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Source: Patrick McCrann
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Now is a great time to start considering -- or to revisit -- your goals for 2006. For most of us, the motivation that carried us through the Thanksgiving-Christmas holiday gap is fading fast. Creating a solid set of goals is a great way to re-energize your commitment and get back on track.

Baseline

Before we can set any goals, however, we need to establish a baseline. As success in triathlon demands competency in at least three (some might argue more) disciplines, it helps to know your weaknesses relative to your strengths. With this knowledge, you can adjust your future training to bring them more closely into balance.

Baseline activity: Write a brief synopsis of your current physical skills.

Skills analysis

Most people have a good idea of where they'd like to improve -- the issue is where they're starting from. Lance could get faster on the bike, but he doesn't need to ride more if he's planning on competing in the Podunk Triathlon.

I bet some of these sound familiar: "I'm a great cyclist, but I have problems on the run"; "My stomach always seems to shut down on the run"; or "I'm first out of the water and get passed all day long." A list of your current skills and level will give you a solid starting point when it comes to setting your goals for next season.

Skills analysis activity: Add to your previous list, making sure you've covered all of the following:

• Swim, bike and run;


• Open water vs. pool swimming skills;


• T1: Swim to bike; and


• T2: Bike to run.

Putting things into perspective

Before you can begin to set goals, it's important to know the relative importance of achieving these goals -- as compared to other areas of your life. Your goal may be to run a marathon in less than three hours, but if you're running 3:30s now, you have a long way to go. Are you willing -- and able -- to sacrifice time in other areas so you can work on body composition, leg strength, aerobic capacity, etc?

The most successful athletes I work with have a clear set of athletic goals that are well-grounded in their real-world lives. Decide what you want and how important it is to you. Athletic goals don't have to come first (or second or third) ... but knowing where they are in the grand scheme of things will help you make a realistic set of goals.

Determining your Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAGs)

Using the list you devised in the Baseline and Skill Analysis sections, and the added knowledge of your priorities, you're ready to write down your goals. Here are two things to keep in mind when writing your goals:

Choose performance over outcome goals. Performance goals are tasks that you have control over: your training schedule, body composition or equipment. For example, beating your training partner is an outcome goal, whereas logging 10,000 yds. in the pool is a performance goal. You can control your time in the pool; you can't control what your training partner will do.

Make your goals realistic, measurable and achievable. Improving times for a specific distance and improving sport-specific skills, for example, are both measurable goals that you'll be able to analyze. They're also easier to build towards. If you want to run a 40-minute 10k, then you'll have to be comfortable running 6:30s out of T2. "Having a great year!" is a nice goal, but it's really hard to measure. Be as specific as possible.

BHAG activity: Looking at your lists, choose five items as your big goals for the year. Write these on a fresh sheet of paper, leaving room after each by writing 1, 2 and 3 options under each (for short term goals).

Nailing the short term

The biggest issue with BHAGs is that they can seem far off at times. Running a three-hour marathon might be a two-year commitment. Somewhere during those 24 months, you'll have to perform specific steps to help you reach that goal.

These milestones help you assess whether you're still on track, and create small victories you can mark along the way to keep you motivated. Short-term goals can also alert you when your original goals have changed. When your short-term goals become uninspiring -- or utterly unrealistic -- you'll have time to adjust before going too far down the wrong path.

Short-term activity: In the space you saved under your BHAGs, write down three short-term goals that will help you achieve the big one. So, if your BHAG is to run a three-hour marathon, you might choose: (1) Run a 1:25 half marathon, (2) Increase run frequency on big volume weeks to six runs, and (3) Get to the gym twice a week in the off-season to improve leg strength.

Achieving your goals

Now that you've outlined your BHAGs, and you have the intermediate steps, you're ready to rock! I suggest printing this list out and posting it in your workout space so you can refer to it often (I also keep a copy at work!). Use it when you lay out your training plan, when you're losing motivation, or when you need to decide what to do on a given day. Remember: Failing to plan is planning to fail!

Patrick McCrann is head coach and founder of Performance Training Systems, is an Ultrafit Associate, and is a USA Triathlon certified coach. He can be contacted at pjm@performancetrainingsystems.com.