by Vince Matteo

This time last year, I was finishing up my final preparation for Kona but unbeknownst to me, my season was already over and Kona was just an obstacle in the way of much needed recovery.

Don't get me wrong, I was excited to do the race but I lacked the mental strength to finish strong.

During the race, the wheels fell off the wagon around mile 10 on the run when I went to make a withdrawal from the mojo piggy bank and all I got back was a message telling me I was overdrawn.

I was confused. I followed the advice of treating my first trip to Kona as a victory lap. I swam easy, I biked easy and I even ran easy for the first 10 miles of the run.

But as soon as I made that right turn up Palani and got out onto the Queen K, the internal dialog quickly changed from "Hey, I'm doing Kona!" to the famous words of Scooby Doo... "Ruh-roh!"

The next 16 miles were tough! As each mile passed, my pace slowed and my attitude seemed to spiral down even further into the darkness.

Everything came crashing down around me at mile 24 when I started to cramp so bad that I was no longer able to stand.

With no other choice, I decided to sit at the side of the road to get some relief. As I sat in a large pool of self pity, I watched my fellow competitors struggle with their own battles.

After massaging my legs for what seemed like an eternity, I managed to get the cramps to subside and I jogged the remaining two miles in to cross the finish in 10:32.

Not bad for my first attempt but I thought it could have been better. I was physically prepared, I had done the appropriate amount of heat-specific training but I exhausted all of my mojo in the weeks prior and I mentally checked out as soon as the race got tough.

In the months following the race, I put quite a bit of thought into what went wrong. Reflecting back upon my training, I didn't change my routine but it felt like some of the toughest training to date. In addition, four weeks prior to Kona, I raced a half iron and my recovery from that race dragged into the final weeks of preparation.

In summary: it was too much, too hard, with not enough recovery. Two of the three would have left me in a decent shape (I think) but with all three, the final weeks of training required a ton of mental strength and it left empty for race day.

With room for improvement, I went back to the drawing board and I think I've learned my lesson.

Rather than sticking to my typical schedule, I skipped the local half iron that did me in last year and I've placed a few well needed breaks into my schedule instead.

As I finish up my final preparation for Kona once again, I am more than eager to hit the starting line which I take as a good sign. With only days remaining until the race, I feel fit, I feel confident and I feel like I have plenty of mojo in the bank for what the race has in store for me.

Of course that last line is the kiss of death and you'll probably see me on TV crawling across the finish line.