If you’re just starting out in triathlon, the best way to strengthen your willpower is to form mini-habits. These are easy goals that only take a little effort to achieve. Picking easy goals helps reduce the perceptions of difficulty that might scare you off.
For example, you could set yourself the relatively easy goal of riding your indoor bike- trainer for 10 minutes. But once you’re there you might find you want to keep going for another 10 minutes. Mini habits get you moving, and once you are in motion you need less willpower to continue.
These easy goals might not seem like much, but you’ll be surprised at how positive they make you feel. Mini habits provide you with the unique opportunity to experience success, rather than failure, several times per day.
Rather than focusing on completing the entire 12-week plan, you should set yourself the target of completing the first week only.
To help you build your own successful training habits I’ve designed a free 12-week sprint triathlon TrainingPeaks planfor novices. The workouts are all varied, so it never gets boring. And the training builds up slowly, so that no single day will ever seem too tough.
Rather than focusing on completing the entire 12-week plan, you should set yourself the target of completing the first week only. Once you’ve done that, pat yourself on the back and begin the second week as a completely separate goal. As the weeks go by, you’ll build momentum and your reserves of willpower will gradually increase. Which means that when life gets in the way, as it probably will at some point, you’ll have the mental strength to keep going.
Check out my 12-Week Novice Sprint Triathlon training plan and start your triathlon journey today. If you’re new to TrainingPeaks you’ll be invited to sign up for a free basic athlete account. After doing that you’ll get an automated email from TrainingPeaks showing you how to apply your training plan. I have also written my own set of training guidelines, attached to day one of the training plan. Make sure you read them properly before you start. Good luck!
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