Keeping the motivation

Howzit! Similar issues here. There are very few races in Vietnam and pretty much everything involves an international flight. The expense of that plus often being unable to get time off from work for travel to races (I only get two personal days a year) also limits how much/when I can race. An Olympic distance tri can easily cost several hundred dollars between entry fees, hotel, plane tickets, etc. For me the hardest thing is when a race doesn't go as well as I'd hoped. It's not like I can try again in a few weeks, or even next month.--it may well be next year. All (three) of my races this year were affected by freak stuff--getting the flu a few days before the first, bike issues in the second, and injuries for the third. My training has otherwise gone really well and I feel like I still have a good race in me, but am looking at a situation where I simply can't make it to any of the races in the region due to work commitments. So it looks like my next tri may well be next year as well. Frustrating and depressing, to say the least.

What works for me (mostly) is breaking the year up into "seasons" with different, often race-related goals for each, and focusing on different sports for periods of time rather than hammering swim/bike/run equally all year. In the fall, I generally take a few weeks off from serious training at the start of our school year, then focus on running in preparation for a half marathon in Cambodia in December. After that, pick up on the swim and bike training before the first tri of the season (here in Vietnam) in March. Then a few more spring/summer tris. it helps to pick races you enjoy and/or events that are long enough to "scare" you into training properly. If you want a run focus, what about the Honolulu Marathon? Not too far to go and would give you a great run base for next year's tris.

I think living in a tropical climate is an additional challenge--it IS possible to train year-round outdoors for all three sports, but that's probably not the best way to maintain high motivation or even optimal fitness. Without having natural seasons to provide variety, maybe we need to do that artificially.

Edited by Hot Runner 2014-08-08 7:51 PM

My case is a little different yet similar as I am a one race a year person. (At the moment, I am not willing to travel to race). My second tri ever is in May 2015.
I know I will have dips in motivation along the way but this is the plan: started one month ago training on my own during my holiday, easy, plenty of time and the weather has been great. Next week, back to work, I know from experience it will be tougher to find the time/motivation. So I have hired a coach for 3 months. Then, I plan to get some new stuff to make me want to get out and train just to try them : new tyres for my bike, a trisuit, a racing clock, which will be bought at regular intervals. Then in the Spring, coach again for the 3 months before the race. We'll see how it goes...