We were wrapping up the Saturday long run. The creek is high in O'Neill so we couldn't get across. What was meant to be ten miles turned out to be a little less than seven. But I threw in a few hill loops ("slopes") on Twisty and a hard uphill tempo Mesa finish. What we lacked in mileage we made up for in quality. I didn't love it but I was OK with it. The slow build as we approach track season means more emphasis on flexibility to prevent injury. Better to do too little than too much.
Having said all that, I admitted to the team that I am taking glee in Monday's workout. We'll take advantage of the holiday to train in the early morning. Then comes Tuesday, our first double workout of the season, training at 6 am and again at 2:30. As it came time for everyone to go their separate ways one of my seniors asked a simple question:
"Is Tuesday an aerobic double?"
My heart soared.
Let me explain. This ties in neatly with my new Substack. I wrote on Friday about how my coaching philosophy has changed over the years. Less yelling, more love. And more teaching. I don't want my runners to just execute their workout in mute lockstep. I want them to know the purpose of each session and how it fits into the broader scheme of the overall season. So when Lolo correctly figured that a hard Monday workout would be followed by two easy runs to facilitate aerobic development one day later, it made me feel I've been building lifelong runners — like my teams understand not just my own methodology but also that of our sport. It got even better when she deduced that Wednesday would be another aerobic session so we could really hammer on Thursday. Stunning.
There are two seasons going on in my life right now. There are the 86 days between now and publication of The Long Run — 12 weeks, a season just as long as winter or spring.
And there is track season, which I wade into slowly every year. I write my training plan in December after mourning the end of cross country. But it's not until Week Three or so of track that I throw myself completely into the training. It's a time when I wonder if I should be doing this anymore, no matter how much I love it. Then something kicks in and I find myself enthralled with the training and the focus on individual speed development. Then I am hooked for the season. That moment came Saturday morning around 8:30 a.m.
I need track for many reasons, as we've discussed here before. This year it's there to keep me grounded, teaching and coaching as I await publication day. It seems impossibly far away. The wait is exhausting. I've been a runner my whole life and I've written a book that's as good as any ever written about the sport and why we care so much about it (perhaps with the exception of Once a Runner, but that one's fiction).
It's track season. It's publication season. And Tuesday is an aerobic double, the first of many that will make us stronger in the months to come.