Episode #14 The Smart Triathletes Blueprint: Mastering Your Season Planning

Do you ever wonder if there's a better way to plan your season than just following the crowd, or randomly entering events, then getting frustrated when you don't progress as you expected to?

Today I'm sharing the comprehensive guide for athletes looking to optimise their race schedule.

Follow my strategic approach at the end of the racing season for your best year yet.

In this episode I'll guide you through the process of creating a race calendar that aligns with your goals and maximises your performance.

Tune in and get ready to take control of your season!
Book a call with me here

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Transcript

0:03

[Music] hi I'm tiia boothman founder of LTR coaching and I'd like to welcome you to the inspired triathletes podcast where I'll be bringing you stories from female triathletes and taking on topics that are important to women in the sport hi and welcome to today's episode many of you you will have just finished your last a race of the season and there will be some of you that have that big day still to come but whichever count you fall into today's episode is going to be helpful for you moving forward into 2025 and also Beyond so I personally prefer September to the more traditional time of January for setting goals and an evaluation of the year it seems to be a bit more of a natural time that the season ends for triathletes and also as a parent it's that time when the term starts children are back to school so I've got a little bit of extra time for myself and for my training so when planning a triathlon season the details do matter whether you're aiming for a personal best or just looking to enjoy the journey if you set clear goals you pick the right races and tailor your training plan these are the key aspects of unlocking your potential in today's episode I'm going to talk about about planning the events that will help you to perform well on race day your training is another aspect of this which I will cover in future episodes so let's dive into how you can craft a season that not only challenges you but also brings out your best on race day so once you've finished your aace and by that I mean the event that you prioritize this season over all the others it can be tempting to go straight into what's next what's next what can I enter and jump from one event to another we swap out our Triathlon season for running season without really thinking about what our long-term goals are I'm going to give you some steps to take once your season is over so that you can plan and build your best season ever so the first thing to look at is the events that you picked so what it what was it that you enjoyed about them what didn't you enjoy do you prefer hilly or flat horses did you pick any events that in hindsight were a mistake in terms of logistics or your enjoyment of them what was the race organization like what was the support like did the events help or hinder your preparation for your aace you can apply this process to your supporting events as well as your AAS and you're going to get start to get a picture of what your values are when it comes to racing so for example I end Ed an event one year purely for the purpose of qualifying for the GB World age group World Championships it wasn't really a race that inspired me and I did it because I felt it was something that I should do I had a really bad time on the day and I learned from that experience that I would only enter events that inspired or meant something to me so the background you can see if you're watching this on YouTube is from the Snowman Triathlon in snowdonia and the reason Reon I love events in snowdonia is because I had a year there when I left school I spent a year instructing outdoor activities so it's really close to my heart and it's an area that I really feel has a connection to me the next thing to look at is your performance so how did you perform at the events that you chose if you've done the event before then you can compare times from past performances but bear in mind that your the conditions that you faced on race day should be taken into consideration so we're not always comparing like for like in this situation so for example your bike time may be slower if it's a windy day and the cold can affect your swim times as can conditions so don't use your Performance Based on past performance as a standalone metric you should be comparing your position against other peers in your field and then you can see how you st back up it also gives you an are an idea of the areas that you can work on when starting to build your season so it could be that you perform Better In The Swim than other people in your age group so that you so you know that your swimming is your strong point um it could be that you perform worse in the bike or On the Run and that is something that you need to work on so looking at your performance in comparison to other people can really help as well so for example um when I was looking at my performance I entered a middle distance race one year where I had a mechanical on my bike I was really inspired by the event I was motivated to do the best that I could it was a hilly and challenging course but I really wasn't happy with my mindset when things went wrong on the day so when planning my season the year after I wanted to go back with an improved attitude perform as well as I could and enjoy the event the next thing to look at is the timing of your events so where did you plan your events in the relation to your aace were they too close too far out could you experiment with different timings of events this year or next year so for example last year one of my clients raced two events leading up to her main aace of a 70.3 she raced an Olympic and a Sprint distance I think they were on consecutive weekends and after reviewing we chose not to do those events so close together uh the following year as they had been a little bit difficult to recover from and she felt that it had impacted her performance on her main a Race So we took that information we learned from it and reviewed the next thing we want to look at is the relevance to your aace so were those races and events that you did relevant to your goal doing a Sprint try three weeks out from an Iron Man is less relevant and will prepare you less optimat optimally than a 100 mile time trial however if you've never done a triathlon before then it could be more useful however you don't want to be in the position that you're three weeks out from an Iron Man event and have never done a triath one before and this is why we plan and build a season based on your strengths challenges and confidence levels in different areas so for example someone who's a strong Open Water swimmer will not need to practice as much in open water as someone who's only just started in their Open Water Swimming Triathlon Journey it's also important to be aware that this can change from season to season just because you're lacking in confidence or ability in an area this season doesn't mean it's going to be the same the season after we can get stuck in a fixed mindset of this is how I am and this is how I perform every single year so be really honest with yourself about your progress and where you need to focus your energy so once you've done this review you're going to have a good idea of your motivations and you'll be able to pick events that will keep you training and focused in the months to come at this stage it's also important to take a look at how your core values affect your choices if you want to take a deeper dive into core values and check out episode 9 with sports psychologist Natasha Lazarus we talk about core values and finding your why and getting yourself connected to your sport so if one of your core values is having time with your family and training for the event that you picked is going to take you away from that tomb frequently then it might not be the right time for you to enter that particular event however if it is important to you to do that event you can find ways to compromise and if it's going to be a temporary time in your life then there are creative ways to fit training and racing into busy schedules it's something that I've experienced myself and I've helped many clients to integrate their training into their life and get that balance about as right as we can get it obviously it's not going to be completely balanced all the time there are going to be periods in your life when you're training more or focus more on training and that's okay as long as we can we can talk to our partners and talk to other people in our life and make that work so my core values include spending time with my family so when I train for IR man I made sure that I trained as much as I could during the day I could be flexible with work so it was a lot easier for me to do this but there might be ways that you can figure out to compromise with your training still get the best from yourself so that you can still hit those core values and remembering that this is one period in your life it doesn't mean that that's your life forever the next steps are to pick one two a races I wouldn't recommend more than three depending on where things are spaced throughout the year but one to two can help Focus your mind on performing at high standard and also building your other events to support those goals once you've got those events in place those aaces in place work backwards to see what support you need to get there so we want to make this sustainable that's what I'm I like to remind people make your training sustainable and then it can become more of a permanent fixture in your life if we're making things unsustainable looping back again to planning and and being honest with yourself do you think you can fit the trading in for this event do you think it's going to have a negative impact on your life if it's a negative impact for a temporary amount of time can you live with that for a temporary amount of time and then go achieve more balance later on there's going to be ups and downs in your training and your events so we now need to look at what we need to do to get to that event if you entered Iron Man and your bike leg needs Improvement then you want to find some longdistance cycle events in the buildup to your main aace if they're too far far out they become less relevant and this is why timing is important so doing a review of your timing for the last season can really help you with your steps forward so I would say time trials are an ideal way to do the distance um they're steady state events and you're on your own so the mental resilience that you need to do those events is is quite High um but most athletes that I coach will pick sportifs or informal events to get the race distance in under race conditions and that is fine as long as you have a goal going into those events and you use it as a training opportunity rather than just going in and doing whatever you want without some kind of goal for the day so why don't we use our training to simulate race day we can use training and it will depend on your circumstances on how many events you can compete in obviously traveling for events and the recovery time can negatively impact your training if you don't plan mindfully and it can also impact on family time if you're having to travel to events and races and not not all families want to go and spectate at events um and they might not able to so just bear that in mind when you are planning for your events we do use races because there's a bit more pressure during an event to perform so you're going to push yourself harder it's a great way of improving your Fitness it's an ideal opportunity to practice race day fueling and hydration and also a way of figuring out how to carry what you need on race day it's always a challenge to fit everything that you need and figure out how you're going to make it as straightforward and simple as possible so a good mix of relevant events will get you to the start of your aace in Peak form pick wisely and think about what challenges you have and what will help you to prepare for them in the best way for example if you're nervous about Open Water Swimming then swimming an Open Water event where you get to experience the start of an Open Water Swim will be great preparation and everyone's life is different so don't try to emulate someone else's season or event schedule to be your best you need to focus on what you need to do to get there this might M mean training or doing events with others for some of the time to help with motivation or it could mean training less with others so that you can fit your training into a different time slot that is more convenient so really think about the pros and cons of things of what you're doing when planning these events whatever you do ultimately should support your goal and align with your values most of the time and I'm saying most of the time because as I was saying earlier sometimes we go through temporary periods where we really have to push hard in training or we have to do something a little bit out of the ordinary just to get some training stimulus or to get the practice that we need for for that goal as long as it's most of the time things are align then that's good so to recap what you need to do at the end of the season is review your events from the year the types of events you did the timings of the events the distances of the events and your performance reflect on why you did those events and whether they aligned with your core values and then go ahead and plan your season based on what you've learned and your lifestyle so as we wrap up this episode remember that planning your Triathlon season is more than just picking some random races it's about creating a road map that aligns with your Ambitions and pushes your limits so take the time to reflect adjust your strategy as needed and stay committed to your journey the hard work and planning that you put in now will pay off when you cross that F Finish Line so stay focused keep training smart and let's make this your best season yet if you enjoyed this episode please leave a review and remember to subscribe because it helps me to reach more people or you may know someone who needs a little bit of help with planning and a little bit of a nudge so share this episode with them and finally if you are looking for some support in planning your best Triathlon season then you can book a call with me I'll leave my calendar Link in the show notes and look forward to chatting with you about your exciting goals thanks for listening and have a great day thanks for listening today have a great day take care bye for now[Music]