What leads to success in Triathlon?
Over the course of the last 10 years I have been coaching, I have noted a number of attributes that lead to success in this sport. It doesn't have to be that these people are the best in their age group, not at all, what I deem as success is that these people (no matter their starting level of fitness) are improving and reaching their potential. Also I have been able to look at myself and understand why I was successful, as I see many of these same attributes in myself. Many people look at pro athletes and don't think they can relate as they may think that they are just naturally gifted. That is certainly not the case in myself. I did my first triathlon at age 25, that was a 200m swim, 15k bike, and a 3k run. That was a LONG way for me and a big deal, and I wasn't particularly successful at it, I certainly didn't win or come close to winning it, but a great deal of hard and smart work over a number of years led to big improvements and to me achieving the potential I personally had in the sport. So I want to outline 9 points below as I think if you can nail these, you have a good shot at getting the very best out of yourself.
Realistic goals. Successful athletes set themselves realistic goals, and they can work out with their coach how they are going to achieve them, they are specific. So not "I want to qualify for Kona". That may be realistic (depends on the athlete) but it is not specific enough. You need to know what you have to do to achieve it, are the times realistic given the time frame? I would prefer an athlete set themselves a specific goal for themselves rather than a goal that has so many factors out of their control. So it could be a time goal for a particular course, it could relate to the run or the overall time and if that is achieved then based on previous years results there will be a good chance that a slot may also be achieved as a bonus, but if it is just I want a Kona spot, then people may do a great race making a lot of improvements, and still feel disappointed that they haven't met their goal. For a beginner athlete doing their first half or full ironman, then I don't think a time goal should be set, I think getting to the finish line is the best goal you can have in your first race.
Communication. There is no point having a coach in a one on one relationship if the communication is poor, as the benefit of a coach is they get feedback from their athletes and can adjust the programme accordingly. There is no point telling a coach at the end of the week that you felt sick, or had a niggle on Monday but pushed through each session and now things are really bad. That is just stupid, and digs yourself into a bigger hole. No programme is set in stone and flexibility when needed is crucial. Effective timely communication is absolutely crucial and the ability to communicate the negative as well as the positive. Some people are pleasers and they find it really tough to communicate something that they feel will let someone down, but it is important that you are honest and let your coach know how you are truly feeling so they can help you. On the other end of the spectrum there are some athletes that may not communicate that they missed some crucial sessions until the end of the week. If they were prompt with communicating this, it would give their coach a chance to move things around so the really crucial sessions (which are the ones more likely to help the athlete reach their goals) are not missed. The better you are at communicating, the more benefit you will get out of having a coach.
Balance. This also relates to communication. When you set up with your coach make sure you are honest with your life and work stresses so that a programme is developed that will give you that balance and if things change for you, then let them know. Tell the truth and not what you think your coach wants to hear. How much time do you really want to dedicate to the sport, which still gives you time to spend with your family. And this is not what you can manage for 2 weeks, but what is going to be manageable over the longer term. There is no magical number of hours needed to succeed, but it needs to work for the athlete in their busy lives. If an athlete is honest and says I have only 10 hours at the most per week I want to devote to training and they let their coach know this from the outset then the coach is going to be able to develop a programme that can still work for them. So much better than someone who is adamant they want to do 15 hours a week, but keeps missing crucial sessions because they weren't honest with what they can truly manage.
Consistency. This relates to the above point. It is important to be consistent in your training, so make sure you are honest with how much you can manage. No point training like a hero for 2 weeks and then crashing and burning and losing that magic consistency. If you know you are going to be away on a work trip, then let your coach know as soon as possible so they can take that into account for your long term programming. Important though that people don't take consistency so seriously that they train through illness and injury. If you communicate things quickly and clearly then a coach will be able to programme the recovery your body needs to get over a sickness or niggle with the least amount of disruption. If you try and push your way through in order to achieve short term consistency, then in the end you will prolong your time away from effective training. In my case I very much believe my success was due to consistency. I was very good at reading my body, I could feel if I was run down and about to get sick or if I had a bit of tightness I knew to not do an intense session. As a result I was very seldom sick and I never had any real injury. So really it is about reading your body, communicating so you don't do intense sessions on a body that will not absorb them, and you will therefore have consistency in training over the long term.
Easy is easy and hard is hard. So many people want to train at race pace all the time. This is not how you achieve success, it just doesn't work like that. Training at race pace all the time will lead to massive fatigue. We want to keep the pace very steady when asked to, to work your aerobic system but not fatigue you too much, so when you are asked to really train above race pace you can do it and get the benefit from it. Sometimes it therefore is a good idea to not always train with other people. When I first came into the sport I was amazed at how many athletes were running and biking so much faster than I was in training, but then on race day they were more than an hour behind me. We all know people like that, that just train way too hard all the time and never achieve their potential on race day. In some cases these people know this, and they enjoy the fact they are the person in training that no one can keep up with, they enjoy this more than the actual race itself. So if you are supposed to be doing a recovery run or bike, then do it by yourself and not in a group, if you will be tempted to push too hard.
Stop being obsessed with numbers. This relates to the above. We have access to so much data these days telling us our speed and power etc. This can often lead to a person obsessing with it, and trying to beat themselves from last week. If it is a recovery steady state session, you should not be looking at your pace, it is no indicator of how well you will run or bike on race day, and you can't always be comparing yourself from week to week. If you are a beginner athlete then maybe you can. You will make quick and steady progress from week to week and it will be very satisfying. However if you have been in the sport more than a couple of years, then it is very unlikely you will see weekly progress. There will be some days and weeks where you will be more tired then others and that is completely normal. If you have one of these watches, I would suggest in your steady sessions, the purpose of them is to make sure you are going slow enough, not that you are going fast enough. In your intervals then great use the watch to make sure you are meeting your targets, but please stop obsessing with every session.
Organised. There is no point doing a great block of training but being severely disorganised and ruining your race. If you have an ironman coming up then start thinking of all the logistics and equipment you need on race day at least a month ahead. You don't want to be running around like a headless chicken on race week trying to buy important items you need for your race, and you don't want to have last minute worries. You should be running through the race in your head a month ahead and if you have any worries, then talk to your coach about them. On race week you want to be relaxed and not wasting valuable energy fretting.
Give yourself a chance. Again this relates to the above. You have done a great block of training have put everything into achieving your goals, then make sure you don't write yourself off by traveling the day before the race. Traveling is hugely stressful on your mind and body, and a lot could go wrong, delays, bike could get left off flight etc. Arrive AT LEAST 2 days before the race so you get at least 1 day before the race to unwind from the travel and loosen out the legs. Even if you travel in a car, if you are sitting in the car for 5 or 6 hours, you will get quite stiff and you can't expect yourself to race to your potential the very next day. If it is a B race and you can't take any more time off work, that is ok, but if it is your A race and you have been training for months for this day, then give yourself a chance to achieve and don't self sabotage.
Don't read/watch too much. If you spend a lot of time reading or watching things on the internet you will start to question absolutely everything that you are doing. There are so many differing ideas out there and not all of them are good. Swim tips given by an Olympic pool swimmer will probably not apply for you as a triathlete, along with bike tips from a professional cyclist that has never run off the bike before. If you don't understand why you are doing something, then ask, it is really important that you understand what you are trying to achieve in each session, so don't be afraid to ask and talk with your coach, but also trust your own programme and give it a chance.