No, this is not a post about peanut butter. PB is a common term in triathlon lingo referring to one’s “personal best” time recorded in a race event. This can also be noted by the term “PR” for personal record.
As an everyday triathlete, you may not think this applies to you—but you’d be wrong. Noting a PB or a PR is something that all athletes should do, and it has nothing to do with being the best or setting a record.
It has to do with personal growth and goal setting.
The very first race you do should be about simply finishing (no matter how much time it takes). The time on the clock when you complete the race is a record of your time spent on the course and the courage it took to sign up and train for your first triathlon. Don’t pressure yourself by putting any more meaning into it than that.
This is true whenever you’re doing something new for the first time. Your first 5K, your first sprint triathlon, your first 10K, your first Olympic distance triathlon, your first half-marathon, your first half-Ironman, etc. These “first times” give you a base level of information about yourself as an athlete, and something to use as a benchmark for future goals.
As you do more races of the same distance, you can then compare times to chart improvement—but be careful not to get too caught up in the hype of the overall finishing time.
In triathlon, there are six official times associated with your race. They are:
As an everyday triathlete, you may not think this applies to you—but you’d be wrong. Noting a PB or a PR is something that all athletes should do, and it has nothing to do with being the best or setting a record.
It has to do with personal growth and goal setting.
The very first race you do should be about simply finishing (no matter how much time it takes). The time on the clock when you complete the race is a record of your time spent on the course and the courage it took to sign up and train for your first triathlon. Don’t pressure yourself by putting any more meaning into it than that.
This is true whenever you’re doing something new for the first time. Your first 5K, your first sprint triathlon, your first 10K, your first Olympic distance triathlon, your first half-marathon, your first half-Ironman, etc. These “first times” give you a base level of information about yourself as an athlete, and something to use as a benchmark for future goals.
As you do more races of the same distance, you can then compare times to chart improvement—but be careful not to get too caught up in the hype of the overall finishing time.
In triathlon, there are six official times associated with your race. They are:
- Swim time
- Transition time from swim to bike
- Bike time
- Transition time from bike to run
- Run time
- Overall finish time (comprised of all 5 times listed above)
This means that each race gives you six opportunities to improve the next time you do a race of the same distance. So while you may complete your race feeling let down about your overall finishing time, you might notice that you actually logged a personal best on the bike!
With six separate times to analyze, there is ample opportunity to celebrate the small victories that are always there for the taking even despite what could be perceived as a big loss at first sight.
Triathlon’s six distinct times remind us that it’s okay to make race day about the journey, not the destination.
Few of us get to show up to races anticipating the kind of win that would land us on the podium with a giant trophy in our hands. We will not be sponsored, or singled out for our athletic prowess, and we won’t be breaking any world records on the courses where we race.
The beauty of triathlon is that “wins” don’t have to be measured in terms of podiums and points. Unlike professional sports teams, we don’t need to try out before we’re invited to participate. We don’t need to prove anything to anyone but ourselves. The best athletes in the world will race the same courses as the everyday triathletes, yet the winners of that race will vary just as much as the participants who toe the line.
Your “personal best” is all about you. If you shave even a second from your previous finishing times, you’ve won on some level.
PBs don’t always come in numerical form, either. If you feel that you put forth a new kind of effort that unveiled something new about you as an athlete, that’s a win. Were you pushing yourself through barriers that you weren’t used to such as leg cramps or extreme temperatures? These conditions might inflate your times more than you’d like, but you should allow them to inflate your ego, too.
Many athletes find themselves caught in the drama of having to meet pre-defined expectations. This happens because they’re comparing themselves to other people who they believe they are similar to, or because they believe that having certain gear should lead to the kind of performance they want to have.
Buying a fast bike doesn’t guarantee you’ll ride a fast bike split. Remember that the legs are only as fast as the mind will allow them to go, and if your racing strategy is based on gear rather than guts, you will likely feel let down by your performances. Of course high-quality equipment can help us to improve our performance, but it’s only going to amplify the athlete that’s already there—not create a new one on the spot.
You must nurture the heart and soul of this sport from the inside, by believing in yourself and practicing the small victories before you chase after the larger ones.
Establish your personal parameters for “success” in training and racing, and then make it a point to celebrate them accordingly.
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