3 Phases to Going Pro

To prove to myself and others that I am both serious about becoming a pro-triathlete and understand the dedication and sacrifice necessary to make it happen, I am going to lay out my plan on these pages. I will keep this plan a “living document” so that as changes come I can react to them and plan accordingly. As goals are achieved I will continue to check them off the list and let you see how I progress throughout this journey. Once I get there, you will all see how it was done and see how it can be done in the future.

There are 3 Phases to my plan and they are broken down into a beginning phase, an intermediate amateur phase, and a final “pro-push” phase. Each phase contains a list of goals and achievements necessary to reach the next, as well as a date by which I hope to enter each phase.

Phase I: (Spring 2009)

Phase II: (Fall 2009)

Phase III: (Fall 2010)

I will keep regular training logs as well as updates to my plan if any changes need to be made due to circumstance or other external occurances. As you can see, I’ve got my work cut out for me!

September 18, 2008 | Filed Under Planning

9 Comments 

Comments

9 Responses to “3 Phases to Going Pro”

  1. Kimo on September 18th, 2008 3:34 pm

    The Ironman with a Plan! Good luck with your journey and I will see you here in Clearwater in November 2010 :0)

  2. admin on September 26th, 2008 4:23 am

    I wasn’t born with natural ability, so I’m going to have to overcome that with good goal setting, planning, and tons of hard work. I look forward to seeing you in Clearwater, when I get out of the service I plan on moving there :)

  3. peter Wong on November 18th, 2008 9:51 am

    good luck mate. hopefully ill see you at kona one day :P

  4. carol on November 19th, 2008 8:28 am

    Good luck! I have zero natural ability as well, and have done pretty well by persistence and hard work!

    You should put join USAT at the top of your list. It’s worth paying the money if you are doing 4 races, since the per race fee for non usat members is $10.

  5. Designing Your Life - How to Plan | Nathan Hangen on November 22nd, 2008 1:00 pm

    [...] a professional triathlete was part of my 5 phase plan, but I also broke it down further with a 3 step plan to becoming a professional triathlete. I also broke down my business goals the same way. I took the end state of owning business [...]

  6. Rob on January 10th, 2009 3:20 am

    I love this clear plan. I write about goal setting on my personal blog: http://rob-thompson.com. My primary goal is to compete in a triathlon in 2010, when I’m 40. I focused intially on running, culminating in two marathons in 2008. 2009 highlights include 1 marathon, 3 Olympic distance triathlons and 1 1/2 marathon (as well as a number of 10K runs). This year I’ve decided to focus on my heart rate after reading this article: http://tinyurl.com/8wcmsa.

    Two questions:

    1. Do you use heart rate monitoring and training?
    2. Which triathlon websites do you find the most useful?

  7. admin on January 10th, 2009 3:01 pm

    Sounds like you have some great goals and an awesome plan in place as well. Something about us guys staring down ages that scare us (30 for me, 40 for you)!

    1. I don’t do heart rate training yet, but when my 305 arrives I will be taking a serious look.
    2. I don’t have a lot of time for websites, but I use beginnertriathlete.com to hang out and talk a bit. I like buckeyeoutdoors for my training logs, and I like athlinks.com for keeping track of races.

  8. James on June 16th, 2009 12:30 pm

    Great plan! I’ve followed a similar plan that I started in 2007 and just recently won my 1st olympic race in 2:02, which is a 40+ minute improvement over the first one I did. I’m hoping to qualify for IM Worlds this weekend at CDA and go pro next year. Be patient and have fun. The speed will come.

  9. Ross on January 21st, 2010 7:00 am

    I’m 27 years old and I’m about to participate in my first Triathalon. It’s the lava man on Kona. I found this new passion of mine while joining team and training. I’m doing it for the memory of my mom and my child hood friend, who both lost their battles with cancer. I thought triathalons would be a cake walk, but as I’m learning, it not so easy. I stumbled across this website wondering what it would take to be a professional triathlete… It looks like it would take a lot. I do have natural athletic talent and currently am training my guts out for this thing, and I just want you to know that your plan puts it into perspective. The triathletes who go out and compete inspire me. Maybe one day I could get there, but I want you to know that I’m cheering for you as well. I’ve included the link just if anyone would like to know more or support my cause. Good luck to all and I hope to see you out there one day.
    ~Ross
    http://pages.teamintraining.org/wa/lavatri10/rirish

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