For the love of base – RunningWell

Hi Gang!

Congrats to Zoë who ran the club provincial x-country championships on the weekend and came 4th in her age group! Ooh x-country … so hard – way to go. I believe for most of us the racing season is wrapped up. There are some winter races which are fun to jump into if you’re looking to maintain some sharpness or get a fun workout in (off the bat some standard good winter races I can think of are: Holly Jolly 5K – Nov 26, Holiday10K – Dec 3, Robbie Burns 8K – Jan 21). The great thing about winter races is that they definitely have more of a celebratory “we’re still doing this vibe” than “I trained really hard and want to prove myself” vibe. But as always, you do you.

On that note, I’ve been thinking about this “base” or “down” phase as many people call it. It’s the in-between season of big running goals. As much as I love chasing goals, I really love this season as well. Some people have asked me, “what should I be doing now to get ready for training in Jan?” To me the most obvious answer is: to get yourself into a happy and healthy spot with your running. Your goal for this phase should be to rekindle your love of running – whatever that takes. For some people this might mean replacing quite a few runs with x-training activities they feel they miss out on when they’re in “training mode”. That’s great. Go to the gym, take the classes, get in the pool, put on your skis. For some it means keeping up the routine of daily runs,but taking the pressure right off of pace and distance. For others it might bean opportunity to ramp up some consistent easy mileage so they have a strong base when they start training in a couple months. Some people might want to focus more on short sprints and gym work and other things that they don’t have time or energy for when doing singularly focused training. I find myself in the camp of waking up most days and asking myself what I feel like doing that day. It can be based on my mood, my energy, the weather, and what else I have going on that day. That’s the beauty of “unstructured” training. The question shouldn’t be “what should I do” but rather “what do I want to do”. If you can do that for a month or so, you will be better in tune with your body, your energy levels should become realigned,and you should be feeling mentally refreshed and physically ready to lean in in the new year. So go, have fun and figure out how to stoke your love for running!

(Stay tuned for more info on Sunday morning speed sessions at Monarch Track. I will try to start with the first 3 Sundays in December and see how that goes. They will be sessions based on plyometrics and short speed put together by myself and Kerry. A little more focus on fast running than we did in Skills N Drills. If you can do your longer runs on Saturdays that should work well. They can complement each other while long runs are easy and not that long (20K and under). More info coming… if you’re interested and not on Fbook pls message me.)

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

1. 3 x 1 mile AS: 200m steady, 200m pick-up –repeat for the whole mile (there will be cones). 2 min bw reps. This is a good one to give you the opportunity to get some work in and go by feel. No time goals – this is one to do by effort. Generally, the more fit you get, the faster the “steady” 200’s become. That doesn’t have to be now. And the pick-ups are to go by feel. Just have fun with this one. Then we will finish with 4 x200 as long strides (1 min rest).

That is all – see you in the am!

Seanna