Tuesday, December 9, 2025 – Going medium

Hi Everyone!

Congrats to those who braved the always icy conditions and ran the Blacktoe (née Tannenbaum) 10K on the weekend! We had Chris F, Andrew H, Adam, Karen, Cheryl and Leigh Anne! Those were some tough conditions from what I saw and the leaders apparently mostly ran at least 2 mins off their pb’s, so adjust your self-reviews accordingly.

This past week I’ve been enjoying some time off structured training. The funny thing about taking time off is that it really recharges your batteries. So much so that it’s not long before you feel yourself picking it up a bit at the end of an easy run, or having the mental and physical desire to tack a few more kilometers onto a run. Or maybe your easy/recovery runs stay the same, but you find yourself going to the gym more and lifting weights which you never quite had enough energy for when you were training hard. I like this medium zone of training. I am finding a renewed and flourishing satisfaction in these mid-hard efforts. They feel good, I get to push hard, but not too hard, and they’re never mentally taxing. They result in endorphins with none of the stress-induced cortisol of anticipating a hard workout or digging yourself into a hole. I am going to be bold and go out and say it: screw the hard/easy principle – I’m embracing the medium zone!

I know the hard/easy is the most desirable for pure end results. Go hard on your had days and easy on your easy days. Ya, ya, we know. But maximizing your hard days is actually really hard when you’re trying to do it a few times a week, and deciding whether you’re going easy enough on your easy days also takes some mental effort and discipline. When we’re training for a goal, we often commit to this type of training, and yes, it pays off. But “training” without overthinking is actually kind of fun. Going hard-ish when you feel like it, allowing yourself to go “too far” one day and “not fast enough” another just because that’s what your body and mind want to do on those days, is quite a satisfying way to “train”. Even in lifting weights. I’m so sick of the “lift heavy” messaging. What if I just want to lift medium-heavy? Can I do that please? I don’t want to bleed out of my eyeballs every time I set foot in the gym. I want to throw a few weights around, do some stretching, maybe 50% socializing, and return again the next day! And when I run, I’ll decide mid-run how far I’ll go. If I’m well rested, my pace will probably land right in between “recovery” and “training” – the dreaded gray zone of medium hard. I like that pace. It feels good. So I’m gonna do it.

I’m going to try a month of this medium zone training. I know I’m not going to get super fit, but guess what – I don’t currently care. I’m going to enjoy it. I know I’ll probably get excited about some goal at some point in the future and start more disciplined training again then. But for now, I’m going medium hard and enjoying it.

On to tomorrow’s workout: Lakeshore and Leslie – 6:05 Drills, 6:15 GO!

1 mile tempo to wup

2 min rest

2 x 800 w 1:45

2 min rest

3 x 600 w 1:30

2 min rest

3 x 300 w 1:15

Option of 1 mile tempo to finish (this only if you’re currently training for an early spring marathon)

I’ll come out to start you off and then will head to the gym.

That is all – see you in the am!

Seanna