Ottawa Race Weekend Fun!

This weekend I went to Ottawa to participate in the Ottawa Race Weekend. First I went to the expo on Saturday afternoon to get my race kit and was surprised by how many people I saw that I knew from Peterborough! After getting my race kit I went to the Mizuno area and met some of the people that work with me and the rest of the Mizuno Brand Ambassdor athletes. They were so welcoming! I feel so fortunate to be supported by them.

I had registered for the 10km even that night at 6:30pm so between the expo and the race I went and spent time at the hotel suite of Roger Burrows and the Bytown Walkers (http://www.bytownwalkers.ca/) before I had to warm up for the race. It was really nice to be surrounded by other racewalkers. Since I am away so much from Canada, its always nice to get to see the other Canadian walkers and get to know them. They were also racing the 10km that evening.

I always getting worried when I enter a running race if I decide to racewalk it, especially when there are a lot of entrants because either I can get trampled on or have to weave through everyone to pass the slowing runners. My bib number said that I could choose the corral that I wanted to go in so I decided to go in the first corral, that way people that were faster than me could pass me and I wouldnt then have to do as much passing. It ended up being the right decision too!

Before the gun went off, I was looking all around me to see if I could see Tim Berrett, who I knew was also participating in the 10km race but I couldnt see him. So I started and funny enough, almost a km later I hear a familiar voice behind me and it was Tim! It was a really nice surprise and we ended up walking together for the whole race. We were talking the whole time, catching up since I hadnt seen him since Nationals last year and when I saw the first split that I caught, which was at 4km's I thought oh no we are going to walk 50 minutes! Coach Tim wanted me to walk around 49-49:30 for a good solid tempo pace workout. So we went through 4km's in 20:03 and then when I caught the next split, 9:58 for the next 2km's I thought ok maybe we can get it back on track while still having a full on conversation. Finally I felt like we were getting into a better rhythm and then the next 4km's was great. My splits were: 4:53, 4:53, 4:46 and a shocking 4:40 last km uphill that felt great! So I ended up finishing in 49:15 (25:02 first 5km, 24:13 second 5km). So I was happy with how it went and it was really fun to walk with Tim!

Usually when you enter a running race and racewalk it, you always hear different comments but to my surprise, everyone was saying "look at those racewalkers". I cannot believe how much I heard the word racewalkers out there! Usually you always hear speedwalker, power walker, etc. So it was awesome to see that the crowd was educated on the proper name for our event!

Here is a picture of Tim Berrett and I at Nationals last year when we both won.

Tomorrow I have a speed workout, my only "hard" workout this week since I have the Art Keay, Ontario 10km RW Championships on Sunday.

Keep on walking,

Rachel

Tim and Jefferson's Commercial for State Farm Insurance

Hey there!

I just wanted to put up a link to a State Farm commercial that has a short clip with Tim and Jefferson Perez in it: www.youtube.com/statefarm Its pretty cool that they wanted to use a clip with some racewalkers even though you dont see them racewalking or anything.

Enjoy!
Rachel

Another Good Day!

Today I had another long interval workout. My confidence has definitely come back after last Tuesdays 3 X 4km/1km workout and it continued today as I had 4 X 3km repeats with 3 minutes rest inbetween. Again, today the goal was just to be around 20km race pace and a bit faster by the end of it. It wasnt meant to feel too difficult and it definitely didnt feel hard at all. I finished the workout feeling like I had just done an easy distance day. Here is how my times went:

1st: 14:56

2nd: 14:42

3rd: 14:34

4th: 14:23

We should have probably made this workout a fartlek with 1km medium inbetween each 3km repeat to make it harder but since I am just starting to come back now into regular training and we wanted to make sure that it went ok. My mentality has changed completely in the last week and a half that my training has been going well and consistent after struggling with my hamstring.

This weekend I will be heading to Ottawa for the Ottawa Race Weekend that includes the National Marathon Championships which, by the way, my Mom won twice in the 70's and my Dad came 2nd twice alson in the 70's. I will be participating in the 10km event on Saturday night for fun to support Mizuno (http://www.mizunocda.com/) the headline athletic sponsor for the event.

Keep on walking,
Rachel

Weekend in the Windy City!

Today I got back home from being in Chicago for the weekend. Even though the city is called the "windy city", it definitely wasnt windy! I was there for a few reasons. First of all to see my fiance, Tim Seaman, who I havent seen for a month because of me going to Europe to race and coming home to Canada after being away for 4+ months! The other reason was to help him and Jeff Salvage with their Racewalking Clinic that they were holding there on Saturday and Sunday. They had about 23 attendees and it went very well. Everyone really enjoyed the clinic and we got some very good positive feedback about how professional the guys were with their very high tech power points and pictures. If anyone is interested in attending a clinic or hosting a clinic held by Tim and Jeff you can visit their new website, www.racewalkclinic.com. You can also see their new "Race Walk Clinic- In a Book" book on that website available for $23.95 USD.

It was really nice to be training somewhere different than my usual course for a few days. There are a lot of great training paths there. The one that we trained on 2 out of the 3 days I was there was the 19 mile in one direction path along the lake. It was so nice and flat and there were always so many people out there running, walking, cycling, rollerblading, etc! Saturday I did the Norwegian Fartlek (2mins hard/2mins medium, 4/2, 6/2, 8/2, 7/2, 5/2, 3/2, 1). I felt like it went really well. I was able to get my heart rate (HR) up to just over 190 bpm which is usually about 20km race pace HR. Even though I dont know exactly how far I went in the 50 minute fartlek, I felt really good about it. Tim and I then managed to go for a 6km run after the clinic on Saturday. Sunday I had 25km's on the schedule and since we didnt have any kilometer marks on the path, I just walked by time and HR (2 hours and 30 minutes/ 160 HR). My mind was playing some games with me a little bit. It just was difficult mentally to go for that long by myself and without any KM markers to go off of. I did make it through the whole thing and overall felt good. It was my first time in over a month and a half that I did a 25km walk.

This week I had 126.5km's for this weeks mileage. I feel so good that I dont find that much mileage high anymore! Tomorrow I have another good long interval workout, 4 X 3km/3mins Rest! Im looking forward to it!

Keep on walking,
Rachel

Back to Normal!

I have been home from Europe for a week and a half now and I am finally feeling back to normal now after struggling with training for the last month and a half of having a hamstring injury. Its still not 100% BUT it is almost gone.

Since Saturday, my heart rate has dropped drastically and I am feeling great. I have been having great workouts and feeling good since Saturday and not pushing in training even though I feel great. Today I had a really tough workout, 3km warm up, 3 X 4km with 1km active rest in between, 2km cool down, 20km total workout. Here is how it went:

1st: 19:54/5:55 (25:49 for 5km)

2nd: 19:46/5:52 (25:38 for 5km)

3rd: 19:41/5:49 (25:30 for 5km)

Im really surprised how easy this workout felt. I was really worried about it because ive lost some confidence in my training since I started struggling with the injury, however, after this workout, my confidence is definitely back. Coach Tim told me that the goal for this workout was to make it feel comfortable and not go faster than 4:55 pace, which is my PB 20km pace. My total time for the workout was 1:16:58 for 15km so that was great.

Now im looking forward to getting more training in before my next race which is on May 31st at the Art Keay on Toronto Island where I will walk a 10km.

Keep on walking,
Rachel