swim, bike, and run as fast as you can on race day.<\/p>\n

Getting to your \u201cA\u201d races healthy and fit is an accomplishment in itself, but I\u2019m sure you want to \u00a0swim, bike, and run your be<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

st in the \u201cBig One!\u201d Whether you succeed or fail to achieve your goals at these all-important races ultimately depends on what happens between your ears\u00a0as these events near. Approaching these races with the right attitude is your key to performing your best on race day. The problem is that important races can play mind games with your head.<\/p>\n

There are two schools of thought on how to prepare for a big race. One approach is to try to ignore the fact that it\u2019s a big race and simply say, \"\"<\/a>\u201cIt\u2019s no big deal so there\u2019s nothing to get worked up about.\u201d In big events, such as national or world championships, some triathletes I know won\u2019t tell people about it and not share news on their social media to minimize feeling expectations and pressure from others. They want to treat their \u201cA\u201d races just like another race and to avoid the hype surrounding this event.<\/p>\n

The risk of this approach is that big races are hard to ignore even if you don\u2019t talk about them. Whether you like it or not, it\u2019s a BIG race. By ignoring the reality of the situation, you may not prepare yourself\"\"<\/a> psychologically and emotionally for the magnitude of the event that may hit you sooner or later, whether in the days leading up to the race or when you arrive at the race venue where its significance can\u2019t be ignored.<\/p>\n

The other school of thought argues that big events can\u2019t be avoided, ignored, or downplayed. Rather, triathletes must face the reality of these \"\"<\/a>races and do what they can to respond positively to the unavoidable expectations and pressures. This approach has you say, \u201cThis race is a big deal, so let\u2019s figure out how to deal with it positively.\u201d You must establish an attitude that will enable you to achieve your goals (\u201cI am going to believe in myself, stay grounded, and focus on what I need to do to perform my best.\u201d). This attitude helps you deflect the self-imposed and external pressures and enables you to maintain a positive and healthy perspective and focus as you approach the big races. The risk of this approach is that,\"\"<\/a> despite your best efforts, you won\u2019t be able to deflect the expectations and pressure. Instead of inoculating yourself against the pressure, you actually succumb to it.<\/p>\n

With either approach, you need to figure out what you need to do to be totally prepared to swim, bike, and run your fastest on race day (e.g., physical and mental preparation, course familiarization, being organized, who you hang out with). You also should recognize what and who might interfere with your preparations (e.g., overly intense teammates, too much time with family and \"\"<\/a>friends). Finally, you must take deliberate steps to ensure that you maintain a healthy attitude and do the things that you have learned will lead you to success.<\/p>\n

What we can learn from this is that there is no single approach that works for every triathlete. You must look at how you have handled big races in the past. If you performed well using one approach, then stick with it (\u201cIf it ain\u2019t broke, don\u2019t fix it!\u201d). But if it didn\u2019t work before, don\u2019t expect it to work next time. In this case, you will want to do something different. Regardless of the approach you take, the goal is to enter your \u201cA\u201d races feeling motivated, confident, relaxed, and focused. If you feel that way, you have a better chance of\"\"<\/a> performing your best and achieving the goals you have set for yourself, while also enjoying the overall race experience and having fun from start to finish.<\/p>\n

In my next article, I\u2019ll share some specific mindsets you can adopt to make having a healthy attitude toward your \u201cA\u201d races easier to embrace.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We triathletes are deep into the 2023 race season with many big races approaching rapidly. For me, those include the World Sprint Championships in Germany in a few weeks, the USAT National Championships in Milwaukee in August, and the World Standard-distance Championships in Spain in September. For long-course triathletes, it might be the World Ironman […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18565,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1770,1517,1557],"tags":[323,1692,1458,75,59,1459,1460,1039],"class_list":["post-16804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cycling","category-sports","category-triathlon","tag-anxiety","tag-big-races","tag-bike","tag-focus","tag-pressure","tag-run","tag-swim","tag-triathlon"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16804"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16804\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18566,"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16804\/revisions\/18566"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}