Tips for setting and sticking to your triathlon New Year’s resolutions in 2025

With the start of a new year comes a tidal wave of resolutions from people all over the world. This is great, as it encourages people to set and chase goals and change their lives in big and small ways. The only issue is that New Year’s resolutions are hard to keep. It’s easy to be gung-ho about a goal as you kick off a new year, but after a couple of weeks, it can get tough to maintain that motivation.

Unfortunately, triathletes are not impervious to this resolution motivation drain, and although you have a goal right now, you might ditch it in a few weeks. But you do want to stick with your resolution—you wouldn’t have set it if you weren’t into it—so here are a few tips to help make that resolution last all year long.

Pick an achievable goal

A big reason people might fail at keeping their New Year’s resolutions is because they decide to do something untenable or to chase an unreachable goal. It’s great if you want to complete an Ironman, but if you’ve never done any kind of triathlon, that might be too lofty of a goal to reach by year’s end. It’s not necessarily impossible, but two months into 2025 you might realize that you have committed to a lot and rethink your choices. Instead, set the goal of completing a shorter race this year. It will still be a long journey, but it will be much less daunting.

Sign up for that race now

Is your New Year’s resolution to complete a specific race? The best way to ensure that you go through with it is to sign up for it now. This way, you’re locked in and committed to that exact race. You have to stick to your plans, because race day is on its way and coming quickly.

Join a training group

You might reach your goal if you chase it on your own, but when things get tough and your motivation wanes, it will be relatively easy to edit your goal or quit altogether. If you train with a group, however, quitting will be much more difficult, as you’ll be held accountable by the others. Join a group, tell them what you’re working toward, and get to work.

Make it a habit

It takes an average of 66 days for something to become a habit. That’s how far you have to make it for your resolution to go from being something you’re forcing yourself to do to something that you’re used to doing; something that you don’t even think twice about as you do it. Lock in for the next 66 days and really commit to your training and it will become a habit. Things will still get tough at times, but it will be much easier from that point onward.