19. Fast doesn’t mean happy

I’ve had athletes run well, lead the team, and look completely committed. I thought they were having a great experience.

Then they quit, and I found out how much I hadn’t understood.

That has stayed with me.

An athlete can be proud of a workout that felt brutally hard. Another can hit every target and leave frustrated or discouraged. I can’t assign them an experience based on what I wrote on the stopwatch sheet.

I want to hear how it’s going for them, including when the results look good. Especially then, because that’s when I’m most tempted to assume I already know.