Read time: 5min.
By Coach Yan Busset
Motivation in Training: The Long Game, How to Maintain Consistency
When you first start training for triathlon or even begin a new season, motivation is often sky-high. You're excited, ready to take on the challenge, and eager to see progress. But, as many endurance athletes discover, motivation doesn’t last forever. Eventually, the initial spark fades, and you’re left with days when getting out of bed for a training session feels harder than the workout itself.
The truth is, motivation is only temporary. To succeed, you need more than just the fire in your belly at the start; you need discipline. This is where progress and consistency come in. But how do you make that transition? How do you maintain a training routine when the excitement fades and you're faced with the daily grind? Let’s break it down.
Understanding Motivation:
Motivation is that initial push that gets you started. It’s an internal drive that can be fueled by excitement, inspiration, or a specific goal. It can come from within (intrinsic motivation), perhaps you want to improve yourself or feel healthier, or from external sources (extrinsic motivation), like achieving a race result or impressing others. But here's the catch: motivation isn't permanent.
You need to find the right reason for your triathlon journey. If your goal is short-term, like impressing your friends or checking something off a bucket list, you’ll likely find it hard to stay committed when things get tough. Triathlon is more than that. It's an opportunity to hack your lifestyle, to embrace a healthier way of living, and to play the long game. When you approach triathlon as an endless process of improvement rather than a one-time achievement, it becomes sustainable.
Goals and Side Goals:
While having a big race goal, like completing a full Ironman, is important, smaller, supportive side goals help maintain engagement and motivation over time. I always encourage my athletes to set cool, side goals that complement their main target. For example, while preparing for an Ironman, you could aim to set a personal best in a run race, participate in a long-distance cycling event, or break a plateau in your swim speed by taking part on a master swim meet.
These side goals serve as stepping stones that not only keep the training exciting but also contribute directly to your overall progress. It's about celebrating the small wins along the way, keeping motivation alive while staying focused on the bigger picture.
Progressivity, Recovery, and Consistency:
One of the biggest risks when you're highly motivated is jumping in too fast, doing too much, and burning out quickly. Progress isn't about going full throttle from day one; it's about gradual, sustainable improvement.
Progressivity is key. Without it, you risk hitting a plateau or even regressing. But training isn’t just about finding time for workouts; it's about creating space for recovery too. Recovery is crucial for progress. You need to make sure that your life is organized in a way that allows for proper sleep and downtime. This balance ensures that you can continue training at a high level without crashing.
This leads into the way people approach their goals. The COVID pandemic revealed two very different types of athletes: goal-oriented and process-driven. When races were canceled, many goal-oriented athletes, who trained with a specific finish line in mind, struggled to stay motivated. Without competition, they lost interest. But athletes who trained because they loved the process itself kept going. They found joy in the daily grind, improving step by step, regardless of external factors like race day.
In the long run, the process-driven athletes tended to come out stronger. While having goals is important, learning to love the process and embrace the daily work ensures consistency, especially when external motivators fade.
Setbacks:
It's important to understand that progress isn’t linear. You will have ups and downs. Sometimes you’ll hit a plateau, sometimes you might even regress, and setbacks like injuries or illness are part of the journey. The key here is to "de-zoom" and look at the bigger picture.
One of my athletes experienced this firsthand. A year earlier, this athlete couldn’t swim 25 meters, but within a year, they completed a half Ironman. The progress was mind-blowing. Yet, every time there was a minor setback or plateau, they got discouraged. I had to remind them to step back and see the whole picture. It’s like my office desk, if I look at it normally, it appears perfectly flat and smooth. But under a microscope, you'd see valleys and mountains. If you zoom in too closely on any one day, it might seem like you're stuck or going backward, but when you step back, you can see just how far you've come.
Consistency Through Community:
Triathlon might seem like a solo sport, but training within a squad is a game changer when it comes to keeping your motivation and consistency high. When you know you’re meeting like-minded people, who share the same goals and mindset, it’s easier to show up, even on those mornings when you just don’t feel like it.
This is something I’ve focused on when building my training group in Finland. As a Frenchman living here, the social aspect of the squad was super important to me, and I’m proud that we’ve created an excellent community where the social bonds are strong. My athletes often say that the squad keeps them motivated through the toughest training periods.
The Importance of Discipline and Long-term Thinking:
When motivation fades, discipline takes over. Discipline is what helps you get through those tough days when the excitement is gone, and it’s raining outside, or you're sore and tired. This is where having a coach and a well-structured plan comes in. A coach helps keep you accountable and ensures that you stay on track even when motivation is low.
It’s also important to organize your weeks in advance. Having a battle plan makes it easier to keep consistency. When everything is structured ahead of time, it’s simpler to follow through, even when you’re not feeling particularly motivated.
Loving the Daily Grind:
To truly succeed in triathlon, you need to love the daily grind. It’s not always about the fireworks or the big, exciting breakthroughs. You have to learn to enjoy the process—sometimes, it’s repetitive, and it's not always sexy. But the athletes who learn to love the grind, to craft their progress step by step, are the ones who achieve long-term success.
Conclusion:
Motivation will get you started, but discipline, progressivity, and a love for the process will keep you going. Triathlon is a long-term game, the perfect endless game, filled with ups and downs, setbacks and breakthroughs. But if you stay consistent, focus on the bigger picture, and celebrate the small wins along the way, it’s a cliché but you’ll find that the journey is just as rewarding as the A-race.
Remember, it's not always about how fast you progress in the short term. It’s about crafting that progress over time, loving the daily effort, and building a lifestyle that keeps you on track, season after season.
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