Gloomy Days on Long Island

I just got back home lastnight from being on Long Island, NY for a week. It was dark, rainy and humid all week! It was sort of depressing to be honest, its so true that your mood changes when the weather isnt nice. It was hard to get motivated to train all week. A lot of the days we would have to wait till the afternoon to train because the weather was so bad. I also had some shin problems which forced me to not racewalk for one day and instead ran. I had 2 good workouts though on Wednesday and on Saturday and I was also able to train with Maria on Saturday and Sunday!

On Wednesday I had 7 X 2km with 2:30 rest. I was looking forward to doing this and had planned to walk some of them with Maria while she did her lactate test. Her and Tim went to the track early and I was going to go a bit later to do her last 2 2km's when she was going around my pace but when I tried to go to the track, the school security guard didnt let me go into the track area so I had to wait to train for a few more hours. I was really upset because I had waken up early (6:30am) but instead I had to wait around and didnt start training till around 10:15am. By this time, I was getting hungry and the humidity was 100%! Either way, I got through the workout even though I felt terrible. It helped that Tim ran with me because his knee was hurting. Here were my times:

1st: 9:56

2nd: 9:46 (2.7 Lactate)

3rd: 9:45

4th: 9:44 (2.9 Lactate)

5th: 9:44

6th: 9:39 (3.8 Lactate)

7th: 9:43

We took lactate on the 2nd, 4th and 6th repeats and it showed that it was a good pace for me, around 20km pace or a little easier so it was perfect. Im really happy that I got through the workout but it was definitely the hardest workout I had in awhile because of the humidity and the length of time I had to wait till I trained that morning.

Saturday was much better! I was really looking forward to training with Maria since it had been SOOO long since I trained with someone, it was actually weird though to be honest. Im just so not used to having someone there racewalking with me. It was good though! We had to do the workout on the track (right behind Tim's parents house) because our friend Mike Bartholomew was being ordained as a priest later that morning. So Maria and I did 10 X 1km/400m fartlek. Here is how it went:

1st: 5:05

2nd: 5:01

3rd: 4:54

4th: 4:52

5th: 4:51

6th: 4:50

7th: 4:46

8th: 4:49

9th: 4:42

10th: 4:38

I felt great for this workout. It felt very easy and comfortable. It didnt feel like I was really pushing which was exactly how I wanted it to be. Tim wanted Maria and I to make sure that we walked the 400m's inbetween repeats together. We walked much slower for those 400's than I would have wanted to or usually do but it didnt matter, as long as I just had a training partner, it was good. Its nice to see Maria getting back into good shape!

Overall, I had a good week, especially being with Tim and seeing his family again. Now I wont see Tim for another month but I have a lot to concentrate on to keep my mind off not seeing him for so long. I have Nationals in less than 2 weeks (June 28th in Toronto) and World Student Games on July 10th in Serbia! Now training is going to slow down and get "easier" so I can race well!

Keep on walking,

Rachel