Caring

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Hey Everyone!

 

Happy day-after Halloween! Hope everyone had a fun, spooky and candy filled day. No races were run this past weekend, but coming up we have New York (Lori) and Hamilton (Sean and Zoë in the Full and Shauna, Steph, Elese, Andrew H in the Half). Good luck all and please set up a time w me to chat race plan if we haven’t already!

 

I’ve been thinking this week about how much we care about our running. It is a great thing, but also a double-edged sword. One of those tricky things in life which we constantly have to work on and self-monitor to get it right. Caring is great as it provides meaning and leads to learning and growth. Caring too much, and attaching so much meaning and self-worth to results that it becomes scary or paralyzing to try hard or race, can be a problem. Sometimes it’s good to remember: it’s just running.

 

In high school I cared a lot. I trained with a club and ran “for serious” while many kids entered our regional inter-scholastic races “for fun”. I can remember feeling envious of them. I wanted to be able to run “for fun”. Of course, I loved to run and train and race, but I also wanted to not care as much as I did.  I wanted to be able to laugh and goof around and enjoy the day instead of being a stressed-out ball of nerves where only the outcome would determine whether I would be happy or not. My goal became to learn how to keep what I loved about training and racing, but learn how to become one of the more laid-back kids who didn’t seem to torture themselves the same way I did.

 

I care. Of course I care. We all care. We’ve all heard those people who say to us “I wish I could do what you do”. And you think, “well, if you cared, you would”, and you think how lucky you are that you’ve found something you care about.

 

I’m sure we’ve all also experienced those races where we’re standing on the start line full of nerves and adrenaline, and we look back at the fun-runners laughing and chatting or still wandering around, not worried to miss the start, and we think “that must be nice”. But we can’t go back. We care, damnit. And there are so many good things that come with caring. So, we just have to continually work on that balance. There is no easy answer – it’s just self-discovery. Keep it in that zone of caring enough, but not too much. I’ve been working on it for over 30 years and the pendulum still swings too far sometimes one way or the other. I feel for the most part I’ve found the balance, but I guess I’m also ok with the roller-coaster.

 

“If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;” – Rudyard Kipling

 

On to tomorrow’s workout – we’re back to hills!!!  (racers – scroll down for your workout)

 

I’ll keep the tempo bits out for now. Those are great to add in when we’re in race-mode, but I think most of us are back to base-mode.

 

Pottery Road: Steady. 5-8 x full hill. Steady up, easy down (fast down sometimes has a purpose but really risks injury, so for now, easy). Get there any time and launch into it. I usually arrive around 6:05-6:10-ish.

 

Beach Hill: 5-8 x 400m steady up, easy down. (coordinate timing w Tanis if doing this one).

 

Half Marathon racers: 2 x 800 @ race pace w 2 min rest. 2-4 x 400 a tad quicker, but NOT 5K pace with 1:30 rest.

 

Marathon racers: Can do the same thing (will be slower obviously) – or opt for sleep in and 3-4 x 60 second pick-ups in a run. Sleep might serve you better at this point.

 

That is all – see some of you in the am!

 

xo

 

Seanna

Recovery

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Hi Everyone!

 

I believe there were no races last weekend. Some people are starting back to base training, some people are in the thick of it for November races, and some people are still recovering. Whatever phase you’re in, be in it! Every phase has a purpose and you can’t fast-track it.

 

That’s what I’ve been thinking about in terms of recovery. I get a lot of questions from people along the lines of “can I do this” or “can I add that” and I say … “as long as you can recover from it”. It’s not the stimulus that hurts you – it’s the inability to recover from it. If you look at the difference between what elite athletes are doing and what we are doing, it’s basically just a lot more work. And they also eat twice as much and sleep twice as much as us. A typical daily schedule would be: wake up, eat something, train, eat something, sleep, eat something, train, eat something, sleep. They can train more only because they are eating and sleeping more – not the other way around. So it stands to reason that if your eating or sleeping get cut down for some reason, your training has to follow suit or else you’re risking injury or breakdown, or at the very least not getting stronger from your training. Your training HAS to be dictated by your ability to recover from it.

 

I’ve been fascinated (as many people have) by the Norwegians and how they train. Currently the fastest runner, cross country skiers and triathletes in the world are all Norwegian. I’ve listened and read a lot about their systems, and there seems to be a few similarities across all these disciplines. One, is that they all train with a long-term athlete development approach. No one is an overnight success. They have all been doing smart, not crazy, very sustainable training that builds gradually from what they’ve done before, year after year.

 

The second thing builds on the first: they are all very focused on athlete health and recovery. No one can train hard and perform well over 10-20 years if they aren’t really healthy. The Norwegian national cross country ski team does body mass checks for its athletes at the start of every training year, and has been known to tell top level world class athletes that they can’t train with the team because they are too light. They have to go back and put on weight so they can absorb the training. The coach of the Norwegian triathlon team (which boasts the two fastest short course and long course athletes in the world), repeated the same philosophy. If their athletes are getting injured or tired, they don’t cut down their training – they grill them on whether they are eating enough and sleeping properly. That is their responsibility as athletes and they have to focus on it as much as their training sessions. The top two triathletes in the world, Gustav Iden and Kristian Blummenfelt, are not your classic skinny, cut looking endurance athletes. Blummenfelt has addressed this: he doesn’t care what people say. He knows his body has to carry the mass he does in order to be strong. He is not getting injured and he can go back to the well again and again and again. Because he has the energy to sustain it. The old paradigm of what a strong and fast elite athlete looks like is breaking down. If you’re losing weight while training, that means your energy out is greater than your energy in. This is not a formula for sustained performance.

 

This is just something to think about for people who are transitioning from a mindset of “exercising” to “training”. Training is about performance. If you want to perform and grow and improve, you have to recover. In order to recover, you have to eat. A lot. To paraphrase the amazing Jen Sygo (nutritionist to the stars who came to speak to us a year or so ago): You have to eat more than you think. And you can’t get it all in with nuts and fruit. You have to eat the chips!

 

So much more to say on this topic, but I’ll leave it there for now. (also if anyone is interested in booking an appointment with Jen, she is at http://jennifersygo.com/default.asp?pID=4 – she knows so much and we honestly don’t know what we don’t know)

 

Onto tomorrow’s workout! Back to Lakeshore and Leslie – 6:05 drills, 6:15 GO TIME!

  1. 2 x 800 w 1:30 rest. 2 min rest. 4 x 400 w 1:15 rest. 3 min rest. REPEAT
  2. If going by time: 2 x 3 min w 1:30 easy, 2 min easy, 4 x 1 min Hard, 1 min Easy – 3 min easy – Repeat!
  3. If just coming back from an injury or illness, or just getting into it, do 1 set OR skip the 2nd set of 800’s.

 

That is all – see you in the am!

 

xo

 

Seanna

Feeling Good

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Hey Gang!

 

What a heart warming, soul filling day we had in Toronto on Sunday! Congratulations to Carolyn who ran her first marathon (not in an Ironman) and crushed it, and to Amanda, Colette, Sonia, Zoe, Kenzie, Gillian who all ran the half. These are all big distances which require a fair bit of digging and inner strength. And huge congrats to Miguel and Andrew H who tag-team guided Jared (a visually impaired runner) to a PB of 3:02!

 

The heart warming and soul-filling part of the day wasn’t the results, but the coming together I witnessed out there. Our cheer station was full for 5+ hours – and some of the runners who ran the half even came back to cheer on the finishing marathoners! You guys brought your families and all your positive vibes and well wishes to share them with total strangers out there fighting their own personal battles. You spent your Sunday mornings making other peoples’ journeys lighter and happier. And Miguel and Andrew spent their mornings running hard in what was not their perfect specific training for their goals, in the efforts to help Jared, also previously a total stranger, towards his goal. Why do we want to give our own time and energy to help other people succeed? Why do we sacrifice things we could be doing to forward our own advancement in order to invest in someone else’s? There is no glory or medal for those of us lifting others up. I can’t say I know why we do these things, but I can say I’m very glad to witness it. I’ve been a recipient of these random acts from others to help to push me along, and it just gives me that feeling of faith in humanity and love for other people. So thank you all for that. The love and energy you put out is received and reciprocated in waves you will never see, but that make the world a better place.

 

On to tomorrow’s workout – back to Lakeshore and Leslie!

(FYI – I will be there, but just cheering you on as I am doing the lead leg for a Run-To-Montreal relay tomorrow evening, and if I’ve learned anything it’s that the double-workout day takes a little too long to recover from for my comfort)

Marathoners from Chicago, still no workouts yet – you can come and jog if feeling ok. Marathoners, half marathoners from the weekend, no workout either. So we might be a smaller crew.

 

  1. 1 mile tempo – keep it tempo – easing into things. 2 min rest. 4-6 x 600m w 1:45 rest. 3 min rest. 1 mile tempo. If newer to workouts, leave out the 1 mile tempo at the end. This is to build strength (the ability to run hard-ish on tired legs), but is tough and takes some working up to. NYC marathoner, you can do this at Marathon Pace or a bit faster.
  2. If going by time: 6 min tempo, 2 min easy, 4-6 x 2 min fast, 1:45 easy, 3 min easy, 6 min tempo.

 

That is all – see you in the am!

 

xo

 

Seanna

Momento Mori

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Hi Everyone!

 

Wow – what a weekend of watching races. From the men’s and women’s Ironman World Championships in Kona, to the Victoria and Chicago marathons, I feel emotionally spent! Huge congrats to our LES athletes and friends who put themselves out there this weekend! Samantha Farrell, Amy Hayes, Elizabeth Gladney, Kerry Kuluski, Madalyn Marcus, Lyndsay Hayhurst, Colin Stevenson, Carol McFarlane, Nir Meltzer, Ingrid Ambus, Bob Hayes. Everyone put their hearts and bodies on the line and made us so proud! Also, nod to Emily Sisson who took down the US Women’s Marathon record, running it in a time of 2:18:29. I can distinctly remember a loooong stretch of time when that would have been the world record. Humans are amazing.

 

This weekend I’ve been noticing and really relishing in the fall colours. They’re so vibrant and gorgeous right now! I think part of what makes us really appreciate them is the fact that we know they’re so short lived. In a few weeks, they’ll be brown and then gone altogether. We know and accept this, and it’s part of the reason we make trips and hikes specifically to appreciate and enjoy their beauty. If we had them year round, we’d probably take them for granted and forget to let them awe us. I’ve been thinking about how we could benefit from using this perspective in more areas of life. This is a philosophy that the Stoics called Momento Mori (remember you will die). This sounds depressing at first glance, but actually, it’s the exact opposite. It’s the philosophy of not putting your head in the sand and pretending that you’re immortal, but acknowledging your mortality and therefore truly living life awake – with purpose. Many Buddhist practitioners have this as one of their most important meditations. Understanding and accepting that we will all die allows you to let go of fear, pride, embarrassment, greed. It lets you trade in consumerism for experiences, vanity for purpose, jealousy for compassion. I’m no expert, and just exploring this philosophy myself, but it does make me think that having experiences like running races and testing our limits in physical challenges, really helps to make us feel connected and alive. There’s nothing sharper to bring you immediately into the here and now than the starting gun of a race. And that euphoria we feel afterwards – whether we nailed our goal or not? I think that’s the feeling of truly experiencing being alive. So don’t get down and depressed about it – instead, take the opportunities and chances that come your way – whether you’re “ready” or not, whether you’ll run “fast” or not, whether your training has gone well or not. We have to remember to live now. Appreciate the colours, the races, each other, because we can. That’s the gift of understanding the impermanence of it all.

 

On to tomorrow’s workout!

 

We are back to hills! Ppl running Toronto Full or Half – taper workout – no hills.

Unfortunately there is covid in my house, so I won’t make it out. Ugh.

 

Let’s do Pottery Rd Fulls and Halfs (halfs start at the construction/stairs)

Sets of 2 x Full, 1 x Half

Repeat 2-3 times

 

People in the Beach, please coordinate and do similar. Fulls are around 400m, Halfs 200m.

 

People racing: let’s give you what we gave the Chicago crew last week: 1 mile @ race pace, 2 min rest, up to 4 x 400 a little quicker w 1:30 rest.

 

That is all – major fomo already for all of you!!!

 

Oh, and check the fbook page and please sign up for our Cheer Station for the marathon! I will repost with more details.

 

xo

 

Seanna

 

Character

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Hi Everyone!

 

Congrats to our LES team who ran the Michelob Ultra Night 10K on Saturday eve! Tanis, Amanda, Annick, Fran and I participated and I think surprised ourselves with how fun it is to do our usual events with unique challenges and circumstances. Talk about nuance. And huge good luck to everyone running Chicago or Victoria this weekend! We will be with you all in spirit and will be cheering you on virtually!

 

What I’ve been thinking about this week is how interesting it is how peoples’ characters are revealed through sport – specifically running. It’s funny getting to know people just through this lens. There are many people for whom I know remarkably little about their personal or work lives, but I feel I know their true characters. I can see if they’re the type of person who can experience a set-back and disappointment, but still show up for and be happy for others who are succeeding. I can see if they’re the type of person who will show up for a run or race or workout to help someone else out – not just for their own advancement. I can see if they can remain upbeat and positive and keep working even when they aren’t seeing immediate results. Everyone who runs will experience some form of success, disappointment, injury, self-doubt, seeing teammates achieve what we hope to achieve, achieving something others would love to achieve, … How we handle all of this says a lot about us.

 

The other aspect of this I was thinking about is that as much as running can reveal our characters, it is also a very safe place to learn to develop aspects of ourselves that we want to grow. When we race we are practicing vulnerability. There is nothing more vulnerable than openly trying your hardest in front of an audience. Vulnerability is now considered a superpower because it is so hard to do, but leads to so much compassion and growth. And once you learn how to do that through sport, it can become a part of your character. Through running we can practice how to set goals, take risks, sit outside of our comfort zones, lose graciously, be selfless leaders, succeed with humility. And when we get it wrong (I often do), we can try again and again. Running gives us endless opportunities to practice going from “I wish I was the type of person who..” to “I am a person who…” And the beauty is, once this becomes part of your character, it doesn’t just stay in the running realm. It becomes part of who you are. And people who may not know anything else about you or your running, will always be able to see your character.

 

On to tomorrow’s workout – normally we’d do hills, but let’s do one more Lakeshore to send off our Chicago runners! Lakeshore and Leslie – 6:05 drills, 6:15 GO time!

 

  1. 1 mile tempo. 2 min rest. 2 x 1 mile as 200m fast, 200m float (I will set out cones every 200m) w 2 min bw sets. Finish with 1 mile tempo.
  2. If going by time: 6 min tempo, 2 sets of 4 x 30 sec Hard, 30 sec Medium, 6 min tempo (2 min easy between all sets)
  3. If running Chicago (or Victoria!): 1 mile @ marathon race pace, 2 min rest, 4 x 400m a little quicker w 1:15 rest

 

That is all – see you in the am!

 

xo

 

Seanna

 

 

Grit and nuance

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Hi Everyone!

 

Hope everyone saw the results and were inspired by the Berlin Marathon on the weekend. Eliud Kipchoge set a new world record, running it in a time of 2:01:09. Stunning. And Natasha Wodak took down our Canadian Women’s record in a time of 2:23:12! It was a very fast and inspiring day.

 

What both of these athletes (and many others) demonstrate through these achievements is grit. And by grit, I do not mean the grittiness of racing a marathon. I mean the grittiness as defined by Angela Duckworth as passion and perseverance over time. Both of these athletes have been running for somewhere around 30 years. Think about that. They have been doing what they love, not with the vision that in 20 or 30 years they might be setting records, but because they have loved it. It’s the time and consistency (grit) that have led to success. This is not an overnight business. It is very hard to predict success, but looking back from success, you often find a path of plain old consistency. Just plugging away day after day and year after year. This is what we call grit.

 

One of the key factors which Duckworth points to in people who display grit, is that they are able to find nuance in their passions. They keep it fresh and interesting. Yes, in the big picture, they are doing the same thing, but they have figured out ways to keep it novel. In fact, Wodak just recently moved up to the marathon distance, having competed at almost every distance leading up to that. And her predecessor as the marathon record holder, Malindi Elmore, had gone to the Olympics in the 1500m 15 years prior to setting the marathon record. As most runners know, there is a LOT of nuance between the 1500m and the marathon (oh and she also dabbled in Ironman triathlons in there).

 

As I ran in my hoodie with a headlamp under a black sky this morning, a sudden shift from my sweaty summer runs with ever present daylight and humidity, I had the thought that running in our climate provides a lot of nuance whether we ask for it or not. Running in the middle of summer is as different an experience from running in the middle of winter as you could expect from the same activity. Embracing the novelty that each season brings keeps us passionate and interested and in the game. With seasons I also like to switch events. Fall brings cross-country. If you’re looking for novelty and nuance in your running – allow me to suggest some hilly, muddy runs over hill and dale where no one ever asks you your time because it doesn’t matter. The beauty in running is that there are so many options, and it really doesn’t matter how you switch it up – but if you’re able to add nuance to your passion, you are doing what the grittiest people do, and you will be in this for a long time.

 

On to tomorrow’s workout – back to Lakeshore! 6:05 drills, 6:15 GO time:

 

Classic cut-down: 1600 (2 min), 1200 (1:45), 1000 (1:30), 800 (1:30), 600 (1:15), 400. Starting around 10K/HM pace and working down. I’ll mark out 400m. We’ll have to do a little 200m jog after the 1000 to get to the 800 start.

 

If just getting into workouts, start with 1200 and work down. Trust me, that’s enough.

 

If going by time: 7-6-5-4-3-2 min Hard with the rest being 2:00-1:45-1:30-1:30-1:15 Easy.

 

If training for Chicago, this stands. Pace work on the weekend, make your easy days EASY and next week is full taper workout.

 

That is all – see you in the am!

 

xo

 

Seanna

 

Terry Fox

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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. 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).
  2. 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.!

 

xo

 

Seanna

 

Hard

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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 3rd and 4th overall respectively, with Erin coming away with the Ed Whitlock Grand Master prize! And I ran the Yorkville 5K and was 1st 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!

 

xo

 

Seanna

 

Fresh Starts

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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.

 

  1. 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.

  1. 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.
  2. 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!

 

Xo

 

Seanna

 

Easy paces – and our first rule!

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Hi All!

 

Huge congrats to Mike Greenberg who completed the Penticton Ironman in 10:00:46 for 4th in his age group! And he’s booking his ticket to Kona – wohoo!  

 

What I’ve been thinking about lately is easy runs. If you want to get up to speed on where I’ve landed and read a great article, reference Alex Hutchinson’s most recent analysis: https://www.outsideonline.com/health/training-performance/easy-running-pace-study/

 

Basically what the “science” says, is that everyone has their own set point for what is most economical for their bodies – and this is mostly unrelated to fitness or race ability and times. Alex suggests it could be some combination of someone’s leg length, stride rate, mass, tendon springiness, all inter-relating in complex ways. When presented with a distance to run “easily” all of this is fed into the brain’s computer and it selects the most economical way to get from A to B for each runner.

 

This is not dissimilar to walking paces. People have their own “comfortable” pace. Mine is very slow. I am more comfortable at a slow jog to keep up beside my walking husband. It is literally more comfortable for me and feels like it burns less energy.

 

Again, this is unrelated to fitness or ability to run fast when trying to go fast vs being economical (workouts and races). An odd thing as I’ve gotten *ahem* a little older, is I’ve noticed that my easy run paces have slowed down quite a bit. But my workouts and races are still hovering around the same place as they always have. This is not intentional. Whatever my “combination” of economy is, it has shifted slightly. I’m fine with that because I go by feel.

 

I’ve often gone on “easy” runs with people – some of whom are ahead of or the same as me in workouts and races and some the other way around – which I find uncomfortably fast. I also sometimes find myself creeping one step ahead of my running partner because my easy pace is naturally a little quicker. In these cases, depending on the situation, you can have a quick conversation and adjust. I am very comfortable asking others to slow down. However, sometimes the body just does what the body does, and in this case it can be tricky etiquette. It is annoying when your buddy half-steps you the whole time and you’re uncomfortable (remember, this is not intentional – they are just locking into their most comfortable pace!) And etiquette mid-run is a tricky thing to navigate. So to help us out, I have come up with an LES rule. As far as I know, this is the first and only rule we have. So here is Lower East Siders Rule #1: if your running buddy says “go ahead, we’ll meet up later” THREE times, you listen and go ahead. We’ve all been there. They are saying go, and we’re not sure if it’s rude. Or we are saying go and just want that person to leave us alone already but they insist on staying. So there we have it. No hurt feelings, no questioning what we should really do. 3 times means you’re splitting up for this run. Your bodies just aren’t in synch on that day. Easy!

 

On to tomorrow’s Lakeshore workout! 6:05 for drills, 6:15 GO time.

 

Back by popular demand: 400’s! Here’s how we’ll run them:

 

  1. 800 tempo. 2 min rest. 4 x 400 w 1 min. 2 min rest. 4 x 400 w 1:15. 2 min rest. 2-4 x 400 w 1:20. 2 min rest. Then marathoners/half marathoners do 800 @ marathon pace or tempo, and others (5K or 10K runners) finish with 2-4 x 200 as long strides (fast, quick, light and relaxed).

 

So it looks like this: 800, 2-3 x (4 x 400), 800

OR 800, 2-3 x (4 x 400), 2-4 x 200

 

  1. If doing this fartlek style: 3 min tempo, 3 sets of 1 min Hard, 1 min Easy w 2 mins between sets, 3 min tempo OR finish with 4 x 30 second pick ups.

See you in the am!

 

xo

 

Seanna