January 27, 2026 – The show must go on

Hey Gang!

Hope you’re all dug-out of wherever you’ve been and have recovered if you were the digger-outer! All jokes aside, shoveling IS a physical activity and probably requires the same attention as a gym session in terms of warming up, easing into it, taking breaks, not overdoing it, fueling, and recovering. It sounds silly, but just trying to make sure it doesn’t result in undue soreness or injury!

This week has been a bit of a doozy in terms of weather and news. I’ve found myself split into two ways of thinking; one is, how can we just stick to our regular schedules when our outside circumstances are so not regular? And the other is – the show must go on! We just have to do what we can to keep moving forward.

Take the weather. I don’t think I’ve seen a winter with this bad of a continuous stretch of snow, ice and cold. And yet, many of you are training for spring marathons, and have plans which call for long runs, sometimes with quality. As a coach, I am just watching with interest how people deal with this. Some of you did upwards of 30K on a treadmill! Some went out in -25C temps to avoid the snowstorm, and managed to get some good quality in regardless! Some “ran” in knee deep snow, putting in time instead of kilometers. I got back from a trip on Sunday as the snow was hammering down, and made my way to the gym with my daughter for treadmill runs. As we got to the gym, they said they were closing down early due to the storm. So we got on our machines as quickly as possible, and managed about 45 minutes before they shut off the lights. But my daughter had 1 hour written on her plan. I told her it didn’t matter and she couldn’t run outside – it was crazy, dangerous and un-runnable. Do any of you have teenagers? My voice of reason was quickly dismissed and she ran home to add the extra time. I thought – this is crazy – you don’t need to do this! But none of us do, do we? There are often times when the reasonable thing seems to be to not do it. And when my daughter came home with her lashes and hair frozen and covered with snow, it was with a sense of overcoming, of exploration of the unknown, of empowerment, and with a giant smile on her frozen face. I know you’ve all probably been hearing from others how crazy you are and that you are justified in not going out and in taking a break. It’s true – you are justified. (Not commenting on the crazy part). But proving to ourselves that we can keep showing up, even when it’s so hard, is sometimes just the confidence we need.

In terms of continuing to move forward when the world seems to be moving backwards – that is a trickier one which I can’t answer. But I think, like our running momentum, we have to keep going, but at the same time acknowledging that this isn’t normal. Pretending it is, or putting our heads in the sand won’t help. It’s looking outside, seeing the two feet of snow and negative 20’s temps, making a plan, pulling our collars up, and going out to face it. (or running it all on the treadmill which is equally as badass in my view!) Pretending it’s not happening won’t help, but neither will collapsing into a heap under the covers. If we’ve proven anything to ourselves with running so far this winter, it’s that we can look squarely at a big, ugly, uncomfortable mess, and keep the show going regardless. And just because we’re putting one foot in front of the other, doesn’t mean we don’t feel the cold or understand the news. We see it, and we don’t like it. But we’re gonna keep moving forward anyway.

On to tomorrow’s workout – we’re back at Monarch Track! 6:00 arrival – let’s aim for as close to 6:15 start as we can.

5 x 600 w 90 sec rest (5K pace)

4 min rest

2-4 sets of 400-200 with 200 easy jog bw reps and 2 min bw sets (2 for marathoners, 4 for everyone else)

Marathoners finish with 2K @ tempo

That is all – see you in the a.m.!

Seanna