Tuesday, July 22, 2025: Run towards the danger

Hi Everyone!

Seems like the heat has broken! Whew. Running feels so much easier like this. Enjoy while you can – I’m sure we’ll have a few more heat waves before the summer’s over! (I actually like the heat waves – don’t kill me) But at least now we’re acclimatized and ready for anything.

The other day I mentioned to a friend that I’d been feeling anxious. I’m not sure about what, that’s the problem. It felt like anything I thought about could be the source. So my instinct was to withdraw from what I perceived could be anxiety producing. Which was … pretty much everything. Workouts, races, deadlines, even making plans to go away for the weekend were giving me extra feelings of butterflies. My friend told me what I needed to hear: “Remember, you’re supposed to run towards the danger”. This was wisdom imparted by Sarah Polley in her book of the same name – a book we’d both read. It was advice given to her by a concussion specialist who had told her that in order to get better, she had to do the opposite of what her instincts were telling her. Instead of walking into a room and turning down the lights and lowering the volume of the music, she should turn up the lights and crank the volume. Otherwise her world would just become darker and quieter and smaller and she would never get better. It turns out this advice worked for Polley, and she now lives symptom-free.

I also sometimes feel like I would get relief by backing away from the things that scare me. Like showing up for track workouts with way faster runners than me, or signing up for certain races. But deep down I know that that will only make them seem scarier. And I also feel that anxiety is just a feeling, and will latch itself onto any source you allow it to. None of the things I feel like pulling back from are actually causing anxiety. In fact leaning into them reduces it. Our brains are tricky that way. I think what happens is that as kids, everything is new and kind of scary, and we just become comfortable living life like that. Then as we get older, we don’t have to be beginners or new at anything, and we start to seek more comfort, fewer unpredictable situations, and back away from situations that are scary or unknown. And this becomes a positive feedback loop where the less we do it, the harder it becomes and so on.

So now I’m telling myself that if something seems scary to me, then that is the direction I should go.  And I’m happy to say it does seem to be working. My brain might think it wants me to stay in bed with no big upcoming efforts or obligations, but that won’t in fact make me happy or most likely any less anxious. The only answer is to run towards the danger. I’m still not sure where these anxious feelings are coming from (although I’m sure hormones and life stage play a big role) but while I figure that out, I’m not putting the rest of my life on the shelf. And I’m not saying everyone needs to do this. Many people already have “danger” hurtling towards them and don’t need to launch themselves towards any more. But if you do notice that you aren’t taking quite as many risks or getting as uncomfortable as you used to, you may want to try moving towards a scary challenge. It’s the only way to make them feel less scary.

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

Let’s do a mix of 1200’s and 400’s. 1200’s can go to the 600 turnaround and back. So like miles except shorter.

3 x 1200 with 90 sec rest

3 min rest

4 x 400 w 1:15 rest

Marathoners finish with 1200 tempo

Everyone else: we will finish with 4 x good strides

That is all – see you in the a.m.!

xo

Seanna