Every person on the start line of a triathlon, whether it is a local sprint event or an Ironman, has a goal they hope to achieve. For some it may be to finish the race and have fun. Others may want to finish feeling strong or in a certain time, and still others will be looking for a top placing.

However, before you can chase your goals, you must know exactly what they are and where you are in relation to them. You must also have the courage to make your own rules and not allow yourself to be governed by perceived or imposed limitations.

Goal setting

The more specific your goals the better. Broad, general goals are not reliable in directing training. Often, long-term, far-off goals or dream goals do not focus enough energy on the present. My coaching experience indicates that an athlete should use dream-term goals to motivate and stretch personal limits, but mid-term and micro-goals to reach the desired end.

Reassess your goals often as you work toward them. If you have set a goal too easy, then make it harder, or vice versa. A goal is supposed to challenge, so review it as necessary. Give yourself a realistic timeline to achieve that goal.

Stay in control

There are many aspects to competition that are out of your control, including mechanical failures, competitors and climate conditions. You will increase your opportunity for success when your energy is focused on the performance aspects of triathlon that are within your control. I like to emphasize training goals, or process goals, rather than race results for short-term goals to measure progress. Race success is greatly increased if an athlete is in good condition and ready to race, so stay focused on what you can control: your training, conditioning and workouts.

You should establish process goals to ensure your training is focused on developing your energy systems correctly. You will need to ask yourself what you expect to achieve from your training program. Do you expect to improve your efficiency, your speed, your power, your endurance or all of these things? Establishing process goals helps ensure you have a training program that leads you to success. You will find your process goals help motivate you while training alone, creating a sense of personal satisfaction from workouts.

Dream goals

At the top end of the goal spectrum are dream goals, or ultimate goals that push the limits of possibility. These are the goals that you work toward for most of your racing career. Dream goals go hand in hand with the physical process of peaking for your season's most important competition. They are a great motivating factor as your body is beginning to enter peak conditioning to achieve new heights of excellence. They can help you through tough times and also serve as food for fantasy on long rides and runs. Dream, but be realistic with those dreams. Reaching goals that are realistic gives you a great sense of achievement and a renewed sense of inspiration.

Confidence-building goals

Mid-term goals will often be the end-points of a training cycle. Before tackling these goals, you should have sufficiently developed important physical qualities that will make you competitive in races. A mid-term goal focuses your efforts on achieving something realistic but ambitious. For instance, someone whose dream goal is to complete an Ironman event may have the successful completion of a marathon as one of his or her mid-term goals. Reaching this goal would give that person a confidence boost that allows them to push through difficult periods coming later in their training.

Action goals

On a daily or weekly basis, it's important to have micro goals, which create focus for each workout or week of training. These micro goals create a common thread that ties together daily workouts and mid-term goals. They provide a daily link to your dream goals. It is the constant effort of trying to reach these action goals that builds the foundation for achieving your dream goal. It is the details of your daily training that become your micro goals.

Many athletes are very good at establishing dream goals, but they get sidetracked and never reach these goals because they have turned goal setting into a static process. Daily evaluation of your action goals should be integrated into your training program. Many factors make it necessary to change daily workouts. Planning is always an ongoing, fluid endeavor. Things change on a daily basis: races get canceled, weather affects training or you get sick or injured. The only way to stay on top of the variables is to change along with them.

Having an idea of what you want to get out of a specific workout will keep you motivated and interested in the process rather than just the outcome.

Implementing your goals in training

Now that you have chosen your dream goals, decided what your mid-term goals are and come up with the daily micro-goals, it is now necessary to begin the implementation phase of goal setting. This is the part in which you put all this thinking in practice.

First, spend 15 minutes writing out your goals. I recommend outlining your dream goal, your race goals this season (rank the importance of each race) and the steps you need to take in each sport in order to achieve your goals. Make sure you refer back to these written words to maintain your focus and commitment.

Secondly, you should share your goals. Don't be afraid to tell the people close to you what you want to achieve. A social support system can help you stay on track when times get tough. Many times when an athlete is struggling with their training or racing, a coach, friend or parent can help them remain calm and maintain their training commitment.

Finally, visualize your goals. See yourself achieving everything you have written down. You want to visualize every detail of your racing performance being perfect. Small technical details such as start position in the water, proper transitions, pedal cadence on the bike, and relaxed arms while running, should appear vividly. These details will help translate visualization into reality. This imagery engages your thoughts, emotions and feelings and more importantly, blends your daily workouts into your goals.

Blending visualization and mental preparation into physical training helps encompass all aspects that affect triathlon performance and molds a holistic approach for managing the real-life training and racing scenarios faced by every athlete.