Tuesday, September 23, 2025 – Finding the wins
Hi Gang!
Happy actual official Fall now that we’ve passed the equinox. This is the best time for running with cooler temps, beautiful colours, and still enough daylight to admire them! Let’s enjoy this while it lasts.
This week I’ve been thinking about the stories we tell ourselves and how we process our performances. I’ve watched athletes in the World Championships and their reactions after good and disappointing races, and I think we can learn a lot from how they responded. There was Jakob Ingerbrigsten, the multiple world record holder, multiple time Olympic champion, and dominant 1500m and 5000m runner. He was coming off an injury which had kept him from racing since February. He was not at his top fitness, but went out and raced as well as he could, which he knew was well below his usual standard. Ingebrigtsen did not make it out of the heats in the 1500m, and finished 10th in the 5000m. In comparison to his top form of total domination, these results were very average and could be seen as disappointing. In his post-race interviews however, Ingerbrigsten was upbeat, and said he was just glad he could get out there and race, and would have been way more disappointed if he’d had to watch the races on tv from home. He knew that racing in whatever capacity he could would improve his fitness and trajectory and he was positive about his entire experience. Cole Hocker, the Olympic 1500m champion, was disqualified in the semi-finals for jostling. He didn’t complain, he didn’t moan, he didn’t fight it. In fact he had no negative reaction at all. He quickly put the disappointment behind him, reframed, and focused on what was next; the 5000m. He went on to win that race and become world champion. He knew he had to remain positive, learn what he could, and move forward. There was no benefit in thinking about what could have been. Keely Hodgkinson was by far the favourite to win the women’s 800m. She had the world leading time by a second and seemed to be a class above the field. All the odds and forecasts had her winning, and the race being behind her for second. She ended up coming in 3rd in an unexpectedly fast final. In her post-race interview, she said if you had told her in June that she would run the time she did in the World championships final, she would never have believed it as she had been battling an injury. So despite not finishing where everyone thought she would, she found a way to be proud of her accomplishment and view her race in a positive light.
Finding the wins through defeat is not an easy thing to do. Our instinct is often to protect our egos by saying “that was a bad race”. What that means is, I’m better than that and could have done better. But in saying, “I came up short and I’m proud of what I did”, we’re not lowering our standards but validating our efforts. It’s not about letting ourselves off the hook. It’s about being realistic, trying your hardest, holding your head up and saying this was my best today. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the best athletes in the world react this way. It is probably partly because they react this way that they’ve become the best in the world. They don’t make excuses but also importantly, they don’t beat themselves up. They find the wins even in the losses. That’s the only way you can keep getting up and keep going. There’s no I should have or I could have. It’s about accepting and then finding a way to be proud of what you did do. I’m going to try to share this mindset with some of the athletes I coach. Some of them are so hard on themselves it’s a wonder they’re able to get up and do it again! I think they think beating themselves up and being angry is the path to getting better, but in witnessing the best in the world, I don’t think it is. We should all learn to hold our heads up and celebrate our wins – even if they don’t land us where we expected to be. Because as Ingerbrigsten said, otherwise the safest option becomes not doing it at all, and just being in the arena instead of on the couch is a win in itself and the surest way to learning and improving – no matter what the result.
On to tomorrow’s workout! Back to Lakeshore and Leslie – 6:05 drills, 6:15 GO!
Let’s repeat this one we did a few months ago:
2-3 sets of continuous 3 x 400-400 alt 10K and MP – 2 min bw sets.
So we are running 400m at 10K pace straight into 400m @ Marathon Pace, straight into 400m at 10K pace, etc… for a total of 3 of each. Then we take a 2 minute break and repeat.
Last time 2 sets was plenty. Those who have built fitness may want to try 3. Or part of 3. Let’s see how it goes.
That is all – see you in the a.m.!
xo
Seanna