Grabbing on with both hands

Hi Everyone!

Shout out to those of us who raced this past weekend! Gillian I with a huge half marathon PB in her virtual Scotiabank Half Marathon. And Jen, Erin and Cassidy and Moi who raced in the Toronto Women’s 5K. It really is fun to be back.

What I’ve been thinking about is how during covid, we all experienced that sense of getting off the treadmill for a bit. Less running around to scheduled things, fewer (ok no) activities, nothing on the calendar. Just full retreat. How strange that we all collectively went through that together, whether we needed it or not. Some of us probably did need it more than others. And now, we can decide what we want to opt back into with maybe a little more intention.

And what I’m seeing from many of you, and what I LOVE, is the really grasping with two hands of the things we do want to do. No more taking events and opportunities for granted. No more “maybe one day I will”. The intention I’m seeing is not “I have to” or “should” do this, but “I GET to do this”. I’ve seen people signing up for more big hairy audacious events, more things just outside their comfort zones, more jumping in with both feet ready or not, and I love it. I feel like we’re living life! And we’re letting go of the fears that used to hold us back. What would normally hold us back from putting ourselves on the line, taking on challenges and racing? Usually it’s fear that we won’t be ready, we won’t be great, we’re scared of judgement – from ourselves or others. But now we’re saying f*%K it – and we’re not letting that fear hold us back. We’re jumping into races when we’re not “race fit”. We’re taking on challenges we’re not completely certain we can accomplish. I feel like I can sense a collective shedding of some of our egos. We are all Eddie the Eagle. We’re going for it – win or lose! We’re gonna go and do our thing to the best of our ability, embrace every moment, and not give two shits what the results say. I think we’ve all realized that we only get one shot at this life, so we’d better dive in – Let’s Go!!!!

Back to Lakeshore again tomorrow!

(note on time: we will start the first interval at 6:15 – remember, if you want more of a warm-up, please arrive earlier – I will start mobility drills around 6:05. There are some who would like to move the time back to 6:00 am start bc people are starting to go back into offices. I am fine with this but want to keep the group together! So let’s take a vote tomorrow. If you want to vote, show up!)

Broken miles as: 1 mile (10K pace), 1:45 rec, 2 x 800 (5K pace), 90 sec, 4 x 400 (faster), 1:15 – Then finish with either 4 x 200 Fast w full recovery. Whether we’re training for an upcoming 10K or doing base work for longer events, 200’s are key to work on turnover, muscle recruitment, running economy and form. So let’s keep touching base with this.
If you’re running New York, instead of the 200’s, finish with 1 mile at race pace. You’ll have run 3 miles quite a bit faster and it will be a good way to just remind your system how to work at that pace comfortably when it’s fatigued. Almost taper time …

That’s all – see ya in the am!

Seanna