Stay connected to stay motivated.

Any good mentor will tell you that in order to get better at any task or closer to any goal, you must associate with like minded people. People who participate in triathlon find themselves in sort of a gray area. The sport as a whole is very supportive and encouraging but the individual events, especially at the longer distances, require a significant amount of personal training time. Sometimes this is exhibited in our four hour trainer sessions in front of the television or the before sunrise run. It is even hard to avoid when in a group setting, such as a Master's swim or open water (OW) swim. We converse before and after and between gulps of air treading water, the remaining time is in our heads. 

Coaches and especially tri teams are really good at keeping the triathlete motivated when it counts, in the down time.  Based on the nature of a triathletes mindset, once they are involved in the exercise they are engaged. But oh do we know how hard it is to get involved on some days. The alarm goes off at 4:15am for a Master's swim but the bed is so warm, or you have been invited to a bar Friday night but looking at a 50 mile ride leaving at 7am the next morning. Decisions, decisions. 

It is not enough to just be accountable to others, using them as an excuse to do or not do a training session. At some point you have to learn to be accountable to yourself and your goals. But in order to do that you need to stay motivated and that is hard to do internally for the weeks and months that one must prepare for some race distances. This is why staying connected with like minded souls, who can commiserate and celebrate and keep you looking forward to the next big thing.