Focus Your Efforts

by Vince Matteo

Prior to working with a coach, I really had no clue as to how to train. Back then, I did whatever, whenever and however.

But despite being clueless, I knew deep down that I would need to hire a coach to move beyond the bottom of the pack.

Shortly after hiring a coach, I became familiar with the fundamentals of triathlon training and the positive results were almost immediate.

I became energized and I wanted more -- more training and more racing.

In a frenzy of excitement, I whipped out my credit card and I began signing up for events:

• Two iron distance events
• Two half iron distance events
• Two international distance events
• One marathon
• Two half marathons
• One 10k

The races were mixed up across the season and when I sat down with my coach to strategize a plan, she explained that we should prioritize my race schedule.

I'm certain at that point I had a puzzled look on my face because she asked: "You do understand race priorities... right?"

Still looking puzzled, she began explaining A, B and C races and then she asked me to assign priorities to each of them.

"They are all 'A' races", I declared.

Clearly, I did not understand. Or at least I didn't understand within the context of my goals. At the time, my goal was to be successful at ironman. In fact, that goal has never changed and it still remains near the top.

Fast-forward to the present and when I look at that list of races, I would shorten it to only include the two half and full iron distance events. Everything else would be gone.

If your goal is to do a bunch of races, then there is nothing wrong with having a mixture of events and distances. My goal, however, is to be successful at Ironman. So when I think about my goal and I consider the
list above, I think about the time lost versus the value.

1. International Distance Triathlon - Since the event lands on either a Saturday or a Sunday, I can pretty much guarantee that both days are
   lost for an event that is nearly the same amount of time as a midweek brick workout.
   
   
2. Marathon - (see Saturday and Sunday wasted). Without a swim and bike prior, a marathon for me is partly sub threshold, at threshold and above threshold. In other words, it's a whole lot of pain and suffering with
   a long recovery.
   
   
3. Half Marathon - (see Marathon but with more suffering).
   
   
4. 10k - Essentially an all out effort and although I could probably recover quickly from it, this introduces a risk factor.

In summary, the lost training time, required recovery time and the potential for injury do not outweigh what I consider to be little, if any, benefit.

Now as far as prioritizing what remains, it's fairly simple -- the half iron distance events are B races which essentially means I taper very little in an attempt to maximize training time and the iron distance events are obviously A races.

This approach aligns well with my lengthy list of goals, but at the top of the list is:

• Continued success at racing ironman
• Qualifying for Kona

Speaking of which -- I've qualified for Kona in each of these past three years and people are often curious about my training and racing as they pursue their on Kona dreams.

I was chatting with a friend the other day and I explained to her that I felt she could qualify for Kona if she focused her efforts.

Without even thinking, she blurted out, "Do you know what it takes to qualify for Kona?!?"

I chuckled and at that moment, I think she realized what she had just said.

I replied, "Yeah, I'm pretty sure I've got that figured out."

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