Matador Miles are an iconic MVXC workout–repeat miles, on dirt, in Stevens Canyon, not flat, one minute recoveries between miles. Matador Miles are one of my favorite cross country workouts:
- Lactic threshold pace is so good for us…
- Breaking up a tempo run is gets that lactic threshold stimulus without the same mental challenge as a continuous tempo run, especially early season…
- Matador Miles are on dirt so it’s more like a cross race…
- …and it’s just so pretty out at the reservoir in the early morning!
Even years later, I can remember some of the Matador Mile workouts MVXC has run. I remember pacing Bridget and the varsity girls in 2013; Bridget was so annoyed that I was slowing her down that she ran right up on my shoulder so that I could barely get a full arm swing without putting my elbow into her chest, and when I finally said it was OK to pass me on the 4th rep, Bridget flew by me along with Kelly, Maddy, Jenny, Julia and Sunny and I thought oh, lordy, are they going to put some hurt on teams this year. I remember Jason saying ‘what’s the most that anyone has done?’ and banging out six Matador Miles (Jason and Julia both embraced the belief that the correct number of reps was ‘one more than anyone else’). I remember Akshara running rep after rep and when I asked if she was tired she says ‘I guess’ as if it never occurred to her to wonder if she was tired or not.
There were a couple of highlights from Saturday’s workout at Stevens Canyon. Two athletes ran especially nice sets of negative splits: Katie Lee put down a 8:00-7:45-7:38 series and Manasi Prasad went 8:04-8:00-7:50 (it’s nice to begin controlled, then increase the effort and work the pace fast–but it is hard to do). Karena Lai and Ethan Yang get recognition for encouraging each other to get in ‘just one more’ rep…Ethan started his fourth rep and said ‘Karena said she was doing on more, so I said why not’ while Karena seemed to think it was Ethan who had pushed her into number four. THAT is what a good team and a good teammate can do for you…when you have two people who help each other to get in another rep and another eight minutes or so of work, well, you really have something. That is a team at it’s best, making the work easier and encouraging each other to try a bit more without the coach bearing down and forcing something. When we are all saying ‘want to come come with me?’ and ‘you are running great, let’s get another’ and answering ‘absolutely, let’s do this!’ Four Matador Miles as a freshman, or for someone coming off an injury, is no joke. Good work Karena, Ethan, Katie, Manasi and everyone else out on Saturday–anyone who was out on a Saturday morning to make a deposit in their training account deserves a big high five!
In addition to Matador Miles and the Watermelon Run, last week saw our last scheduled set of Linda Vista hill repeats; next week MVXC22 will graduate to Matt’s Hill up on Fremont Older. We are also going to pass out uniforms and get our season started in earnest with the first meet of the year at Lagoon Valley…check out last year’s race.
Three weeks of the season in the books!
