Process v Outcome – why is it important

We all have by nature a winning mentality in some shape or form and often gaze admirably upon talented triathletes and can only dream of winning an Olympic medal.  But you can’t just acquire talent to be the best in triathlon. Working hard and practicing new skills are all ways to develop new talent and abilities to became a successful triathlete. Focusing on the process rather than the outcome, will help you understand that your efforts, hard work, and dedication can lead to change, learning, and growth both now and in the future.

You will often hear elite triathletes tell us on our TriNation Podcast how during a race they ‘left everything out there’ and whether they won or lost a race, they still felt good. What they are saying is that they did their absolute best and gave their all. What they are acknowledging is whilst they could not control the outcome of the race, they did control their focus and effort – the process – to their maximum ability.

Think of it this way – If your goal is to win or achieve a certain position you will have to acknowledge that you cannot be in complete control of the outcome. All triathletes train and prepare for races as effectively as you and so, during the race you can’t influence what your competitors are doing. You may all be as good as each other and the end result will be difficult to predict and it may just come down to luck, but often or not, it will be down to those who keep to the process.

To this end, there are factors that allow you to be in control, for instance, if you set your performance goals to a personal best time or distance, you will need to think about all the factors that will underpin this goal and how you are able to control it.

Here we look at three types of goals to set:

• OUTCOME – This is the result or the end goal that you are working towards.
• PERFORMANCE GOALS – These are the performance levels that you need to be able to achieve if you are to reach the outcome. These should encompass physical, technical and tactical, psychological, functional movement and lifestyle markers.
• PROCESS GOALS – These are the things that you need to do if you are to achieve the performance factors.

Let’s us set out an example below:

XYZ goals are:

• OUTCOME GOAL – Main target for the year? – To run sub-18 minutes in a 5k run leg of a sprint triathlon race. 
• PERFORMANCE GOALS – What performance standards will I need to reach to be able to achieve this?

• To be able to run a sub-18 minutes 5k (Physical)
• To land with foot under centre of mass on every foot strike (Technical)
• To record training and plan ahead (Psychological)
• Fuel and refuel effectively during and after training (Lifestyle)
• Make running drills a staple part of your training (Functional Movement Skills)

• PROCESS GOALS – What training will I have to do to reach the performance standards?

• Two speed endurance sessions per week plus a monitoring session every two weeks over 6 X 1km working towards each one at 3:35 pace
• Promote a more efficient running form by focusing on a higher knee lift 
• Keep a training log to measure improvements
• Refuel after every intense session
• Drill sessions once a week with focus on skips, hops and other form drills. 

Feedback: The coach-athlete relationship is a critical component in the process cycle as the coach’s knowledge is the ‘tools’ needed by the triathlete to achieve his personal goals. Feedback is highly important in the process for triathletes to make the necessary changes to improve their performance. 

Process is everything: Focusing on processes is the key to setting and achieving goals. Listen to your coach and ‘follow the process’, as a more sustainable and proactive way to set goals to deliver your best performance on the day. The reality of being a triathlete is that although you won’t win every race, if any, you can win your own personal goals that you set out for yourself. Always keeping in mind by following the process you can be better the next time…knowing there is always a next time.