“An athlete who tells you the training is always easy and always fun simply has not been there. Goals can be elusive which makes the difficult journey all the more rewarding.”
~Alberto Salazar
Week One can always be a challenge–it’s a hot week, and many people joining the team are not quite ready for that first run to Matadors. However…it’s also a rewarding week, as we get back together and run with our partners, many of us see how the work we did over the summer is paying off, and we get to start looking forward to a new season.
We hit a lot of the usual spots in our training, and were able to show the new team members around Matadors’ Point, McClellan Ranch, Linda Vista (and the intro to hill repeats), and get them started with the MV drill set. On Saturday, we had a great group out for our first set of Matador Miles–and there were some really great workouts logged by Andy, Kelly, Bennett, Claire, Jeffrey, Sarah and many others. (Thinking back, this may be the best opening Saturday of Matador Miles since we added these miles to the program. I think we logged more miles, more consistently, than ever before, and I think we had the best participation by new runners ever in this optional workout. All these athletes pushed their bodies to improve their endurance and lactate threshold. If this is an indication of the season…wow!) And we finished off with the seniors taking the team down to Jamba for a nice close to the week.
Salazar is right (and he often is–look at his athletes’ performance in the Olympics!), goals can be elusive. But the process of sticking with our goals and working towards them is rewarding. I’d add one thing to Alberto’s comment–while training is not always easy, it is almost always rewarding. Keep it up, team! What a fabulous start.
