The real test of confidence is how you respond when things are not going your way. I call this the Confidence Challenge. It’s easy to stay confident when you’re healthy and well-rested, have been training well, and the conditions are ideal. But an inevitable part of triathlon is that you will get over-trained occasionally, be a little sick or injured, and be faced with difficult race conditions. What separates the best from the rest is that the best triathletes are able to maintain their confidence when everything is going against them. By staying confident, they continue to work hard rather than give up because they know that when they aren’t at their best, they can still be competitive and have a good race.

All triathletes will go through periods where they’re not at their best. Most triathletes when they don’t feel good before a race or start a race poorly lose their confidence and get caught in the vicious cycle of low confidence and poor performance. Once they slip into that downward spiral, they rarely can get out of it. In contrast, triathletes who meet the Confidence Challenge maintain their confidence and figure out a way to stay motivated and focused, and to have the best race they can.

The Confidence Challenge can be thought of as a Prime Triathlon skill that can be developed. Learning to respond positively to the Confidence Challenge comes from exposing yourself to demanding situations and difficult conditions in training and races and practicing positive responses.

There are several key aspects of mastering the Confidence Challenge. First, you need to develop the attitude that demanding situations are challenges to be sought out rather than threats to be avoided. When you’re faced with a Confidence Challenge you need to believe that experiencing challenges is a necessary part of becoming the best triathlete and an opportunity to take your triathlon to the next level. You have to realize that, at first, these challenges are going to be uncomfortable because they are difficult and unfamiliar. As you expose yourself to more challenges, they will become less threatening and more comfortable.

With this perspective, you should seek out every possible challenge in training and races. Be sure you’re well-prepared to meet the challenges. You can’t master the Confidence Challenge if you don’t have the preparation to do so. Stay positive and motivated in the face of the difficulties. Don’t allow yourself to be sucked into the vicious cycle. Then, focus on what you need to do to overcome the challenge rather than on how difficult it may be or how you may fail. Also, accept that you may not fully succeed when faced with a challenge for the first time. Don’t take this as a failure, but rather as an experience you can learn from to overcome the difficulties next time. Finally, and most importantly, never, ever give up!