I was thinking about something the other day while I was out training. Why do we do triathlon? I asked myself this question and thought about the answer. The answer now is different than it was when I first got started. When I started it was that I needed a reason to get in shape, a goal that I had to achieve. Now it has become a part of life that I love and appreciate. I think that when you whittle yourself down to your bare minimum like you do when you are racing, you really figure out who you are and what you are capable of. I have asked a lot of other people who race why they do it as well as the people that I coach. The one thing that comes up the most is how they want to be able to do something they thought that they could not. This is a great reason to get into the sport. Confidence is a big thing that comes from achieving the goals that you set for yourself. However, the thing that I find as a coach is that they are not doing the little things to boost their confidence along the way.

If you wait for race day to fill up your confidence cup then you are missing a lot of opportunities along the way. You are also setting yourself up more for failure than for success on that big day. You should spike the ball and do the dance early and often as you prepare for a race. Little things like this go a long way, and as with anything in life, repetition is key. If you constantly reinforce the idea that you can do anything you set your mind to, you will have that confidence on race day and any other day for that matter.

Think about the things that you do just to get to the starting line and think about how many opportunities you have to spike the ball and boost your confidence.

· You wake up at a time when most people are still sleeping to get out and train.
· You juggle work, family, friends and training to get to your goals.
· You swim bike and run distances that you have not done before.
· You go out and complete workouts despite heat or other tough weather conditions.
· You make changes to your diet to train and recover faster.
· You feel better as you become more fit.
· Just the fact that you took on the goal should be celebrated.

Now my question here is this: Do you pat yourself on the back for all of these things? If not, then you are missing the chance to boost that self image and self confidence. Look for any opportunity to pat yourself on the back and pump your fist. A lot of the time when I talk to an athlete, I get the following comment: "I don't want to become cocky though." There is a fine line between the two but this is how I divide the two. Confidence when it comes to being cocky is when a person brags about their accomplishments to other people. People who are cocky like to strut their stuff. When I think of confidence, I think of the inner voice, not the outer voice. I think of the voice that only you hear. That voice can pick you up or put you down out on that course. That is the only one that matters. You should try to work on your inner voice as often as you can. You may here people refer to it as positive self talk or PST. I believe that the more you reinforce that, the more likely you are to see the jar as half full when the chips go down. Out on the course, it is you and you alone. You may be racing someone out there but your mind can be just as much of an opponent to you if it is not prepared properly.

Racing is going to provide you plenty of additional opportunities to reinforce this and those will be on a more grand scale. Finishing a race after confronting the demons on the course can be a real life changer for you so make sure you can make it happen by preparing yourself. You build your base physically in the spring and early summer, you should build it mentally as well when you go out so that you are ready to go on race day. There are many forms of mental preparation out there but this is easy to do and you have plenty of time to do out when you are training. Confidence is shared across all areas of your life once you learn to build and control it.

Spike the ball, do the dance. You earn it. Use it to your advantage.