The power of self compassion

Hey Gang!

So many races this past weekend! Exciting stuff from our crew. Both Pearce and Andrew H ran the TrackSmith 5000 on Saturday in the fastest heat of the night! Both PB’s and both have more to come. As Pearce noted, racing is a skill, and it doesn’t just correlate automatically with workouts. You just have to learn it by doing it. At Georgina we had Kerry also doing a 5K, and Cindy who ran a PB and came 2nd overall in the 10K! In the Half Marathon we had a few of us doing it as training runs for our marathons, but still some solid runs! Myself, Clare, Carolyn, and Jason. Way to go crew – inspiring runs all around.

I’ve spoken about the topic of self-compassion before, but I’ve been learning a little more about it, and it’s been an idea that’s been resonating with me lately. Doesn’t it feel so good when you talk to a friend and they treat you and your problems with such compassion that you come away feeling better about yourself and more confident and like you can now bravely face everything? These friends are the best. Imagine the power and confidence you’d have if you could carry a voice like that around with you all the time.That’s what self-compassion is about. It’s about learning how to be that friend to yourself.

Old school mentality might say that self-compassion is soft,and what you actually need is some toughening up. David Doggins style: “Get out there loser!”, “No pain, no gain!”, “If you’re not getting better, you’re getting worse!” This may work for some people some of the time (although I don’t think it comes from a healthy place nor does it work longterm), but studies show that people who are more self-compassionate are actually higher performers in all areas. It turns out that having a friend in your corner is away bigger performance booster than having a bully. So what does self-compassion look like? It’s not letting yourself off the hook. It’s reminding yourself that you’re human, you have landed in a certain situation, and you are doing the best that you can. And that you will make mistakes because absolutely no one doesn’t, and that you’ll learn and grow from each one. It’s a voice that says “you’re doing great – keep going” instead of “you’ll never be good enough”. It says “you did your best and there were a lot of reasons why anyone would have struggled where you did” instead of “you’re a failure”. It doesn’t say “you don’t need this – go back to sleep”, it says “I love you and I believe in you and you will never fail in my eyes”. It’s what we try to give our friends and our kids to carry around with them because we believe with all our hearts it’s true. If we can give ourselves that same reflection, and the voice in our heads is truly our best friend, we can become tremendously powerful. I love you, and I believe in you.

On to tomorrow’s workout! Let’s do a fartlek on the spit.We’ll meet at Lakeshore and Leslie at 6:05 for drills, 6:15 GO, but run into the spit for the workout portion. Bring lights if you have them although it should be ok visibility by the time we start.

1. 5 min tempo, 2 min easy, 3-2-1 min ON, 1min OFF. 3 min easy and repeat. THEN finish with your choice of either 5, 3, 2or 1 min as the final “set”.

If you just raced a 5K or need a little less intensity,keep them all tempo pace. This is one of those workouts where you can tap into your current energy situation and go by feel.

That is all – see you in the am!

Seanna