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Goal Setting for the season...
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I have a new swim season coming up, and in the past I liked to set a couple of types of goals at the beginning of the season, a behavioural goal(s) and a performance goal(s). The first type is usually pretty easy to achieve, and is almost completely within my control (e.g. training volume).

The second one is a bit trickier. I also like to set a performance standard, e.g. a time standard, or it could be a performance standard relative to my competition (placing, top 10%, etc). The performance standard should be somewhat of a stretch and there is no guarantee that I'll meet it, even if I do everything right.

My question is, how much of a stretch do you make that standard? Do you set it at unattainable, and then see how close you can get? Or do you set it at a slight stretch, eminently doable as long as you put in the work? Or something in between? Or not at all?

For example, I swam a 4:49 for a 400 free recently, which is slightly over the 'A' time for 17-18 y/o boys. I know I am still on an improvement trajectory (that was on 6 months of training, and only 2.5 months of really solid work. the first 3 months were just trying to build enough fitness to be able to start doing some hard training), but I don't really know where that peak is yet. So a slight stretch would be to get that A time (4:45.99) at our first LCM meet of the season, but the big unattainable stretch would be a AAA time (4:22.19, AA is 4:34 which I'm calling a big stretch, but potentially achievable).

So what do you folks do? How far do you stretch?

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2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly
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Re: Goal Setting for the season... [JasoninHalifax] [ In reply to ]
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I would set both. One level of slight stretch and then some BHAGs (Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals) that are out there a bit.
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Re: Goal Setting for the season... [JasoninHalifax] [ In reply to ]
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I've found some success in setting a performance and a process goal. I give myself a target that is achievable, but a good reach. I personally like to be a little afraid of the goal. The kind of goal you think you can attain, but only if you truly commit yourself to it. Then I figure out what needs to be done to do that. That then becomes my primary goal for the season. It helps a lot with motivation for races that are far off because it's no longer about the race in 6 months, but the track session tomorrow morning.
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Re: Goal Setting for the season... [JasoninHalifax] [ In reply to ]
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you can really do what you want. But setting a unreachable goal is pointless. The missing ingredient is BELIEF.

yes, it s important to have goals...a dream, something that perhaps scare you. But it s just a inspirational aspect.... The what truly matter in excellence and high performance is process goal...commitment to that process of excellence and walking the walk. That is the recipe to reach a high level. The outcome goal (time) as less value and doesn't contribute much to your performance.

i get annoyed and bored of talking with my new athletes about times.... I know it s part of the process to teach them the little value of it. Show me some true commitment to the process instead...walk the walk, focus on what matters, get the work done, do your job...then, when race day is over...we can have a look at the scoreboard!

with my veteran athletes...times rarely comes up in discussions... they care more about getting better at the process that ultimately make them faster

Jonathan Caron / Professional Coach / ironman champions / age group world champions
Jonnyo Coaching
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Re: Goal Setting for the season... [jonnyo] [ In reply to ]
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I think there is a difference between something like swimming, where time standards are part of the sport, and triathlon where they aren't except in a very general sense. Ie you might have a goal of breaking 5hrs in a half, but that 5 hrs is different depending on locale, weather, currents, etc, etc.

In swimming, if you break 4:14.83 (made-up time) for a 400 free then you get to go to senior nationals. If you dont break it, then you don't get to go. For me, I like to have both. I need an actual target other than just process, because the target lets me know if the process is working. The target also lets me know what I need to do in training. But the process gives me the day to day motivation.

Just so you know, this is a curiosity thread, not an asking for advice thread. I'm just curious how other folks set goals. Do you set it up so that you know you will fail, but see how close you can get? Or you know with near 100% certainty that you will achieve it? Or something in between?

I lean towards the "something in between" most of the time, unless I know that I am in a spot where it just need an easily achievable intermediate target as motivation, or I know I will be time constrained.

Swimming Workout of the Day:

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2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly
Last edited by: JasoninHalifax: Aug 27, 14 15:03
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Re: Goal Setting for the season... [JasoninHalifax] [ In reply to ]
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I say aim at or a bit beyond the 4:45 time. You can set a goal of reaching the AA time but just give yourself a longer time frame for it. You don't want to get depressed over not reaching a goal that you assigned too short of a time frame to.

From my n=1 a friend of mine who is a very good triathlete but slightly over ambitious states his goal is to beat Kienle. So when we're doing bike intervals and he's going 40 km/h he says it's not good enough because Kienle would hold it for longer or one time when there was a 40 km/h headwind and we were pushing out huge watts just to keep moving he started to bitch about how it wasn't fast enough and Kienle would bla bla bla. Anyway long story short he decided to not even race this year because he says he's not in good enough form to win at his A race and he spends most of his time complaining about it instead of training.
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Re: Goal Setting for the season... [JasoninHalifax] [ In reply to ]
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Jason, i completely get your thread and was just sharing a general view

I swam in a Division 1 swim program for 3 years as a ''guest member'' of the team. I m definitely up to speed on the reality of the sport. For many at NMSU, the goal was to get a national qualification time. Make national. But as i said, that was about it for discussion regarding time.

process goal are measurable so you know if they are working or not. and of course, the watch in swim meet show you the progression in the outcome.

Jonathan Caron / Professional Coach / ironman champions / age group world champions
Jonnyo Coaching
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Re: Goal Setting for the season... [JasoninHalifax] [ In reply to ]
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I personally don't really focus on performance goals, ie time, AG placement or Kona. Most of the goals I set are related to execution. I will follow my pacing plan, I will follow fueling plan or I will ride at a consistent power level or certain HR. These are things I can control and will ultimately help with performance. If we focus strictly on performance and something goes wrong it can throw a wrench in our execution.
I believe the same is true for swimming. I tell my daughter don't focus on time. Focus on things you can control like flip turns, breathing, starts, etc. focusing on time can make a swimmer nervous and tight which will have a negative impact on performance
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Re: Goal Setting for the season... [kitch] [ In reply to ]
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To relate this to tri, a performance goal is to ride at a certain power number for the bike leg, or to maintain a pace per mile.

What you are talking about with your daughter is tactics. Those are things that I would focus on "in the moment", but having a really good start makes off a pretty lousy season-long objective, if you ask me. You aren't graded on your start, or your nutrition plan execution. So when you cross that finish line, how do you define whether that race was a success or not?

I look at it like this. Start with a goal, then define a strategy to achieve the goal, and tactics are what you do to execute said strategy.

How lofty do you make that goal? Or do you make a goal at all?

Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly
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Re: Goal Setting for the season... [jonnyo] [ In reply to ]
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I think, perhaps, that when you are talking about process goals, you are really talking about what I would call short term, or intermediate, performance goals. For example, did I make target times for this set, or the result of my monthly 10x100 test set.

What I would call process goals are things like making sure I average 6 swims per week and 20,000m per week. Watch at least 2 jonnyo's tip of the week videos this month. They're important because they make sure I execute the strategy to achieve that top level performance goal.

Re your d1 experience, yeah, in my experience you only set that goal at the beginning of the season, so that everything you do can then be used to say "Is this helping me reach that goal or not". If not, then what would? It isn't a day to day goal, but it is a destination. You then figure out your route from the desired destination.

Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly
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Re: Goal Setting for the season... [JasoninHalifax] [ In reply to ]
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A process goal is not a short term intermediate goal, it's essentially a way of life.

You want to be the fastest triathlete (swimmer, etc.) you want to be. <----That is the goal.

Setting a goal of 4:18 in a 400, or getting an FTP of 330 watts is a intermediate performance goal.

Today is Thursday, you're supposed to do your quality bike today. Did you? Did you do it well?

You've determined you need 7 hours and 37 minutes of sleep a night to be able to train well. Did you get 7 hours 37 minutes of sleep last night?

You need to weight 167 pounds on October 13th. Did you put down the fork today?


*Those* are process goals.
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