Tuesday, August 26, 2025 – Be here now

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Hi Everyone!

I don’t think there were any running races this past weekend. Don’t forget to send your results in to me if you do race! Coming up the weekend after this we have the Yorkville 5K as well as the Georgina Half and Full! And the perfect racing weather has arrived just in time.

This week is the last week of summer. As if I needed to remind anyone. Everyone is off to university, or getting ready for a new grade in school, or getting prepared to head back into the office a lot more.  It’s a change of seasons and a change of routines and activities. We all approach this with different mindsets. Some love the energy of fall and fresh starts, some feel nostalgia for the summer and lack of structure which already feel in the past, some have a bit of dread for the oncoming winter, some look forward to the cozy shortening of the days. Count me as having a little bit of all of these feelings. Transitions are great because they help us appreciate where we’ve been, and plan for where we’re going. But it’s important to remember to not always look ahead and behind, but to sometimes appreciate fully being where we are. I came across a quote to this end by philosopher and naturalist Henry David Thoreau:

 “Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of the earth.”

Basically – be where you are now. There are pluses and minuses to every season and stage, so just fully immerse yourself in the one you’re in.

I was trying to embrace this concept as I did my first long(ish) run this week. After enjoying a season of short, fast running, with low mileage followed by a week off, my long run did not feel like it had when I had left it a few months ago. My usual impulse to pick up the pace and enjoy the effort of speedy flow did not kick in the way I remembered. I felt tired early on and my legs were not flowing and did not want to keep going. Which was a bummer. But then I reminded myself “just be where you are”. I do not regret the season I just had. I hadn’t been doing long runs because I needed to focus my running energy elsewhere. And I don’t regret my week off because my body needed to heal and rest up and recover. I know I now have to build in order to get into a different kind of shape. This is just the season I am in. And with running, we might all be experiencing different seasons at different times. So we can’t compare with each other either. I remember listening to professional marathoner and Olympian Des Linden talking about the process of getting into marathon shape. She said, there are weeks on end where you’re not in the shape you need to be and it’s just a lot of grinding and working and wondering if you’ll get there. Then there are about two weeks where it all comes together and you feel fit. Then you have to taper and you feel awful. Then you race. Then you have to let yourself get out of shape in order to start over from the beginning. In about a 12-14 week span, there are hopefully about 2 weeks that you’re where you want to be. She had a humorous philosophical take on it, which I guess you’d have to if you made it your life’s career, and I found it very relatable. So instead of thinking about how fit I once was, or wishing I was a few weeks ahead in fitness, I’m going to just be where I am, breathe this air, and live in this season. Because all we know for certain is that this too will fade away and become something else.

Good luck to all the back-to-schoolers, leaving for university-ers and back-to-the office-ers! We got this.

 

On to tomorrow’s workout: Hills + Tempo!

It’s cooler now, so we can keep including the longer hill. Let’s keep it the same as last time with 1 long (400m), 1 short (200m), and 4 min tempo. Beachers at Glen Manor, Riverdalians at Pottery Road.

 

That is all – see you in the a.m.!

 

xo

 

Seanna

Tuesday, August 19, 2025 – Hurtling Obstacles

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Hi Everyone!

 

 

Congrats to all our racers this weekend! In the TrackSmith5K we had Pearce making his rust-busting return to racing, and despite battling ahead cold, put himself in the fastest heat of the night! Way to put it out there. And down in baking hot Ohio where the water was covered in algae, Leigh Anne did the Ohio 70.3 and PB’d by 30 minutes! Here in Toronto, Tanis, Shauna and Madalyn all competed in the TO Island sprint tri! Madalyn and Shauna came 1st and 2nd in their age categories, and Tanis came 2nd only because she did an extra lap on the bike – otherwise would have come 1st! And somewhere in the mountains in Quebec Anna undertook a 45K mountain trail race and managed 38K before being pulled off for the cut off time. Way to go for the unkown. It sounds like there were plenty of obstacles challenging all of our racers, and they all did their best at hurtling them and knocking them down to get to their goals.

 

 

That is in fact what I’ve been thinking about this week. Overcoming obstacles. I also raced this weekend – my last 1500 of the season. It turned out our race was 45 minutes late, so we were all standing around in the hot sun waiting for updates which were not forthcoming. But in the midst of this, one of the competitors arrived, and said “thank goodness for the delay – there were two accidents on the highway!” She had been sitting in her car watching her arrival time move further and further back until it said she would arrive at the exact time that the race was supposed to start. So she just practiced deep breathing and prepared herself to sprint from the car directly to the 1500m start line. As it turned out, she did have plenty of time, and ran the race no problem, but another racer saw she wasn’t going to make it and turned around and went home. There were many factors outside of these competitors’ control, but one of the athletes decided to try to overcome the obstacles while the other lost hope and gave up.

 

It’s good to practice not giving up, because often times that is not an option. My daughter is using bike share city bikes to get to work every day at the EX. She’s a bit nervous riding bikes in the city and is also learning how to use the system for the first time. On her first day, she got partway there and realized she’d forgotten her baseball cap which is part of her uniform. She’s a bit of a perfectionist, so this rankled her but she thought she might be able to buy one on her way in. Then the bike port would not accept her bike to lock it at her destination. She tried the only two ports available and they were not working and it said she’d be charged $1000 if she left it unlocked. Her timing for not being late for work was slipping away and she still didn’t have her hat. She called me, very upset, saying she hated all of this and just wanted to quit and go home. But of course that was not an option. She had to take a deep breath, confront one obstacle at a time, and figure it out. Guess what … she survived! A person came to take out a bike and she locked hers into that port. Then the first kiosk she saw was selling baseball caps for $5. And she was on time for work. And isn’t this just how we get through life? It’s almost like a video game where we’re trying to reach our goal but Donkey Kong keeps throwing down those damn barrels! And by the way …they won’t stop coming. So we’d better learn to jump over them or else we’re going nowhere.

 

When we plan out our race schedules and training calendars, we don’t plan for obstacles. No one ever does. But I have never in my life seen anyone get through an entire cycle without at least a few – some bigger than others. Often the immediate urge is to want to throw in the towel and say I give up. Or as my dad would say, “Stop the world, I want to get off”. And as my one and a half year old once declared loudly while still on the runway before taking off on a trip, “Hugo all done airplane!” But try to overcome the urge to fold into the fetal position and pull a blanket over your head. The more we learn to hurdle and swat aside these obstacles, the better we get at it. Unfortunately we can’t plan this type of practice, but every time life serves up hurdles, just think of it as training for the next ones. Because there will be next ones, and we will bet better at navigating them. Just take a deep breath, and start hurtling.

 

On to tomorrow’s workout! I won’t be there, but it will be fartlek on the spit – meet at Lakeshore and Leslie at 6:05 for drills, 6:15 GO!

 

2-3-4-5-4-3-2 minutes on with 2 mins bw all. Start to finish it will take 35 mins.

 

Have a great one and I’ll see you next week!

 

xo

 

Seanna

Tuesday, August 12, 2025 – Trying

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Hi Everyone!

 

Congrats to Jeff Smith who ran the Sunset Shuffle 5K in the smoking heat. These races in the heat have been testing us! Coming up this weekend we have Tanis and Shauna in the Toronto Island Tri, Leigh Anne in the Muskoka Half IM and myself in my season-ender 1500. And I’m not sure if anyone from this group is doing the TrackSmith 5000? That is on Saturday. There are a number of other races coming up soon – Toronto Women’s 5K and then we get into September 5K’s which are all around (Bum Run, Yorkville 5K and more). It’s never a bad idea to stay in touch with the effort of racing, even if you’re not in “race shape”. The effort and times will translate once you are.

Which brings me to what I’ve been thinking about this week: Trying. Earlier this summer I had run a 1500m race which was one of the slower ones I’ve run in a few years. A friend had captured some pictures of me finishing, and I was showing them to my daughter so we could laugh together at the state of my face. I looked like I was being tortured. But instead of laughing with me she said “Mum, I think that’s great! It looks like you’re trying so hard!” And suddenly I was proud of a race which I had previously been dismissive of. I WAS trying hard! It didn’t matter that my time wasn’t what I wanted it to be (that would come after a few more efforts). I had no regrets and was satisfied. All you can do is the best you can do, and doing that feels pretty good – no matter what it leads to.

I don’t always try my hardest in everything. I know that. I’m a Gen-X. We were known as the “slacker generation”. It used to be cool to be nonchalant, and very un-cool to earnestly try your hardest – or at least look like you were. We liked success, but it was way cooler if that success came with an apparent lack of effort. Fellow Gen-X ers might remember the author Gordon Korman who wrote about protagonists who got ahead while subverting the system and not trying hard at all. That’s who we tried to emulate. Our style was grunge – could you try any less hard on wardrobe? Our music and movie heroes were shaggily dressed, and showed up looking like they couldn’t care less. When that is your coming of age culture, it is hard to shed its deep resonance and internalization. My daughter obviously has had a different cultural indoctrination, and I’m happy for this. She thinks trying hard is cool. And looking like you’re trying hard is not a bad thing either. Effort is admirable – not caring or trying is a bit lame.

I’m now embracing this mindset – especially in athletics. Doing the best you can do is satisfying. And there is no reproach if you do. No one cares what our times are. I think we don’t really care that much either. For us the times represent what we think we’re capable of, and if we reach that, it means we tried our hardest. I’m glad trying hard is cool again. It is something that is within our control and completely achievable. I’m still working on shaking my slacker-vibes in other areas, but I’ll start with trying my hardest in the races I care about. If I can do that, I’ll be happy with any result. And as a bonus, my daughter will think I’m cool.

 

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

I think we might be getting some rain, but that isn’t a bad thing. It might cool things down a bit.

Let’s bring back 800’s. We can’t go right to the end at Carlaw, but we can start a little farther back towards Leslie and make it work.

Let’s do 5-7 x 800 with 90 seconds rest. This is not to make these the fastest you’ve ever done. Just find a rhythm and if you can, progress them slightly throughout the set.

People tapering: 2 x 800 tempo, then 4-5 x 150m as long strides.

 

That is all – see you in the a.m.!

 

xo

 

Seanna

Tuesday, August 5, 2025 – “A nice problem to have” – by Carolyn Steele Gray

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Hi Everyone!

Happy August if you can believe it! Many people are now right into their training for fall races. This is the fun time: training is purposeful but there’s still lots of time to add fitness. It’s time to figure out your routines and training systems and try new things and see what works for you. It’s also a good time to get on top of things that might not be working. Along that vein, we have an excellent guest post today by Carloyn Steele Gray. Thank-you Carolyn!

“A nice problem to have”

Runners have a lot of problems. If the signs on marathon courses are to be believed it’s possible we run because we have problems. But pretty much all of us will come up against a problem to solve – an injury, a scheduling conflicts, they changed the shoe we like and why the hell do they look like that now?

A few months back I had a race that didn’t feel quite right. There were a lot of problems I could point to that were likely contributors to the feeling, but there was one I hadn’t thought about – or perhaps didn’t recognize as a problem at all. I wasn’t hungry. In fact, I couldn’t remember the last time I was hungry. No matter how many hours a week I was training or whether I had eaten or not, hunger never factored into my day. In some of my longer bike trainer workouts in the winter a fun message would pop up at the end asking if I was now “dreaming about breakfast” and every time I would say “no – ew gross.”

I was eating. Having read so much about fueling and performance I had a rhythm I generally followed. But would forget to eat because I was too busy, or have meals that were that bar I found in my bag, and would go long stretches without eating. But I didn’t seem to be changing shape at all – in fact I had been feeling like I was puffy all the time. There were also several other things that hadn’t been right for a long time, which I had been attributing to my age and hormones, but some new reading suggested that there was a good chance I had landed in LEA (Low Energy Availability).

If you’re not familiar LEAs (sometimes referenced as REDS), and it can be the icicle stabbing in your performance. Beyond it just being hard to pinpoint, it comes attached to a rich history of social constructions around body image and food. The athlete identity has often been tied to how one looks and what one eats. What we now consider to be under-fueling was previously commended as being the badge of a “real athlete.” While we often think about this affecting female athletes, no gender identity is immune (in a past life I had hoped to do a Masters in Sociology studying body dysmorphia in male athletes because of what I was seeing in my male athletes when I was a strength and conditioning coach). While there has been some amazing progress away from this incredibly damaging rhetoric, often thanks to brave coaches and athletes who are working hard to push back, these social constructions run deep and never really leave you.

There was no world in which I would have recognized LEA in myself – largely as I didn’t fit the visual image I had of an athlete in LEA. But I was tired, and empty on many levels, and nothing felt right. At a family BBQ at my sister’s I was trying to unpack this with her after she asked how training was going – I was explaining how I was feeling and that it was weird I hadn’t felt hungry in maybe 18 months and she said “well that’s a nice problem to have.” Then I changed the subject.

I see what she was saying. Many struggle on the other side of this – epidemiologically more folks sit on that side of the problem. I have historically also been on that side of the problem. I remember wishing to be less hungry – many of us joke(ish) about being ravenous even weeks after a big event, while worrying we’re now eating too much. But it turns out hunger is a critical signal of body functioning. From what I’ve read not feeling hungry means that your metabolism is shifting into into lower and lower gears. As this happens the other symptoms swoop in – you get “puffy” to retain water and protect your organs that are having to work too hard – you get anxious/depressed/angry/foggy because your brain is starving.

So what to do with my “nice problem.” I guess just eat more. Which was/has been harder than I would have imagined physically and emotionally. First, eating when you’re not hungry sucks – I know a few of us who’ve prepped really big events have experienced this before – but forcing calories into your body is not a nice way to enjoy food. Second, my body dysmorphia and history with disordered eating got exceptionally loud and overwhelming. Because of this history I generally don’t weigh myself or count calories, but in talking to my coach the way we had to deal with this was to start counting calories – this time instead of working to be as far under a bar as I could get while staying functional enough no one would notice, I had a high minimum to hit and macros to attend to. We experience lots of kinds of pain as athletes – this one felt like hands reaching into my body and squeezing as hard as they could.

It took about two weeks of, what I’ll call aggressive, eating to feel hungry again. A surprisingly short time considering how long this had been going on. I only counted calories a few days to be able to create a new pattern without getting sucked into the more dangerous patterns of the past. And three weeks after that, this past weekend, I had another race.

Maybe a better story would end with a crazy strong race and podium finish and probably like a long lost aunt/friend/cat who finds me on course to help me push through to the finish where there’s like a slow-clap or fireworks or another long lost cat. But it was just a race – I hit most of my targets and did ok in a deep field – not my best performance but not my worst. Just a race. But it was also a lot of fun. Like – a lot of fun. The day before the race we were joking around sitting out on the lawn of our farm BnB, and Ian paused to reflect this is the least encumbered I have seemed in almost two years. No pun intended but I think he said “lighter.”

My “nice problem” is far from solved, it will ebb and flow and feel good some days and shit others. But I also know this is not a lonely problem and am thankful for the (strong 😉 ) encouragement to share. Because runners have a lot of problems – but we get to have them together.

On to tomorrow’s workout: Back to hills! Beach crew doing Glen Manor, Riverdale crew doing Pottery! Let me know if you need details to meet with either one.

Let’s get back to sets of one full, one half, 4 min tempo. 3 sets is plenty since it’s still pretty warm. Take a few minute walk break before starting the tempo.

That is all – see you in the a.m.!

xo

Seanna

Tuesday, July 29, 2025: Ya, we’re runners

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Hi Everyone!

Huge congrats to all our multi-sporters this weekend! The dynamic duo of Carolyn and Ian did the Augusta half IM! And here in Toronto we had Madalyn (1st in AG), Tess Farrell (top 10 in AG) and Miguel (15thin AG) in the TTF Olympic Tri! And Rob Dunne ran the 10K and came 2nd in his age group! Guys, it was such a hot day. Huge kudos to all of you on epic performances and give yourselves lots of time to recover – it will take a bit longer bc of exertion in the heat.

Lately I’ve been thinking about what makes us runners. My friend walked into an appointment the other day and the physio said “I could tell you’re a runner as soon as you walked in”. Which made us all wonder … what was he picking up on? I’ve always thought that being a distance runner is a personality. I can identify it in others, but I can’t put my finger on what “it” is. There is definitely something unique that connects us all, but it’s hard to put into words what exactly that is. I’m reading a great book given to me by a friend called “How She Did It”. It’s a compilation of accomplished female distance runners over the decades, and shares their stories about how they got involved and what their journey looked like. Some started running as young as 10, and some didn’t discover it until they were in their 20’s. But all of them said the same thing: “I knew I loved it as soon as I did it”. Which goes to show what I’ve always known: there are many runners out there walking around who are runners but don’t know it yet because they’ve never tried it. It’s definitely not for everyone, and I get that! It’s hard to explain to someone who doesn’t get it why we do it. Last Sunday a few of us were finishing up a burning hot, underfuelled, too-long long run. We were dragging ourselves down one of our last apocalyptic kilometers when we bumped into a mutual friend and her husband while they were having a very civilized leisurely coffee. We stopped to say ‘hi’ (we were taking any and all excuses to stop), and realized how horrible we looked. Hollow-eyed, red faced and as wet as if someone had poured a bucket of water over us. It was hard not to notice the contrast and beg the question, “why would we choose what we’re doing and not what she’s doing?” I can’t really answer that except to say, we’re runners.

My daughter is a runner. I sort of tried to point her into other directions, like rock climbing, short sprinting, and swimming. But once she tried the longer running stuff, she just loved it. It’s even weird to me. I’m like, I get why I like it, but why do you like it? You’ve chosen such a hard sport – it’s basically just different degrees of hard! Maybe one day someone will be able to put into words better than I can why we like it. For now, I’ll just say, distance running is a personality. It’s identifiable and we all have it. And we just have to learn to put up with the weird looks and comments of how crazy we are from our non-running friends. If we have to explain it, they’ll never get it.

 

On to tomorrow’s workout: Fartlek on the spit! As usual, we’ll meet at Lakeshore and Leslie at 6:05 for drills.

Let’s do: 5 min tempo, 3 min easy, 3 x 3 min faster (~10K) w 90 sec easy, 3 min easy 3 x 2 min faster (~5K) w 90 sec easy. Marathoners finish w 5 min @ MP.

The whole thing will take 32-39 minutes. Just note for those with longer run commutes in case you want to drive down and drive back with a coffee!

That is all – see you in the a.m.

 

xo

 

Seanna

Tuesday, July 22, 2025: Run towards the danger

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Hi Everyone!

 

Seems like the heat has broken! Whew. Running feels so much easier like this. Enjoy while you can – I’m sure we’ll have a few more heat waves before the summer’s over! (I actually like the heat waves – don’t kill me) But at least now we’re acclimatized and ready for anything.

The other day I mentioned to a friend that I’d been feeling anxious. I’m not sure about what, that’s the problem. It felt like anything I thought about could be the source. So my instinct was to withdraw from what I perceived could be anxiety producing. Which was … pretty much everything. Workouts, races, deadlines, even making plans to go away for the weekend were giving me extra feelings of butterflies. My friend told me what I needed to hear: “Remember, you’re supposed to run towards the danger”. This was wisdom imparted by Sarah Polley in her book of the same name – a book we’d both read. It was advice given to her by a concussion specialist who had told her that in order to get better, she had to do the opposite of what her instincts were telling her. Instead of walking into a room and turning down the lights and lowering the volume of the music, she should turn up the lights and crank the volume. Otherwise her world would just become darker and quieter and smaller and she would never get better. It turns out this advice worked for Polley, and she now lives symptom-free.

I also sometimes feel like I would get relief by backing away from the things that scare me. Like showing up for track workouts with way faster runners than me, or signing up for certain races. But deep down I know that that will only make them seem scarier. And I also feel that anxiety is just a feeling, and will latch itself onto any source you allow it to. None of the things I feel like pulling back from are actually causing anxiety. In fact leaning into them reduces it. Our brains are tricky that way. I think what happens is that as kids, everything is new and kind of scary, and we just become comfortable living life like that. Then as we get older, we don’t have to be beginners or new at anything, and we start to seek more comfort, fewer unpredictable situations, and back away from situations that are scary or unknown. And this becomes a positive feedback loop where the less we do it, the harder it becomes and so on.

So now I’m telling myself that if something seems scary to me, then that is the direction I should go.  And I’m happy to say it does seem to be working. My brain might think it wants me to stay in bed with no big upcoming efforts or obligations, but that won’t in fact make me happy or most likely any less anxious. The only answer is to run towards the danger. I’m still not sure where these anxious feelings are coming from (although I’m sure hormones and life stage play a big role) but while I figure that out, I’m not putting the rest of my life on the shelf. And I’m not saying everyone needs to do this. Many people already have “danger” hurtling towards them and don’t need to launch themselves towards any more. But if you do notice that you aren’t taking quite as many risks or getting as uncomfortable as you used to, you may want to try moving towards a scary challenge. It’s the only way to make them feel less scary.

 

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

Let’s do a mix of 1200’s and 400’s. 1200’s can go to the 600 turnaround and back. So like miles except shorter.

3 x 1200 with 90 sec rest

3 min rest

4 x 400 w 1:15 rest

Marathoners finish with 1200 tempo

Everyone else: we will finish with 4 x good strides

 

That is all – see you in the a.m.!

 

xo

 

Seanna

Tuesday, July 14, 2025 – Milestones

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Hi Everyone!

 

I don’t think we had any races last week, but coming up on Friday is the Rev and Run 5K. I think some people may have registered as a mid-summer check-in? Also, how is it already almost mid-summer?? It’s a good reminder that those races that we sign up for waaaay in the future, do always finally arrive.

I think I’ve been thinking about time and how disorienting it can seem because I just turned 50. And huge thank-you to everyone who surprised me and helped me celebrate. To be honest, it was going to be something I just let slide by because I’m not one for either the spotlight or for being overly sentimental. But wow. I realized that it IS important to mark milestones. As I looked around the room and saw friends I’ve had for 5, 10, 20 and 30 years plus my family who I’ve had for 50 years (!), I realized that it all adds up and it’s all so meaningful. No one joined this group and thought “I’m going to make important friends and relationships which I’ll have for the next 20 years”. We just started a thing, kept coming out, and it became something big. Milestones aren’t goals achieved. I don’t think most people say “I’m going to become a runner and do it for the next 30 years and I’m going to run x-number of marathons in my lifetime”. Or meets someone for a run and then thinks “let’s do this together for the next 40 years of our lives”. We just do the things that are important to us and hang out with the people we love. Some people slide off – the running group or from our friend circles. And that’s totally fine! Again, these aren’t goals. Everyone has their own pursuits, activities and friendships which will become milestones to them. But it’s only with looking back that we can say “wow – this has been very important in my life”.

Anyway, since this is my headspace right now, I am sharing it with you and bringing you all along for the ride. We can get so caught up in ploughing ahead and moving forward, that we might forget to reflect on and celebrate the milestones. “50 is just a number” we hear people say. It’s true. But it is also 50 years of accumulated ups and downs, tears and laughs, successes and failures. It is so many races, training runs, friendships, experiences. These all compound and they’re significant. I see 25 year olds and I want to say “imagine everything you’ve ever experienced and multiply it by two!” Not everyone here is lucky enough to be 50 yet, but there are always milestones to reflect on and celebrate. Maybe you’ve worked in a career you’re proud of for 10 years. Maybe you’ve raised a kid who has graduated kindergarten, or elementary school, or high school or beyond! Maybe you’ve run 20 marathons so far. Maybe you have a few friends who have been with you for 30 years. Reflecting on these milestones can feel emotional and nostalgic, but just grab a glass of wine and some tissues and get into it. It’s what it’s all about. And thank you all so much for being a meaningful part of my life! So keep making new friends, running with the friends you’ve got, and signing up for marathons – we’re all on our way to milestones we don’t even see coming. Just make sure you celebrate them when you hit them.

 

 

On to tomorrow’s workout! Back to hills + tempo.

I hear it’s very hot and smoky in Toronto. I’m away by the way. So let’s keep it to the short hills and tempo segments again. Remember, heat training is like altitude training: you can keep the intensity similar as long as you shorten the work pieces and increase the rest.

2 x short (200m) hill + 3 min tempo. Repeat 3-4 times depending on how hot it is. And bring water!

 

That is all – see you next week!

 

xo

 

Seanna

Tuesday, July 8, 2025 – Perspectives

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Hey Gang!

 

Congrats to Jason and Mike G who did the Muskoka Half IM in what sounds like very tough, hot conditions! Might take you guys a little longer to recover from this one given the heat effect. And I just wanted to say, there is a lot of exciting stuff going on in professional sports right now, so if you’re a fan, tune in! I know many of us watched Faith Kipyegon’s Breaking 4 attempt, and more recently she just broke her own 1500m World Record at the Diamond League event in Eugene. And the men’s mile in that event was extremely exciting and if you haven’t watched it I won’t give it away, but google it. Also, the Tour de France has just started, and if you’re a fan of high athletic performance (and maybe some drama), this is one to tune into. We don’t get all this stuff all winter, so let’s let the athletes who do what we do at the top levels inspire us!

This week I’ve been thinking about perspectives, and how sometimes it’s good to shift them a bit. When we have athletic goals, our perspectives can become quite narrow. That’s a good thing because it causes us to focus and prioritize and optimize. This is a path which can lead to great results and growth. When we zero in and dedicate ourselves to something, we can achieve great things. Just look at the athletic performances I was referencing by the professionals. Minutes matter. Seconds matter. And if we care about those minutes and seconds, it makes sense to keep them in mind when structuring our days and workouts. We obsess, we optimize, and we demand a lot of ourselves. The little things matter, and it can feel good to dial in to the things we can control to move us forward.

But then sometimes something happens that pulls us away from our zoomed in hyper focused perspectives. Maybe it’s a health scare for ourselves or a loved one, or maybe it’s a large-scale horrific disaster like the floods in Texas. And then we think, wow – those minutes and seconds really don’t matter that much at all. We remember the big picture, and feel gratitude if we’re lucky to be healthy and safe, and the details we were sweating don’t seem so important anymore. In fact, it can feel a little silly that we were so focused on such trivial details at all.

But life goes on, and we have to be able to zoom in and out, and change perspectives at times to keep ourselves in check. Both perspectives matter and are valid. We can’t only live zoomed out, taking on all the worries and potential problems of the world at all times. Because then why would we do anything – everything in our small lives seems meaningless in comparison. But we also do need to look up every now and then and realize that there is a bigger picture to all of this. Whichever viewpoint you’re inhabiting at the moment – it is valid. We go back and forth. Care about the minutes and seconds, and sweat the small stuff, and then realize it isn’t that big a deal. Just notice when one perspective is making you a bit nuts, and then it is time to shift it. That, I think, is what we call balance.

 

On to tomorrow’s workout: Fartlek on the Spit! We’ll meet at Lakeshore and Leslie as usual – 6:05 drills, 6:15 GO.

Let’s just do a simple downwards ladder: 6-5-4-3-2-1 with 2 minutes between all. Starting at tempo and working down. If training for a fall marathon and feeling good, you can finish with 6 minutes @ goal marathon pace.

 

That is all – see you in the a.m.!

 

xo

 

Seanna

 

Tuesday, July 1, 2025: Training and studying

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Hey Gang!

 

Happy Canada Day! Hope everyone is taking a little breather somewhere at some point to just sit back and relax, enjoy, and celebrate – in whatever way works for you. It’s just good sometimes to pause and move away from your routine – even if your routine is great and works for you! And Happy Pride! Congrats to all who ran the Pride 5K this weekend – Anna Dowse, Rob Dunn and Bob Gazzle. And I believe Jeff Smith is running a Canada Day 5K today but I don’t have the results yet. Great job all!

Last week I went on a trip with some high school friends to celebrate our 50th year. It was not a running trip. In fact, running was very difficult. I did it as much as I could, but I was forced to let go of any compulsions or goals or expectations. It was hot, hilly, and traffic was not very accommodative to runners. So I did what I could. A few days I ran 10K, then I ran shorter, and then I ran even shorter.  No workouts – just running was hard enough. And it seemed to get harder and harder. Every time out my watch lowered my V02max. It was getting harder, and I was getting worse. But I just told myself – work is work. If it feels hard, it’s giving me a stimulus, and that for the most part is what training is supposed to be.

Also last week my son wrote his last high school exam. He had studied hard, and although it wouldn’t make a big difference in the whole scheme of things, he was hoping it would bring one of his marks up a bit. He dedicated hours to studying, and just as he was looking over the exam before handing it in, a bomb threat was called to the school, the classroom was cleared, and the exam was voided. Frustrating and disappointing, yes. But as I said to him, the whole point was to learn the material. The mark was just a proxy for what had been learned. He is still going into first year university with the knowledge that he needs. That was the point.

It’s the same with training. What our watches are telling us are only valuable if we can keep in mind the bigger picture of what we are actually trying to achieve. Trying to “please” our watches is not the point, and workouts, like exams, are not the point. It doesn’t matter what you “achieve” in those if they are not leading you to acquire fitness or knowledge – whatever the case may be. When I got back from my trip, my runs suddenly felt easier, and it turned out I hadn’t lost, but possibly gained fitness, despite the bigger efforts for lesser outputs, and negative watch evaluations. I had known this would happen which was why I was accepting of the many difficult “bad” runs.  I try to tell people this before workouts where they might be getting anxious or keyed up: it’s just work. We are not trying to “achieve” anything here, other than to get some work in. This is the studying. If it’s hard, and you can complete it within the parameters, you’re doing it right. You know how you’re feeling, what conditions are like, what baggage you’re carrying into workouts – your watch knows none of that. So just remember that you’re always smarter than your watch, and pleasing it is not the point!!

 

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

Let’s do In and Out 400’s. These are continuous 400’s with the paces varying from medium hard to tempo. We have done these with 200’s before, but not with 400’s yet.

I’m thinking 6-8 of them (for a total of 12-16 400’s). 8-10K pace right into tempo and repeat. As always, this is a great strength builder that will creep up on us! Should be fun.

I am racing this evening so will be there to cheer in the a.m.

 

That is all – see you in the a.m.!

 

xo

 

Seanna

 

Tuesday, June 24 – 2025: Team sport

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Hey Gang!

Congrats to all Ekiden racers!!!! I was so sad to miss it this year but was so proud of everyone who ran and cheered. Way to go team!

That’s what I’ve been thinking about this week. The concept of having and being part of a team. I’ve mentioned this before, but when I’m traveling, and I go for a run by myself, I often think of my team back home doing similar things. Because when I’m somewhere new and running, it feels even lonelier than running alone back home. But I picture my friends and teammates doing the same thing hundreds of miles away, and it feels like we’re together in a way. And then I realize, individual running really is a team sport.

I also had the thought that life is a team sport. We’re all team mates on various peoples’ teams, and we all play different roles. Some of us have a few teams, some have big teams and some have smaller teams. But everyone who we’ve chosen to be in our lives serves a role for us, and we are the same for them. And this is the key point: diversity matters. We can’t have a team full of only cheerleaders, or just people who play defence, or only star players. Sometimes we need the uncomplaining benchwarmer who is always ready to jump in whenever things get hairy and they get called up. We can’t expect anyone to be everything, but there is strength in numbers. I had this thought as I was on a trip with friends from high school, and I was reminded why I had become friends with them 35 years ago. I don’t see these friends very often – our lives have all taken us in different directions. But I definitely still consider them all to be part of my team. 

I think of our running team the same way. No matter who you are or what your pace, you play a role in making the whole thing work. When I’m running on my own and thinking of “the team”, I’m not thinking of any one person in specific. I think of everyone and the strength of how we all interact together. Some are leading, (actually, many are leading because there are groups within groups), some are pulling others along, some are a beacon of consistency who you can count on showing up with a smile, some bring grit, some bring humour, some bring the chill vibe. Even those who are finishing their workout in the early hours just as the rest of us are getting there are an important part of the team. It all matters! It’s the variety of different roles that makes the team work. As always, I’m grateful for all of it and for all of you. Thanks for being on my team!

 

On to tomorrow’s workout!

We’re doing hills. However, I am making a heat adjustment. Working out in the heat is do-able, but it’s like adjusting to altitude: you have to do shorter work reps and take longer rests.

So let’s do sets of: 2 x half hill, WALK to tempo (or take a few minutes), 3 min tempo. Take another few minutes, repeat 3-4 times. 3 will be enough if it’s still very hot. Bring water.

We will adapt to this, we just have to be patient during the process.

I will be at Pottery around 6:15/6:20.

 

That is all – see you in the a.m.!

 

xo

 

Seanna