#18 Setting realistic race goals

 Tim and Emz break down how to set race goals that actually match the work you have done in training, rather than the story you want race day to tell. They focus on the tension between ambition and realism across triathlon and marathon prep, with practical examples from Ironman builds, Olympic-distance races, and first-time marathons.

We discuss how training load, race conditions, and experience should shape expectations, why swim times are the hardest thing to predict, and how coaches help athletes stay process-focused when excitement starts to override judgment.

Key topics

• In this episode, Emz and Tim talk about why realistic goals matter for triathletes, runners, and first-time marathoners who are chasing big outcomes.
• Tim explains that coaches often have to “pump the brakes” by grounding athletes in what their training has actually prepared them to do.
• They discuss why race-day prediction is unreliable, especially for open water swimming, where currents, drafting, sighting, wind, and course length can change the outcome dramatically.
• Emz shares how a race simulation reminded her that an Ironman build can leave you too fatigued to expect top-end performance in shorter races.
• Tim says the best race expectations come from the training data across 8 to 16 weeks, with the clearest read usually coming in the final 12 to 16 weeks.
• They stress that a bad day often comes from chasing unrealistic targets, which can lead to blowing up, losing confidence, and learning very little from the race.
• For marathoners, they discuss using long runs and pace work to reset expectations, especially for first-timers who may not realize how hard 42.2 km feels on the day.
• Emz and Tim highlight the importance of process goals, such as pacing, heart rate control, sighting, and nutrition, instead of obsessing over a finish time.
• They talk about the different demands of Ironman training versus Olympic-distance racing, and why an Ironman build does not usually create peak speed for shorter events.
• The episode closes on a broader point: success is not just about a time goal, but about finishing strong, enjoying the day, and setting up the next race better than the last one.

Come find us Cartel Coaching — Swim. Bike. Run. Together.

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:18

Welcome back to Cartel Coaching. So today we are talking about setting realistic expectations, which can be a very challenging thing for us as athletes, I think, around, you know, what our hopes and dreams are when it comes to our races. But it can also be a very challenging thing, I think, for a coach to be that person who has to maybe pump the brakes a little bit. And we thought we'd talk about this because it's been quite an interesting topic in our community where we've got people doing lots of different races, kind of all at the same time. So we've got some people who are focusing on some longer distance races and sprinkling in some Olympics and some sprints. And we've got people who are running marathons for the first time and so don't really know exactly what that's going to be like. And so there's there's a lot of lot of chatter at the moment about um how to set these goals and um and to make sure they are kind of kind of realistic. So we thought that that would be a good topic for today. Um, and I think I actually had some personal experience with this um just last weekend. So we talked about it um, you know, in our last potty that we did, that I did that race simulation. Uh, and um I I did think I I would have an all right, you know, ride. Um all right ride and um semi-okay run. Um but I tell you what, basically everyone in the tri-club just dropped me immediately on the bike because I was just there, just in my diesel engine mode. And um, and these guys were way more snappy than me and ready to sort of hit out at on a on an Olympic. So I think um, you know, it really made me kind of think about yeah, uh I'm training for an Iron Man and I've got a whittle down those expectations of some of my little races.

SPEAKER_03 2:18

Another thing there though is an expectation around training load and race preparation, right? Like it was one of your biggest training weeks.

SPEAKER_00 2:29

It's my actual biggest training week ever. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:32

Yeah. And yeah, you've got a race in there as well. You know, part of that was having that durability back end, and we were really cautious so everybody knows to recover well at the other end of it.

unknown 2:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:42

And make sure we didn't crack M. Um But it was a big training week, and so to turn up and expect to be firing on all cylinders is uh probably should be unexpected. Um and you welcome to coaching M because coaching you are often a crusher of dreams, unfortunately. You help people create dreams, you help inspire them to them, but often you can bring them back down to earth. Um because you've got to have realistic goals. It's like anybody. See setting out on a journey. Um, you know, we've started this coaching coaching business, and we've got some big goals of where we want to get to, but also um we've got to have some realistic ones too about what's gonna happen along the way and how long it might take to build certain things and um and and get places and it's the same with sport, you know, everything takes time, consistent work, energy, um, and the energy out versus the energy coming in from the results is gonna be, you know, a lot higher going out for quite a while in endurance sports. Endurance sports like that. Um you often, as I've talked about it, you can't see the nail going in. You hammer it away, and it's just like this minute fractions of movement of the nail going into the piece of wood. And then suddenly you get a couple of breakthroughs and it, you know, it plunges a bit deeper, and then you get back into tap mode, and it just keeps going in small amounts at a time. And um, you know, your your goals have to reflect what's happening in training, and that's why often, you know, as a coach, it you're looking and seeing the progress across eight to sixteen weeks of a training plan. And it's within weeks twelve to sixteen that you're starting to get a real handle on what this person's gonna be able to do. And it's really important that we're using the data and information and training to inform us of that so that we create some realistic expectations on race days so that athletes can go out there and actually enjoy the experience and do their best performance based on what their training suggests they can do and learn from it. Because the the worst thing is you go out there with these unrealistic goals and you have a horrendous day out because you end up being an hour and a half off your PB. Well PB, off your expectation, it's really it's like self-sabotage because you you come in and you've hated your day and you haven't got the success that you've been after and you're upset about that and the work that you've put into it and done. Um and you've also potentially blown up out there somewhere on the course, you know, and in pieces, which doesn't happen, and you actually haven't learnt much about your race day either, because you know you've ridden up here and then you've plunged to be riding down here, and you actually haven't figured out well what was really achievable, what could I really do? Um, and use that data to to leverage for the next race and be like, oh, this is what I could do here, let's go away, try to be here, and come back and be stronger and be able to do this.

SPEAKER_00 5:40

Um Yeah, you do you do kind of see it, see it a bit, and I I th I can also be guilty of of of of you know sort of predicting the more favorable outcome. But I you know, I I spend a lot of time on social media, Tim. Like you probably probably see that. Um but you know, so I so I read a lot of race reviews, um, and I feel like from some of the ones I read, you know, it's very hard to pick what your swim is gonna be like. And I think a lot of people probably underestimate how challenging a long open water swim can be if you've just been swimming in the pool. Like it's it's very difficult for you to really nail down what that swim is gonna be like. Even if you have been doing open water swimming, the conditions change day by day. Um, you can't, it's very hard to nail down that is exactly what my swim time is gonna be. And I feel like that's where people get derailed immediately. You can you can feel the disappointment in in how they did, yeah, particularly if they see a two at the front of their average face and they haven't been a two before. I don't think there's anything shameful about being a two. I'm quite happy in the two club, but um yeah, it's um it you you really do have to.

SPEAKER_03 6:58

Well, see, with a swim, and what I've seen, I've actually seen people come out the water and look at their watch and their swim time.

SPEAKER_02 7:03

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 7:03

And it derails the rest of their race.

SPEAKER_02 7:05

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 7:06

Because, oh I was expecting a sub 30 minute swim and I've gone 34 minutes. But it's been rough as heck. The current's been up, you know, super windy, and you never know if the course is long or short. Or you end up going, you do your first race, you're three minutes faster than you expect because it's a mill pond. But you know, if it's if it's Cosmo, you've been swimming with the current for 1900 metres or 3.8 K, then you get this incredible swim time and it and it skews it. Um and you you you've got a skewed perception of where things are gonna be. Swim times the hardest thing to predict. I I hate chatting about goal times and swimming and and target paces, um, because it's generally pretty unrealistic. Um you know, you've got to go in there and just set about your process and do the best job and you get a ballpark of where people are gonna be. You know, a lot of people come out and they're around a 32 minute a 30 minute swim, say, and they could be 32 some days and it could be 29 based on the conditions and the environment, how it plays out. Do I get a good person to draft off? Was my sighting really good? You know, or was I kicked in the face lots, was I stuck behind slow swimmers because I position myself poorly. Um so if anybody's out there trying to set a a swim time prediction, please don't. Um, just just set yourself a really good process to follow and execute that and have that as you know your realistic goal. Is I'm gonna cite really well. I'm gonna cite to the best of my ability, I'm gonna cite by doing it every three breathing cycles. You know, I'm gonna bring my kick up in the last 500 metres and and be able to celebrate the things you did really well.

SPEAKER_00 8:56

Yeah, 100%. I I've already sort of started to think about what my swimming um, you know, goals are and um and they're definitely around siding. I'm doing a lot of work around siding at the moment when I'm out in the open water, and fortunately I get to do that every week now, which is really helping. But also my other goal is um to actually overtake people and trust myself. Um I think something that I do sometimes is maybe get a little lazy. Um, I find a person and I'm just happy to stick with them. Um and uh sometimes I probably could swim faster, I think. Um, but I just then just you know lower myself a little bit so that I can just do it easier. But I'm actually gonna try. So at Sunny Coast, um I've decided that I'm I'm gonna use that as a bit of an experiment um to really swim my own race um and not just try and find some feet and just stick with them like and and swim scared. I'm gonna swim confident and um my own siding, my own, you know, RPE and and gonna see what what that actually looks like. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:07

Nice. So what's an RPE game for him? What do you can?

SPEAKER_00 10:10

I reckon I'd probably for a 70.3, I'd want to be kind of in that, I don't know, maybe four, five, or maybe even six. Like I'd I want to I wanna be like, I don't want to be doing like a dodd or like I want to be swimming. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I want to be comfortable but actually working. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:34

Comfortably uncomfortable.

SPEAKER_00 10:35

Yes, that's that's a really great way to explain it. That's I actually want to feel that way for the whole race, I think. Um that's that's kind of my goal for that one. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:44

Yeah, nice.

SPEAKER_00 10:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:45

What's some realistic expectations on the bike then? What are you thinking?

SPEAKER_00 10:49

Uh see, uh, I don't know. Like I'm based on what I did uh um in uh the Philippines, like I I don't I should know the course better. Um I think it's pretty flat, right? It's a pretty flat course.

SPEAKER_03 11:09

Yeah, you climb out of the beach, short climb up, and then you sort of small undulations drop down on the motorway.

SPEAKER_02 11:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 11:16

Out and back on there with a little bit of a loop back in and then back out and go.

SPEAKER_00 11:24

I'd probably want to be well, I definitely would want to be sub three hours. Like, I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 11:30

Oh yeah, you'll crush that.

SPEAKER_00 11:31

Yeah. Yeah, he's that too easy. I know. I'm gonna think about it.

SPEAKER_03 11:39

And this is why, you know, we've talked about this a little bit recently when setting up a marathon plan, right? Like, yeah, you know, naturally everybody's gonna set time goals. Um, our job as coaches is how we help people get into more of a process mindset and try to draw them away from that. Um, because we don't know what's gonna happen on the day, we don't know what the environmental conditions will be like. You know, we should have an expectation by then of how our gut's gonna handle things and you know, have that really dialed in. If it's our first marathon, how and our first big one, you know, like a Sydney marathon, it's a world leading marathon, you know, how are we gonna feel on the start line? Is our anxiety gonna be really high? Is our heart rate gonna be really raised? That's gonna impact the pace that we can put out, because we don't want to be running at a heart rate that's ten beats above where we should be. So how do we draw our focus and attention in for people on what really counts and what really matters to their performance? Um because the end time doesn't matter at kilometer thirty when you're blown up. Um you know that's that's a a point of the marathon where you need to be really still in control and really on top of things. Um is a tricky beast.

SPEAKER_00 12:53

So for my bike then would you say probably about like a one 180, 185 watts for me, like would probably be a good good spot. And then maybe heart rate would probably be maybe sort of the upper one forties around that that space. Maybe probably even sneak into 150s. Yeah, yeah, around that sort of zone, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:19

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:22

I know, I know what we're supposed to be doing, but I'll just go straight for time.

SPEAKER_03 13:28

Can't get away from it.

SPEAKER_00 13:31

I can't, yeah. I think the marathon's interesting though. Um, you know, we we've got we've got one of our athletes running Sydney Marathon this weekend. It's her her first marathon. Um and uh I think her longest run's been 32 kilometres at the moment. So there's a lot of nerves and a lot of excitement. Um you know, so how how do you maybe talk us through that process, Tim, of um of you know, like how do you keep an athlete in check when it's so exciting and so new?

SPEAKER_03 14:06

Yeah. I think the key the key thing with all of it is just making sure that you're using training to set people up wisely and help create expectation of where things should be. And so, you know, you're setting up the training plan. So there's test sessions where they're doing good blocks of zone high, zone two work, trying to dial into that, get a feeling for that and understanding of that, and get them half the time understanding how slow they're actually gonna be running for 2K. Um and reset that expectation as well. Um not standing on the start line or amped up, they're gonna take off and and crush it at a rated knots. Um because training and the information and training is gonna guide our performance all the time. So it's trying to use that and then helping them understand that information in training that hey look, this is what you're doing, this is how it relates, and this is what you're gonna be able to do here. So now we can go use that. We're gonna do this run session, you're gonna run for an hour and a half at that pace. Now you you tell me how you feel after the hour and a half. Do you think you're gonna be able to run faster or the same or slower? You know, have you blown up? Um and give them those experiences where they're learning to do things. Um and then when it comes to race day, you're s you've already started to reset expectations or where it should be yet. Um and then you're still gonna get the amp on the start line, everybody gets it. Um, you're all pumped up about it. So then it's just thinking about to them like what are cues, how are you gonna hold to them, what's really important for you and try always getting them even to reflect against the end goal. Well if that's your end goal, what are you gonna do at the start to achieve that? What's that gonna look like? Because you know in this session here when you did X, you got Y. Um But if you did Y all the time you got Y. Um You know, you kept with Y and it it stayed the same. So let's stick with that. Um and just trying to always bring it back down to how they're gonna achieve things and how they're gonna set up the process. And it's hard at the start of a at the start of one of those big races, especially when if you're the one that everyone else is peeling off in front of you, you feel like you're the one standing holding back. But that's where experience comes in and and trying to leverage off experienced people that have been there before and said, Well look, all these people around me at at the start, I didn't see them at 10k, but then at 30k, I passed them all, plus a huge amount more. You know, and and getting the understanding of other people's experiences and leveraging off that because it's a big one, and you know, you've all seen it in an Iron Man. Yeah, especially out in Kona. There's a lot of soul crushing going on the back end of that race.

SPEAKER_00 16:50

We were talking about it today, actually, after Swim Squad, we're talking about how how um disturbing it actually was in the last 15Ks, just the amount of people who were unwell um in that that last 15Ks, and you just thought, oh my god, you have to pull it together, you're so close. You can't stop it. Yeah, it was um yeah, it was.

SPEAKER_03 17:14

Yeah, and I think kind of is a lot of people will do their best just to get to that finish line. Because they never know when you're coming back again.

SPEAKER_02 17:22

No.

SPEAKER_03 17:23

You know, it's corner, it's world champs, it's the big race, um, it's a big goal for people. You know, they're not worried potentially about the time or a position, but they want to complete it. Um so people generally at that race will pull themselves through any situations to try and get to that finish line if they can. Um it's pretty it's a pretty brutal atmosphere, actually, and um but also inspiring in the same breath about the depths of what people can go to.

SPEAKER_00 17:51

Yeah, my my race plan for Kona just went straight out the window as soon as it started because I was just scared. Uh I uh for that exact reason, um the the swim was so challenging for me uh because for a number of reasons, but one of them being that my first open water swim for that block was actually in Kona, so that wasn't good. Um, not great preparation on my side, but also once I got on the bike, it it really just dawned on me how hot it was. Um and and I I just thought I don't know if I can take this, and I need to do everything to try and make sure that I stay in control of my body. Like I didn't want to get to a point because I was watching a lot of people get to that point where they they they could no longer control themselves, like they were down. And um, and so I I just yeah, I rode so conservatively um just to yeah, the whole thing. And once I got to the run, I was like, well, I know that I'm able to keep it together from here. Um I can just walk, like I could walk this out. Um, but yeah, the ride was I was really actually scared on the run, so I stopped looking at I I didn't come close to my power, my heart rate was really low. Um just I just had to.

SPEAKER_03 19:10

Maybe that's a tactic, yeah. Maybe we just need to scare people into submission at the start of their race. It's gonna be horrendous. It's gonna be so hot you're not gonna finish unless you're unless you're walking.

SPEAKER_00 19:24

Yeah, maybe we should just make a compilation video of all the people like succumbing to eat exhaustion.

SPEAKER_03 19:30

Crawling over the finish line at Kona and in all sorts of states.

unknown 19:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:35

But even Sydney Marathon, so when I did it a couple of years ago, I I remember just thinking, wow, like I remember looking at all the people who were significantly fitter than me, clearly better runners than me, absolutely like gone. Um, particularly in Centennial Park, you know, you had people just lying on the ground everywhere. And so, you know, uh even if you're fit and you've you've got it together, like sometimes you can just kind of lose it, hey.

SPEAKER_03 20:06

Yeah, yeah, totally. Yeah, yeah. You can't. It's really hard to hold it together. If you've cooked yourself, you've cooked your goose. You cooked. And it's really hard to come back from it. Um in Sydney's hard because that first part of it's downhill. There's a lot of you know, a lot of people will overcook that.

unknown 20:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:24

Run a lot faster, put and at that speed you're putting more eccentric load into your body. You know, and that's gonna be really hard to pull that back after 30k. Um, really tricky. So and they're all just excited to be there and they've probably put a lot of work in to do it. So they're pumped up.

SPEAKER_00 20:40

Yeah. My friend who was there spectating when I was doing it, said she was about, I think, I don't know, maybe three or four hundred metres from the finish line, and it is a downhill um to the finish. And she just said she saw about 20 people face plant um running down that hill just before the finish line. Because I don't know, I don't know what happened you you do come uphill and then come downhill, but they'd just given it everything to get up the little hills from Miss McCrow's chair, and then they came down the hill, and then they just lost it. Imagine, imagine falling over with only a hundred or something meters to go. That would be just the most cruel to space. So, yeah, we are scaring you all. I hope everyone's very scared from this conversation. Oh dear. No, everyone's gonna be fine. And Carly, if you're listening, you're gonna be just fine, don't you?

SPEAKER_03 21:38

Yeah, it's gonna boss it. She's done lots of good long runs, heaps of good preparation in there, and she goes out and runs her pace, then into her heart rate, she'll be all good. Yeah, she's gonna smash it. Yep. And that's the key thing is you wanna set people up for success and and that they have a really, really good day, and that you come back and you've enjoyed yourself and you go, Oh, could do that again. Think I can do it faster next time. And these are the things I learned. And then we're going to do that again. This is having a horrendous explosion and crashing over 10k to the finish line.

SPEAKER_00 22:12

So I don't know if I should tell you this or not, Tim, but like something I'm really proud about with Carly is just she's been real she's been so realistic about this whole thing. Like she she actually I I don't think she is going to be one of the people who's like, I want to get this, but well, I already know. She doesn't care about her pace. She's there for the experience. She's excited. She's seated herself really sensibly in terms of her start time for the marathon. I got my marathon on start time. So I'm I booked this marathon before we started working together, Tim. And um I um I had some tickets on myself. I really thought I was just I'm like, I'm in one of the like fast groups for this bloody well for me, like I'm I'd put myself in like a sub four hour. Like I have no chance, absolutely. Like I would, even if I had made it through the marathon block, that's just not a reality for me in any stratosphere. So I don't know what I was thinking, but um yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:16

You're well inspired. You're inspired. Hopefully.

SPEAKER_00 23:20

It's really feeling it that day when I when I press that button thing, I you live and live and learn. All right. Let's let's switch speeds a little bit here and let's talk about Iron Man and Olympic distances and the trap that you can fall into a bit as an athlete who's training for a long distance, but then peppering in some um some shorter distance. Because I think we all feel, and I might be wrong, but I feel like you can start to fall into a trap to go, I'm doing like these big training weeks, you know, maybe 12 plus, 15 plus, you know, like huge hours. I should be able to smash out, you know, this Olympic. This is probably gonna be my best Olympic. So what what's actually happening there, Tim, in terms of if you're training for like a a longie, like a big one, um, you know, what's happening with your body?

SPEAKER_03 24:13

Like look, I mean, it all uh I'm gonna sort of booking this a little bit with part of it depends on where you've come from. So if you if you're a real beginner and you're building your way up to an Iron Man, you've been training and building these consistent weeks in place, you probably are gonna have a really good Olympic compared to what you've done before because you're you're doing the work consistently and you're developing, you're probably in that work of developing a range of potential early on, um, and you're able to go faster and it's going really, really well for you. If you're an established triathlete and you've been doing the sport for a while, you're doing an Iron Man build and you expect, you know, you might be twelve weeks out, and you're doing Olympic just as a good swim bike run day and it's a training session. One, you're probably gonna be quite tired from training. Um but two, if your training is correct, you're doing a lot of work that's trying to prepare you for a day that's gonna be zone two for nine to sixteen hours or however long it's gonna take you. Like and it's a completely different system. Um yeah, not significant, like yes, an Olympic distance triathlon is a lot about aerobic base. That's why we're saying that especially when you're new to it, you can have some really good shifts still when you're training for Iron Man. But if you're an established athlete because you're training that system more, having that more threshold capability and being able to sit and ride, swim bike and run that sort of threshold capability for two to three hours, you know, maybe more top of zone three for a lot of us, um, it's gonna be really hard to achieve because you're not training it. And you know, inputs in, inputs out. Right. Um, you're training specific energy systems to achieve something. Um and you're gonna get the results of that. And we're training for an Iron Man, so you are trying to create a really good diesel durable engine. Um we aren't trying to train a really threshold-based engine, we're not gonna be done that work, so it's gonna be really hard for you to sit there all day. And I think it's just a as again it's accepting where you are in training, what you're doing, and what the outcome is gonna be. Now, if you're having an exceptional training block, you still might PB. You still might do really well because there is a lot of research to suggest that you can be doing all your aerobic work and some good hills and strength work, you could be seeing an increase in threshold as well. And the threshold could be creeping up. Um and if you're smart about it, you might do a couple of sessions before the race where you're rehearsing being at that intensity um and really dialing into that and then you you probably could get a quite a good outcome. Um, because you've at least prepped it two two or three times beforehand. Um, and that can help. But if you're really committed to that Iron Man build and you know during the weekends that riding between four and six hours and running somewhere between ninety minutes and three hours um is the bread and butter of what you need to do, but you're not gonna have done that work. Um it's gonna be really hard to achieve. So again, it's it's everything's aligning expectations based off training. It's a really key part of what we're talking about today.

SPEAKER_00 27:29

Yeah. Love it. What do you think about this is going in a bit of a funny direction, but what do you think about people training for Iron Man doing like regular track work like in their running?

SPEAKER_03 27:45

Yeah, well, it all comes down to time and place, right? Like I'm sure you'll see Norwegians, the Norwegian guys out there and they're doing 20 by 800 or 20 by 400 or set lactate rolling it round as part of their training and and trying to keep up some fast, faster twitch work. The reality is for most of us, is we aren't them. And but just cement that in your brain. We're not them and we we can't tolerate what they can tolerate. Um so Emma, I'm sorry to say you will not be doing track work and you'll build up to an Iron Man. It's just not gonna be where we want to invest the time. So anything is an investment of time. So you guys are choosing to invest your time and training for an Iron Man. Okay, as a coach, we're gonna choose to invest that time as wise as we can to make sure you're best prepared for that Iron Man. Um, you know, and wherever you've come from, we then had to assess your ability, what's going on, and therefore the type of work you might need to be doing. It's gonna allow it. Now, early on in your Iron Man prep, sure you might be doing some. Um, really working on that. We might keep in touch with a little bit of it here and there, it's part of sessions, but it's not gonna be the bread and butter. And so if we're looking at a week and we've only got twelve hours in that week to do training, you know, we've got to invest that in the right way. Um and the right energy systems and and making sure that your training is gonna be repeatable so that you can go back to back weeks. Um I I know straight away with you that we put you on a track, we'll probably ping a car straight away.

SPEAKER_00 29:27

Oh, a hundred. Yes, we'll we gotta just keep it keep it slow, keep me uninjured. That's the whole plan, I think. That's right.

SPEAKER_03 29:38

Like if we again, so for people listening out there, like a really cool goal was alright, for the next year, can Emma run and not get injured for the next year?

SPEAKER_00 29:48

We should put a poll out.

SPEAKER_03 29:50

Yeah, we should. We should put can we put it on TAB, get some bits going.

SPEAKER_00 29:54

Let's get some bets going. It would be my first year that I had run. I would love that actually. I I would love because I actually really love running. I l I love running uh my run on the weekend, and I'm gonna digress here, but like I had the most beautiful run. It was very slow, and I because you prescribed it to be very slow and easy, but I just had a lovely time. And I I would love to do that more. And yeah, yeah, and I get very sad when I can't do it because I've hurt myself.

SPEAKER_03 30:25

Um you've got to weigh that up, right? So we've got you want to go to Port Mac and you want to do that.

SPEAKER_00 30:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 30:30

Okay, but well, are we gonna sacrifice the next year running to try and get to Port Mac to run ten minutes faster?

SPEAKER_00 30:37

Yeah, I don't want to do that.

SPEAKER_03 30:39

Ten minutes faster. So, you know, and that's an important conversation that people should be having with their coaches or reflecting on with themselves, if they're self-coached or following a plan, is you know, where do I want to be in a year? What does this look like for me? Um what what are the risks I'm willing to take and what am I not willing to risk? Um because it's the same for me, like I'm more than happy to go out and be running slow every week. If it means that in a year's time I'll still be running.

SPEAKER_02 31:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 31:06

You know, if I can just go and poddle through the hills and enjoy the scenery and get up and someone says, Hey, we're gonna have a six hour mission up in those hills, I'm fit enough to do it. Like that's more important to me. Um and the training's part of that. Um and then you can and go off into this race over here for sixteen weeks. And so I think they're really important conversations to link with. Um and that's a you know, a great goal for us to achieve.

SPEAKER_00 31:31

Yeah. Well actually, Tim, this will be my first Iron Man. If we can make it, and I'm touching wood here, we can make it to eight weeks to this Iron Man uninjured, it will be my first Iron Man event without a running injury, really. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 31:49

Yeah. And that's again, I think you'll be a better runner in a year for having consistently run every week for a year than you will be by doing bigger volumes.

SPEAKER_02 31:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:00

And then getting injured, taking time off.

SPEAKER_00 32:02

Yeah. I agree.

SPEAKER_03 32:04

It's a really nice balance to approach.

SPEAKER_00 32:06

Love it. All right. Well, do you have any final thoughts for our listeners who are getting ready either for Sunny Coast or Sydney Marathon or who are about to um do any races across the world because we've got people everywhere. Um, any final thoughts on setting your race realistic race goals?

SPEAKER_03 32:26

Yeah, well, let's just probably summarise today and making sure that you're realistically analysing training, what you've been able to achieve in there, and then using that data to inform your race strategy. So that that strategy is going to give you the best outcome to finish the fastest that you can with a smile on your face the whole way. Love it.

SPEAKER_00 32:45

Well, that's a wrap. But if you want to keep the conversation going, come find us on Instagram at cartel.coaching. And for coaching camps and community, you can check out our webpage. I've linked it in the show notes. See you next time.