Momentum

There is momentum in training. When workouts are going well, they build on each other. Things that were hard earlier in the season become routine; interval sessions that were mentally taxing at the start of the indoor campaign become standard weekly fare. If all goes according to plan, we'll all get stronger and faster, carrying our training momentum into bigger and bigger races.

But woe to any of us if we over-reach and pull a hamstring muscle, or suffer a stress fracture as we churn out those fast reps on unforgiving tracks. When once we lose momentum in our training, it can start a downward spiral. There's nothing worse than the lack of confidence brought about when workouts get harder and times get slower, whether due to injury, illness, or other unplanned time off.

The holidays are over now, and dual meets have begun again. We will soon see who has been training over the break and who has been eating too many Christmas cookies.

We are also now into the middle part of the indoor season. For the Newton North girls, that means the two biggest weekends of the year are imminent: this weekend, in which the team divides its athletes between the Dartmouth Relays in NH and the Auerbach FR/SO meet in MA, and next weekend, which is the State Class A Relays (January 14th). Coach Joe Tranchita always emphasizes the State Relays as the true team championship meet, and the squad will hope to be in top form then.

In the college scene, kids are heading back to their schools and are looking forward to serious meets later this month. For many of them, the winter break is considerably longer than it is for high school kids, and it has taken a great deal of discipline to keep their training momentum while away from their teams.

And for runners who are out of college, the emphasis is likely to be on establishing a different kind of training momentum. As a runner in our group last night said, there are only 15 weeks until the Boston Marathon. For anyone thinking that far ahead, this is the time to be building up serious mileage and extending those long runs to 20+ miles.

Whether your focus is on dual meets, relays, invitational meets, or the Boston Marathon, I wish you the best of luck with your preparations. Keep that momentum!