Hi Gang!

Huge congrats to those who ran ATB! Which turned out to be Kerry who came 4^th in her AG in the 15K, and Jeff and Jason who did the 30K! Colette was taken out by a virus before the race, and Jordan was too, but gamely tried until I think about 20K. This winter seems to be doubling down on many of us.

Which actually brings me to what I’ve been thinking about this week: taking care of ourselves. I tend to circle back to certain themes at times. I think it is time for a reminder about self-compassion. As often happens when we’re training hard, while dealing with all the other stressors of life, a number of people in our crew have recently been or are still now struggling with injuries and illnesses. I know this sucks, and I want you to know that you are not alone. What I want to do is give each person a hug and tell you it’s ok to rest when your body is telling you it is tired or overwhelmed. Because often on top of these setbacks we pile frustration, self-judgement, and negative feelings towards our selves. And this is the exact opposite of the kindness and compassion we owe ourselves and which might help us out of the hole. Yes, getting an illness or injury can just be a sign of bad luck. You came down funny and twisted your ankle, or your sick kid coughed in your open mouth (if you know you know). But very often they are signs that you need a break. I’ve read about people who have had desk jobs they hated and which stressed them out, and they developed serious physical ailments like migraines or debilitating back pain. Those were their bodies’ ways of getting them out of an untenable situation. Your body is on your side. So if you find yourself developing injury after injury or one long illness after another, your body might be trying to tell you something. And listening to what that might be requires self-compassion.

Again, self-compassion is not about letting yourself off the hook or going easy on yourself. It’s about truly being on your own side. It’s about treating yourself the way you would a friend or a loved one. You still want them to succeed, but not to punish themselves in order to do so. I think many of our inner voices tell us to push through and suck it up or else be met with our own harsh self-judgement. If our choice is between a long run or sleep, weights or some quiet time with a book, a workout or social time with friends to unwind, we often push towards the former options. But what we miss is that the options we aren’t choosing aren’t the softer choices: they are the recovery tools. A self-compassionate viewpoint can see that quite clearly. A self-judging viewpoint does not, so we push until our bodies force us to rest.

As always, this is a tricky line to walk with endurance sport where we do have to override many initial self-preservation instincts in order to improve. The key is to do it with self-compassion and self-love vs recklessly and with negative feelings towards ourselves. Please don’t take this to mean that if you are sick or injured you have some deep inner demons and need to seek therapy. Often it is just the bad luck of a twist or a slip or an encounter with a virus. But it might not hurt to look at your overall systems and patterns and make sure they are aligned with your health and best interest at heart – and not just your race times.

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

Let’s do sets of 400’s. I like these because there are lots of options for pacing depending on where you are in your training, what you’re training for, and how you’re feeling. If feeling niggles or low energy, keep them all the same pace. If leaning into a bit more speed and trying to find a bit more fitness, pick them up each set. If training for spring 5K’s/10K’s,really lean into that last set. If you’re not sure, just show up and play it by ear!

1.       3 sets of 4 x 400 – first set w 1 min rest,second set w 1:15, third set with 90 sec. 3 min bw sets. Marathoners: finish with 1 mile @ MRP!

2.       If going by time, same sequence and rests, but go for 1:30 for every 400 instead of distance.

That is all – see you in the a.m.!

xo

Seanna