by Vince Matteo

Endurance Corner's theme for May is "What I've Learned So Far in Triathlon." I thought I'd share my top 10 lessons from my time in the sport. I suspect some of you will nod your head in agreement when you read these. Hopefully at least a few of you will learn something from my experiences.

1. Coaches
After my first season of racing, I decided I wanted to continue working with a coach but I also wanted to be a know-it-all. That didn't work out so well, especially for the coach, since I just started doing whatever I wanted.

Forget about whether or not I made the right training choices, it's hard to evaluate a coach if I'm not following their instructions. It's also a waste of their time and my money.

Since then, I have limited the choices to: Hire a coach and let them have total control, hire a coach and come to a mutual agreement about my training, or if I want to be a know-it-all, I can coach myself.

2. Gear
I bought a tri bike because it was supposed to make me faster. I bought race wheels because they were supposed to make me faster. I bought an aero helmet because it was supposed to make me faster.

Training made me faster. Gear made me look cool. Well, as cool as a grown man can look with shaved legs, a spandex skin suit, compression socks and an aero helmet. A proverbial chick magnet!

3. Diet
I've tried a few different approaches but nothing seems to work as well for me as eating lean meats, fresh fruits, and fresh veggies. I do eat a small amount of starches though because I find that excluding them altogether leaves me feeling weak in my workouts.

4. Dreams versus Reality
I imagine myself running down Ali'i drive while crossing the finish line under 9:30 and qualifying for Boston simultaneously.

That's a dream and it's good to have dreams; but I find it necessary to put them to the test to see if there's any basis in reality.

With the dream above, I'll walk you through the exercise:
I pulled the Ironman World Champs results for athletes finishing between 9:29 and 9:36 in 2010. Here's what I noticed:

• I swim as fast as the slowest in the bunch.
• Their bike times are faster than any bike split I've posted in an ironman.
• My open marathon time is slower than their ironman marathon time.

Sounds like a dream to me.

5. Pacing an Ironman
An ironman is a swim, a bike and a run. I try to remember that last part, the run, while I'm being passed during what appears to be a bicycle race. I tried that bicycle race once and my run turned into a walk. Fail.

6. Injuries
I have had my fair share of injuries and the quickest way to recovery is dealing with an injury as soon as the symptoms appear.

The biggest setbacks have come from thinking an injury would go away or I could manage an injury.

My approach now is simple: if something hurts, I take a day off. If it doesn't go away, I take three days off. And then a week. I continue taking time off until the problem is gone. In most cases, whatever hurts usually stops hurting after a week.

And since we're sort of on the subject, let's talk about doctors. There are many people who play a doctor on the Internet but there is no real substitute for an actual professional.

I might ask for an opinion from someone but in most cases, I've already made an appointment with a doctor and I'm just killing time.

I saw the foot doctor three times last year to have him tell me it was nothing. I'd rather pay a professional a few bucks and have piece of mind.

7. Knowledge
My motto is to be the student and the teacher. I do this by surrounding myself with people all across the spectrum. This model works best for me because I absorb information quickly when I'm teaching someone what I've learned.

8. Race Weight
Race weight is what the scale shows me on race day. I used to think it was my current weight minus [some number] but that proved to be detrimental to a key race. Since then, my focus is on being fit rather than light.

Funny story: I'm a pretty ritualistic guy so when something positive happens, I am likely to repeat the situation as much as possible. Two years ago, I started a new ritual of eating a Costco-sized bag of trail mix the day prior to "A" races because of one successful day. Oddly, some of my best races have followed this ritual.

10. Counting
Counting is overrated.