with their expertise and advice to help you reach your goal.

Reasonable

"Every noble work is bound to face problems and obstacles. It is important to

check your goal and motivation thoroughly. One should be very truthful, honest, and reasonable.

One's actions should be good for others, and for oneself as well. Once a positive goal is chosen,

you should decide to pursue it all way to end. Even if it is not realized, at least there

will be no regret." -Dalai Lama

Now that you might have started to think of some goals, you have to remember to keep them

reasonable. Losing 30 pounds in one month is not reasonable! In fact, this could be potentially

dangerous to your health and be detrimental in long term. In this case, you would probably

be losing water weight and muscle mass, and in long run, you would gain all that weight back,

and have less muscle mass (its your muscles that burn fat…the more of it you have, more fat

you can burn. But less you have, you’ll be burning less body fat).

Keep your goals reasonable or you might find that you’ll be putting your health at risk, or at

the very least, you’ll be disappointed.

Timed

"A goal is a dream with a deadline." -Napoleon Hill

Set a deadline. Deadlines move us to action.

There’s nothing worst than having a goal, working towards it, but never finishing it! It’s

almost like a major school project that’s assigned to you. Imagine if this project didn’t have a

deadline, and you’re asked to complete it whenever you want.

Do you think you’ll complete it soon?

Probably not! If there’s no deadline, there’s no pressure to finish a task.

It’s same with exercise and fitness. If you set a goal to lose 10 pounds of body fat, but

you don’t set a deadline, you’ll probably be trying to lose 10 pounds of body fat forever!

Set a deadline for your fitness goal, and try to achieve it. Once deadline passes and you’ve

reached your goals, set a new one and a new deadline, and strive to achieve that!

Reasons Why

"Some men have thousands of reasons why they cannot do what they want to; all they

need is one reason why they can" -Willis Whitney

This is probably most important step in goal setting process. Not only is your “reason

why” motivation for you to achieve any goals, but it’s probably reason that caused you to

buy a home gym or home exercise equipment in first place!

You must define your reasons for wanting to achieve a goal. If you lack clear reasons why for

doing so, all goal setting and planning might just go to waste (if you don’t have a reason to

do something, why would you do it?)

Spend some time and give some serious thought to this step. The more compelling your reasons are

for exercising, greater your odds will be for meeting your goals.

Every person has a different reason for exercising. Some people just want to lose a few inches

off their waist because of an upcoming event (such as a wedding, a high school reunion, a day at

the beach to impress members of opposite sex), but for others, exercising could mean

difference between life and death.

Whatever your “reasons why” may be, make sure that they’re compelling, and accurately represent

your reasons for your desire to achieve your goals.

Some Tips To Keep On Top of Your Fitness Goals

Grab a pen, a few pieces of paper, and prepare to do some writing.

Use this formula to form your goals:

“I, _________ (name) WILL __________________________ (specific, reasonable, and

measurable goal) by doing _______________________ (action oriented) by ______________

(timed-date).

I will achieve this goal because ___________________________ (insert your reason why)

Signature: _________________ (your name) Today’s date: _____________”

Write this down and make photocopies if you want to. Now, post your goals everywhere (bathroom

mirrors, in your home gym, in front of your toilet…anywhere that is highly visible), and read it

everyday. The more often you come across seeing your goals in writing, more likely it’s

going to be in your daily thoughts, and more likely you’re achieve your fitness goals.

Remember, journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. So, if you’ve been leaving

your home gym equipment to collect dust or to hang your clothes on, start with single step of

writing down your goals by following methods above. Trust me, you won’t regret it.

John Phung is a Certified Personal Training and successful writer providing valuable tips and

advice about free weight exercise

equipment, home gym equipment, href="http://www.homegymsonline.info/cardio-equipment.htm" rel="nofollow">cardiovascular training equipment

Example of a typical aerobic set: 10 x 100’s on 1:40 interval This means swimming ten 100-yard swims within 1 minute, 40 seconds, including rest. If you finish 100-yard swim in 1:20, you get 20 seconds rest. If you finish in 1:35, you get 5 seconds rest.

Anaerobic fitness is also an important part of your training, although it should not be emphasized often when preparing for an Olympic distance, Half Ironman, or Ironman-distance triathlon. Effective anaerobic fitness improvement is done in two ways. One is short sprints at race pace with short rest periods, which allow your body to become used to lactic acid buildup. The second is through speed work: short sprints with plenty of rest.

Examples of typical anaerobic training sets:

1) 20 x 25’s on :25 2) 20 x 25’s on 1:00

In set #1, you are training your body to finish a race strong, with lactic acid buildup. This type of set should not be done more than once per week. In set #2, you are building up your speed. For distance athletes, this is only needed about once every 2 weeks at most.

Keep in mind that no training should be done at expense of technique! There is never a point where you should cut drills completely out of your workout. If you are a true beginner, take a few lessons before you begin your training program. With right instructor this can be one of most valuable things you can do in training for a triathlon. If you need help finding a coach in your area, check out our directory at http://www.triswimcoach.com/tsc/findacoach.html.