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!

 

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

 

That is all – see you in the am!

 

xo

 

Seanna

 

 

Hi Gang!

 

Happy Valentine’s Day! Hope you all get to spend some time doing something you love with someone you love. If you really can’t manage that today, try to do it tomorrow or the next day. It’s a good habit to get into.

 

I’ve been thinking a lot about tech and how it influences our running. I came of age in running first without even a watch (I would check the clock in the kitchen, then head out for a run, and if I remembered I’d check it again when I came back), and then throughout most of my running development, with a regular digital watch which just captured the time. It was up to me to figure out effort and guess on distance. It’s funny what they say: you pay attention to what you can measure. I could only “measure” perceived effort, so that is what I paid attention to.

 

Now of course, most of us wear GPS watches to monitor exact pace and heart rate in real time, and we can see what training others are doing on shared training apps. Our watches tell us whether our run was “productive” or “unproductive” and whether we’re gaining or losing fitness. Our apps track us all the time and measure us constantly against our “best ever” day or week. We can also see what other people are doing and feel inspired or a little badly about ourselves in comparison.

 

There are definitely some benefits to be had by having this level of knowledge. But I think we have to constantly fight against relying too much on it for feelings of self worth or even for telling us what to do and how hard to push. I often think: “who designed these things? Some nerd who loves data and tech and knows nothing about training”. Seriously. The best coaches of the best athletes in the world are still constantly tinkering and experimenting and coming up with the best formulas. Do we actually think the dude or dudette who programmed our watches knows more than our coaches or even than we know ourselves? If so, we’re giving them way too much power over us. Similarly with the training apps. They are designed to be addictive because they are there for profit. They are not designed to make anyone into a healthy or particularly fast athlete. They feed on social status and insecurity and a desire for approval.

 

It’s interesting that the more confident and seasoned runners I coach rely noticeably less on their tech than most. They are in tune with their bodies and trust what their sensations are telling them. When they are tired, they take a rest day. They supplement with cross-training when they need to and don’t worry about counting mileage. I coach some very fast/experienced international class middle distance runners who have all trained and competed at a high level. The other day, we were doing a track workout, and they were supposed to do their last 200m “Fast”. They were flying. I asked them what they ran and they all looked at each other. Did anyone get it? No – no one got it. They weren’t fussed. “It felt like 31. Probably 31” they agreed. They’re all in tune enough with their bodies and abilities to not worry too much about the data. (especially at this point in the season when their races are in the summer). They got the effect they needed and were confident in that.

 

If as a coach I could leave you all with one gift, it would be the gift of self-knowledge and trust in self-appraisal. There is ultimate freedom in that. Get to know yourselves as athletes – you will always always be smarter than your watch or device. I remember seeing a tweet after Kipchoge ran his most recent marathon world record in Berlin. It was two days later. The tweet was: “somewhere, in Iten, Kenya, Eliud Kipchoge’s watch just buzzed at him and said: Unproductive”. It’s funny because it’s true.

 

Tomorrow we’re back to hills! Pottery Rd. I’ll aim to be there at 6:10/6:15.

The workout: 2-3 x hill followed by 1K tempo. Try to get into the tempo segment with minimal rest (like regroup, cross the street, and go). Repeat up to 3 x’s.

If training for Boston or Toronto, don’t go too hard up, especially in the first sets, but a bit quicker on the downhills. By the final tempo section you’ll be running with a fair bit of downhill stress on your legs. That’s the point. ATB people and ppl training for flat marathons, steady up, easy down (we don’t have to focus too much on downhill stress and it’s playing with fire there bc downhills are muscularly and mechanically stressful!)

 

Beach ppl meet at Glen Manor and Queen at 6 a.m.

 

That is all – see you in the am!

 

xo

 

Seanna

 

Hey Gang!

 

Ooh, it’s cold again. I guess we knew it would finally come back. It is basically February. There’s just one month of this. We can do it.

 

I’m training for a longer race, so have been doing longer runs, and so have had more time with my wandering thoughts. The thought occurred to me on one of my more recent runs, about who I bring along with me, sitting on my shoulder throughout my runs. When I was a teenager and in my early 20’s, trying to prove myself in competitions, it was always my competitors shadowing me. I could picture them out training too (I knew they were – somewhere), and I was always trying to run a bit faster or do one more rep, which I thought would give me the leg up. I wanted to do more than them, faster than them, so I could beat them. That was the whole point back then.

 

As I got older, and was no longer running for a team or points, it became the shadow of my old self sitting on my shoulder, accompanying me on my runs. What did I used to do? Can I still do that? Surely I’m tougher now than I was then. I was always trying to outrun or at least keep up with the past me, fearing any signs that I might be “getting weak” or slowing down. I could literally picture my younger self running beside me and would constantly try to stay one step ahead of her.

 

I’ve recently updated who I bring along on my shoulder. Now it’s an unknown to me woman of similar age and life circumstances, doing the same thing. She’s a companion, not a competitor. She’s doing her best and wants me to do my best as well. I think about her when I’m doing an early morning long run in the cold, or a hard workout, trying to keep up. She’s not superhuman. I don’t have to beat her. She’s just out there doing the same thing somewhere. She’s getting older at the same rate, and also has good days and bad days. But she always seems to be out every time I have a run to do. I could easily bump into her on a race start line somewhere. And we’ll both try our hardest, and probably neither of us will get a PB, but we’ll both will wish the best for each other.

 

This is my favourite companion shadow. She motivates me in a good way. I’m not scared I won’t live up to her standard or achieve what she is. She wants me to come along with her and push her too. And maybe I’m even on her shoulder for her runs – I hope so.

 

On to tomorrow’s workout – bundle up – you can always shed some layers. Lakeshore and Leslie – 6:05 drills, 6:15 Go Time!

 

1. 2 x 800 @ tempo w 1:15

2 x 800 @ 10K w 1:30

2 x 800 @ 5K w 1:45

2 x 800 @ tempo w 1:30

We are working on pacing here. This is a skill and something we can train our bodies to learn. Running faster as you fatigue is a good habit to wire into your body and brain. And then finishing with some tempo is just good for toughness and fitness. You can plug in your paces beforehand or go by feel, but take note of the times you run so you can record them and look at them later.

 

2. If training for shorter distances and/or trying to dial in faster paces:

2 x 800 @ tempo w 1:15

4 x 400 @5K w 1:15

1:30 rest

2 x 400 a little quicker w 1:30

 

3. If doing the workouts by time:

2 x 3 min @ Tempo w 1:15, 2 x 3 min @ 10K w 1:30, 2 x 3 min @ 5K w 1:45, 2 x 3 min @ tempo w 1:30

OR

2 x 3 min @ Tempo w 1:15, 4 x 1:15 Fast w 1:15 rest, 2 x 1:15 a little faster w 1:30 rest

 

That’s all folks – see you in the am!

 

xo

 

Seanna

Hi All!

 

Hope everyone enjoyed the sunshine this past weekend – it was glorious! Looks like it won’t be out again here in Toronto for a while. Don’t forget to take your vitamin D!

 

We were also hit this weekend with one of our first blasts of really cold temps. I think Saturday was – 11C with the windchill making it feel like -18C. These are pretty normal mid-winter conditions for us. But what I found interesting was my (and some of my running mates’) initial reaction to it. It was resistance. There was a feeling of “I don’t like this – I want it to be different”. And I thought – that’s an interesting thought to have near the end of January. Usually by this point in the year we have moved on to “acceptance”. But it’s always that first introduction to something which makes it harder because we haven’t just accepted it – we’re somehow trying to fight it. By the 4^th or 5^th run in the low negative temps, it just is what it is. We stop giving too much thought to it and that just makes it so much easier.

 

I went for my first long run (what I would consider a long long run) in a while the other week. I hadn’t run that distance in a while, and my brain was not used to it. In fact, I felt I was resisting it for the first 18 kilometers. That is a long warm-up. But finally, at about that point, I think my brain finally went into “acceptance” mode. Ok. We’re doing this. And it suddenly felt so much easier and more enjoyable.

 

The same phenomenon often happens to me and others before a race or big workout. Do you ever feel heavy and tired in a warm-up? I almost always do. Most of us know there is no correlation between how you feel in a warm-up and how you feel in a race. In fact, some of my more seasoned running friends swear that the worse you feel, the better you’ll race, and that feeling great in a warmup is a bad sign. I’m not sure I’d go that far, but what I do believe is that your brain is aware of a big effort that is to come, and is somehow putting on the breaks and trying to resist it. As soon as the race or workout starts however, acceptance sets in and you feel supercharged and energetic again (until of course you don’t).

 

My takeaways from all this is that starting is always the hardest part because there is so much mental resistance. Once you move from resistance to acceptance, it all just flows so much more smoothly. I’m sure this applies to many areas of life as well. What is the old Buddhist saying.. “Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional”. I’m no Buddhist expert, but I believe this is saying that the experience will happen – it’s whether we are able to accept it or whether we fight it the whole way which determines whether we’ll suffer through it, or just experience it. Sometimes it takes our brains a while to catch up to where we want them to be (like 18K!) but the goal is to get them to stop kicking and screaming and just enjoy the ride – even when it’s cold, intense or uncomfortable. Accept, and go.

 

Onto tomorrow’s workout – back to Lakeshore and Leslie! 6:05 drills, 6:15 go time.

 

Let’s do cut-downs. For ppl training for longer events, we’ll do some bigger volume again. I like these because they force us not to go toooo fast and the cut-down format allows us to accumulate more work at an effective pace (if you want to nerd out on the science of this check out this article by Alex Hutchinson: Why Ladders are the Best Interval Workouts)

 

1.5 miles (three lengths), 1 mile (two lengths), 1200, 800, 600, 400. Rests are 2 mins, 1:45, 1:30, 1:30, 1:15

 

If you’re not training for a big race, are a newer runner without big mileage under your belt or training for 5K’s -10K’s, start with 1 mile (leave out the first 1.5 miles).

 

If doing this by time: 8 min – 6 min – 4 min – 3 min – 2 min -1 min with the same rests as above.

 

That is all – see you in the am!

 

xo

 

Seanna