Love Letters to My Crew

Terry Fox

September 27, 2022/in Love Letters 2022/by RWadmin

Hi Everyone!

Congrats to Carolyn (and her husband Ian!) who competed in the Barrelman Half Ironman on the weekend! What a long season of long distance triathloning. Way to go guys!!

Many other people took part in or donated to or supported or cheered on the Terry Fox run on Sunday. And many of us have kids taking part in the school events this week. So obviously I’ve been thinking about Terry Fox this week. No matter how much time passes, his story and athletic feat seems to become even more astounding. Terry started his Marathon of Hope at age 24 in 1980. Most of the athletic records and feats from that time are now viewed as “good for the era,” but would not be as remarkable by today’s standards. Terry’s accomplishment actually seems to be the opposite. The further we get away from it, the more it seems like lore – a myth or blown up tale that could never have really happened. How could a young person, who wasn’t even a runner to begin with, who lost a leg to cancer, run a marathon every single day for 143 days?? They didn’t even have athletic prosthetics back then, and it caused so much pain that he had to run with a hop-skip step which put even more force on his one good leg. And he did most of his running alone, with no fanfare, often in the dark and rain.

I think what a lot of Terry Fox’s story elicits in us is the sense of awe. Awe is the feeling of being in the presence of something bigger than yourself, and being brought outside of your own ego. That is what Terry was about. He very specifically did not want his name to be on the event – it would be called the Marathon of Hope. The pain he felt was nothing compared to what others were going through. He had a purpose that was so much bigger than himself – this was about raising money for cancer research that would end cancer and suffering for so many people. To date the Terry Fox Foundation has raised over $800 Million. Terry’s legacy has made an impact beyond what he ever could have imagined. And that is because his character, authenticity, willingness to suffer, belief in the future, and love of humanity have brought out the best in all of us.

“There can be no reason for me to stop. No matter what pain I suffer, it is nothing
compared to the pain of those who have cancer, of those who endure treatment.”

“Today we got up at 4:00 am. As usual, it was tough. If I died, I would die happy
because I was doing what I wanted to do. How many people could say that? I went out
and did fifteen push-ups in the road and took off. I want to set an example that will never
be forgotten.” – Terry Fox

For more inspiration and to donate: https://terryfox.org/terrys-story/

On to tomorrow’s workout! Back to Lakeshore and Leslie – 6:05 drills, 6:15 Sharp Go time

1 mile tempo, 2 min rest, 4-5 x 800 at a sustainably hard pace (5K-10K pace) w 1:30, 2 min rest, one last 800 @ choice (tempo, or faster if feeling good).
If going by time: 6 min tempo, 2 min easy, 5 x 3 min on, 1:30 off, 2 min easy, 3 min on.

See you in the a.m.!

Seanna

Hard

September 14, 2022/in Love Letters 2022/by RWadmin

Hi Everyone!

First up, huge congrats to all our racers on the weekend. Andrew McKay who ran the Erie Marathon. Andrew had a less than smooth training cycle and a tough race, but persevered and ran what most would take as a great result! (we all have our own personal expectations, but putting yourself out there and going for it is always admirable). And Zoë and Erin who ran the Longboat 5K and placed 3^rd and 4^th overall respectively, with Erin coming away with the Ed Whitlock Grand Master prize! And I ran the Yorkville 5K and was 1^st Master (I’ll take it while I can – am eyeballing a bunch of young 30-something whipper snappers about to enter my category 😉 )

What I’ve been thinking about this week is the idea of pushing through “hard”. As in most races, I got to a point in my 5K where I thought “ok, this is really hard – I want to stop”. At that point I have three options: Stop, Slow Down, Or keep going and see what happens. The thing with the third option is that it’s hard. But isn’t in that space of self-mastery and not giving in, that we derive some strange sense of meaning and self-knowledge? Isn’t that the question we’ve shown up to answer? We look ourselves straight in the eye, and ask – and it must be answered then and there. I’m not saying I always have the answer I’d like. I have chosen all three options at various points for various reasons. If you train and race enough, so will everyone. We learn when “hard” is not the answer we need on that day. It is not always the right answer. But it is always an option.

Many people are training through “hard” sessions right now as we prep for Fall marathons. This is really the pinnacle of it. But remember – you signed up for hard. No one signs up for an “easy” marathon – I don’t believe there is such a thing. So if you put your hand up for hard, then you’re receiving hard, and you’re practicing choosing your response in training. When it gets hard, do you stop, slow down, or keep going? Remember, your brain falls back on patterns, so try to choose the option you want to repeat automatically. When it gets hard is when your brain starts to bargain with you. Be a tough bargainer. Know what you want. There are lots of reasons not to do hard. In fact I can get behind many of them! But if you signed up for hard, and you want hard, you have to practice hard. Not a lot, and not recklessly, but you should touch it and learn how to deal with it. I love you all and I want you to live happy, pain-free existences, but I also want to help you to grow, feel fulfilled and get what you signed up for. So don’t be scared of hard – you can do hard. In the right doses, it might be just what we all need.

On to tomorrow’s workout! We’re back to Riverdale hills.

2-3 sets of:

3 x Hard up the hill, easy down. Walk to Rooster corner. One lap of Riverdale-Logan-Withrow-Broadview (it’s about a 1.2K block) @ tempo. Walk back to hills and repeat.

I won’t lie – it’s a bit hard. But it’s a fun one!

I’ll be at the Riverdale Clubhouse at 6:05 for drills – we can start at 6:15.

If you’re in the Beach, coordinate amongst yourselves to do something similar there (or join us). It’s a 200 m hill.

See you in the am!

Seanna

Fresh Starts

September 7, 2022/in Love Letters 2022/by RWadmin

Hi Everyone!

Hope you all had a great long weekend. We definitely have some Fall weather turning up – exciting! As runners, Fall is our season. It’s the reward season for all of those runs endured in the heat and humidity where our legs felt like lead and our bodies craved more water and electrolytes than we could possibly carry. More runs now should start to feel a little easier – and sometimes even shockingly pleasant!

What I’ve been thinking about is how September, for many of us, actually marks the start of a “new year”. This is the season of fresh starts. There’s an energy to the “back to school” season, whether you have kids in school or not. It occurred to me that I started the Lower East Siders (very loosely) with my sister Tanis almost exactly 10 years ago. My kids were 3 and 5 and I thought I could finally include some consistent, structured training one day a week in my routine. Now they are 13 and 15 and I’ve been doing this consistently with so many great friends and training partners almost every Wednesday since then! Some of us who started connecting through running as a support system for surviving those years with young kids are now holding onto each other even tighter as one by one those kids are leaving home to create their own lives. This is a bitter-sweet milestone if ever there was one.

If we think of September as our Running “New Year”, then it might be a good time to reflect on some intentions for your running this year. Is running going to be your background scaffolding to support you while you lean into other areas of life? Maybe you want to use running as a way to connect – to yourself, to others, to nature? Or you might be finding yourself asking – what am I capable of if I really face my doubts and fears and set a goal and try my hardest? What can I learn and develop about myself through challenge? Whichever intention speaks to you, now is a good time to set up the habits to get you there. Invite someone you haven’t run with before out for an easy run once a week, make a date with yourself to run somewhere beautiful once a week (I love the Brickworks/Moore Park Ravine this time of year), run with your soulmates often, set a goal and commit to the training to get you there – just like how I started 10 years ago – it could just be “do one hard effort a week, every Wednesday” …

Whatever goal or intention you land on for your running for this year, we are here to support each other and cheer each other on and sweat, laugh, cry, complain, celebrate together. We don’t all have to be doing it for the same reasons in order to support each other. And the reason you started might not be the same reason you keep going. In the past 10 years we’ve run through new parenthood, changing jobs, new relationships, new homes, kids growing up and leaving, illnesses, injuries, many personal bests, just as many personal worsts, a pandemic! … Who knows what the next 10 years will bring. All I know is that I’m going to hold on tight and hopefully keep running with this crew!!! Happy Running New Year everyone.

Onto tomorrow’s workout: Let’s do a fartlek on the spit and we can follow-up with hills next week (some ppl have races coming up this weekend)

Meet at Lakeshore and Leslie for 6:05 drills, 6:15 Go time.

8 min tempo, 3 min easy, up to 6 x 2 min Faster, 1 min Easy

We’ll regroup on the easy sections and I’ll bring my watch that beeps every minute so we’re all in synch.

If racing the Longboat 5K or 10K or Yorkville 5K, let’s just keep it the same. This is a “training through” race for most I believe.
If doing the Erie Marathon (Andrew!) – 8 min @ MRP, and 2-3 x 2 mins a little quicker.

That is all – see you in the am!

Seanna