Off-Season Goal Setting – the SMARTER way to build the next-season you want.
The off-season can feel a bit strange. After months of structured sessions, race plans, race travel and recovery, suddenly there’s space. No countdowns to race day. No taper to navigate. Just you, your coffee, and a question that starts to surface: what do I want from next season?
It’s easy to either just keep doing what you’re doing (read our previous article on the art of the transition) or do nothing at all. So we’re here to help you use this time to step back, reflect, and decide exactly what you want when the racing starts again.
That’s where goal setting comes in. And not the wishy-washy “I want to get faster” kind. Although we know, everyone wants to get faster! We’re talking about SMARTER goals – an evolution of the SMART framework we’ve probably all heard about, that adds two elements most of us skip: Evaluate and Re-adjust.
Here’s how to do it well.
S – Specific
“I want to get faster” is a goal but not a goal.
Instead try something that has more intent:
- I want to run a sub-45 10km.
- I want to drop my stroke count to under 18 per 25m.
- I want to finish my first standard-distance tri without walking.
The clearer the picture, the easier it is to plan backwards from it.
M – Measurable
If you can’t measure it, you can’t tell whether you’re moving toward it or away from it. The good news? Triathlon is full of numbers – pace, power, heart rate, distance, consistency. Pick the ones that matter for your goal.
Here’s a few examples:
- Swim three times a week for the next eight weeks.
- Lift my FTP by 10 watts by September.
- Run consistently four times a week, no missed sessions.
It’s to have a way to look back in 4, 6 or 8 weeks and know whether you’re on track.
A – Achievable
Here’s where it’s easy to trip up. Ambition is brilliant, but a goal that ignores your life will quickly destroy your motivation.
Ask and answer some honest questions:
- Your current fitness (not your fitness from two seasons ago)
- The hours you genuinely have, not the ones you wish you had
- What’s going on at work, at home, with the kids – it all matters
- Any niggles you’ve been ignoring
A stretch goal pulls you forward but an unachievable goal will do the opposite. Know the difference.
R – Relevant
Your goal needs to mean something to you – not to your training partner, a squad mate on Strava, not even to who you were five years ago.
Ask yourself: what excites me? What would make me genuinely proud/happy/smile come November? What fits the life I’m actually living?
When training gets cold, wet, and unglamorous (and it will), a relevant goal is what gets you out the door.
T – Time-Bound
We’ve all heard the saying ‘a goal without a deadline is just a daydream’ – make sure your specific, measurable, achievable, relevant goals target something real:
- By Club Champs
- Before my A-race in March.
- By the end of winter base training
Time-bound goals turn vague intentions into training phases. They give you a structure to plan around.
E – Evaluate
This is where SMART becomes SMARTER and many drop off. Goals aren’t meant to be set in stone, written in your planner and then ignored until [insert key deadline here].
Build in regular check-ins:
- Monthly: Am I making progress? What’s working? What’s not?
- Quarterly: Does this still feel right? Has anything shifted?
- After every race: What did I learn? What would I do differently?
Evaluate and make changes as and when needed. This simple exercise keeps your goals alive instead of letting them quietly die in your training journal.
R – Re-adjust
Life happens. Work gets crazy. You pick up a niggle. You get sick for a week. None of that is failure – it’s just being human.
Re-adjusting your goals isn’t giving up. Maybe you swap your A-race. Maybe you trade a speed block for a consistency block. Maybe you add some strength work after that hamstring twinge. Athletes who stay in this sport long-term aren’t the rigid ones, they’re the ones who can adapt without losing sight of where they’re heading. The road isn’t always a straight line.
What This Looks Like in Practice
Here’s a SMARTER goal in the wild:
“I want to complete my first 70.3 in November and run the half marathon under two hours. I’ll follow a structured 20-week plan averaging 6–7 hours a week, and check in with how it’s going monthly. If work travel ramps up mid-way because it’s that busy time of year, I’ll adjust the plan to protect consistency over volume.”
Specific ✔ Measurable ✔ Achievable ✔ Relevant ✔ Time-bound ✔ Built-in evaluation ✔ Flexible ✔
Your Off-Season Goal-Setting Starting Point
Here’s a simple way to get started.
- Write down three to five goals for the coming season. Don’t overthink it – just get them out of your head and onto paper.
- Run each one through the SMARTER filter. Be honest. If a goal can’t survive the questions, change or adjust it.
- Share them. Tell your coach. Tell your squad. Tell your partner and family. Tell someone who’ll ask you about them in six weeks.
- Build your training around your goals – not the other way around.
- Diarise a monthly check-in with yourself. Fifteen minutes, a coffee, your training app. That’s all it takes!
