Staving Off the Winter Blues

Happy December!

As I’m beginning to draft this post, it’s early Saturday morning. I’m sitting on the couch in my living room, nestled under a cozy blanket. I have a mug of coffee beside me and a scented candle burning. Outside of my window, I can see a dusting of snow on the nearby rooftops.1 It’s 7:30am, but it’s still dark. The sun hasn’t yet started peeking out over the horizon. 

I haven’t published anything on this blog for nearly a month. When I was working through The Artist’s Way, I had a designated topic to cover every week in my posts. Without the program, coming up with new topics to write about has been a challenge. The lack of inspiration may also just come with the season. I’ve been apprehensive about the winter for months; and I think it’s safe to say that it’s finally here. The days are short: during the week, I start work at sunrise and don’t get home until after sunset. Going outside is much more daunting with the bitter cold and biting wind. This time of year is difficult. I wouldn’t quite say that I have seasonal depression; but I, like a lot of people, really struggle to enjoy the winter. I’ve already noticed myself having less energy and feeling less motivated than usual. What’s worse: it’s only December. The worst is yet to come.

In this blog post I wanted to talk about some of the things I’ve been trying to do to stave off the winter blues. Hopefully, if you’re struggling, it might give you some inspiration or ideas about how to cope.

Layering Up

“There’s no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing.” This is something my boyfriend tells me all the time in response to my complaining about how cold it is (which is often). This winter, first and foremost, I’m committed to properly dressing for the weather. Over the last few years, I’ve developed a winter “uniform” that I wear on most days. The outfit formula is as follows. For tops, I wear a turtleneck base layer (generally something from the Uniqlo Heattech line) and a knit sweater. For bottoms, I usually wear thermal leggings (again usually from Uniqlo) under my pants. If I need to wear a skirt or dress, I wear fleece-lined tights. If I’m heading outside, I wear a warm jacket and all the accessories I need to stay warm (i.e., a toque, gloves and a scarf).

Keeping an Exercise Routine

I signed up for another half-marathon in May, so it’s important I maintain a certain level of fitness over the winter. On a weekly basis, I’m going on about three runs and incorporating two strength training sessions.2 My runs now are much shorter than the ones I was doing during half-marathon training over the summer. I’ve been committing to one short run (usually 5km), one medium run (6-8km), and one long run (9-10km) every week.

I’m also determined to continue running outside as much as possible. I’m staunchly an outdoor runner; I can’t stand the treadmill. Because of this, I’ve needed to make a number of changes to my routine to address some of the risks associated with running outside during the winter. I’ve transitioned from primarily running in the early morning to running in the afternoon (especially during my lunch breaks at work) to take advantage of the sunlight. If I do have to run in the morning or at night, I’ve purchased LED bands to wear to make sure I’m visible to other people on the roads. I also purchased special shoes for running in cold and wet conditions: Brooks Ghost 17 GTXs (waterproof road running shoes) and Brooks Cascadia 19 GTXs (trail running shoes for when roads are snowy or more slippery than usual).

I’ve also put together a winter running uniform. For tops, I wear a long-sleeved base layer (I’m a fan of the Fluid Seamless Fitted Tops from Old Navy, Momentum Seamless Tops from Athleta, and the Uniqlo Heattech line), a fleece insulating mid-layer, and a wind- and water-resistant shell jacket (I’ve been wearing the MEC x AQUANATOR Rain Jacket from MEC). For bottoms, I wear thermal leggings (my favourites right now are Uniqlo Heattech Active Leggings and Lululemon Fast and Free High-Rise Thermal Tights). For accessories, I wear a toque, gloves and a neck gaiter. I’ve been mixing and matching the pieces to suit the weather conditions- sometimes, it’s been warm enough that I haven’t needed the fleece or all of the accessories.

Continuing to run outdoors in the winter seems like an intriguing challenge. I’m interested to discover what will work and what won’t over the next three months. I’m sure there will be a lot of trial and error. For days with very bad weather, I’m not opposed to running on the treadmill; but for the majority of runs, I’m hoping I can stay outside and that the proper clothes and equipment will keep me safe.

Curbing Social Media Use

Over the last little while, I’ve started to notice my social media use gradually increasing again. Doomscrolling social media never feels like a good use of my time- I feel better after doing literally anything else. To combat this, I reviewed the social media platforms I use and deactivated and deleted a number of my accounts. I also reduced my timer on the Instagram app to ten minutes a day (and, surprisingly, haven’t tampered with it in a few weeks).

I primarily use AppBlock and UnTrap to help curb my social media use. AppBlock is a phone app and a Chrome extension that allows you to block or set time limits on apps and websites. I like AppBlock so much that I pay a monthly subscription fee for it. UnTrap is a Chrome extension that allows you to customize the appearance of YouTube on the browser and make the interface less addictive (for instance, by hiding YouTube Shorts and disabling the infinite scroll feature). I also always ensure all of my notifications from social media apps are disabled on my phone.

I’m definitely not perfect with my social media use. Even with all of my precautions in place, I still find workarounds and end up mindlessly scrolling social media sometimes. I used to get more upset with myself about this, but now, I see social media use and addiction as a battle we are all constantly fighting everyday. I don’t hold myself to a standard of perfection. I can see that I’m in a better place with my social media use now than I was two years ago, and the progress is what matters.

Making Time for Hobbies

At the end of October, I signed up for a short story writing class with the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies. I’ve been loving it! I’m in a better place now with my writing than I’ve been in years- I feel so much more confident about my skills and abilities. I largely credit The Artist’s Way for this, as it encouraged me to start taking short story writing seriously. Throughout the writing class, I’ve drafted four short stories that I really like. I’d like to continue building up a collection of short stories and pursuing the Creative Writing certificate with the SCS. 

Learning Something New

Over the last few months, I’ve been intrigued by the concept of creating a personal curriculum. This idea has been gaining a lot of popularity online as a means of fighting social media “brain rot” and encouraging lifelong learning. To create a personal curriculum, you start by choosing a subject that you want to learn more about and then develop a self-directed “course” with designated readings (books, articles), lectures (videos, podcasts, audiobooks) and assignments. 

I’ve personally been interested in learning more about philosophy, and have started to build a personal curriculum for myself around it. My goals are to get a better grasp of the history and topics within the field and read some primary texts. This isn’t necessarily just a winter project, but something that might turn into a 2026 goal more broadly. If I stick with it, I’m sure it’s something I’ll make more blog posts about in the future. 

In any event, these are some of the things I’ve been up to that have been helping me deal with the winter blues. I hope that if you’ve been struggling, this post (or others like it) might be able to give you some ideas on how to stave them off for yourself. And, if not, just remember that this too shall pass. Even though the next few months are going to be tough, spring will come again soon enough. I started off this post by talking about how it was 7:30am and the sun hadn’t yet started to rise. It helps to keep in mind that December 21st is just around the corner, and the days will start getting longer again. 

With love, 

Laura Kate

  1. This might sound romantic, but I actually live in a condo in an industrial area, so it’s much less picturesque than you’re probably envisioning. ↩︎
  2. Strength training is new to me and something that I’m doing to make me a stronger runner. I’m keeping it very easy and have just been following videos from fitness coaches online. My favourite workouts have been from the channel Nourish Move Love on YouTube. ↩︎

The Artist’s Way: Week Twelve Reflections

Recovering a Sense of Faith

As I’m drafting this, it’s Sunday morning. I’m watching the first snow of the season from my apartment window. I have to meet a friend for brunch in a little while, and I’m dreading braving the outdoors. I fear that no amount of layers, sweaters and socks will keep me warm. As much as I’m trying to be a little less gloomy about the winter this year, the colder weather is still going to take some getting used to. 

If you’ve been keeping track, this week was the last week of The Artist’s Way program. I’m so proud of myself for committing to it over the course of the last few months. As I’m sure you know by now, The Artist’s Way is a 12-week creative recovery program created by author Julia Cameron. In each week of the program, participants have to read a chapter in an accompanying text, go on an artist’s date, complete tasks and write daily morning pages.

Week twelve focused on recovering a sense of faith. The text opened with an invitation to acknowledge our deepest innermost dreams. Admitting our truest desires is the first step in forging a path towards them. This discussion forced me to think about my own conception of God. I admittedly go back and forth on the God question. I think the best way to describe myself right now is agnostic, even though I’m not the biggest fan of that word. But when it comes to the question of whether I believe in fate, I do have a sense that there is a “right” path for me in life, and I can either follow or resist it. I believe that there is some force in the universe keeping me on track and providing  intuition about what feels right and what feels wrong. Staying on the right path often feels easier than resisting. I think this way often when it comes to my career in law. I’ve made many little pivots over the years to try to find a place in the legal field that feels right for me. I started my career on Toronto Bay Street, then moved into private criminal defence work, and now work for a quasi-governmental agency. Each pivot has brought me closer to the path I feel is right for me. Each change has made life a little bit easier and opened up my world a little bit more. 

The Artist’s Way text went on to discuss the importance of trusting the creative process and embracing mystery. It then talked about living a creative life in general (“life is meant to be an artist date”). The chapter ended with a section re-affirming the importance of setting boundaries. There will always be matters that come up in our lives that threaten our commitments, goals and dreams. We must overcome them.

Artist Date and Other Artistic Endeavours

I don’t have much to say about the morning pages or tasks for this week. I did well with the morning pages: I had a few late entries, but didn’t miss a day. One notable task was repotting pinched and languishing plants- it was as if Julia Cameron knew about the pitiful state of the succulents in my apartment. 

I had a great artist date this week. I went to the West end of the city, got a butternut squash melt at my favourite sandwich shop, Vilda’s, then spent an hour at Pilot Coffee Roasters working on my short story, “Thanksgiving”. Interestingly, this was the only artist date I went on throughout the program which took place in a distinctly urban setting. The date brought me back to a younger version of myself, when I was a student who skipped class more often than not to subway downtown and explore the city. As I’ve gotten older and started working primarily in the downtown core, I’ve started taking Toronto for granted and resenting its loudness and busyness most of the time. This artist date made me appreciate the city for the first time in a while, and how lucky I am to live and work in such a vibrant, diverse place.

In terms of other artistic endeavours this week, I went to Arrowhead Provincial Park with my partner on Monday and took some pictures. It wasn’t easy- the weather didn’t cooperate. It was very cold and very rainy, and my camera lens was either foggy or damp the entire time.

I also finished “Thanksgiving” and submitted it to my short story class for an assignment (my professor gave me a “high pass” grade). I would share it here, but at the moment, I’m still a bit hesitant to share my fiction writing more publicly. Maybe one day! 

The Artist’s Way Overall Reflections

I think I might return to The Artist’s Way one day and reflect on the program more fulsomely with more distance from it. This being said, in case I don’t, I wanted to give some concluding thoughts about the program I’ve spent the last four months doing. 

In my opinion, you get out of the The Artist’s Way what you put into it. In order to get the full effect of the program, I think you need to comply with the rules to the best of your ability. You don’t have to be perfect, but you do have to try. Throughout the program, I went on twelve artist’s dates, performed at least three of the suggested tasks every week, and wrote morning pages 90% of the time. 

The weekly artist dates and daily morning pages were good non-negotiable exercises. The morning pages, even though I struggled with them at times, had a lot of obvious benefits. They forced me to confront my innermost thoughts and feelings and work through them- the good, the bad and the ugly. On the other hand, I loved the artist’s dates. Artist dates are meant to inspire you and give you space and permission to connect with your creative self. My artist dates included going to museums, taking walks in different places (often documenting them in photos) and going to different cafés to write. The dates also encouraged me to put my phone on airplane mode so I could notice and appreciate the world around me. I think, largely as a result of the artist dates, I got outside more and got to appreciate the autumn season to its fullest. 

The place where I see The Artist’s Way criticised the most heavily is the accompanying text. Possibly the most common critique I’ve seen about the program is that Cameron talks about God too much in the text. In my opinion, I agree that not everything in the text will resonate with every person that participates in the program. I think you have to pick and choose what parts of the text you take, and what parts you leave. Personally, about 60% of it connected with me, and the other 40% didn’t. I’m not fussed about this. I think most people will find that at least one aspect of the program resonates with them every week- if not in the text, then in the tasks, morning pages or artist date.

Overall, I really enjoyed my experience with The Artist’s Way and I’d recommend it to anyone who wanted to try it out.  Because of the program, I was able to get a clearer sense of who I am as an artist, start taking creative risks again, and let go of some fears around being a beginner. I started a website and have been blogging on a weekly basis. I’ve been learning how to paint with watercolours. I fixed my DSLR camera. I signed up for a writing class. I tried out a number of new recipes. I’m very happy with the results of the program and can even see myself revisiting it in the future. Moving forward, when I feel creatively blocked, I know I can always return to the tools of the program- the text, morning pages and artist dates- to get me unstuck. I’m optimistic that with the lessons I learned in the last twelve (really, thirteen) weeks, I can continue living a creative life moving forward. 

With love, 

Laura Kate

The Artist’s Way: Week Eleven Reflections

Recovering a Sense of Autonomy

Happy November!

It’s currently very late on Saturday night (really- very early on Sunday morning) and I just witnessed the first World Series loss I’ve ever cared about. I started following baseball for the first time this year, and my home team (the Toronto Blue Jays) performed exceptionally well over the course of the season. Although I’m a little bitter about the Dodgers’ win, I’m happy to have followed something so monumental in Toronto’s sports history. The energy in the city has been electric over the past week- we were all united by the Blue Jays. 

Onward to the topic of this blog post, my reflections on week eleven of The Artist’s Way. This week focused on recovering a sense of autonomy. The text started with a long passage (almost a manifesto?) about accepting oneself as an artist. It felt like a summation of a lot of different concepts and ideas that have been explored throughout the program.

The text went on to discuss achieving success as an artist, and how to choose creative projects for pay. If you work as an artist for a living, you may be hired for projects that pay the bills, but that aren’t creatively fulfilling. Cameron talks about considering the hidden costs of accepting such projects- time and creative energy- and suggests balancing such projects with personal artistic endeavours that do fill your cup. 

There was also a long section in the text called “The Zen of Sports” which talked about the importance of physical activity to artists. This conversation resonated with me, and also brought to mind Haruki Murakami’s memoir, “What I Talk About When I Talk About Running” (which I love, and have read twice). Artists can benefit from physical activity in a variety of different ways. A lot of artists find that their minds wander freely when they exercise, bringing them inspiration. Others (including a friend I spoke to this week) find that exercising is a great time to puzzle through issues that come up in their projects. Personally, as a long-distance runner and walker, I find that walking frees up my mind for thinking things over, and running gives me perspective. Both activities have been extremely beneficial to my art.

Finally, the text invited readers to build an artist’s altar: a place to keep little things that make them happy. A so-called “altar” can be as big as an entire room or as small as a window ledge. As it turns out, I already sort of have one- it’s my bookshelf. My bookshelf houses my book collection, yes, but also little treasures I’ve collected throughout my life that bring me joy, including origami stars, cute blind box figurines, a set of glass fruits gifted to me by my grandmother, a jar of seaglass and ceramic seal statues that my mom gave me. My bookshelf is, without a doubt, my favourite part of my apartment. 

Morning Pages

I did poorly with the morning pages this week. There were two days I made late entries and two days I skipped the pages altogether. There has been so much resistance with these pages over the last few weeks. Honestly, I just don’t think they’re for me. To get back on track, I had to remind myself that I made a commitment to finishing The Artist’s Way program; and that the morning pages are an integral part of it. I also tried to give myself some perspective: at this point in the program, I only have one more week of pages left to go, and then I never have to write them again.

Tasks

Fitting as The Artist’s Way is coming to a close, a lot of the tasks for this week asked participants to consider their plans, goals and dreams for the future. Personally, I’m worried about not being able to keep the magic of The Artist’s Way alive once I get back to my everyday life. Concrete goals tend to work better for me than abstract ones, so I’ll need to find a way to set a practical goal for myself in relation to creating.1

Artist Date and Other Artistic Endeavours

This week was filled with a lot of late nights watching the World Series. This said, I did manage to get some writing done. I started drafting a new short story (no title yet, but it’s about a man found guilty of a crime who is awaiting his sentencing) and kept working on the short story I drafted in Week 7 (which has the working title “Thanksgiving”). I also made banana chocolate chip muffins again.

My artist date this week was a bit of a bust. It started with the best of intentions- I drove up to Newmarket with plans to walk through Fairy Lake Park and then go to a café and work a bit on “Thanksgiving”. Unfortunately, it was so cold outside I could barely enjoy the walk, and when I got to the café to write, let’s just say my laptop had other plans. If there was any positive takeaway from this week’s artist date, I’d say that at least I had a pretty good iced coffee and bagel with cream cheese at the café. If you’re ever in Newmarket, I highly recommend Metropolis Mercantile + Café. 

In any event- bad artist date aside- all I can do is move forward. Wish me luck for week twelve!

With love, 

Laura Kate

  1. I’m thinking about a goal of creating and sharing one work per week- whether that be a blog post, photoset, watercolour painting or something else. ↩︎

The Artist’s Way: Week Ten Reflections

Recovering a Sense of Self-Protection

Happy Monday!

Because of the half-marathon monopolizing all of my time and mental energy last week, I decided to stretch “Week Ten” of The Artist’s Way into two weeks. 

Week Ten focused on recovering a sense of self-protection. It involved identifying potentially toxic patterns of thought. In the Artist’s Way text, Julia Cameron discussed how we each have our own vices (for example, substance use, workaholism, or obsessions with “painful love” or complicated relationships) which block our creative flow. One of the tasks for the week involved reflecting on our vices and how they impact us creatively.  I found the exercise useful- I identified a few things I routinely find myself preoccupied with (dynamic, difficult relationships; food, exercise and body image) which tend to sap the resources (time, mental and creative energies) I could otherwise be channelling into my art. 

The text also had sections dedicated to unpacking the perils of worrying about fame and being hyper-competitive towards other artists. In the case of the former, when we turn our focus from the creative process to achieving and maintaining fame, we invite “a continual feeling of lack”, because fame is a drug one can never get enough of. In the case of the latter, being hyper-competitive and focusing on the achievements of others shifts our focus away from ourselves and our own unique talents. We may stop creating original work if we start worrying that our art should more closely resemble others’. Cameron advises staying true to who we are and creating what we are drawn to create. As she says, “each of us is our own country, an interesting place to visit.” Personally, while I don’t think I’ve ever been particularly focused on becoming famous, I am quite susceptible to getting into a competitive mindset. A competitive attitude is helpful in the courtroom when I’m wearing my lawyer hat, but not so helpful in my creative life. I guess it just goes to show that competitiveness, like many traits, can be helpful or harmful, depending on the context.

Finally, Cameron acknowledged creative drought: the painful, inevitable fact that, “in any creative life, there [will be] dry seasons.” Her solution is to “stumble on”- to keep creating, to keep writing morning pages, because we must. Like all things, with time, creative droughts end. 

Artist Date

Surprise, surprise- my artist date this week was another walk through a forest. I wasn’t originally planning for the walk to be my artist date, but once I was on it, I turned it into one. Generally when I go for walks, I tune out the world around me with my inner dialogue or by listening to audiobooks, podcasts or music. This time, I treated the walk as a sensory experience; making an effort to take in the sights, sounds and smells. I was overcome by the beauty of my surroundings, and the experience honestly made me feel like a child again. I waded through red and orange leaves scattered on the forest floor, felt the sun’s rays streaming through the trees and onto my face, smelled the earth. The experience was nothing short of magical. 

Other Artistic Endeavours 

Over the past two weeks, I painted another watercolour picture and baked carrot muffins. I am starting to develop instincts about ingredients and spices that I definitely didn’t have before. I think it’s safe to say that I’ve gotten the hang of baking muffins at this point- over the course of The Artist’s Way, I think I’ve made at least 4 different kinds. Moving forward, I’d like to challenge myself to try out more difficult recipes. My partner has been suggesting pies…

I also started a new class at the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies: Writing Short Fiction. As you might recall, in Week Two of The Artist’s Way, I reflected on the fact that I struggle with writing longform fiction, and always get more satisfaction out of writing short stories and nonfiction pieces. Since then, I’ve been producing nonfiction content pretty regularly through these weekly blog posts. I’m hopeful that the class I’m taking at the SCS will allow me to learn more about short story writing as a genre, and give me an excuse to write more short stories. I’m excited to see where the class takes me.

Winter Anxiety

In completely unrelated news, something that’s been on my mind is how I’m going to cope with the coming winter season. I feel the weather already starting to shift- night falls early and the temperature is dropping… there was frost in the grass this morning. With these observations comes a sense of acute dread. I come by my apprehension of winter honestly- my mother would live in 30°C weather all year if she could. This said, I’m determined to avoid seasonal depression this year. I’ve been doing a lot of research online for anecdotal accounts from creators about how not to hate the winter season. 

One of the perspectives I fell upon suggested treating winter as a call for rest: a time to give yourself permission to slow down, prioritize recovery and indulge in little luxuries you otherwise wouldn’t. As a productivity addict who struggles with having any downtime on her schedule, the idea of having a designated time of year for rest sounds both impractical and daunting- but also interesting. I’ve found this autumn season to be unusually busy and difficult to keep up with (between work, social obligations, The Artist’s Way, half-marathon training, and now a creative writing class). Perhaps prioritizing rest for the next few months wouldn’t be so bad.

With love- and until next week, 

Laura Kate

What Running Taught Me About Being a Beginner

Alternative title: “A Love Letter to Running”

On October 19, 2025, after more than 7 months of training, I ran the Toronto Waterfront Half Marathon; my first half-marathon race.1 It was incredible- one of the most difficult things I’ve ever accomplished, and also one of the most rewarding. 

I’ve been a runner now for a little over a year. I started running in the summer of 2024.2 My first 5-kilometre race was the Holly Jolly Fun Run that November. In May of this year, I ran the Sporting Life 10k. From there, I decided to keep my momentum going and train for a half marathon. 

Training didn’t come easily. I started with little to no base level of running ability. Although I regularly walked and hiked long distances, the last time I’d tried to run was in high school gym class. In deciding to become a runner, I knew I would be starting from “zero”: being able to run continuously for maybe one minute maximum (and no, I don’t even mean in one minute intervals) and after a lifetime of telling myself that I was bad at sports and could never be an athlete. This being said, starting from zero ended up being a good thing for me- it prevented me from setting my expectations too high and letting perfectionism get in the way of the process. 

While running has brought so many great things into my life, the biggest benefit I’ve gained has been learning how to be a beginner. In this blog post, I wanted to talk about my experience becoming a runner, and share some of the lessons it has taught me- lessons which are applicable to so many other areas of life.

Lesson One: Set Small, Incremental Goals.

When I started running in June 2024, my initial “end goal” was to run a half-marathon by that October. At first, I thought a half-marathon was something I could reasonably train up to in 4 months. I found some “couch to half marathon” training plans online and tried to follow them; but quickly found that running was a lot more difficult than I expected. I wasn’t able to hit the targets in the plans, became quickly discouraged, and eventually gave up training.  

Things changed in the fall when I made an offhand comment to my now-boyfriend that I wanted to be a runner. A runner and cyclist himself, instead of suggesting that I sign up for a big race, he encouraged me to start with a 5k. Compared to a half-marathon, I found training with a 5k goal in mind much less daunting. Instead of worrying about the prospect of running for more than 2 hours straight, I only had to worry about running for 35 minutes. I signed up for the Holly Jolly Fun Run, and, after a few weeks of training, I was able to finish the race with a 33-minute time.

My friend Stephanie and I in November 2024
training for the Holly Jolly Fun Run 5k

Something I would recommend to all new runners is to set small, incremental goals instead of big ones. Things “clicked” for me when my targets became more achievable. My first few running goals were so small that they weren’t related to distance at all, they focused on time: run 3 minutes without stopping. 5 minutes. 10. 15. When I was able to run in 15-minute intervals, my focus shifted to distances: run a 5k. A 10k. A half-marathon.

When the path to a goal seems more achievable, you’re more likely to work towards it. You can build towards your big goals by setting small ones. This approach keeps you focused on the present instead of worrying about a distant, more-intimidating future.

Lesson Two: Embrace Novelty. 

As a beginner, it’s important to periodically check in with yourself and evaluate what methods are working for you and which are not. It’s also important to experiment with new tools and strategies. 

My running strategy has evolved dramatically from when I started out. Some modifications were borne out of necessity from having to solve problems that arose over the course of training. For instance, something that came up early on was experiencing calf pain for days following runs. I was able to resolve this issue by implementing a pre-run stretching routine, buying better shoes and changing my footstrike. I also started experimenting with a shoe rotation when I started experiencing blistering from wearing the same pair of shoes on every run. 

Other modifications to my running strategy came from experimentation for fun. I tried running with both running belts and hydration vests, and found out that I vastly preferred running with vests (despite how dorky I thought they looked). I also experimented with different ways of carrying water (smaller flasks vs. water bladders) and different ways of fueling (I first tried dates, then moved onto running gels and chews).

Trying new things isn’t just a tip for beginners- I think it’s something we should all challenge ourselves to do. Failing to embrace novelty can hinder your personal growth and development. 

Lesson Three: Understand that Progress is Not Linear.

I’ve heard a saying that for every one good run, there will be one mediocre run and one bad run. Not every run will be great. Some runs will be awful. You will not notice improvement after every run. Some days you won’t want to run at all. But, even in the face of roadblocks,  you need to persist.

I’ve experienced my fair share of “bad” runs. I had a number of runs where I had to stop after 2 or 3km because of excruciating side stitches, runs I had to take breaks in the middle of, and a meant-to-be-12km run that I ended early because I ran out of water.

My biggest failure was on what should have been a 20km peak long run in September. I’d been building up to 20km for months, and had just done a 19km run the week before. Despite this, when out for my 20km run, I hit a total mental roadblock very early on and had to stop. I tried taking a half hour break, walking, trying to re-motivate myself- but nothing worked. I didn’t complete the run. Nonetheless, I didn’t let one shitty run get to me. The next week, I tried again, and ended up running my first 21.1km distance.

Progress is not linear; there will be highs and lows in everything we do. The most we can do is learn to trust and embrace the journey.

Photos from September 28, 2025, when I ran my first 21.1km distance after failing my
20km run the week before

Lesson Four: Surround yourself with people who make you feel supported.

Something I struggle with is comparing myself to other runners in terms of pace. I’m definitely not the fastest runner out there. I’m still working on accepting that everyone is different, everyone’s bodies are different, everyone has different abilities, and the only person I should be comparing myself to is myself.

Something that has helped me immensely in this particular struggle is following influencers from the “slow running” community online. There’s not a specific pace that defines a slow runner, but in general, slow runners prioritize enjoying running and getting longer distances under their belts instead of worrying about how fast they’re going. This running community reminds me that I can still be a runner, even if I’m not going to win any races anytime soon. I’m also very lucky to have other wonderful runners in my offline life (like my partner who slows his pace to match mine when we run together, and my friend Stephanie, a natural cheerleader) who provide support and encouragement every step of the way.

Photos from a 17km long run at Tommy Thompson Park on August 23, 2025

Future Running Goals

In just one year, running has brought so many good things into my life, and I’m so excited to see what my future in the sport will look like. Now that I’ve finished a half-marathon and fallen in love with long-distance running, you’d think that I’d want to immediately start training for a full marathon- but I don’t. Not yet, anyway. My goal over the coming late fall and winter seasons is to maintain my running fitness. I would like to continue regularly running 10km. I’m considering training for another half-marathon in the spring, but I haven’t signed up for any races yet.  Even though I’m excited to continue making progress, I’m also excited to move into a period of maintenance, where I can give myself permission to slow down, just for a while. 

Perhaps ironically- there’s no rush.

With love,

Laura Kate

  1. For anyone counting, I finished the race in 2 hours and 11 minutes. ↩︎
  2. I started running for a number of reasons, some more ridiculous than others. These included: (1) being bitter about one of my exes, who is a runner; (2) wanting to strengthen my fitness routine with an exercise more intensive than walking; and, (3) wanting to play into the joke about people in their late twenties either getting married or training for a marathon (I wasn’t getting married anytime soon…). ↩︎