Love Letters to My Crew

Racing and values

March 21, 2023/in Love Letters 2023/by RWadmin

Hey Crew!

First up, huge congrats to everyone who race the Chilly Half on the weekend. Carol, David, Zoë, Sean, Jason, Patrick W and myself. I don’t think it was a super fast day, and for most people it was a fitness check-in and “training through” race, but still some solid results!

Of course, since I just raced, I’ve been thinking about races. I find it so interesting how we approach them and what we get from them. I think the number one thing about races is that they expose our raw vulnerability. We are openly showing ourselves trying our hardest. I will never not admire anyone who shows up to a race start line. It takes courage and guts to test yourself and see what you are capable of when things get hard – let alone doing that in front of friends and strangers. It’s funny that we do this, considering how much effort we put into making things easier and making ourselves feel less exposed and vulnerable in the rest of our lives. We like to be in control. When we expose ourselves to the world, we like to present the curated side our ourselves that we’ve examined and retouched into a version that portrays the image we want. We buy clothes and get haircuts that flatter, we put filters on our Instagram, we include excuses and show or hide the data we want on our Strava. But when we race, we are truly uncovered, vulnerable, and not in control of everything. We may have a plan, and know how we would like things to go, but we have no clue whether it will all turn out. And then we encounter effort, struggle and pain and face it and respond publicly. All in all, it’s just running, and pretty low stakes, but it’s interesting that we put ourselves in this situation at all. Maybe it’s because the rest of our lives are so protected from it. Maybe it’s because it’s the only way to be truly honest with ourselves. Maybe we know it’s the only way to show up genuinely. Maybe we know it’s likely the purest way to truly test our best effort. So we step up and go for it.

I found it interesting this weekend how keyed up we get around this self-imposed situation. Maybe some people don’t. I think most people get a bit stressed and nervous before this type of “test”. Even when we know it’s not a “key” race. Even the veteran athletes who have a lot of experience with these types of things – or maybe them even more so. An elite athlete friend of mine told me something she does to deal with the anxiety: she tells herself that while running is part of her identity, she also has a huge other part of her identity which is drawn from her values. And if she can race while maintaining her values then that is something she can control, and she’s not risking any part of her self-image or concern about how others view and judge her. I liked that. Race according to your values. And if your values include hard work, community, humility, learning, and growth, you are in a good spot.

Onto tomorrow’s workout – we’re back to hills!

Let’s do them like this:

1^st hill – steady up/steady down

2^nd hill – first half steady/second half hard/easy down

3^rd hill – first half hard/second half steady/easy down

Repeat sequence – max 8-9 hills (Beach ppl, Pottery is ~400m, so similar distance)

The purpose of this workout is just good ol’ strengthening of your hill legs, but also practicing pace changes and the ability to settle in and keep going when tired – as happens in races!

If you’re racing Achilles this weekend:

2 sets of 3 x 400 – first set at 10K pace, second set at goal 5K pace. 1:15 between reps, 3:00 between sets.

Or 2 x (3 x 1:30 on, 1:15 off) with 3 mins easy in between

If you raced Chilly you can do a couple of easy hills, but no workout yet. I will be at Pottery but am doing a tempo wrkt on Thurs (March Break scheduling issues!) so will just cheer you guys on.

See you in the am!

Seanna

The good, the bad and the ugly

March 21, 2023/in Love Letters 2023/by RWadmin

Hi All!

Hey look – it’s March! Spring rivals Fall as most runners’ fave running season. I know we’ve had some seriously emotionally turbulent weather. And it will probably still give us a fair bit of back and forth, but for the most part we’re through the worst of it. And Spring is the time for races! There are quite a number of great ones coming up – from the Achilles 5K & 10K, the Chilly Half, Around the Bay (5K or 30K), the CRS Spring Run Off, the Bum Run, … If you’re racing a Spring Marathon, I do recommend throwing at least one shorter one in in the lead-up.

This weekend Aliphine Tuliamuk won the USATF Half Marathon in 1:09:37. A fast time for sure – not record breaking. What I thought was interesting was when she posted it on Instagram, I saw a comment from her teammate, pro runner Sara Hall. Sara said something to the effect of “See! I TOLD you you weren’t out of shape!” This made me smile. Aliphine is an Olympian and professional runner. You would think she would be able to tell objectively whether she’s “in shape” or not, but she obviously still has those “I’m not sure if I’m in good shape” doubts and voiced them openly – at least to her teammates. Who can’t relate?? When we’re training, we have good runs, we have mediocre runs, and we have bad runs. One elite runner claims it’s the law of thirds: you have about that percentage of training runs in each bucket. A third go really well, a third are fine, and a third go poorly. This is regardless of our experience and running ability. It is just how training and the body flows. So we’re left constantly doubting ourselves and questioning whether we’re fit, mediocre, or out of shape. And we keep trying to allay our fears by “proving ourselves” in workouts. But this is not what workouts are for. They are there to help us to challenge ourselves in various different ways – sometimes physically and sometimes mentally – and to work on building us up one piece at a time. Sometimes they’re there just to support and maintain the work that came before them so we can take a breath, lay a stronger foundation, and get ready for our next one. They work in combination with the runs that came before and to set up the runs that will come after. They are all just part of a whole system that will only be revealed on race day. It is impossible to predict a race through one or a series of workouts. They are just there – little bits of stimuli – on our good days and bad days – to help to support the overall building. And when we get to our key race we will probably look back and say, “well … I’ve had some great workouts, some so-so workouts, and some pretty bad ones” and we’ll have to be ok that that is how it goes, and we will race with the knowledge that we showed up on all the days anyway and will give it our best shot.

For tomorrow, back to Lakeshore and Leslie – 6:05 drills, 6:15 Go time!

6-8 x 800 w 1:30 Just straight up – nothing fancy. Start at Half Mara pace and work down to 10K pace.
If racing Chilly Half – 3-4 of them.
If going by time: 6-8 x 3 min w 1:30

That is all – see you in the am!

Seanna

Running in a new place

March 21, 2023/in Love Letters 2023/by RWadmin

Hi Everyone!

First up, huge congrats to Cindy who raced the Gatineau Loppet 50K skate ski race and came third in her age group in 3:38! I only mention the time to appreciate how long she was racing for. It was fast too.

I am traveling this week, so I won’t see you guys for runs or workouts. When I’m traveling I think about how grateful I am that I’m a runner because it really allows you to explore and feel part of a place when you move through it under your own power and can observe everything at a very digestible pace. When I arrive at a new place I feel like an outsider (I am), but running through and around a new place allows me to feel comfortable and familiar. I can bring my confidence in my physical movement to my perspective and understanding of a place. Usually when I run, I’m not going to where the crowded tourists are, and I see everything at a different time and different perspective on my own. I am outside of the scenes and places I run by – people waking up and walking to a coffee shop, surfers out catching waves, shops and restaurants opening up, people going to work and doing chores – but within them. I’m not expected to interact with anything other than with a smile and a wave (thank goodness because no one where I am speaks English and I forgot to learn Spanish before I came!)

But also when I’m running and traveling, I bring all of my running buddies with me. I remember when I traveled solo after my second year of university, and every single run I did I pictured my teammates doing something similar elsewhere. I still do that. It’s comforting. So welcome to Chile everyone! Hope you enjoy your runs with me in my head ‘cause I’m bringing you along. Not sure how far we’ll make it on our “long” run, but we’ll get something in. And my goodness I’ll miss your energy tomorrow morning for workout, but I will be channeling as much of it as I can.

Here’s the workout for tomorrow – meet at Lakeshore and Leslie as usual: 6:05 Drills (Kerry, can you please lead those?) and 6:15 Go time. (Also can someone who knows pls mark the 400 mark? Or just guess – it all shakes out)

1 mile tempo. 2 min rest

4 x 400 w 1 min rest (5K pace)

2 min rest

4 x 400 w 1:15 rest (a touch faster)

2 min rest

1 mile tempo

If training for 5K’s, 10K’s and practicing running at a faster pace, do the same but without the last mile tempo.

If going by time: 6 min tempo, 2 min easy, 4 x 1:30 on, 1 min off, 2 min easy, 4 x 1:30 on, 1:15 off, 2 min easy, 6 min tempo

The reasoning behind this workout: many of us are in the thick of long runs and bigger tempos. It’s important to access other (faster) paces as well. This complements the other work we’re doing. Training for long races does not make you into a slower runner. Never doing faster stuff makes you into a slower runner.

Have fun all!

Seanna