If you race long enough, you will certainly meet up with the dreaded DNF. (Did Not Finish) It’s the 800 pound elephant in the room, that no one wants to talk about. DNFing can cause a range of emotions from embarrassment to being just plain pissed off. I just put in X amount of time training, and $$$ amount of money to race, and this is my result. Argghh.
At the very least you will be frustrated, and rightly so. Reasons for DNF can be anything, an injury, adverse conditions, or just a really crappy day. Whatever the reason may be, as an athlete you need to deal with that race, and move on. For most of us one bad race will not define you, or your athletic career. Learning to deal with the disappointment from a DNF is a skill that requires mental toughness.
Here’s some suggestions for dealing with DNF:
Limit the pity party
Your friends, families, and training partners won’t think less of you for a DNF. Most of us over inflate the importance of our athletic goals in our mind. Take a couple of days to process your thoughts, and then just move on. You only get so many days on this planet, do you want to spend them pouting about some race? Be proud of the work you put in to make to the start line. Plus no one else wants to come to your pity party.
The best way to learn is to fail
When you were a toddler learning to to walk, did you parents let you fall down once, and then decide to not let you keep trying to learn to walk? Of course not, That’s crazy. You learned to walk by continually falling down and getting back up, until you figured it out.
The same is true for racing. You may not have hit your goal, but what did you learn along the way. Did you gain some course knowledge? Did you identify your weaknesses? Did you get a sense of the work you need to put in to reach your goal?
Don’t let the DNF be a total waste of time and energy. Figure out what you can do better, and crush your next race.
Winners don’t make excuses
There will be valid reasons why you had to DNF. Figure out how you can overcome those challenges, and succeed in your next race. Rationalizing your bad race with a bunch of excuses won’t help the situation, and is harmful to your mental toughness. Focus on the parts of the race that went well, and the things you can improve.
“Failure is just a lesson, until you make an excuse” – Jordan
Get back on the horse
If you’re not injured, then find another race to jump in. Don’t waste all of your fitness on that DNF. Find a race that looks like fun, and focus on that. Shift that frustration to motivation for your next race.
I’m sure you won’t have a DNF, but if you do, I hope these tips help out.
For the past year or so, I’ve had the honor to coach new and beginner triathletes. Some of my athletes made great progress and accomplished fantastic goals. Many of those goals, at the beginning, they thought were not possible. Along the process they have thought me many lessons as well.
Here’s the five most important insights I gleaned from coaching new triathletes. Hopefully, they will speed your progress as a new triathlete.
You are more capable than you think you are.
When I first consult with a new athletes many times they are not confident they can achieve their goal. Putting yourself out there, and trying something new is daunting. Instead of telling yourself, you can’t do something, say “I can’t do it right now”. Many athletes before you have finished the race, PR’d or whatever the goal may be. Why can’t you? Decide you will meet your goal at the beginning of the process, then get to work on achieving it.
Don’t view themselves as athletes.
If you are training and participating in races, guess what? You are an athlete. For you to increase your fitness and reach your potential, you need to view yourself as an athlete. You might say, “great I called myself an athlete, now what?” Viewing yourself as an athlete is a shift in mindset. You will view your overall lifestyle differently, and make better decisions. For example, a normal person just eats, and athletes fuels their body. A normal person goes to the gym to workout, an athlete goes to the gym to train. When you view yourself as an athlete your decisions are made with a purpose. That purpose is to achieve your athletic goals.
Need more focused training.
If you want to try a new restaurant across town and you are unsure how to get there, you open up your map app. The map is going to give the quickest route from A to B. A well planned training plan is a road map to your athletic goal. It needs to start with a clear destination, and give direction along the way. You can start your journey with no map, but it will most likely be a longer and more time consuming route. (metaphor off)
This is the most important point for new athletes. Having a training plan can save you tons of time, energy and injury. The plan can come from a coach, or you can find one on the web. Find a plan that leads you to your goal, and fits your schedule. When each workout has a purpose, you will greatly accelerate your athletic progress.
Consider the long term view.
Aside for a very genetically gifted few, most endurance athletes will need years to reach their potential. It takes years of training and patience to build endurance in the body. Take Mark Allen, 6X Ironman World Champ for example. It took him 6 tries to win his first Kona, and the first attempt he didn’t even finish. Over those first six years he kept working, and the speed and endurance came.
It’s easy to only look week to week during training to measure progress. When a workout or a week of training doesn’t go well, we get discouraged. Sometimes, it’s best to pull back and look at your progress from a longer time line. You may have been progressing for the past six weeks, and you on just on a plateau before your next breakthrough.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions.
Don’t be shy. As a new triathlete there is a ton on information to learn. There are three sports, training, recovery, equipment, etc. Heck, this is the reason I started this blog. Find an athlete who has been racing for a while, and pick their brain. Most people are excited to help out. You can learn from their mistakes and experience, and speed up your progress.
Welcome to Fantastic Finish Photo Friday. We want to bask in the awesomeness of your finish photos. A finish photo captures a moment in time, where you overcame the challenges of the race and training, and reached your goal. The feeling of elation as you cross the line is what keeps us pushing our own limits. Please consider sharing your own photo to inspire others who are working toward their own finish.
John is one of my coached athletes. He reached out to me for coaching to improve his fitness going into the Snowman Triathlon. I designed him a 9 week training plan, that he followed diligently. John completed every workout I threw at him with the correct intensity. John made fantastic improvement over the training plan, culminating with a superb race at Snowman. John was an absolute pleasure to coach, and I see tons more improvement for him in the future.
This week’s Foto is from John Baden:
Photo credit – Simon Murray
John:
Always Aim High Events hit it out of the park with this race, stunning views of the snowdon horseshoe, beautiful (but cold) lake swim at the national mountain centre at plas y brenin, fantastic fast bike course despite an almost 10km climb back up to T2, and to top it off, a mountain run (ahem, hike) to finish!
After a 9 week training plan, that I followed as closely as I have ever followed anything it was time for me to don my new hometown Triathlon club kit for the first time and embark on something quite hard! (understatement of my life) I intend to carry on with training and do the race series the organisers of the snowman arrange every year.
Arriving the night before my race and camping less than 5k from the venue was the first plus of my weekend, allowed me to pitch the tent, then make registration the evening before. Allowing me to prep all my kit the evening before the race.
Arriving early on race day, I parked my car no more than 500 metres (yet not on the race route) from transition and ambled down to rack my bike and find a much needed caffeine fix. superb marshalls on the entrance to transition made this process nice and smooth. I racked the bike and went for a look around the centre at Plas Y Brenin before heading back to start getting ready.
Race briefing was done whilst athletes where prepping in transition, with the use of some fairly hefty loudhailers, not a problem to hear it and a very thorough briefing (the brit tri referree telling us we where about to jump into a bracing 11 centigrade lake!)
I got my wetsuit on, and got comfortable, checking and rechecking my bike shoes and trail shoes where easily accesible when needed. Then the shout came, 9:50am, we were to head to the lake and swim entrance, I took the plunge early and used the time to get a few strokes in and make sure my suit was well fitted. 10:00am And the hooter goes off, and I set off on my swim, settling into a rhythm early and actually finding it quite comfortable, 8 minutes later I was hauling myself out into the morning sunshine, unzipping the suit as I headed back towards transition.
In transition, I took the time to dry my feet and put a pair of trail running socks on before I got the bike shoes on, helmet clipped up, bike unracked, I was running for the mount line, with the encourragement of the event organisers and some crazy local supporters ringing in my ears, I ran past the mount line, and mounted a little way down the road, so as to avoid knocking anyone over. I tightened my shoes, and got my head down. Literally spinning my legs up to 100rpm and speeds in excess of 65kph on the descent to Llanrwst through Betws y Coed. Then, outside a petrol station, I realised my seat post was dropping, Disaster! I was going to lose time, Luckily a fellow competitor stopped with an alan key, seat post put right, I was on my way, a flat loop until the 10km climb back to Capel Curig started at Betws. Still I managed to average 31kph on the bike, and only just went over the hourr for that leg. Approaching transition again, I took my feet out my shoes (well I tried!) and got off just before the line! with the owner of the event company policing the line shouting encouragment I felt awesome getting back to my position. My bike was re racked, helmet took off, I slipped my running shoes on and set off into the un-known!
Leaving transition for the final time, I was feeling good, until I got into the tree line. There the path ramped up and I think most people where then reduced to a Hike, through some of the most rugged and brutal terrain I’ve ever seen. After 50 ish minutes, I reached the turn around point, and thats where the fun really began. As it was ALL downhill from here, I started to let my legs go, following the guy in front of me all the way back to tree line, an awesome feeling to descend a mountain at speed, running through boggy muddy sections without a care, and hurtling over rocky outcrops as fast as possible! BRILLIANT! thenI hit the flat forest road, and was speeding along at 4 mins 30 seconds per KM, I got to what I thought was the finish distance at 5k, I was wrong! And I hit a wall, 1.4km later however, and around 2 hours and 20 minutes after jumping in the lake I had crossed the finish line to an amazing sense of achievement.
If you are a new or beginner triathlete and would be interested in coaching, please email me at firsttimetri+coaching@gmail.com.
Please consider sharing your own photo to inspire others who are working toward their own finish. It doesn’t have to be from a triathlon, just any race that has special meaning to you. If you are interested in sharing, please send a message to firsttimetri@gmail.com.
Welcome to Fantastic Finish Photo Friday. We want to bask in the awesomeness of your finish photos. A finish photo captures a moment in time, where you overcame the challenges of the race and training, and reached your goal. The feeling of elation as you cross the line is what keeps us pushing our own limits. Please consider sharing your own photo to inspire others who are working toward their own finish.
This week’s Foto is from Samatha Goga:
Sam is one of my coaching athletes working toward a marathon PR in the fall. She also tackled her first triathlon last week. Here’s the story of her day:
I did it… I completed my first Sprint Distance at the Chicago Triathlon, despite everything that went wrong!
I racked my bike the night before and when I showed up to transition in the morning, I was missing my handlebar plugs. They told me I couldn’t ride without them and I began to panic a bit. All that for nothing over some plugs!? I refused to believe that was it. So I triple checked with bike solutions & one of the guys working there ended up taking them out of his own bike for me. All was right with the world again.
A few hours later I was entering the water and the horn was sounding just seconds later. I allowed most of the other first timers to go before making my way through the water. I didn’t want to start any breathing issues (I’ve been having a few lately), so I went with a backstroke. I felt really good that way and just decided to keep it that way the whole time. I had about 15 yards left and I flipped over to finish strong. However, I got thee worst charley horse ever in my calf. I couldn’t move my leg at all and it hurt so bad. I had to make my way over to the wall as I cried. My tears were filling my goggles and I just wanted to be pulled up. Because I was so close, my family and one of the lifegaurds encouraged me to make my way to the finish line so my timing chip wouldn’t get taken, so I did that. I stopped there to talk to a medic and stretch. It was still really tight but I pushed on.
I eventually made it safely back to transition, changed and hustled out… And as I mounted my bike, I realized the chain was off my bike. The nice guy at bike solutions saved the day again! After taking my bike apart to fix it, (it felt like forever) I was on my way. I’m pretty certain there was only 1 other person that started the bike behind me because I was out there all by myself basically the entire time. When I would come across a person, I made it my mission to pass them. I guess it helped me move faster to race them. I think I passed about 5 people the entire bike ride… Other than that, I was alone.
By the time I started to run, I thought that would also be a solo journey, but I was able to catch up to a few folks, and again race them. I quickly realized that nobody had respect for the course anymore because there were so many people just walking on it and through it. However, I felt really good on the run, if I ignored my calf. I was cheering on those going past me in the other direction and encouraging those that I passed. Finally, I see the finish line… Move it!! Once I passed it, I could not breath at all and my chest was really tight. I was escorted to the medical tent, taken care of and given a nebulizer treatment because of everything that was happening.
Sooo… It was a lot more than I ever expected, but that’s how it went. If it wasn’t for this extremely tight calf, I’d feel great! Oh, and if all that other mumbo jumbo didn’t happen, I’m confident that I would’ve finished with my goal of 2.5 hours… I’ll take the 2:45 though considering the circumstances…
Would I do it again? I’ll be in the Athena wave next year for sure!
Fantastic job Sam! That was no an easy day! You took each obstacle in stride, and found a way to keep moving forward. You definitely earned that finish.
Please consider sharing your own photo to inspire others who are working toward their own finish. It doesn’t have to be from a triathlon, just any race that has special meaning to you. If you are interested in sharing, please send a message to firsttimetri@gmail.com.
Are you a new or beginner triathlete looking to improve? Have you decided to use triathlon to improve your lifestyle and overall happiness? I want to be your coach. Even better than that, I want to be your coach for free.
I started this firsttimetriathlete.com, a couple of years ago to help new triathletes just getting into the sport. There were tons of sites dedicated to helping intermediate and elite triathletes, but a shortage info for brand new athletes. Even the sites originally designed to help new triathletes had become too advanced. Triathlon is already an intimidating sport with three separate disciplines, and the multitude of the gear required. My goal is to make triathlon simple and approachable, so more athletes will finish their first race, and hopefully continue their triathlon journey.
The elation of crossing the finish of a new challenge, which you were not sure your could complete, is awesome. In that moment all of the hard work, and struggle pay off in a crescendo of joy. The race doesn’t begin at the start line. It begins when you decide you are committed to the race and start training. I want to help coach you through your own journey and finish. Check out the Fantastic Finish Foto Friday Page for stories of others finishing their first race and what it meant to them.
About me:
I’ve been training for and racing triathlons for the past 6 years. Before triathlon, I was a Cat 3 road cyclist, and raced bikes for 10 years. I’ve raced in 2 Ironmans (training for a third), marathons, and ultra marathons. I’m not the fastest guy out there, but endurance sports are my passion, and I am a student of the sport. Most importantly, I give a shit. The success of the people I coach is my very important to me. It gets me pumped to see people finish something they thought was impossible.
The deal: (Did someone say free?)
This winter I plan to get my USAT coaching license. In order to get in to the program I need more coaching experience on my resume. Crazy right? In order to become a coach you need to be already be a coach. So in the spirit of the win-win, I offer my highly valuable coaching services for the low, low price of free to gain the experience. Also, I really want to new athletes improve and give back to the sport I love.
Here’s what I am looking for in a potential new client. You don’t have to meet all of these requirements, but this is a good guideline.
New to triathlon, or beginner triathlete looking to improve.
Looking to improve overall lifestyle through triathlon.
Not overly competitive. Racing against your own goals.
Have a race coming up in the next 8-15 weeks.
I looking to take on 4-5 new athletes in the next couple of months. Here’s what you will receive from me:
Initial assessment of your current triathlon fitness
Custom training plan developed for your next race
Weekly email/phone progress consults
Workout tracking/accountability
Encouragement
If you are interested and looking to improve, please email me at firsttimetri+coaching@gmail.com. Don’t be shy, if you read this far, you’re most likely interested, shoot me an email. If you know someone else, that may be interested, please pass it on.
Merry Monday! Let’s do this! We all could use a bit of motivation to get rolling on Monday. On Mondays, I like to share a Mantra or short inspirational message. If the message resonates with you, use to motivate yourself in training or life. Do you have your own awesome Mantra? Please share it below in the comments.
“Never, ever underestimate the power of having fun” – Randy Pausch
This quote is from Randy Pausch’s last lecture. This lecture is details how his childhood dreams would shape his life. If you haven’t seen it before carve out an hour and check it out. It will change your perspective.
If you want to really improve your training and race times, get good at having fun. As an endurance athlete, progress comes from dedicated practice over a long time. Dedication is way easier to maintain when you are having a great time. Being able to train and race is a gift, not punishment for your body. Motivation will wax and wane, but you should always enjoy your activity.
It’s easy to start treating your training as a second or third job. Workouts are scheduled for weeks out, and certain paces must be maintained. This mundane day to day training can become a grind and suck out all of the fun.
Here’s a few suggestions for adding some fun into your training:
Find a soft grass field, and do some barefoot sprints.
Get a group ride together and try a brand new route.
Race you friends for fast 50m in the pool.
Sign up for a short race, and let it rip.
The saying is “Love your work, and you will never work a day in your life”. Try to apply that same principle to your training, and see massive improvement.
Welcome to Workout Wednesday. Every Wednesday I post a new Triathlon specific workout. (for free, What a Country!) If you like the workout, fit it into your training plan for the week. If you don’t like the workout you’re crazy, all of my workouts are brilliant pieces programming. (kidding)
Sorry for the misleading title, but when you think about it, rest is the hardest workout. It instills fear in us that if we take a day off, we will become fat and slow overnight. In reality is takes up to two weeks of inactivity before you start to lose your fitness.
Two years ago I had a heavy training year for me. When I looked back at my training log at the end of the year. I took three full rest days the entire year. What? That’s not right. I also become over trained twice that year, and was sick more than normal.
Rest is an important part of the training program. Rest days should be treated just like workouts, and performed with the same focus. The benefits of rest and recovery are:
Avoiding Overuse Injuries
Restoring Glycogen to your muscles
Avoiding mental burnout
Actually spending time with your friends and family
Here’s the nasty things that come with NO rest or recovery:
Over training
Inadequate Sleep
Colds
Slow recovery
Lack of sex drive
Moodiness
(I’ve experienced all of these, but not all at the same time.)
Unless you are a full time athlete with no other obligations or stressors in your life you will need 1-2 rest days a week. Ideally one of those days should be complete rest, and the other one can be active recovery.
Active recovery workouts:
30 min jog @ 50% HR
Walk with your significant other
Bike ride with your kids
Light cross training
Inactive workouts:
Netflix binge watching marathon
Sit on the beach with cool beverage
Sleeping in past 5:30am
I can hear the little mental objects swirling in your head. ” But I’m a triathlete and I need to get in all of these workouts.” If you want to improve consistently, and not burnout or have a higher risk of injury, rest has to be a priority as well. Schedule your training weeks to include the rest days. If you miss a workout because of a overly busy day, don’t worry about making it up, use it as a rest day. Also, if you are are plateauing in your progress, step back and see if more recovery will help, before piling on more work and intensity.
One last thing. The more outside stress you have in your life the more important the rest and recovery. During times of high stress, listen to your body and try not to just push through. These times are the highest risk for burnout and over training.
Merry Monday! Let’s do this! We all could use a bit of motivation to get rolling on Monday. On Mondays, I like to share a Mantra or short inspirational message. If the message resonates with you, use to motivate yourself in training or life. Do you have your own awesome Mantra? Please share it below in the comments.
“Long term consistency trumps short term intensity” – Bruce Lee
I’ve been dealing with some sub par results lately. I was starting to question why I race and train so hard, and don’t always get the results I want. Paging Shawn, pity party table for one. Then I took a step back and looked over a longer time frame. I have been consistently improving year to year. By training purposefully and consistently, I have continued to improve. There have been peaks and valleys, but over all my times have improved. For me the key to improvement is to train consistently, and eventually I will reach my goal. When I start to have doubts because of recent results, I need to step back and look at the long term trend.
Below is a video from six time IM world champ Mark Allen. Mark dnf’d his first IM Kona, and one second place finish sent him to the hospital. In all, it took time seven attempts to win his first IM world championship. Mark is a true example of consistent training and improvement.
Do you have along term goal right now, that is not going as planned? Do you want to quit? Or do you keep taking step forward with consistency until you get where you want to go?
Welcome to Fantastic Finish Photo Friday. We want to bask in the awesomeness of your finish photos. A finish photo captures a moment in time, where you overcame the challenges of the race and training, and reached your goal. The feeling of elation as you cross the line is what keeps us pushing our own limits. Please consider sharing your own photo to inspire others who are working toward their own finish.
This week’s Foto is from Dan Engström:
Pic by Fredrik Aremyr
Dan:
My first triathlon finish
Last weekend saw the Gothenburg Triathlon event on the west coast of Sweden. I was five weeks away from the IronMan UK race and I still hadn’t done a triathlon. But I was prepared. I had learnt how to front crawl and revisited the marathon (in Stockholm, the week before than the tri event). I bike commute and am perfeclty ready for the 300 km bike race Vätternrundan next weekend. I’d done my brick training. I was so ready for the Gotheburg Triathlon, Olympic distance. So away to Rådasjön lake. Fourteen degrees water temperature so they shortened the swim leg. This’ll be great, a shorter swim leg and me being used to the cold after a number of open water swims. Though I usually did the breaststroke earlier, but how difficult can the front crawl be in open water? In open, murky water. In open, murky water with waves. In open, murky water with waves and a side current. In a tight wetsuit. Together with a couple of hundred other people. Right. Stiff upper lip time. Embrace the difficulties. Overcome. Rain during the whole bike leg. Legs like logs during the run, I was only a week out after the marathon after all. Adopt, adapt. I was hard, harder than I thought it would be. But I enjoyed every minute, every step. Give me a week or two in some murky lake around here on my own with my front crawl. Then bring on the IronMan.
Dan Engström
Gothenburg, Sweden
Congrats on gutting out that cold, murky swim. You are an ambitious dude attempting to front crawl for the first time five weeks out from an IM. Best of luck to you on your IM, but for now enjoy that first finish.
Please consider sharing your own photo to inspire others who are working toward their own finish. It doesn’t have to be from a triathlon, just any race that has special meaning to you. If you are interested in sharing, please send a message to firsttimetri@gmail.com.
Welcome to Fantastic Finish Photo Friday. We want to bask in the awesomeness of your finish photos. A finish photo captures a moment in time, where you overcame the challenges of the race and training, and reached your goal. The feeling of elation as you cross the line is what keeps us pushing our own limits. Please consider sharing your own photo to inspire others who are working toward their own finish.
This week’s photo is from Michelle Carroll, (Bolton, Lancashire)
Michelle:
Despite the elements being against me, on Sunday, I competed in my very first triathlon! With the rain and wind at their best, I tackled the hills of Rossendale to successfully complete a 400m swim, a 14 mile bike ride and a 5km run! Despite all my worries, I enjoyed almost every minute of it and now I have definitely got the triathlon ‘bug’. If anyone ever thinks they would like to compete in something like this but feels they couldn’t – go for it!! Honestly, I felt exactly the same, but it’s amazing what you can do if you put your mind to it. I don’t really swim and I had to borrow a bike as the nearest I’ve ever got to bike riding is doing a spin class at the gym, but it was all worth it!!
Great work Michelle! Way to preserve through the conditions and finish. You didn’t let not having a bike hold you back and you borrowed one. That is a great idea for first timers. Don’t throw down a bunch of cash on a bike. Borrow a bike and see how you like the sport.
Please consider sharing your own photo to inspire others who are working toward their own finish. It doesn’t have to be from a triathlon, just any race that has special meaning to you. If you are interested in sharing, please send a message to firsttimetri@gmail.com.
First Time Triathlete 