I've been thinking about something similar of late, although a little different. My biggest setback/disappointment is the lack of progress I've made in the last couple of years. My cycling has remained stagnant and there are times I can get pretty depressed about it. I sat down and wrote out all of the things that contribute to my lack of progress and the two keys for me were 1.) my weight and 2.) consistency. To combat these issues I hired a cycling coach as I'm terrible at being objective when it comes to my training and will be working on smart and steady weight loss this offseason. I've lost the same 20 pounds many times but keep finding it every winter. It's like a depressing boomerang, it keeps coming back! This summer I didn't lose any weight so now I'm even heavier. I'd like to drop 40#. I might go see someone about addiction/food issues as I certainly have some problems that I haven't been able to resolve myself.

I wanted to set some process based goals to hold myself accountable and will be tracking the number of green workouts in TP (green means completed as planned). I am targeting a 90% compliance rate per month. In regards to the weight loss, I started a weight loss challenge with my local team. It's nothing fancy, but something that can hold us accountable this offseason so we don't look like stuffed sausages come spring. One thing that did surprise me is that I wasn't alone. I tossed the idea of the weight loss challenge out to my team and have somewhere between 12 and 20 participants. I reached out to a few local race directors and they have tossed in free or discounted race entries as prizes. I also weigh myself daily and average it out for the week. I have both numbers (weight and compliance along with w/kg @ FTP taped to my bathroom mirror so I see them everyday).

So in summary, my tips might not work great for someone like you who is already stressed about missing a workout, but I thought I'd toss it out there as it could help someone else. You might want to look into finding someone to hold you accountable or to act as support when you are having a bad day. I've found that to be invaluable.

M~

Few things in life really go as we plan for them. Don't like it. Can't change it. Stop beating yourself for things you don't control. Here are some thoughts of tips to embrace what you can change to minimize future deviations:

• Quit what isn't working for you. Emphasis what does work for you. You decide.
• Think in terms of actions over a week, not days (or hours over today's specific workout). Project out to months, not weeks. And years, not months. You may need to train but it's for a race later in the season or even next year.
• Think about your successes to date a little, and about your future goals a lot.
• Focus more on process of how to reach your future goals and less of what those goals are that you set.
• Sometimes you just need a break from whatever is getting to you today. Replace it with something fun for you. Laugh. Smile. Relax.
• Acknowledge that triathloning is not everyone's sole purpose in life. Purpose expresses itself in different ways to different people.

Your sustainability of grit will strengthen you and others around you.

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P R O C E S S

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Eric Reid AeroFit | Instagram Portfolio
Aerodynamic Retul Bike Fitting

“You are experiencing the criminal coverup of a foreign backed fascist hostile takeover of a mafia shakedown of an authoritarian religious slow motion coup. Persuade people to vote for Democracy.”

My mantra for IM training is "Inhale solution, exhale stress". When you train for long periods of time, either for a specific race or a season or goal, the possibility for things to go wrong magnifies by a large factor. If you can objectively look at the small setbacks and figure out how to at least *try* to overcome them, it will boost your confidence and performance in the overall training cycle. It also helps if something larger does go awry, and you can deal with it objectively, eye to eye, instead of walking away from it to make the problem *seem* smaller in your view.

It may sound a bit silly or arcane, but journaling and actually writing down your fears, hangups, and behaviors alongside of your achievements, feelings of winning, and things that work for you in training can help you recognize more detailed patterns for you to work on.

Others have mentioned defining goals, and the is a rubric that many coaches and athletes use: the SMART method. Is your goal:

Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Relevant
Timely

For example, an unSMART goal could be something like "I want to qualify for Kona at my next race", or "I want to lose 50lbs in 2 months". But a SMART goal would look something like "I want to lose 10lbs in 6 weeks by maintaining a 300-500 calorie deficit each day while eating well and exercising", or "I want to increase my FTP by 10% in 6 months by adding 1 threshold or tempo trainer workout to my cycling plan each week". By planning attainable goals (even on the way to larger goals) and creating a road map for getting there, you set yourself up for success and focus on being present in your short term goal.

If you want to read up on the WHY of motivation, check out "The Brave Athlete: Calm the F*ck Down and Rise to the Occasion" by Simon Marshall. He breaks down why we are wired as we are for dealing with failure and success, and proposes how to change our habits to better suit our goals.

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Level II USAT Coach | Level 3 USAC Coach | NASM-CPT
Team Zoot | Tailwind Trailblazer
I can tell you why you're sick, I just can't write you an Rx