Mental Health

I have been very down on myself this past year for not meeting my race "expectations". It's funny when I think about this because what I consider my best triathlon performances came when I first started the sport.

Since then I have become sucked into trying to beat my previous time or doing longer distances or learning some new skill. I have forgotten the pure joy and excitement I felt when I was just trying something new.

One of the many reasons I joined TRIgirls was for the tremendous support from the coaches’, team members and team experts. I got some good advice recently about focusing more on the joy of training and racing rather than the result. Here is the advice I was given, it seems obvious but I am so far from this it really is a revelation.

I need to refocus on the simple joy of running, biking and swimming. To fall in love with it again instead of listening to the negative thoughts related to my performance. I have to imagine and experience the very simple pleasure of swim, bike, and run and leave it at that; because my training and conditioning will take care of the races.

I need to be okay with whatever the outcome is because the objective of the race is to enjoy doing the three events to the very best of my abilities on any given day.

Period.