I'm probably the same as you and I rarely feel I've totally executed well. A ton of bike races (lots of TTs; they are popular here), tris and open runs. Of all of these I'd say I am most happy with my runs performances, which is ironic because I am a strong cyclist/swimmer and running is still progressing. I've swam so much throughout my life that I've never really cared one way or another on my swims. I am always critical of bike performance with a few rare exceptions where I've just throttled it. Running has been a later to me in life sport and is interesting. I have my marathon time to a fast clip (for me) and any time I run I am pleasantly surprised, mostly due to not having high expectations.

However as someone now sidelined with illness for a prolonged period, I can't help but to look at my performances longingly wondering how hard it is going to be to regain all of that fitness. I should appreciate all of this more. Lesson to future self: enjoy the process and appreciate good health no matter what the end result is.

5 letters. The moment you are happy, and not looking to get better, performance goes backwards.

NEVER

Never.

Even if I achieve my goals, there is always room for improvement. That's just how I'm wired. When I was a kid, and got a 99% on a test, my dad's response was "That's great son, but what happened to the other 1%?"

I look at what I did well, and make a note to repeat it. Then I look at everything that could have gone better and pick 2-3 things to fix for next race. The list of things to fix seems to be getting longer faster than the list of things fixed.

Even if I were an IM AG World Champ, I'd likely look at that race and ask myself why I didn't set a course record. Or if I did, why it wasn't faster.

Hopefully I don't screw up my son as much as my dad screwed me up. It think it would kind of be nice to find satisfaction in some things, sometimes. I just never learned how.

I am happy if I am toeing the line of passing out near the finish. If I have something in the tank when I cross that line. Not happy. If I cross the line and kinda do a swervy walk for a few steps and someone asks me if I am ok - then I know I emptied it and that results is the best I could do, on that day, in those conditions.

I think about this a lot.

I enjoy the process. I can see if I’m getting fitter while training.

I race maybe 5 or 6 times per year so that it makes sense that I am training all the time.

I don’t like the taper. I hate the stress of not being able to control the weather, etc...

I was happy with my first marathon, as I had no expectations other than to attempt a BQ. My time was my time and I was pretty pumped. This is a huge exception for me.

Generally, I have a time / 100 meters, power targets and avg. run paces I want to hit. Rarely do I outperform on all three. An AG placing is nice, but even that doesn’t get me too excited.

It’s probably as Dev says...

I am thinking about doing things like run R2R at the Grand Canyon where it’s more experience driven. I am not sure I have a good answer, but you aren’t alone amongst us Type A types.

Yeah, but what if you nearly pass out when you cross the finish line, but what if it's just because you blew up your pacing? What if you went all out, but swam and extra 200 yards in the swim because your sighting sucked, and then had a crappy T1 because you didn't regain focus quickly enough.

Personally, I find how I feel when I finish to be a pretty poor indicator of my overall performance on any given day unless it's something pretty simple like a flat, windless road 5K.

Ha. Yeah I saw a woman that I was running a half marathon throw up at the finish line. I was like, “damn, I wish that was me”.

Today I had a half dozen people ask me if I was okay and someone took my shoes off for me and put pants on me. I guess today was a good day :)

Often. And it doesn't mean I quit striving (been racing since 2004, not as long as others but longer than most). I often set ambitious goals, and I am often just outside them. Rarely am I so far off absent a mechanical or other serious unforeseen issue.

However more recently I've been judging my race performance more on how it makes me feel versus whether I was 45th or 50th in my AG at a large WTC type race. Did I pace correctly and hold back smartly where needed? Did I push appropriately? Did I give in to the voices in my head telling me to stop? This started a couple years ago when my Garmin flooded just before Oceanside so I raced it blind. 6th time I'd done the course, and TBH was super happy with my execution, didn't even look at my time until several days later. Now I race in a similar fashion, no running time although I do have the Garmin for data

I've had faster years and I've had slower years but if I execute to the very best of my ability at the time of the race, that's a success. Whether that result meets my "time goals" is not really relevant to me, and really just tells me there are things I have to work on if I didn't meet that goal.

Friend of mine writes the back page piece in the USAT Tri mag. Best line he wrote: "Ultimately, it's not about the time it took you to get from the start to the finish, but the time you had in between"

I've been thinking more about doing stuff like this too. Stuff where every event is kind of a 1-off experience in and of itself. I got into alpine mountaineering for a while for this reason (until I eventually realized I hate cold and don't like sleeping outside).

But on the other hand there is a different sort of satisfaction that comes from continually improving, bit by bit, race by race, year after year.

i had a pretty realistic goal for im texas 70.3. i wanted to do no worse than what i did on my swim last year (got that), i wanted an arbitrary 2:30 on the bike, got 2:37, and i wanted 7:45 overall pace on the run but finished (well, almost, i was cut short a mile of the run due to rainout) with a 7:53 pace.

overall time was a calculated 5:15 and change, last year i was 5:40ish.

i smashed my time from last year and overall i still wasnt happy.

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Those things are not mutually exclusive for me, thankfully. I find it's possible to enjoy performances, and still go-to-work-with-lunchpail on Monday morning.

When I was focused on running I was able to compartmentalize it away from the rest of the life. Everything went according to plan or better in about 15-20% of races. Our club coach mentioned 25% in his experience.

When I switched to long distance triathlons, it simply became a part of my life. Family, work, commute have as big impact on performance as successful training blocks, weather or mechanical issues. To have a perfect race or, in this case, a perfect life, became practically impossible. A-type personalities tend to mistake ideas for plans and become really upset when plans are not being executed. This is how we lose efficiency - worrying to much about perfection instead of putting a good fight right here and now.

Understanding that made me feel much better and, as a result, perform better. Now I think I put up good fight in about 80% of my races.

Most A races I do I have a pretty good idea of what my capabilities are (due to race sim workouts), and I almost always do what I think I'm gonna do. So yes, in those cases I am happy with the performance. But that doesn't mean that I don't strive to get better for the next one.

ALWAYS. I'm old, and was as fast as I'll ever be, over 20 years ago. I still give each race, what I have to give that day. And for as long as I can still race, my performance will never be as good, as it's been before. My only goal these days, is to make it to the starting line. Once there, I'm happy with whatever the outcome of the race is.

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Maybe I should have differentiated between happy and wanting to improve. I guess I can be happy that the race went well and still look at areas where it can improve for next time. But I am never not looking for how it could be improved (no matter how slow I am).

Guess it depends on how you define performance. I've been satisfied a number of times, from a win to getting beaten into second to barely making it to finish line. To me satisfaction is less about the outcome--though I'll happily take a win--and much more about the effort.

Last year I suffered more in a race than at any time I can remember. When the physical end failed it became a psychological challenge. Sucking it up and grinding to finish line is probably the performance I'm most happy with.

Most races I’m happy with but always look to improve. I always evaluate my race after to figure out what parts I didn’t execute as well as possible. But this sport is a hobby for me and I’m not qualifying for kona so I try to focus on staying positive. I usually have set a few race day goals as far as time. One is the stars align outcome where I execute most everything way beyond expectations. Two is pretty realistic where I hit very close to my goal times for each leg with no major faults. Three is maybe slightly outside of what I was expecting but not crazy far off. After that, sure, I might be disappointed for a moment but there’s always another race. And I’ll look at things I did well and think about areas to improve.

Once, lol.

Last year in Galveston. It was my first race after hunkering down with a coach and training seriously. I had no idea what to expect, because before i was only training sporadically on my own, and finished my first 70.3 in 5:56.

Galveston I beat my swim time by a mile. I went faster than I thought i was going to on the bike, I ran out of transition and my legs felt great, and I set a half marathon PR. I broke 5hr and was almost an hour faster than my previous best time. It was the first time I did a race and felt like I executed everything, and it felt like I was racing from start to finish.

Sometimes I am happy - like in Boston in 2017 when I had a good race on a few weeks of 40 mpw type of training... but most of the time once I sit down and sift thru the data I find something I don't like. So - mostly never, but every now and then I feel satisfied.

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Next races on the schedule: none at the moment

If I am racing a running road race, it hitting the time goal. If I run faster it’s successful if not the it’s not. I don’t lose much sleep over it but the clock doesn’t lie.
If i am doing an ironman it’s did I qualify for kona. If so then it’s successful, if not then it’s not. I do not put much stock into digging deep, working through pain or singling out a specific leg of the SBR to make myself feel better about a failed attempt.

I think it is a really good question! Most people are disappointed with their race results, and so am I.
I am really happy when I manage to race at 100% of my potential. This has been very rare for me, probably 20% of the triathlon races I have started over the past 5 years.

I try to put things into perspective, and so I feel like the comment that is sometimes made on ST is relevant and I try to keep it in mind: “crossing the finish line a 70.3 or full IM distance race is an incredible achievement and should remain one for anyone”. I race triathlon for fun, because I enjoy it. Not to blame myself because I am slow.

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It doesn't get easier, you just get slower
https://mymsracesironman.home.blog/

If Tim Don can get back to fitness, you can too - right? You're golden. You already have the muscle memory.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/...n-neck-keep-running/

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https://www.strava.com/...tes/zachary_mckinney

I think there's a separation between being happy with a performance, and being satisfied with one. The day you reach the latter is the day when you hang it up.

I've had good days -- one's where I've been happy -- but I'm not satisfied yet.

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I'm happy around 75% of the time. I generally execute pretty well, have never had nutrition issues and rarely have pacing issues. After most races I can genuinely put my hand on my heart and say that was very close (within a few %) to the best that I was capable of on that day. That's my bar for happiness. I tend to avoid setting fixed time goals as conditions can have such a big impact.

The races where I'm not happy are the ones where I either messed something up on the day (pacing, swim pack positioning, equipment choices, etc) or something happened in the ~week before the race that meant I didn't do justice to the training I'd put in. E.g. going into the race tired or stressed through bad tapering, too much travel, work, insufficient sleep, etc.

If my longer term training and fitness isn't where I would like it to be (often the case!) I can still be very happy if I do the best with what I've got.

Agreed! That first part is complete nonsense and just typical BS motivations videos on youtube kind of talk. I get where it comes from. But if you can never be happy about a result and just keep punching your head into the wall, that will really eat up all motivation at least for me.
Now i might not be a type A personality person in the pure sense, but i always try and set myself some ambitious goals (for my weak athletic standard!), and hope to reach them. I'm never going to be front of pack maybe not even MOP but i try to relate the goals to the amount of training done. If i do 5 hours a week i can't expect to be even MOP.

To answer the overall Q:
I would say around 80 % of he time.
I have done 4 half (7:45, 6;40, 5;30 and 5:59), i have been happy to see progress in all of them, that last one was after 6 months off with no sport at all due to concussion and only 2-3 months training. I have done 1 full and my goal was to complete and so i did. For all my sprints/olympics i have set PRs so been happy with that. But i get that I'm nearing a level where a PR is not usual anymore and that could lead to another feleing.

It's possible to be happy with how you performed in a given race in the knowledge that it's a stepping stone to further improvements.
You can be satisfied with an individual performance without your career losing purpose.

I'm happy every time I get to the start line.

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Well, I have a PhD :-)

Thanks for sharing!

+1 on this.
So many variables in triathlon that I think it would be impossible to ever be completely satisfied with a performance.

Happy is a funny word... tend to be 'happy' with my race in general but there aren't many perfect races.. always room for improvement. I've won races and afterwards I'm thinking about things like my fumbling transition, goggles fogging, etc. Overall I enjoy racing, so I'm happy with the actual events but just critical of my self in general and a bit of a perfectionist.

Trial and error. If I feel tanked after swim, I did it wrong. Tanked after bike, I did it wrong. Tanked after run? How was my pacing, was it even? was the course flat or hilly? was the wind at my back or in my face?

then take into account other variables..
swim choppy or smooth
crowded swim or not
currents
how long a run to transition
did i lay my stuff out in the most efficient manner
how as my bike pace
my power
my nutrition
was I "hunting" or not
did my legs feel good - if not - what would have caused this in the prior week
etc


adjust according to the variables at play and if at the end I am tanked and the variables all were in my favor - then I left it out all there and am happy

QFT.

I race bikes, rarely, on only about 5 to 6 hours a week. People are shocked I can even keep up with the rides and races, much less lead at some point and throw attacks and stuff.

I never sniff winning. I keep getting told how strong I ride, etc.... because I can and do drop some folks. Just not the ones that matter.

All I hear in my head is......."you still got dropped by the winners".

I think for me, the exception is TT. But even then, that's got categories of success. Power output, aero, how well did I corner or u-turn, did I plan well (weather, tire pressure, splits). Perhaps power was good but I took the corners shit. Or perhaps planned really well but power was down.

At least with TT it can be "minor victories" for myself. I see my RR activities largely as failures and yet another very painful learning experience.

Right now.....anything as a new PR or something in my running makes me happy. I know I'm slow, but the improvements keep me happy since I don't compete in it whatsoever.

The older I get, the more satisfied I am. Especially as I continue to PR. I just had my best executed 1/2 at Oceanside. I think part of being happy in races is finding the ones that work for you. I think I am better at 1/2s than fulls. I don’t race well in heat, then why would I do those races? Once we start to know ourselves, the more satisfied we will become.

I read a post on FB about someone who had a du coming up, but hadn’t bought a bike yet. Are they going to be happy with their performance? Probably not.

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http://www.TriScottsdale.org

Of the "A" races out there, basically happy 90-100% of the time.

I feed off of the positivity of the event and the feeling afterwards. Additionally, its the motivation / training that keeps me going, not the spot time at the end of the race.

Spent years playing tennis really competitively and got the real burn-out once expectations < reality- I now play maybe once a year.

Cardiovascular health for me is about the long game (I'm 33) and its just about being out there, enjoying the 6am sunrises, and the little moments of training madness that keep us all afloat.

For those where triathlon is their first "deep" endeavor into an athletic field, keep this in mind! Too many triathletes burn out for this exact reason.

I'm often happy with my race performance. Sometimes I'm not, but I tend to take a fairly subjective assessment of it, and I separate race performance from training.

The overarching principle is "do I feel like that race was an accurate assessment of my physical condition?" And I try to set realistic targets for a race based on how training is going. So I might give the race an "A" but training a "C-", depending on how consistent I've been and whether I've been doing the things that I should be. Or vice versa, training might have been going great, but I did things on race day to sabotage my own efforts. Waking up late, skipping breakfast, improper pacing, not getting my head in the game, etc....

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This is close to how I'd described my attitude toward race performance. I do set ambitious goals and look to do well by PB and relative to others in my age group. But success is really about how well I execute on race day, especially if conditions are challenging and I've got to think on my feet. Interestingly, I no longer race with a watch. It just so happens that about the time I quit wearing my watch I got both happier and faster.

I think someone mentioned the difference between 'happy' and 'satisfied.' It's a good point. I'm always happy when I'm doing a tri and after: I'm doing something I love, I'm outside, and I'm on my bike. That's about as great as life gets.

When I cross the finish line, I evaluate whether I've met my goals. That's an objective process, not an emotional one. There's always room for improvement. If there wasn't I wouldn't be doing this sport. You always want to feel like you're getting smarter and faster and that search to do so is what drives you. But unless I've truly screwed up - ie, unless I've disappointed myself by making a weak decision, given in to the voices telling me to stop or slow down, not being my 'higher self' - then I'm always happy even if I also know I could have physically gone faster. But I'm still going to see how I can improve.

Hear, hear.

I've battled some tough back issues, and my fastest days will always be in the past. I'm happy that I'm able to line up and give it a go every single time.

Expatiations matter

I have hit most of my goals racing but I feel like I never hit them when I'm training. Kind of weird yes but I have been pleasantly surprised. However my expatiations are realistic.

My hypothesis is that no one has ever run a 100% perfect race, ever.

Sure, they can collapse at the finish line, crush a record or PR, etc. but there is always a scenario where they could have tweaked at least 1 thing to go faster.

So in my mind it's silly to say that you can never be happy unless you run the perfect race. Because you never will.

However, you can set concrete and realistic goals for yourself and be happy if you achieve those goals. They can be time based, place based, whatever, but you should set expectations for yourself beforehand and then evaluate your race against those goals and what you could have done better to achieve them.

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Strava

When I first started racing (over 10 yrs ago) it used to be based on doing the same races and getting a PB ..

Not any longer. I’ve got repetitive injuries that flare up so for some races, it’s getting to the start line. Otherwise, I base my performance on the difficulty of the course and conditions, and how prepared I was for it - as I’ve shifted to racing on trails and ocean instead of on the road and tri’s. I like to try different races so I don’t look at PBs any longer as the courses for each race varies so much. The more challenging the course and conditions and my ability to perform well - the happier I am with the race. Though, similar to others I’ll never be 100% happy as improvements can always be made.

Given that racing is not my career, nor does anyone really give a shit how good or bad I do in a race...I don't take it all that seriously. So as long as I don't have medical bills, or a broken bike when all is said and done...I'm pretty happy. I'm of course competitive, and try to do my best...turn myself inside out if I'm on a good day. I'm doing this for fun, as a hobby. If after a race I constantly feel disappointed in myself, I should probably find a new hobby.

Agreed. Last year I trained the hardest I ever have for IM 70.3 Lake Placid. I was sure I was ready, having put in some of the toughest bike and run workouts I ever have. Yet, that course still got me, I became it's beatch. I was unhappy with my result, but satisfied with the overall experience. I walked away thinking about taking another shot and how I would train smarter and harder next time. The thing about this sport is you keep on thinking "how can I improve?" And there are a myriad of ways to improve. That's a big part of the draw for me.

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"The first virtue in a soldier is endurance of fatigue; courage is only the second virtue."
- Napoleon Bonaparte

I think that i am very uncompetitive and enjoy the training. I do all this to keep fit - to be able to run for a bus when I’m 80 and to give myself the best chance at having enjoyable later years.

I did a sprint tri at the weekend and know I didn’t do as well as I could have - but I was over it by the time I got home.

On Monday morning I went for a short, easy swim to loosen up - and swam the first 400m quicker than I did the race - not good, I know.

I’m more of a runner though, and would be slightly more disappointed if I didn’t hit my time targets on a run race.

Me either, thankfully as well.

I couldn't imagine going through life not being able to take pleasure from successes because I was afraid it would take me backwards. I'm hoping Paul was being sarcastic.

If anything, the races where I do my best make me push that much harder to see what I can do to top what I had just done.

For the OP: I think my numbers are nearly opposite of yours. I'd say that probably 90-95% of the time I'm happy with my results.

I like this question. Last year I did 5 triathlons and also BQ'd (in my tenth time running a marathon). Out of those races I'd say that I was happy with my performance on all except one. I really crapped the bed at Raleigh 70.3 Out of the other races, while I was happy with the performances I also sat down and tried to analyze what I could to do to get better/faster. I think that's what is great about triathlon. Since there are three sports we are constantly trying to optimize training to give us the best results when racing and then after the race, go back and re-adjust to try to go faster. Even for the BQ attempt, when I ran it my goal was to BQ after many failed attempts. I finally did, and am still riding the high from it months later, but at the same time, I negative split the back half and really didn't feel beat up post race and was back to training fairly quickly. I now wonder how fast I could have gone and am plotting how to go faster and in my next marathon.

in no particular order

a. first ironman
b. first IM AG win
c. any race with an overall win (only a few running races for me)
d. first Boston marathon

all of these went relatively well and i will always look back on them fondly. if i ever run an ultra or take up MTB/xterra i am sure those will be added to the list.

Pretty much never.....I have been doing running races since 2009 and triathlon since 2013. I was happy with first 1/2 marathon I run :-)

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2024: Bevoman, Galveston, Alcatraz, Marble Falls, Santa Cruz

I'd say that you are either setting your goals at unrealistic levels if you are only achieving them such a small percentage of the time, or you need to work on race prep and your mental game.

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Jason N wrote:

Given that racing is not my career, nor does anyone really give a shit how good or bad I do in a race...I don't take it all that seriously. So as long as I don't have medical bills, or a broken bike when all is said and done...I'm pretty happy. I'm of course competitive, and try to do my best...turn myself inside out if I'm on a good day. I'm doing this for fun, as a hobby. If after a race I constantly feel disappointed in myself, I should probably find a new hobby.

This is the most sensible post in the entire thread. I only replied to bump your quote.

I agree with this and think this attitude is the best way to make triathlon and endurance sports a lifelong hobby. However, I do have a few performances where I was extremely happy after and thought the performance reflected the work I put in. I usually give myself tough but realistic goals for each race I do and no matter the outcome, I'm always looking for ways to improve for next time.

I can think of a few race performances that I was "reasonably pleased" with. But I have never had a race that went so perfectly that I was 100% satisfied with what I did because I knew I left time out there. Granted one of them it was a matter of seconds in a marathon, but I was still analyzing that result over and over trying to think how I could have avoided losing 10 seconds to a cramp.

I have had excellent results at IM and 70.3 that I still could point to something about the race that needed improvement.

So I while I can say I was "reasonably" happy with many of my results, I have never been actually 100% happy or satisfied. Always need to strive for improvement.

Right on . And the older I get, the happier I am . Those who say "never" are setting themselves up for a rough future . Enjoy the training and the experience / camaraderie . I can still outbike most athletes half my age, but so what ? I'm on the podium in most of my events , the least important part of the journey .

Absolutely!!! This is as close to the fountain of youth I've ever gotten, and the sport has given me my teenage body back. I usually podium my age group, and even have a couple overalls, but that's nothing compared to looking and feeling good. I fell apart in the hills at Waco last year, and tried really hard to be disappointed. But I've been doing this long enough, to know that you learn more from one bad race, than you do from 100 good races, so cherish the opportunity to still learn. And once I saw the Waco race photos, I'm like looking pretty good for an old dude, so I'm very happy with that.

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Athlinks / Strava

When I began doing distance running as an adult, I heard some advice that I still use: set an ultimate goal, a reasonable goal and an acceptable goal. So while I rarely hit my ultimate goal, I usually hit my acceptable goal. Therefore, I rarely (limp) away disappointed.

And, as others have mentioned, as I have gotten older -- while I am competitive -- I also try to make goals of being the friendliest person on the course, appreciate certain moments of the experience and be happy to finish. Throwing up in the recovery tent is also a reward ...

I guess maybe I should have phrased the original question a bit differently. By really happy I guess I meant a result that you almost didn’t expect you could accomplish. There have only been a few times where I’ve crossed the finish line and given myself a ‘wholly crap’ - meaning I was almost shocked with how well I did.

The first time this happened was 2012 when I ran a 10k three weeks before Boston and ran a full minute faster than what I thought I could run. This gave me a ton of confidence heading into Boston with good run fitness, but on race day it was 90+ degrees and my race was far from the result I wanted. Since then, I’ve had four other races where I crossed the line almost shocked with how I did based off training and expectations.

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Assuming I performed up to my capabilities and didn't goof up, most of the time. I stopped mass start road racing once it got to the "never" stage. Chasing results was making me crazy, and not in the fun way. Got into this as a bit of a lark and did well enough in AG that I am training for it. But its for the experience, people and the venues. I go as hard as I can, and the results are what they are. I try to learn from my mistakes, not let them own me.