McMillanElite :: Matt Clark

Entry #73
Week of October 27, 2008
by Matt Clark

It's hard to believe that it's been almost 3 months since my last blog here for McMillan Elite. I guess a lot has happened in that time though. My base training phase and adaptation to living and running at altitude seems to be going pretty well, and I'm happy with the way Greg set everything up to help ease me into the program. It definitely took some time, but I'm starting to get the hang of the higher mileage and longer workouts like steady state runs. Training with such good runners everyday has been a great learning experience. This is by far the most high quality group I've ever had the opportunity to work out with, and seeing the impressive racing results that many of our people have had so far always keeps me wanting to train harder and get to the next level.

I'm living at the Cooper house now, with Lemoncello, Jordan, and Brett. Also, Wicket and Tazzy, the two dogs have been pretty welcoming to me. The guys over here have been great so far, and seeing them living the lifestyle of a professional runner each day has helped to teach me many things about what it takes to get good. I have a long way to go though as far as my ping pong skills go, but since I'm doing secret practice sessions I plan on ruling the household in that aspect pretty soon.

This weekend I'm heading down to San Diego for a 4 mile cross country race to make my McMillan debut. Brett, Jordan, Ian, Giliat, Lindsay and Becky are also going, so it's a quality group to say the least. I'm excited to see where I'm at with all the work that's been put in over the last few months, and also want to experience running at sea level for the first time in a while.

These first few weeks have been pretty standard, moving into the new Mountain house (which is such a nice place, thanks Trina), getting adjusted to the training schedule, and settling in with the new team and community here in Flag have eaten up just about all of my time. So far I've been really impressed with all of the places we've run, and am very excited about the amount of great areas to train. I sure won't be getting bored with the scenery anytime soon that's for sure.

Being able to not only watch the Olympics over the last few weeks, but also see athletes that I know and have even lived with get to compete on the highest stage has been a huge inspiration to get rolling and really start training hard again. The nightly broadcasts from China have definitely added to the competitive fire and will continue to help me to chase my goals while I train up here in the mountains.