How to Build Your Best Season Ever
220 Triathlon|April 2022
Fingers crossed, the 2022 race season will be back to pre-pandemic levels of normality. So, with that in mind, it's time to start looking at the psychological strategies that will turn your goal-setting into goal-getting...
By James Witts. Photographs by Dan Seex
How to Build Your Best Season Ever

“The main factor is choosing a goal race that really motivates you. The desire to perform at your goal race is what will keep you going in those training sessions where you struggle for motivation. When it comes to kickstarting your 2022 multisport season, David McNamee ignores all the noise and lays down the key driver that'll have you creaking out of bed for three-hour rides in the rain. With two, third-place Ironman Worlds finishes behind him, who are we to disagree? In fact, we don't. But as McNamee says, this is the main factor”. Over the page are a host of other factors that'll make or break your season, beginning with the importance of acronyms...

SMARTER OR SCALED UP

Regular readers will be aware of the SMARTER framework. This breaks down as: Specific - make each goal as precise as possible; Measurable - how you quantify your current position and determine the improvement required; Accepted - goals need to be shared and negotiated with others; Realistic - the goal is realistic yet challenging; Time phased - date is set for when the goal is to be achieved by; Exciting - must motivate; Recorded - the goal and progress toward it written down.

It's a proven base to build performance. But not the only one...

I use the SCALED UP model, says Dr. Josephine Perry, sports psychologist, and age-group triathlete. It's similar but with a few tweaks. It's: Specific; Clear, so you're not tempted to change when it gets hard; Achievable; Layered when we focus only on the outcome, We develop unrealistic future expectations and these reduce our confidence, increase anxiety, stop us putting so much effort in and cause poor performance.

This story is from the April 2022 edition of 220 Triathlon.

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This story is from the April 2022 edition of 220 Triathlon.

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