Love Letters to My Crew

Tuesday, December 16, 2026 – Running as a unifier

April 10, 2026/in Love Letters 2025/by RWadmin

Hi Everyone!

No races that I know of this past weekend. I think we have a bit of a lull in races before Spring races, but that’s not a bad thing! Different types of runs which aren’t overly directed are fun to do. On that note, this Friday we are doing the Kringlewood run – meet at The Rooster coffee shop at 6:10 am and we’ll start running at 6:15! Also, if you want to do drills, plyos and strides at Monarch on Sunday at 7:30 am, it is available to us and I will be there! $7.50 per person for the track use.

Now that the housekeeping is done, I want to send a Happy Hannukah message to all our Jewish friends in this group. Also, it’s hard to say that and not also take a moment to recognize the victims of the horrific attack on the Jewish community in Australia. Our hearts are with you at this time, and we’re grieving with you.

A friend in this group was asking me questions for an article he’s researching about things that make the younger generation of runners (Gen Z) unique. Most of our group is made up of Gen X and Millennials, and I love that a number of us have now brought some of our kids to workouts so we sometimes span three different “generations”. I was trying hard to think about what made the youngest generation unique or different in their approach to running or workouts – and I couldn’t really think of anything. Of course they are very different in their world views and experiences and beliefs and even language. But when it comes to running, I feel like those differences aren’t apparent at all, and we’re all just runners. I’ve always thought this about running. Backgrounds and differences melt away when we’re putting one foot in front of the other side by side. When you’re working hard and struggling against your own mind and body in a tough workout, and you’re doing it beside someone who you know is going through the same thing, it is impossible not to feel some respect and camaraderie. Similarly, when you’re enjoying a pleasant, less arduous run, and you’re feeling light and optimistic, and you pass a fellow runner doing the same, there is a sense of shared pleasure which is hard to explain to someone who isn’t doing it. Whenever I’m in a race, or a workout, or on a run, and I’m surrounded by other runners, I might feel nervous, or competitive, or in my own daydreamy world, but I always feel known and understood by the runners around me. What I’m trying to explain is that there is so much more that makes us the same when we’re running than all of the differences which appear when we’re not. We’re different faiths, economic backgrounds, genders, ages, political beliefs, ethnicities, … but when asked, I really could not point to one of these things which would make someone stand out as different in a running group. When we’re running, we’re just runners. I really tried to come up with something that felt unique or different about Gen Z runners – and I couldn’t. And I realized, that’s the beauty of it. 18 year olds can run with 55 year olds, and there is no age difference. I’m not so naïve as to think running can bring world peace, but in times when it feels like there are so many differences between us, and misunderstandings and hate appear too frequently, it is nice to have a place where our similarities can outweigh our differences, respect can replace fear, and love can take over from hate. Let’s keep shining our lights.

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

It should be a tad warmer tomorrow and fingers crossed for good footing. Let’s do the continuous workout of 400 threshold into 400 marathon pace. 2 sets of 6 x 400, continuous, alternating paces. 2 mins bw sets.

That is all – see you in the a.m.!

Seanna

Tuesday, December 9, 2025 – Going medium

April 10, 2026/in Love Letters 2025/by RWadmin

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

Tuesday, December 2, 2025 – Taking breaks

April 10, 2026/in Love Letters 2025/by RWadmin

Hey Gang!

I don’t think there were any races this weekend unless you ran Nationals Cross-Country. Pearce and I did. They were as expected: brutal conditions on a brutal course with ankle thick mud mixed with snow for every step. So fun! Last time I ran nationals cross country I threw out my spikes and quit that discipline for four years. Wonder how long it’ll take me to return this time… Anyway, regardless of whether I’ll ever do cross country again, I am taking a training break.

So of course, this is what I’ve been thinking about. Why it is so hard for some of us to take a break. I think there are multiple factors going on. One is that training has become so embedded in how we structure our schedules and how we feel, that we can feel a little untethered and potentially low when it’s not a predictable part of our days. What will become of us if we don’t have our planned runs and workouts? Will we devolve into blobs of motionless goo? Can we be trusted with our own sense of how much physical effort to exert where if we don’t have a plan telling us what to do? What if we can’t be and we stop moving forward altogether and all those positive attributes we’ve heard said about us (we’re go-getters, we’re disciplined, we do hard things, we set good examples) don’t hold true anymore and we become a completely different person and the rest of our lives follow suit and we completely unravel and we end up sad, destitute, and stuck on our couches for days on end, as completely out of shape blobs, and we’ll never be able to get into shape again? I’m obviously making the point of how ridiculous this sounds when actually spelled out, but it is how we can feel sometimes.

Another thing that keeps us from taking the breaks we need is our connection to our social networks. This one is a little more real. It’s true that the running friends we have are important parts of our lives and we can begin to take it for granted that we will see them for weekly catchups when we run and have a captive audience for our trials or stories when we need them. They don’t all have to be “bear your soul” moments – some people who we see weekly at group runs or at workouts just make us feel good and add a spark to our day. And we miss that connection when we take a break, and this can leave a little hole. But the positive here is that if we never took a break we could continue to take these relationships for granted. When we have a chance to miss them, it might prompt us to reach out in a non-running related manner, and extend our valued relationships beyond just running. We will come back and fall back into it when our break is over, but it’s a good reminder to also show up for our running friends who aren’t running for varied reasons in other ways as well.

And finally, one of my personal biggest barriers to taking extended breaks is the fomo. I love coming up with “fun” workouts and I love working hard with a group of like-minded people. When I see others training and doing challenging workouts, I find it very hard to stay on the sidelines. I want to participate and join in and challenge myself and see how it feels! I love that feeling and it’s so hard to watch others get to do it when I’m not. But I have to remember that the way cycles work, there will always be someone in the middle of a training build for something, while others are taking their much needed break. There is always someone going hard, but we can’t all be going hard all the time. The most confident people can accept this and not have to continually do what the hardest workers at the time are doing. That only leads to breakdown. And it’s really only fun to work hard when the hard work feels good. When you need a break, it stops being fun. And then you’ve lost the point.

So take your break! If you’re sick or injured and on a forced break, same mental hurdles and same rules apply. You will come back stronger, your friendships might go deeper, and you will not have missed out on anything you can’t get right back into. Try to enjoy it. I promise you won’t turn into an unrecognizable blob.

On to tomorrow’s workout!

Back to Lakeshore and Leslie: 6:05 Drills, 6:15 GO! I’ll come to cheer/jog/start you off.

4 x 1 mile tempo. Just nice n steady – go by feel. 2 minutes in between.
If racing Tannenbaum, 1 mile tempo (can start tempo and build to 10K race pace for the last 400m), 3 min rest, 4 x 300m @ 10K pace w 90 sec rest.

That is all – see you in the a.m.!

Seanna