Focus on Process or Results?

I haven't blogged in a while for a variety of reasons but I read an article in Inside Triathlon today that got me thinking (always a frightening concept) so I thought I'd put out a blog to see what others thought about this. The gist of the article was a coach having his athletes focus on the process rather than the results during the season. By focusing on the process, results will follow and potentially will be better than by focusing on results.

I thought about my training and initially thought I was completely results focused. Almost every bike training session is designed to hit a power number and almost every run is to hit a pace or distance target. Body composition has been all about the scale. Then I realized my swim workouts, are more process than results. What I mean by that is that I focus more on form and duration as compared to pace and distance. Some of this is due to the fact that almost all of my swimming is either in the endless pool or open water (when it gets warm enough). These venues make measuring pace and distance more challenging.

Which works best? I don't know. Maybe I need to focus a bit more on the process for my biking and running and see what happens. At least it will give me something to think about.

In reality I only skimmed over the article but I expect to read it again in more detail and perhaps look at some related research. What are your thoughts?

Rock Star Bobble Head

To celebrate finishing Ironman Florida, my wife found a place that made custom bobble heads. My family has been going back and forth with them making a bobble head of me. This was a surprise gift and it showed up this week.

The detail on this is incredible. The hat I'm wearing is the official Ironman Finishers hat with the "Finisher 2011" embroidery. I'm wearing the finisher medal, my Garmin, my race number, compression sleeves, and the clothing matches what I actually wore that day. The bike is the color of my race bike, has aerobars, has the race sticker on it and even says SPECIALIZED.

I was speechless when they gave it to me. Amazing.