January 20, 2026 – Pulling each other up

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Hi Everyone!

Raise your hand if you’re sick of winter! Ok, trying to channel positivity. We’re lucky we live in Toronto and can usually find a path that’s been cleared, and have access to indoor tracks and swimming pools and gyms. I don’t know what I’d do without these resources but I’d probably become either a lot more tough or a lot less fit. Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but this week into next aren’t looking much better, so if you were hibernating hoping to wait it out, now is time to come up with a way to make it out there. Baby steps!

I think many of us are feeling a little fearful and unsure about the state of the world right now, and putting our heads down and not paying attention to the news has ceased to become an option. It feels loud, and scary, and constant. It also feels very adversarial – like we’re all walking around with our dukes up, ready to go to battle, and unsure of who is an adversary and who is a friend. At least I feel like I’ve noticed this. I think I used to notice more smiles in the grocery store vs being yelled at for moving too slowly in the aisle (like seriously, I had to contemplate the crackers!), more people who would let me into traffic with a friendly blink of the lights vs ignoring me or giving me a rude gesture, and generally more positive interactions with strangers in the world vs a me-first mentality. I’ve also noticed it in the way we talk about and the graces we afford others. It’s hard not to get sucked in to this climate because it feels like it’s all around. We all feel on edge and prickly.  It is not just women, but I am noticing it more in women because, well, I am a woman, and because we are usually so good at supporting each other. Usually I go through the world and catch eyes with another woman and there is a sentiment of “I see you sister – we got this”.  But it doesn’t feel like that so much right now. So my latest thought is that I want to fight back against this.

I want to share an example of two athletes I coach at York. One is in first year and the other in second year of a demanding program. They are our top runners and quite competitive. However, whenever they are together (most of the time), they are pulling each other up and pushing each other along. They support each other and give each other confidence, and are each others’ biggest cheerleaders. As a result they have both continued to run personal bests and finish their races neck in neck. And they are not enormously fussed about which one beats the other. They are just as happy for the other as they are for themselves. This is the women supporting women that I want to be a part of in this world. It is not me or her. It is me and her. Double the win.

Women supporting each other and lifting each other up is something I used to just accept as fact. I’m a bit jarred these days when I see women cutting each other down or coming from a ‘me-or-her’ perspective. The problem is that this is contagious. World politics and our algorithms have us in battle mode. Let’s try to put the gloves down and go back to being supportive of each other – whether we’re strangers in the grocery store or competitors on the roads. I know, it’s hard to go through life with a smile and outstretched hand when you’ve just been given the finger for running down an icy sidewalk, but let’s try. I do think that this is also contagious. And like my York athletes, we will all get pulled up for it. (Men, this goes for you as well, obviously. Not saying I had lower standards for you – I am just speaking from my perspective as a woman).

 

On to tomorrow’s workout – we are back to hills!!

 

A couple of things. 1, I won’t be there bc I have to do a track workout in prep for a track race this weekend. Sorry about that! 2, it’s very cold and hard to generate much power or speed. As such, I think full hills just nice n slow is the key. You’ll be wearing a lot and just getting up will be the goal.

Let’s say 2 sets of 3 x full hill w 5 min “tempo” but I think the tempo should aim to be closer to Marathon Pace (or ATB pace). The focus on this one is the bigger chunks vs speed. Here’s hoping the footing is ok.

 

That is all – have a good one!

 

xo

 

Seanna

January 13, 2026 – Getting the easy right first

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Hey Gang!

 

Don’t the holidays now feel like they were forever ago? Did we even get a break? Haha. Hopefully your motivation and energy levels remember though and they’re tracking a little higher. If not, give them time. Remember: mood follows action. Just start and I promise you’ll get into it.

Ok, so during the holidays I said I was embracing the gray zone – just doing everything at whatever pace or “zone” I felt like. And that totally worked for me with my vibes and energy over the holidays with very little differentiation between what was work (a little less stressful than usual) and what was rest (a little more stressful than usual if you know what I mean). So everything just kind of blended and that was fine. But now I’m back to structured workouts and things that I want to make count. But I think that the thing we forget about the Hard/Easy principle, is that both Hard and Easy have to have equal weight. You can only go hard (or at least benefit from it and do it consistently), if you really plan in and intentionally execute your easy days. I know that intellectually we know this (probably partly because I’ve written about it more than once – haha), but when we’re motivated and in “go” mode, it can be hard to really polarize ourselves optimally. It’s like turning a light switch on and off vs. leaving it on dim. It takes discipline to switch back and forth and actually embrace the “off” when we’re motivated and training hard, but that’s the best way to get the brightest light when it’s “on”.

I’ve been thinking about how this applies to life too. We live in a culture that glamourizes work and industry, and does not honour or really respect rest. But I truly believe that if you don’t claim and utilize rest blocks, your work pieces will become diminished. My schedule now entails traveling to track races on most weekends. That’s ok – I love it. But it means I have to plan in down time throughout the week or else I’ll risk getting burnt out. And down time doesn’t mean groceries, cooking, driving people places. It means reading, vegging, watching shows, … just being “unproductive” for a set amount of time. I can also get up at 5 am to do a workout a few days a week – and truly enjoy it. But only if I build in rest before and after. For every 5 am wake up, I plan a sleep in day the day before and the next day.  When I think about many people in this group, I have a hard time picturing you all giving your rest equal value to your work. When we rest, we are not being lazy or unproductive – we are investing in ourselves to be able to shine and and lean into the work. I know it is hard to justify doing nothing when there is so much to be done, and if we power through one “productive” weekend or evening, we think we’ve found the formula and can just keep performing until a break is offered to us. But that is not how the hard/easy formula works. It’s a ratio. I’m not saying I know the exact ratio, or that it’s the same for everyone. With running it’s a little easier to predict because we have so much data and so many patterns. But I do know that if you can plan and lean into your “easy” you will be able to get much more out of your “hard”. The ideal scenario is that you actually look forward to the hard. I know most of us do – especially at the start. But if we don’t plan in enough easy, the hard can start to dribble into medium-hard, and then there is no differentiation – just the limbo that I was feeling at Christmas break – not hard, but not entirely restful. So as or even before you schedule and dive into all your hard work that will lead to all your accomplishments this year, make sure you also plan in and honour the rest days and moments that will allow you to shine your brightest.

 

On to tomorrow’s workout! Back to Lakeshore and Leslie. We will do another indoor track session or two this winter – let’s keep an eye on the weather and use them when we need/want to.

(oh, and for those who came last week, pls see this link to document and send payment of $12 – thank-you! https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1yDj8rcSzkd2j1Cmok-djQCazgN6v3bodgccOub_569k/edit?usp=sharing)

Let’s do baseline 800’s. 6-8 x 800 w 90 sec rest. We will do these again closer to race dates and see where we are! This is not a performance pressure workout – just an indicator of baseline fitness.

 

That is all – see you in the a.m.!

 

xo

 

Seanna

January 5, 2026 – Fun goals

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Hi Everyone!

Now is when many of us are trying to get back to the regular routine, and as I type, it’s snowing heavily yet again. Just be patient, be careful, be creative, and do what you can do. There are indoor tracks, treadmills, cross country ski trails, gyms and swimming pools around – letting go of your usual routine might be the mental and physical release you need right now.

I’ve been trying to think about what makes training “fun” as I look ahead to a month or more of not the easiest running and as I try to think about what I want out of 2026. Good company definitely helps, and I’m grateful to this crew for that. Sharing the sloshy footsteps and windy faceburn actually does make some of these outings way more enjoyable than I’d think. But that’s more about getting through individual sessions. When I think about having fun in my training, it’s usually when I have an overarching purpose. Something pulling me along so the effort has intent. And that’s where goals and signing up for races come in – surprisingly. I wanted to write about having fun with our running, and I realized that looking back, some of the most fun I’ve had this past year has been around races and training for races. CIM, Boston, track races, 5K’s, The Beaver Trail race. It’s funny because sometimes I think – I just want running to be low-key and “fun” and that that requires not registering for any races. But I think I’ve realized that despite being hard and uncomfortable and sometimes even a little stressful, the race experiences are what I remember and have encoded in my memory bank as “fun”.

So, when looking ahead at how to try to build more fun into my 2026 year, I think that actually might require some race goals. Not race goals as in times I’m trying to hit, but race goals as in experiences I’m trying to have. I know many in this group have some fun races coming up – London, Chilly, 5K’s, Berlin to name a few. I also know that many of the races I ran last year wouldn’t have happened if someone hadn’t suggested it or invited me along. So as you plan your 2026 year in races, put the word out and ask others to join! Racing never gets easier, but it just might be becoming a bit more fun.

 

On to tomorrow’s workout – LOCATION UPDATE! We have the Monarch indoor track so we will meet there at 6:00 am and start intervals at 6:15 (I figure it might take a bit more time to get sorted and go to the washroom etc.) Show up warmed up as usual though. $15 each and we’ll collect payment after.

 

1 mile @ tempo – can progress to threshold

3 min rest

5 x 300 w 1 min rest

3 min rest

1 mile @ tempo

3 min rest

5 x 300 w 75 sec rest

Option of 1 mile @ MP to finish if training for a spring marathon

 

That is all – see you inside in the am!

 

xo

 

Seanna