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