Many triathletes still don’t do any mental training, and among those who do, most do it only in the final hours or days before big races. Mental training needs to happen year-round. – Dave Scott

Week 1 of 50: There are 50 Mondays left in 2008. Save $20 on each and you’ll have $1000. Lose a pound on each and you’ll have lost 50 pounds. Run 3 miles on each and you’ll have run 150 miles by the end of the year, that’s 5.73 marathons. 50 weeks will form a habit for sure. Endeavor to do something on Mondays this year that will set you up to have success in future years.

Little bits add up. This year, I plan to take Mondays as a day to focus on the mental aspects of my sport. Snowshoeing season is in full bloom and triathlon season will be here before I know it. 50 days of mental sports focus and training…that’s 1.67 months. That’s 50 days to make mental goals, and work to achieve them. If you plan to have sport in your life long term, the fitness will come, but the mental aspect may not. I plan to take time now to make some deposits in the MENTAL bank. Like the wealthy do it, if you make enough deposits in the bank now, you can live off the interest and dividends for years to come.

Some would say that if triathlons aren’t first priority; you can’t be best, but…life is about balance. I wouldn’t do my best if my priorities weren’t straight. – Barb Lindquist

Week One: Over the next week let’s think about our priorities. What is most important to us in this world? What things do we do that require a long-term investment? What are we willing to give up for our sport, and what are we not willing to part with? Use this week to assess what you do daily that doesn’t align with your priorities, let’s phase those things out. Let’s take this week to think about how we can simplify our lives down to doing what is necessary for us to be happy and well balanced. Let’s work on aligning our daily actions with our priorities.

Also, because with all sports we can tend to get a little overboard as the season progresses, lets write a note to our self that we can re-read mid season to remind ourselves what balance is. Include your priorities, and a few red flags. Lets do some work up front so when the busy season comes and our focus is on peak performance, we have some pre built tools to refer back to.

It is not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about? - Henry David Thoreau