Love Letters to My Crew

Tuesday, July 29, 2025: Ya, we’re runners

July 29, 2025/0 Comments/in Love Letters 2025/by RWadmin

Hi Everyone!

Huge congrats to all our multi-sporters this weekend! The dynamic duo of Carolyn and Ian did the Augusta half IM! And here in Toronto we had Madalyn (1^st in AG), Tess Farrell (top 10 in AG) and Miguel (15^thin AG) in the TTF Olympic Tri! And Rob Dunne ran the 10K and came 2^ndin his age group! Guys, it was such a hot day. Huge kudos to all of you on epic performances and give yourselves lots of time to recover – it will take a bit longer bc of exertion in the heat.

Lately I’ve been thinking about what makes us runners. My friend walked into an appointment the other day and the physio said “I could tell you’re a runner as soon as you walked in”. Which made us all wonder … what was he picking up on? I’ve always thought that being a distance runner is a personality. I can identify it in others, but I can’t put my finger on what “it” is. There is definitely something unique that connects us all, but it’s hard to put into words what exactly that is. I’m reading a great book given to me by a friend called “How She Did It”. It’s a compilation of accomplished female distance runners over the decades, and shares their stories about how they got involved and what their journey looked like. Some started running as young as 10, and some didn’t discover it until they were in their 20’s. But all of them said the same thing: “I knew I loved it as soon as I did it”. Which goes to show what I’ve always known: there are many runners out there walking around who are runners but don’t know it yet because they’ve never tried it. It’s definitely not for everyone, and I get that! It’s hard to explain to someone who doesn’t get it why we do it. Last Sunday a few of us were finishing up a burning hot, underfuelled, too-long long run. We were dragging ourselves down one of our last apocalyptic kilometers when we bumped into a mutual friend and her husband while they were having a very civilized leisurely coffee. We stopped to say ‘hi’ (we were taking any and all excuses to stop), and realized how horrible we looked. Hollow-eyed, red faced and as wet as if someone had poured a bucket of water over us. It was hard not to notice the contrast and beg the question, “why would we choose what we’re doing and not what she’s doing?” I can’t really answer that except to say, we’re runners.

My daughter is a runner. I sort of tried to point her into other directions, like rock climbing, short sprinting, and swimming. But once she tried the longer running stuff, she just loved it. It’s even weird to me. I’m like, I get why I like it, but why do you like it? You’ve chosen such a hard sport – it’s basically just different degrees of hard! Maybe one day someone will be able to put into words better than I can why we like it. For now, I’ll just say, distance running is a personality. It’s identifiable and we all have it. And we just have to learn to put up with the weird looks and comments of how crazy we are from our non-running friends. If we have to explain it, they’ll never get it.

On to tomorrow’s workout: Fartlek on the spit! As usual, we’ll meet at Lakeshore and Leslie at 6:05 for drills.

Let’s do: 5 min tempo, 3 min easy, 3 x 3 min faster (~10K) w 90 sec easy, 3 min easy 3 x 2 min faster (~5K) w 90 sec easy. Marathoners finish w 5 min @ MP.

The whole thing will take 32-39 minutes. Just note for those with longer run commutes in case you want to drive down and drive back with a coffee!

That is all – see you in the a.m.

Seanna

Tuesday, July 22, 2025: Run towards the danger

July 29, 2025/0 Comments/in Love Letters 2025/by RWadmin

Hi Everyone!

Seems like the heat has broken! Whew. Running feels so much easier like this. Enjoy while you can – I’m sure we’ll have a few more heat waves before the summer’s over! (I actually like the heat waves – don’t kill me) But at least now we’re acclimatized and ready for anything.

The other day I mentioned to a friend that I’d been feeling anxious. I’m not sure about what, that’s the problem. It felt like anything I thought about could be the source. So my instinct was to withdraw from what I perceived could be anxiety producing. Which was … pretty much everything. Workouts, races, deadlines, even making plans to go away for the weekend were giving me extra feelings of butterflies. My friend told me what I needed to hear: “Remember, you’re supposed to run towards the danger”. This was wisdom imparted by Sarah Polley in her book of the same name – a book we’d both read. It was advice given to her by a concussion specialist who had told her that in order to get better, she had to do the opposite of what her instincts were telling her. Instead of walking into a room and turning down the lights and lowering the volume of the music, she should turn up the lights and crank the volume. Otherwise her world would just become darker and quieter and smaller and she would never get better. It turns out this advice worked for Polley, and she now lives symptom-free.

I also sometimes feel like I would get relief by backing away from the things that scare me. Like showing up for track workouts with way faster runners than me, or signing up for certain races. But deep down I know that that will only make them seem scarier. And I also feel that anxiety is just a feeling, and will latch itself onto any source you allow it to. None of the things I feel like pulling back from are actually causing anxiety. In fact leaning into them reduces it. Our brains are tricky that way. I think what happens is that as kids, everything is new and kind of scary, and we just become comfortable living life like that. Then as we get older, we don’t have to be beginners or new at anything, and we start to seek more comfort, fewer unpredictable situations, and back away from situations that are scary or unknown. And this becomes a positive feedback loop where the less we do it, the harder it becomes and so on.

So now I’m telling myself that if something seems scary to me, then that is the direction I should go. And I’m happy to say it does seem to be working. My brain might think it wants me to stay in bed with no big upcoming efforts or obligations, but that won’t in fact make me happy or most likely any less anxious. The only answer is to run towards the danger. I’m still not sure where these anxious feelings are coming from (although I’m sure hormones and life stage play a big role) but while I figure that out, I’m not putting the rest of my life on the shelf. And I’m not saying everyone needs to do this. Many people already have “danger” hurtling towards them and don’t need to launch themselves towards any more. But if you do notice that you aren’t taking quite as many risks or getting as uncomfortable as you used to, you may want to try moving towards a scary challenge. It’s the only way to make them feel less scary.

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

Let’s do a mix of 1200’s and 400’s. 1200’s can go to the 600 turnaround and back. So like miles except shorter.

3 x 1200 with 90 sec rest

3 min rest

4 x 400 w 1:15 rest

Marathoners finish with 1200 tempo

Everyone else: we will finish with 4 x good strides

That is all – see you in the a.m.!

Seanna

Tuesday, July 14, 2025 – Milestones

July 29, 2025/0 Comments/in Love Letters 2025/by RWadmin

Hi Everyone!

I don’t think we had any races last week, but coming up on Friday is the Rev and Run 5K. I think some people may have registered as a mid-summer check-in? Also, how is it already almost mid-summer?? It’s a good reminder that those races that we sign up for waaaay in the future, do always finally arrive.

I think I’ve been thinking about time and how disorienting it can seem because I just turned 50. And huge thank-you to everyone who surprised me and helped me celebrate. To be honest, it was going to be something I just let slide by because I’m not one for either the spotlight or for being overly sentimental. But wow. I realized that it IS important to mark milestones. As I looked around the room and saw friends I’ve had for 5, 10, 20 and 30 years plus my family who I’ve had for 50 years (!), I realized that it all adds up and it’s all so meaningful. No one joined this group and thought “I’m going to make important friends and relationships which I’ll have for the next 20 years”. We just started a thing, kept coming out, and it became something big. Milestones aren’t goals achieved. I don’t think most people say “I’m going to become a runner and do it for the next 30 years and I’m going to run x-number of marathons in my lifetime”. Or meets someone for a run and then thinks “let’s do this together for the next 40 years of our lives”. We just do the things that are important to us and hang out with the people we love. Some people slide off – the running group or from our friend circles. And that’s totally fine! Again, these aren’t goals. Everyone has their own pursuits, activities and friendships which will become milestones to them. But it’s only with looking back that we can say “wow – this has been very important in my life”.

Anyway, since this is my headspace right now, I am sharing it with you and bringing you all along for the ride. We can get so caught up in ploughing ahead and moving forward, that we might forget to reflect on and celebrate the milestones. “50 is just a number” we hear people say. It’s true. But it is also 50 years of accumulated ups and downs, tears and laughs, successes and failures. It is so many races, training runs, friendships, experiences. These all compound and they’re significant. I see 25 year olds and I want to say “imagine everything you’ve ever experienced and multiply it by two!” Not everyone here is lucky enough to be 50 yet, but there are always milestones to reflect on and celebrate. Maybe you’ve worked in a career you’re proud of for 10 years. Maybe you’ve raised a kid who has graduated kindergarten, or elementary school, or high school or beyond! Maybe you’ve run 20 marathons so far. Maybe you have a few friends who have been with you for 30 years. Reflecting on these milestones can feel emotional and nostalgic, but just grab a glass of wine and some tissues and get into it. It’s what it’s all about. And thank you all so much for being a meaningful part of my life! So keep making new friends, running with the friends you’ve got, and signing up for marathons – we’re all on our way to milestones we don’t even see coming. Just make sure you celebrate them when you hit them.

On to tomorrow’s workout! Back to hills + tempo.

I hear it’s very hot and smoky in Toronto. I’m away by the way. So let’s keep it to the short hills and tempo segments again. Remember, heat training is like altitude training: you can keep the intensity similar as long as you shorten the work pieces and increase the rest.

2 x short (200m) hill + 3 min tempo. Repeat 3-4 times depending on how hot it is. And bring water!

That is all – see you next week!

Seanna