Tuesday, April 21, 2026 – Group love

Hey Gang!

Huge congrats to Jilly and Chris who both ran the Boston marathon yesterday and absolutely nailed their races! Boston is such a tough one. You just have to be humble and confident at the same time, and ready for anything the day throws your way. These guys totally did that. And congrats to Pearce who rocked the UnderArmour 10K on Saturday! 10K’s are also a tough distance to master. They’re more like two 5K’s back to back than half of a half marathon – if you know what I mean. Way to go all!

Coming up this weekend we have the London marathon! Lori, Sam F, Carol, Carolyn, Elizabeth, Eleanor, Shauna, Amy Hakoda. Am I missing anyone? And here in Toronto Erin and Pearce will be running the Bum Run 5K. 5K’s are also full of glory! Good luck all, we’ll be tracking/ cheering for all of you.

This week I’ve been thinking about the ability of other people in bringing out the best in us. Once again this past week I’ve been shocked by what I can accomplish when I just commit to showing up to a group. I mean, it hasn’t been anything spectacular, but every time I have a workout on tap, if I join a supportive group, I can accomplish way more than I would or could do on my own. I don’t mind running on my own. But “performing” on my own? That is hard. I also think about this when I’m writing workouts for athletes. I try to write workouts that are tough but achievable. And I know that most of the time that bar moves when it involves training partners. So I try to line them up, and might change the duration or intensity in different ways depending on whether I think they’re training solo or with others.

I’ve witnessed people in this group bringing out the best in each other. I also see it at races. This is why we can often achieve something special on race day that we could never do on our own. And it is also why we feel such a powerful outpouring of love for our fellow runners at the finish. It is a big “Thank-you! We did this together!” moment. I can recall that feeling I had of a love of other humans after the Boston Marathon last year. It lasted exactly until a few days later when I tried to merge onto the Gardiner Expressway from the Lakeshore and my positive feelings of humanity were crushed in an instant. If you know you know! I thought that was pretty funny. How I could view the exact same people around me so differently, depending on the circumstances. But we are all the same people, just in different situations, aren’t we? And we all still have to battle traffic and learn to live with each other. I thought: “it’s just a formula”. For every time I merge onto the Gardiner (or whatever your people-hating equivalent is), I can balance that out with a positive group experience. Whether I join a group to pull me along in a workout or I jump in to help someone else, the reciprocal shared love is enough to right the world again. You can also add to it by cheering on strangers. I recommend the Toronto Marathon coming up in two weeks. If you’re a runner and you live in Toronto, go out and cheer on the other runners who are racing! You’ll all be bringing out the best in each other. And your belief in humanity might be buoyed enough for up to three Gardiner entry ramps without losing it. Try it and see.

On to tomorrow’s workout: Let’s do our first Spit run of the summer! Still meeting at Lakeshore and Leslie at 6:05 for drills, 6:15 GO!

(these workouts tend to get a bit more volume, so if you’re coming from further away, consider driving down)

Let’s start with the basic but effective sets of 3-2-1. Those minutes hard with 1 minute rest in between. Three minutes between sets.

People running London: You can do two sets IF you keep the paces: MP-HMP-10K

People racing a 5K: 2 sets as 5K-5K-a lil faster

Everyone else: up to 4 sets as 8K-5K-3K (ish)

That is all – see you in the a.m.!

Seanna