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The time has come! After 2 gut punch cancellations of the 2020 and 2021 races due to COVID, lululemon put SeaWheeze on the back burner indefinitely. We had no clue if/or when it would ever return, but thanks to enough of us making noise on the internet to let lululemon know that the support was there, the SeaWheeze Half Marathon is back! I was thankfully able to score a bib through the lululemon Pinnacle Early Access, and, well… it’s time to do this thing, huh?
Going to be honest about the mindset going into training. SeaWheeze 2026 will NOT be a PR race for me. Training begins the same week that the Stanley Cup Playoff does, which means I am going to be on the road for a significant portion of it. Conditions aren’t ideal for a full commit of physical and mental energy.
“Rest” days aren’t all that restful. Usually they’re going to be game days at work, which are 16h of running around up/down and backwards and making sure everyone at home can see the NHL game du jour. If you don’t already know, I don’t have a desk job. I have a ‘work from the tv truck next to the dumpster from 7am to midnight and fly somewhere else on 4h of sleep to do it all over again’ job.
If I can do an 85/100 on the proverbial ‘test’, I’ll have done alright. I’m focusing for 16 weeks instead of 12, because I need to build some fitness back up from the winter doldrums. Let’s do this.
SeaWheeze 2026 Training: Week 1
MON 4/20 • Day 1: Easy 3.5mi
Miles Run: 3.5 / Active Time: 0:38:44
Got goosed in the morning, and I’m not about to f with cobra chickens that have FLUFFY LIL GOSLINGS with them. I had to change course on the last half mile of my run to find the distance elsewhere, which would explain why I had to run in circles past the random horse in the PF Chang’s parking lot until I hit 3.5mi.
After that, it was time to make sure everyone in America could watch Ottawa @ Carolina. Long Day.
TUE 4/21 • Day 2: REST Day
The official notes in my spreadsheet say “too much laptop, forgot lunch.” That tracks. I forget lunch a lot, if I’m down a rabbit hole. First trip of the playoffs done and dusted, my turn to watch a game from the couch and have nobody call me about it.
WED 4/22 • Day 3: 400m Repeats
1.25mi warm up at a conversational pace (no faster than 10:45/mi), 90s walking rest
Repeat the following 2x:
4 reps of:
- 0.25mi at 8:20/mi (8:05-8:35/mi), 60s walking rest
60s walking rest
0.75mi cool down at a conversational pace
Strava Notes: Went 8/8 to kick things off, even after costing myself 90s of rest bc I couldn’t figure out how to work a watch I’ve worn for 6 years 🙃
THU 4/23 • Day 4: Strength Training
Stronger Upper Body with Runna ✅
Fell off the strength wagon after the marathon last fall, despite feeling markedly better and stronger for actually sticking to it throughout NYC25 training. Felt good to get back in there.
FRI 4/24 • Day 5: Long Run 8.5mi – Forerunner 965’s Maiden Voyage!
Pace/Effort Target: Conversational
Strava Notes:
Pros: New training cycle, new gizmo, SUNSHINE!
Cons: Fueling with pizza & beer and 2h of acid reflux insomnia
Usually the name of the game is to find the “wall” and it usually is beyond the halfway point. Today, I found it within the first 10 steps. GEE I WONDER WHY
This was also my first run with the Garmin Forerunner 965. I’ve been wearing a Fenix 6S Sapphire since 2020, and it was (is) still functional. HOWEVER… I had weekend plans to play with a new toy that the Fenix was too outdated to work with. Thanks to being able to convert credit card points into Bezo bucks, I decided to treat myself to a new watch for a mere $95 out of pocket.
OOTD: Swiftly Tech Cropped Long Sleeve Shirt / Fast and Free High-Rise Short 8″ 5 Pocket
Shoes: Asics Novablast 5 / Sunnies: Goodr Bolt G Tentacle Tag Champion
SAT 4/25 • Day 6: Running Threads x Meta Lab Run Club
~5K at social pace through Central Park, what’s not to love?
So this was a pretty effing cool day. My blog email inbox is more often filled with spam offers from brands I’ve never heard of than real people, but back in March, I received an email from someone at Threads, inviting me to a zoom call with some fellow “Community Champions” to learn more about some exciting new development on the platform. I’ve been pretty active on Threads since its inception, and was identified as a CC when communities were introduced. Just like how this blog started, I was just having fun on the internet talking about something I liked. Don’t know how it happened, I was just out there doing my thing.
Anyhow, a few weeks after that, I received an invitation to join the Threads team down in NYC for a meetup that they hosted in partnership with Harlem Run at the Meta Lab on 5th Avenue. Shout out to the Carolina Hurricanes for taking a broom to the Ottawa Senators so that I was able to make the trip!
It was absolutely wonderful to meet so many friendly and familiar faces from the Running Threads community in real life. I got to meet Jacqui (@runnerjacqui), Olivia (@oliviawitherite), Grace (@bygracelee) and Savannah (@savannah313). We so quickly hit it off and continued online conversations offline that Lauren, one of the event organizers, paused and said “wait… you all already know each other?”
Meta kindly gifted each of us a pair of the Oakley Meta Vanguard, which I now affectionately refer to as my Frozone Glasses. Social media CAN be a positive thing if you’re not a jerk about it, I swear.
It felt surreal to have been tapped to join this fantastic group of runners, and be considered one of the ‘talent’ that the videographer spent a few extra minutes capturing content of. I’m used to being BEHIND the camera. Anyway, you can catch the hype reel that hi5 agency put together of the day. They crushed it.
As far as the run itself went… I was TAPPED OUT with traveling to/from my first city of NHL playoffs, and down to NYC for the meetup. Ya girl felt NO need to go the extra 2 miles on foot, I did plenty in the air.
Strava Notes: First of all, apologies to my Garmin, which said 0 stars do not recommend plz don’t run today. I ran today, but it was WORTH IT!
While the plan called for 5.5 easy miles, I’m doing the 3.2 and calling it a week. Lots of travel, poor sleep and a ramped up training schedule has tuckered ya girl OUT.
SUN 4/26 • Day 7: Strength + HGW
1.25mi Walk + 45′ Strength Session
Had to gallivant with the new shades. I don’t have too much first person POV from run club the day before. My glasses accidentally got paired to someone else’s account at first (we were all trying to pair our new toys in close proximity simultaneously, oops), so they required a bit of troubleshooting before the first run, so I didn’t really know how to use them all that well. Practice makes maybe not perfect, but less bad.
It was too damn nice out to only lift weights, but as evidenced by the picture of my feet and the same shorts, I got strength done. I promise.
SeaWheeze 2026 Training: By the Numbers
THIS WEEK
- Total Miles Run: 19.73
- Strength Sessions Completed: 2
- Total Miles Walked: 3.42
- Total Training Time: 6:00:02
- Miles Traveled: 1382
- Hotel Nights: 2
The Shoe Roster
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