Race Expectations: Pressure vs Performance

Goal setting for each triathlon has been something I do the week before the race. Just last week, I was writing out my mindset, nutrition, and time goals for the swim, bike, and run of the Bintan IRONMAN 70.3.

One of many drafts of my Bintan 2018 race plan

My time goals were pretty ambitious (for me). I wanted to hit 5 hours and also get a personal best (PB). The effect of writing out those goals gives you clear targets for parts of the race, which, if they magically come together, is a great thing.


But, on the other hand, ambitious goals also raise the stakes. They can create unreachable targets and can diminish the satisfaction felt from finishing, even if it's a personal best. If not set properly, they can become destructive.

This is why even after setting a personal best at Bintan three days ago, I was not really happy with myself. The 5:12 I set was great but I could have done a 4:59:59 if the stars had aligned. I know I'm capable of it but things just didn't pan out that day.

So, I felt like I had - not failed - but I felt like I had not done my best. I was dissatisfied. And when I knew I wasn't going to make it (about 20km into the ride) the race became much less fun.

Conversely, the year before, when I set a then-PB of 5:14, I was over the moon. That was because I had no serious goals and had gone into the race with very few expectations. I had just completed Cebu two weeks prior and was very comfortable and confident in the 70.3 competition atmosphere and just kind of let things take their own course. And I did well.

Or three months ago, when I had raced in Da Nang, Vietnam, with very little training behind me and pretty much zero expectations. I had an OK time of 5:16 but was elated to have unexpectedly won a spot at the World Champs in South Africa.

All of this has led me to think a lot about what ingredients create the most happiness at the end of a race. So I've broken it down and built a model:

Pressure vs Performance (PvP)
Pressure is:

• Goals
• Expectations
• Promises
• Stress

 Performance is:

• Split times
• Overall times
• Fulfillment
• Fun

When I went into Bintan a few days ago, I entered with a high-pressure mindset but my performance was only OK (relative to that pressure). It looked something like the chart below. Now while I did hit a PB (and get a spot at Nice 2019 World Championships) the performance was not what I had expected.

Huge expectations that are then not met

As mentioned above, the same race the year before (Bintan 2017) for me was a low-stress race and I exceeded my goals. So it had the best PvP chart you could possibly have:

No worries, and then a PB

This brings me to my planning for the World Championships for 2018, in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, in just 11 days. I'm hoping for the following:

No worries, and a good race - but not quite a PB. That's ok.

How will I get the pressure so low? I've found there are two types of forces that govern how your PvP will look, and by modulating those forces in my control, I can reduce the pressure, and increase the fun.


Internal: These are the goals you set, the mindset you enter the race with, the level of competitiveness you choose to adopt. These are totally up to you.

External: These forces are from your friends, other athletes, your coach, social media, and what you think others expect of you. You can only partially shape these. They can be controlled by who you surround yourself with and how influenced you choose to be by others.

So now, while I should be setting my World Championships goals and race strategy - which usually involves long Excel calculations of nutrition, running a variety of BestBikeSplit scenarios, weather updates, Stryd power calculations, Garmin Virtual Partner configurations, and more - I think I'll just take it easy.

Why should I stress it?

I've done the training. I've just hit a PB. Earned two World Champs spots in two races. I'm going somewhere new, somewhere I should be enjoying. Never been to South Africa. Bringing my family And this is all supposed to be fun, right?

So regulate those internal factors until you've found the right balance. They can't be too high or you'll never have any fun, or too low or you might as well have not trained at all. Everybody's going to have a different happy medium and the best way to find yours is to experiment and then reflect.

You have total control over the internal factors. Think about them.

Conclusion
This is all assuming you want to have fun, and setting world records isn't your single goal. It assumes you're not a pro or somebody doing this for your livelihood. It assumes that you have human emotions, an ego, and some ambition.

On one extreme we have the Frodenos and Brownlees who can probably win almost any race they join. And on the other extreme is the guy who never trains and only wants to finish. He's only there for the social fun or the novelty of it, but is not serious and sees no reason to finish fast.

And ultimately, the factors listed here may not be quite right for you - edit them if you wish - but this is a framework to synthesize these two opposing forces (you want low pressure but high performance) and break them down into bits you can manipulate and modulate on your own.