Love Letters to My Crew

April 27, 2021 – Taking a pause

May 3, 2021/in Love Letters 2021/by RWadmin

Hi Everyone,

What I’ve been thinking about this week is pauses. Those moments where you allow yourself to stop moving forward for a minute. Or maybe two.

I think it’s a good idea to build in pauses either at the end of a significant chunk of focused work, and even often in the middle. Pauses are not times where you move backwards. In fact, it’s the opposite. Pauses allow you to fully absorb what’s come before so that you have room to take on more.

Pauses are crucial parts of all growth. The rotation pattern for the most productive fields are sewing, farming, harvesting, and fallowing. The fallow season is key for maintaining high quality yields. When a field is left fallow, it restores its natural fertility which would be stripped to nothing if it were continually used to produce.

This is absolutely true in terms of running. Most plans and coaches plan a “recovery week” in every three or four weeks during a build phase. This trend is borne out by many real life experiments with athletes where it has been shown that an unrelenting progressive workload is both unsustainable and destructive. So if you want success, you plan in pauses.

The same goes with bigger pauses after macro-cycles. If you’ve been training for something for a long time, whether you hit your goal or not, your brain and body need a little pause to regroup and catch-up at the end.

I am thinking about how many of us have used running to help us to navigate a difficult winter. For almost all of us, running has been our main social outlet, has represented our sense of control when so much else has been out of our control, has given us space to tap into our own thoughts and emotions, and has been a very necessary physical outlet. If, like me, you are grateful for all running has given you this past year, maybe say a little word of thanks, and take a small pause so that you can reflect and absorb before launching yourself forward again.

What this pause looks like might be different for different people. You might need a little break from running altogether. You might need to run “for fun” for a while, and not track mileage or time workouts. You might keep your favourite types of runs in there, but replace some others with other types of activities, like cycling or paddling, to take the pressure off running as your sole outlet and ambition.

But remember that a good pause is a sign of nurturing and respect for the thing you love. You are not going backwards or losing fitness – you are absorbing and regenerating. And I’m no expert, but I bet the same holds true for other things in our lives. It’s not a sign of weakness if you need to take a pause from the news, certain tasks and activities, or even certain relationships. It means you care enough to want to come back with more energy. So take and embrace pauses in your life where you need them – they will serve you well!

Onto workouts for this week if you aren’t pausing:

Hills! I think we’re due! I like keeping a mix in these to keep them from getting too tedious – something like 2 longs and a short or long/short repeats. Whatever works for you, but try not to make to too “grindy” right now.
If something is hurting and you don’t want hills, go with the strides workout. A Good warm-up, drills, then 4-8 cruisy strides. So good for you.
Tempo option: 20-8-4 min tempo w 3 min rec

Have fun!

Seanna

April 20, 2021 – Gift Economy

April 21, 2021/in Love Letters 2021/by RWadmin

“We have created a grotesque economy that grinds what is beautiful and unique into money, a currency that enables us to purchase things we don’t really need while destroying what we do.” – Charles Eisenstein

Hi All!

I’ve been doing quite a bit of thinking recently about the “gift economy.” Especially now, with new lockdown measures in place, it’s more important than ever to recognize the gifts we have and to embrace the feeling of community which comes from taking part in a gift economy. The gift economy is a concept which is shared eloquently by Robin Wall-Kimmerer (author of Braiding Sweetgrass). It is a system which many indigenous cultures have thrived on and some still do, to ensure strong community relationships. It is one of sharing all of what you have with your neighbour instead of hoarding and compiling ‘wealth’ or goods or knowledge. This sits in contrast to the type of economy we’re familiar with: the capital market economy which is built on the concept of scarcity, a never ending hunger for accumulation, and encourages individual success over that of the community.

Understanding the gift economy can become a way of seeing and living in the world. Wall-Kimmerer is a botanist, and sees gifts in nature all the time – fresh berries on a tree, a bird’s song in the morning which lifts your spirits, a tree’s canopy that brings shade on a hot day. These are not services which you can pay for – nor are they to be pilfered or hoarded. They are gifts of the earth. And when we recognize them as gifts, we respond with gratitude and reciprocity. We start acting in ways that honour and cherish where they came from and this encourages protection and regeneration.

I’m not naïve – I realize our society is too large and disconnected to function solely with a gift economy. However, Wall-Kimmerer notes that gift economies can function successfully in smaller communities along-side market economies. And that is the space where I see our Lower East Siders running crew.

This group of people are among the most generous people I know. And I also know that every time I am able to offer any piece of advice or support that will help someone, I benefit in many ways because I’m part of the whole. Maybe I’ve touched the artist who will make beautiful art for others to enjoy, or maybe the doctor who will pass it along in her care for someone else, or the volunteer who will make my community run more smoothly through their efforts. I understand that there is no truly selfless giving because we are all connected.

“Gratitude and reciprocity are the currency of a gift economy, and they have the remarkable property of multiplying with every exchange, their energy concentrating as they pass from hand to hand, a truly renewable resource.

To name the world as gift is to feel one’s membership in the web of reciprocity. It makes you happy—and it makes you accountable. Conceiving of something as a gift changes your relationship to it in a profound way…” – Robin Wall-Kimmerer

This crew does not exist as a service to get you to run fast. It might work well that way for many of us, but it only works because of the presence of all of the givers around us who hold it together. I love running with others and sharing that, and I know people in this group do too. We have created a real economy – I don’t feel I have to specifically reach out to everyone all the time – I know that when one of us is injured or down there are at least five sets of arms reaching out to help them up. What differentiates us from many other running clubs is that we are not consumers of a service – we are participants in a community.

So I just want to take this moment to say thank-you to all of you for your gifts – of your friendship, of sharing your cheers and energy with others when they run, of listening to/reading my thoughts, of reflecting whatever you gain from this back out into the community. And if you do feel like you’ve benefitted in any way from anything that the Lower East Siders have brought you, I only ask that you reciprocate it back to someone else in any way that is meaningful to you.

Oh, I also wanted to give a big shout out to Karen who ran a stealthy and solid ATB 30K this weekend in the midst of an absolutely crazy time at work! Way to go Karen! And her partner in crime Adam who snuck in a sub-19 min 5K PB last weekend (18:53!!) and then paced Karen this weekend! I guess if the only person you can run with is doing 30K, you do 30K! lol. Way to go team.

Onto workouts for this week:

Ladder: 1600 (@HM – 1:45 rec), 1200 (@slightly faster – 1:30 rec), 1000 (@10K – 1:30 rec), 800 (@5K – 1:30 rec), 600 (@5K – 1:30 rec), 400 (@3K – 1:30 rec), 2 x 200 (@1500 w 45 rec)

If doing this as fartlek: (6-5-4-3-2-1-30 sec-30 sec) Hard w Easy jogging as rest above
People coming back from ATB just start at 4 mins and work down IF you’re feeling like working out again (not if you just did it this weekend)
Tempo: Let’s give you a cut-down also – 10 mins, 8 mins, 6 mins, 4 mins – all w 2 min rec

That’s all! I think many of us are getting vaccinated this week (yay!) If there is one other person you feel comfortable running with, I’m not looking. I suggest the timed version vs path for stealth reasons.

Stay safe and see you soooooon!!!!

Seanna

April 14, 2021 – Focus on the good moments

April 16, 2021/in Love Letters 2021/by RWadmin

Hey Everyone!

Huge congrats to everyone who ran Around The Bay virtual 30K this weekend! (Shauna, Stephanie, Samantha, Laura, Amy, Zoe). What an inspiring show of positivity and “the show must go on” attitudes! I know many of us trained with you through the winter, and were very inspired by your races – just a reminder that even when you think you’re doing something just for yourself, it can have a large ripple effect to others.

Onto my thoughts this week! What I’ve been thinking about is noticing and paying attention to the moments that are fine. Or even good.

There are so many parallels in this pandemic with running a marathon, so I’ll start there. First up, in a marathon, the closer you get to the finish line, the harder it gets. There is no sense of relief with 10K to go. And please for the love of god, if you’re ever cheering for anyone running a marathon, never ever say “You’re almost there!” unless they are steps and I mean steps away from the finish line. And I think that’s where we find ourselves in this pandemic. We’ve put in the work and the time which have led us to this place pretty exhausted. And although yes, we have less actual time to go, it is all relative. It is so much harder now as we get closer to where we want to be. That is precisely because of all the work we’ve already done. Starting fresh, we could do this last bit no problem. But we’re not fresh. And everyone knows the marathon STARTS at 30K.

Most people also know that good marathoners work on their mental game as much as their physical game. One thing they really practice and get good at is staying in the moment.

Don’t think about how hard it is now, and how far you have to go, and that there’s no way you can maintain this pace given how this feels. That is the kiss of death in the last third of any race. Instead, seasoned racers who can push themselves to the limit think “right now, this is ok. Right now, I can put one more foot in front of the other”. They know their brains are bad at projecting and can get overwhelmed, but that a series of manageable present moments add up. They often don’t think beyond the next kilometer, or sometimes even the next footstep.

So don’t think: “these days are so hard, I’ll never make it two or more months”. Just remind yourself that right now, you are ok. I was walking during sunset with a friend the other evening, and I said “this is all very hard. But this right now is really nice.” We smiled and enjoyed the moment. It’s up to you to notice those fine or good moments. Even during a time of difficulty they will appear, so it’s up to you to pay attention and savour them. That’s where you’ll find your mental strength to go on.

On to workouts for this week!

ATB racers – I hope you’re taking a good chunk of time off. No running for up to a week and then nothing structured for at least another. Then let your body and motivation guide you.

Everyone else:

5-7 x 1K w 1:45 rec. Start at HM pace and if feeling good can work down to 10K pace.
If doing fartlek: 5-7 x 4 min Hard, 1:45 Easy
If your legs are bored or tired or needing something different, do a drills and strides “workout”. 2-3K w-up, 20 mins of drills, 4-5 strides, 2K c-dn
Tempo: try this – a few of us did it the other weekend and it was different and fun – 2/3 of your regular qty of hills followed by 2/3 your regular tempo. So something like 3-4 hills followed by 15-20 mins of tempo. The tempo is actually a relief after the hills!

Have fun everyone!

Seanna