On a Roll

First I need to apologize for not posting in a long time. It seems as though I got out of my routine when my sister and niece came to visit and lost it from then on. Here is a recap of what ive been up to the last month and a half :)

When my sister and niece came to visit we had another person arrive in San Diego. Our close friend and training partner Lauren Forgues had decided to move here to give herself the best chance to improve and give her athletic career her all. It has been amazing having her here. Its great to have another girl here since the only other people we train with here is John Nunn, Andreas Gustafsson and of course my husband/coach Tim. She has really excelled in the short time she has been here. This is going to be her year and she is going to surprise everyone, I am so excited for her!

My training has been going really well. Ive been really focused this fall, way more than ever before. I have done a couple workouts that I did last year at this time and this year I can really tell that I am way ahead of where I was last year. I have been able to get much more mileage in this year, especially since we didnt "loose" training because of a wedding/honeymoon like we did last year. Last year I only had one month over 500km's and so far this fall I have had two and this month it seems like it will be my third. I have been on a roll and feeling great.

On the weekend on December 5th we went to Las Vegas to participate in the Rock n' Roll Las Vegas Marathon/Half Marathon courtesy of the Competitor Group. We did this event last year and we had a great time. This year Tim decided to do the full marathon since he is in training for the USA 50km RW Championships and I did the half marathon again. We decided that I would walk the first 15km's with Tim as a tempo walk for me. The gun went off and things were looking good but Tim started to have stomach problems and he ended up having to stop 3 times when I was with him. Having to start and stop a few times made me tighten up a bit but I still felt good. We were walking between 5:00-5:05/km and it felt so comfortable. I was able to talk very easily with Tim and my heart rate stayed very low which we were both surprised about. When it came to the 15km mark I decided to keep walking with Tim till 20km's when the half and the full marathon course split up. I was feeling good and thought that Tim would like the company for as long as he could have it. I went through 20km's in 1:41:25 and 1:47:09 for the half marathon (21.1km's). I was thrilled with this especially since I had just done 120km's that week before that day so I wasnt resting at all for this "race"/workout.

So far it has been an almost ideal fall base training period and its looking good as I look towards the winter/spring racing. This weekend we will head to Canada to spend Christmas with my family for the week and then the day after Christmas we will fly to South Texas for the USATF Junior Racewalk Training Camp for a week then finally we will come back home to San Diego.

Our first race of the season will be on January 23rd in Irvine, CA at the USA 50km RW Championships where Tim will look to win his first 50km Championship and I will walk a low key 20km with Tyler Sorensen for his debut 20km. We are really looking forward to the event.

Happy holidays to everyone and dont forget to keep on walking,

Rachel

Time for Some Visitors

Training has continued to go well. I have been very consistent and my mileage is increasing comfortably and I couldnt be feeling better. I am just starting to get into a little higher mileage (much more to come) and as I have said in previous posts, I am so much more ahead of last year. I am so focused and ready to have a breakthrough season. I am getting into some longer walks finally. Last weekend I did my first workout over 20k. Did 22k at Lake Miramar about 30 minutes north of where we live in California. There is a great path that goes all around the lake that is 8km's long. Its so nice to "just" have to do 3 laps to finish a workout. Today we went there again to walk 25k and I felt great.

This month is full of visitors and soon to be residents coming to San Diego. The last few days we have had our friend Ray come to visit from Las Vegas. It was great to catch up with him again and do a workout with him. Today my sister Rebecca and her beautiful baby girl Anna arrived and will be staying with me for the week. I am so excited to see them again and to have a training partner for the week. The next person arriving into sunny San Diego is Lauren Foruges!!! She has spent the last few days driving and will arrive here on Monday. She is the first TEAM member that has decided to make the move here and focus on training in hopes of making the Olympic Team. I am so excited to have her here and to have, finally, another woman to add to our daily training group here. Another person from our TEAM will be joining us for a few days of training later next month and I am really looking forward to that also!

A Canadian magazine, Chatelaine, wrote a short article on me and tips from me about racewalking. You can view the article here.

Keep on walking,

Rachel

Wisconsin, beautiful?

This is the view we had from our hotel room in Kenosha, Wisconsin on the weekend. We were staying right on the lakefront and it was just beautiful. Tim said that it was probably the best weather he had ever had while in Wisconsin (Tim lived there for 5 years in his college days). This was my first time in Wisconsin so I definitely had a good experience. Along the lake was a bike path so we were able to wake up and step out of the hotel and start training right from there. It was awesome! We were able to catch up with some friends that live in the area for a few days of good training (Thanks Ben, Miranda and Amber!). I did my first 20km of the season on Saturday and it went really well, I felt great and walked a good time for this time of the year. I am still around 4 weeks ahead if not more, ahead of where I was last year.

It was really fun for Tim to bring me around to where he used to live and work and go over some fun memories that he has from his college days. We were able to go to the University of Wisconsin-Parkside athletic building and see all of the All-American plaques (mostly racewalkers, yay!). I wont humiliate Tim and put the picture of his plaque on here but lets just say that im glad the haircut he had is no longer in style!

Next up was the Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. It was great to hear about all of the other athletes accomplishments for the school. UWP definitely has had a lot of success in athletics. Tim gave a great speech and was presented with a medal and plaque that will be hung on the walls of the UWP athletic halls. What a great honor and definitely well deserved! We had a great time with his parents who also came up from Long Island, NY.

We are glad to be back home and now heading into a busy few weekends of Racewalking Clinics. This weekend Tim heads to Houston to meet up with Jeff for a Clinic of Excellence and then comes a clinic in Santa Cruz, CA on Oct.30-31st then the final clinic of the year in Springfield, IL on Nov. 13-14th. I hope you can join us at one of the clinics, they are always a lot of fun and you learn a lot. I will be attending the ones in Santa Cruz and Springfield. See you then!

Keep on walking,

Rachel

Dinner with El Presidente

Since my last post training has really come a long way. My heart rate has settled down a lot and my pace has dropped drastically. Since I am in base season now I am only training in zone #1 which is basically easy distance. The times I have been walking put me 3-4 weeks ahead of where I was last year at this time. I know that doesnt seem like much but it feels like a lot for me. I attribute my improvement to my weight training. I feel very strong and powerful already and I have only been doing weights for 3.5 weeks. Did I mention that I LOVE weights?! I dont know why I stopped the last 3 or 4 years.

Last Thursday Tim and I had the pleasure of going out for dinner with the great one, Jefferson Perez from Ecuador. He is the '96 Olympic Champion (only Olympic Medalist ever for Ecuador), 3 time World Champion ('03, '05 and '07) and '08 Olympic Silver Medalist. He's pretty great! Tim has known him since '96 before he won the Olympics. Jefferson was in San Diego studying at the University of California in San Diego (UCSD) for the week at a political leadership summit. We were able to catch up with him last Thursday night and it was so nice to see him again. We hadnt seen him for 3 years. He has been very busy building his multiple businesses and going to school to earn his Doctorate in Business. It was nice to go through all of his racewalking stories. We miss him not competing anymore but he is still doing great things that are impacting the world.

This weekend Tim and I are headed to Wisconsin to go to Tim's alma mater, University of Winsconsin-Parkside. Tim is finally getting inducted into their hall of fame, 15 years after graduating. We are so excited for this and I cant wait to finally go visit his school where he has so many great memories from.

Keep on walking,

Rachel

Time to Buckle Down

Its been 2 weeks since I started training and so far ive been feeling pretty good. Ive been slowly building up the mileage and doing weights 3 times a week. Ive been a bit slow to start. My heart rate has been pretty high and my pace has been slow but I am seeing progress.

Today Athletics Canada released the 2011 World Championships/Pan Am Games qualifying standards. AC has made some good steps in the right direction. They have released the standards earlier than ever and they have stayed with the IAAF standards. The bad news for me is that they are using the Rising Star criteria again for both events. Since I went to the 2009 World Championships under the Rising Star criteria, I am no longer eligible EVER to compete at any major international event with the B standard, I will always have to achieve the A standard which is considerably faster. I now have to break 1:33:30 for 20km's in order to qualifying for anything, which is a minute and 20 seconds FASTER than the Canadian Record!

Since taking my 3 weeks off, I have come back to training feeling a lot more confident in my potential. I know I can make big jumps and can achieve the A standard. I dont know if it will come this season or the next one but I know that I have the potential and that if I work hard and do everything I can to improve, that I can do it! I have re-committed myself this year to doing all the right things and train like a professional athlete. I have no reasons why I shouldnt be doing everything that I need to. Its time to buckle down and focus on getting my times down! Lets get it done!!!

Keep on walking,

Rachel

Here We Go Again...

Three weeks off just flew by! Before you know it, you're back at it again. I didn't do much training during my time off. I only ran and at the most 3 times a week. I was really happy to see that I didn't gain any weight and when I did run, I felt like I didn't loose much fitness.

Last week I started back training. First day was 6km racewalk in the morning and 6km run in the afternoon. As usual, the first day racewalking felt weird and not very smooth. I feel like this every year after taking my time off. I only racewalked 3 times last week and ran on the days inbetween and hiked on Sunday. As the week went on I started to feel a bit more normal racewalking. My heart rate is still high for me but everytime I racewalk the average heart rate has been going down bit by bit. This week I will racewalk 4 times and so far im feeling so much better. I also started doing weights again last week. I havent done weights for a few years and now that I am back at it, I don't know why I ever stopped. I LOVE doing weights!!! Im not doing anything heavy but i'm doing typical distance athletes weights. Low weight and medium amount of repetitions. I am doing weights three times a week at Cuyamaca College. I signed up for the Strength and Conditioning course. It basically gives me access to the weight room and I can do whatever I want and all I have to do is record the machines I use and the weight I set them at. I have been spending a lot of time at the College because Tim is now the men's cross country coach there. The picture above is of the men's team, Tim and I at their 2nd race. Its been a lot of fun. Tonight I also started a yoga class. I am hoping that it will help increase my flexibility. I have never done yoga before but so far so good, I didn't embarrass myself too much :)

I am feeling very excited for the new season and I feel like I have changed my approach to training both mentally and physically. This year is going to be different and I cant wait to get the ball rolling. Here's to a good season!

Keep on walking,

Rachel

Time to Call it a Day, or Year...

Well I have finally come to a decision. It was a difficult decision for me but I know that I made the right one. I have decided to stop training for the season and take a break. After getting hurt a week after Nationals and struggling to get back into training after that, I just thought that I was going to have enough to prepare properly for a good race. I have been struggling with a lot of different things this year and I didnt want to end my season with yet another disappointment by putting myself in a situation that I wasnt prepared.

As I reflect on my season, I am extremely disappointed. Its hard to go from such a breakthrough year in 2009 to not improving from that in 2010. I know that I need to think about the positives and I did have personal bests over 5000m's and 10km's and those were two PB's that I really wanted to get. I also have to realize the different reasons why I struggled in the 2nd part of the season. The car accident was one thing that really hurt me mentally and I had such a hard time recovering from that. I am going to take this year as a learning experience and I am going to implement the things that I had wanted to for this past year. I am going to start doing weights again, I am going to keep building my mileage up since I realized that once I dropped my mileage at different times in the season that I tended to not do as well, I am going to try and race more often and most important, I am going to work on my mental toughness.

I have spent my first week off training in Florida with my mom, 3 sisters and niece. It has been a great trip and a nice way to get my mind off racewalking and just have a good time. I am looking forward to going home tomorrow and get into a regular routine. Tim and I wont be doing much travelling at all until Christmas time so im really looking forward to that!

Thanks for everyone's support over the past year. It has really helped me through a lot of the rough times and enjoy the good times! Talk to you all again in a few weeks as I begin my base training for the 2011 season!

Keep on walking,

Rachel

On the Go Again

After Nationals I had to make some decisions. Since I didnt get the National or Provincial funding standards I knew that I wanted to race at least one more time to give myself another chance. This season has been so disappointing for me to say the least. It seems like everything that could go wrong, did go wrong for me. I have been in the best shape of my life this season but you would never know it by my race results. When I was in my best shape of the season, the race I went to had a course that was detrimental for every competitor that was there. After that race, my mental state really struggled. It seemed as though after that I would get myself psyched up for another race and something else would happen.

I was able to train for a week after Nationals and was feeling really great until I did 22km's on Saturday August 7th and then my knee started feeling really tight a few hours after the workout. I had been feeling some IT band tightness after my race in Toronto but didnt think much of it until after that 22km workout. After that Saturday I could not bend my knee for a few days and was forced to limp when I walked normal. There was NO way that I could do any sort of exercise. Luckily I was able to see a chiropractor right away on the Monday to get some laser therapy (bio-flex laser) and it worked like a miracle. I still wasnt able to train for another few days but the laser just cleared the pain right up. My massage therapist in Peterborough (Josh Martin at Return to Function) said that the pain in my knee probably had to do with my very tight hamstring. It is also most likely from doing 50 laps on the track since the pain is on my inside leg. I have been able to train since last Thursday starting off with a run and it went well. I am now back home in San Diego and am back into training after yet another set back.

I am now debating what I should do for my next race. There is a race in the US, a race in Canada and a few races in Europe. Its very frustrating to have to extend my season till the end of September to try and chase a time but I know that I am capable of walking my goal time. As of right now a race in Germany on Sept.18th and a race in Norway on Sept. 25th are the front runners for me to do. I might do both. I will make my decision in the next few days.

In the meantime, I am in San Diego till Sunday morning then I fly to Fort Lauderdale, FL to spend the week with all the girls in my family (Mom, 3 sisters and my niece). Too bad im not getting ready for a warm weather race because I will be training in some heat!!! We'll see how it goes.

Keep on walking,

Rachel

4-Time National Champion

This picture is what my race looked like for all 20,000m's! The plan for my race at Nationals last week was for me to just stay one step behind Tim and let him drag me through to a good time. I was a little concerned with the race being on the track, especially at the University of Toronto. It is such a soft track which is basically bad for every event in track and field. The softer the track, the slower the times because the more energy you use. Either way, I was very optimistic going into the race and was feeling great!

We were hit with a bit of a surprise 15mins before the race. I went up to the race director and asked where our personal aid station was going to be (it is in the IAAF rule book that in a 20km race, you are allowed to have your own personal drinks). The race director said that we werent allowed to have personal aid. I laughed, and they didnt. They were serious. I was not impressed. They should have warned us well in advance that we werent allowed to have it because its crucial to our race. Its like telling a sprinter that they are not allowed to wear spikes. I was extremely upset but I dealt with it. Their reasoning behind not letting us use our own drinks was because they said that it would stain the track. The track is terrible quality. Anyways, all of the athletes were sneaky and used a sports drink that was clear so that it looked like water so that we could have electrolytes in this summer weather.

I was feeling really good in the warm up and was ready to go. The gun went off and I was feeling so good and it felt so easy, I couldnt believe how easy. I was just going along with Tim feeling like it was a workout. Had a first easy km in 4:52 and then went right into race pace of 4:48. Went through 5km's in 24:08 then the 2nd 5km's in 24:02 for a 10km split of 48:10. At this point I still felt as though I could do that same split for the second half of the race or at the worst a bit slower. My ultimate goal was for 1:36:41 (carding standard). Then at around 12km's my legs started hurting and I struggled from there on. I was still feeling like I was pushing but my legs were just not moving very fast. I ended up having some 5:15km's in there and it was just ugly. I ended up struggling to a 1:38:48 for my final time. I have to say, I attribute the pain in my legs to a few things. The biggest reason: the crappy soft track. I never train on a track let alone a track that soft. I am so used to training on asphalt everyday that I think the softness of the track really hurt my legs. The second thing was that I couldnt use my regular sports drink, Maxim. The drink I had to use usually makes me have cramps by 15km's and thats why I dont use it anymore in training/racing. I think that it didnt have enough salt/electrolytes in it and so my legs were cramping a bit. Even though I didnt get the time I was hoping for, one really good thing came out of the race. I established a new Canadian 20,000m Track Record. Now I can say I have 2 Canadian Records.

Now I am continuing to train as I am trying to make some racing plans for the next month and a half. There really isnt many options left unfortunately. I was hoping to go to Europe for a race in Finland but that race is now only 10km's for women. I have a few options on the table and I feel pretty good about them. One is to do another track 20km's in San Diego (yuck, another track race) and/or to go to New Jersey for the USA 40km RW Championships which is on the road :) Since I have only done 1 road 20km this year, I would much rather go to the race in New Jersey. Ill keep you posted!

Keep on walking,

Rachel

Nationals on Friday

Tim and I arrived into Canada this past week and
have really been enjoying time with my family. Its been so nice to be back here again and finally have Tim here with me since he hasnt been here since June 2009! Its also nice to be training on my old course again and seeing a lot of familiar faces.

Training has continued to go well for me. I have been feeling good and workouts have been going well. I have now backed off on the mileage since I race this Friday morning at the Canadian Track and Field Championships. I am really looking forward to this race. Its been really hard not racing in awhile but im ready to go. Im feeling really calm since Tim will be pacing me :) Im a lucky girl, thats for sure! Hes always very good with pace and so I will be able to just shut my brain off and follow him. Unfortunately because of road closure expenses, we will be racing the 20km's on the track. I have done 20km's on the track twice before and I think ive handled it pretty well.

Well we are off to Toronto tomorrow for the race. Wish me luck! Im feeling really good and really looking forward to the race and seeing all my friends again.

Keep on walking,

Rachel

Making Some Progress

We just got back from a weekend in Cincinnati, Ohio for the first Clinic of Excellence. It went so well! It was sold out so I was flown out to assist Tim and Jeff. It was soooo HOT and HUMID there! Living in San Diego, you dont get much of that so it was a bit of a shock to the system. It made training a little interesting. I had to stop my workout on Saturday because I thought it wasnt worth putting my body through the rough conditions. Whenever I help with the clinics, my training is definitely not the main priority but its worth the break because I really enjoying meeting new racewalkers and learning about them and watching them make improvements.

Training has continued to go well. I am feeling pretty good these days other than still having problems with my left hamstring but I know how to deal with that now so it doesnt disturb my training. Today I did a speed workout of 5km, 4km, 3km, 2km and 1km all with either 3mins or 2mins rest. I had done this workout on May 8th so it was nice to have something to compare it to. My body felt really good in the warm up but my heart rate was really high. My heart rate was high yesterday also but I know that it is because of the long days outside in the 90+ degree weather and getting home late on Sunday night (1:30am) from our flight. Here were my times:

5km: 25:00 (2.3 Lactate)

4km: 19:44 (1.4 Lactate)

3km: 14:35

2km: 9:32

1km: 4:39

Once I got past the 5km and the 4km it was hard to get myself going a little faster. My hip also made it hard with the stopping for the rest (unlike fartleks) so it was even harder to get up to speed. My times for the most part were very comparable to last time I did this workout but I know that my body was more tired than last time because of the weekend. My 1km was where I wanted it to be. Last time Tim really pushed me the last 1km and it was too fast so this time it was just right. I am very happy with the workout. Its showing good promise for my race in 2.5 weeks.

Now ill be home for another 10 days until I leave to go to Toronto for my Nationals. If anyone is interested in going to a clinic in Toronto, we will be hosting one there on the weekend of August 14-15th. You can find more information here.

Keep on walking,

Rachel

On the Mend

This has definitely been a challenging season for me with lots of ups and downs. My season started off really strong and then after the race on Long Island ive really struggled with some different things. As of late, I have been in what I call a mental injury. Since my races havent gone well or ive run into some back luck, ive really struggled mentally. My training has been going very well for the most part but there has been so many things that have knocked me down that I just havent been able to handle mentally. I ended up taking 6 days off training while I went to the USA National T&F Championships to cheer on my husband Tim and the rest of our TEAM. The time off proved to be very good for me. I decided during that time to mentally re-start my season with new goals. Im not going to let myself get stressed by anything, im going to make sure im doing everything to benefit my training during the day (ie. rest, stretch, to bed early, etc). I had started to get into some bad habits and im turning it all around. Its been a week now since ive made these changes and so far so good. Mentally I am in a much better place, feeling a lot more confident in myself and knowing that my season isnt over yet and there is still lots of time to chase my time goals.

Today I did my first fartlek back. It had been 3-4 weeks since I did a real fartlek and I felt great today. Tim walked with me and we did the Norwegian fartlek. It was pretty chilly out (16c and overcast). We did the first 5km's in 24:00 (fastest split ever for this workout) and then the next 5k was a little bit slower because we were going against the wind. I did 24:25 the 2nd 5k with my 10k being 48:25. This was my fastest Norwegian fartlek by 47 seconds!!!! I ended up doing about 10.3km's in the 50 minute fartlek. I didnt feel exhausted by any means by the end, I felt great. This was a great start for me with 3.5 weeks to go until my next race, the Canadian National T&F Championships on July 30th.

I am feeling very determined and am really looking forward to my Nationals. Its time for me to put everything together and show how good of shape im really in.

Above you will see the cover of the newest book by Jeff Salvage and Tim Seaman called "Racewalk Faster by Training Smarter" with yours truly on the cover :) You can buy the book at www.RacewalkClinic.com. This book is so great! Its based on the same training philosophy that I train by.

Keep on walking!

Rachel

Some Bad Luck

Sorry I havent updated my blog for awhile. Since my last post a lot has happened. In my last post my training had starting to come around again and I was doing very well. My post was before I had left to go back to Canada again for the Art Keay race in Toronto. I left on May 14th to go to Canada which was 2 weeks before the race. Before I left I was doing great and really looking forward to the race. I had some decent training the 2 weeks before the race but the weather was a lot warmer and VERY humid (there is barely ever any humidity in San Diego) so I struggled with the weather quite a bit. My heart rate was higher because of it and it affected my breathing also.

I was feeling very good going into the Art Keay. The morning of the race (here is where my bad luck came in!) I was driving to the race site and unfortunately got into a car accident. Luckily I was fine and so were my other 2 passengers. The man in the other car was also fine but our cars were pretty damaged, my parents will most likely have to write off their car. This was my first car accident so it was very scary for me. We got very lucky because it could have been a lot worst. This was just a few hours before the race and I was VERY shaken up. There was no way that I could race, my mind was just not in the condition to be able to go out there and do a good race. I was so disappointed! This was supposed to be the race where I did a fast time and I was so ready. The whole day was just terrible for me and it was not a good way to leave Canada after having a fun 2 weeks with my family.

The day after the accident I came back to San Diego with my sister Ruthy and just tried to get past the disappointment of the accident and the race. It still lingers in my mind and it has almost been 2 weeks now. I have been able to re-focus and get my head back into training. I am feeling good again and will be racing a 5000m race on Sunday night here in San Diego. I am looking forward to a low key, no pressure race where we can just have fun.

This season has been all over the place for me and im looking forward to an upside soon. Stay tuned for some good results to come.

Keep on walking!

Rachel

Im BACK :)

It has been a week since I have started to feel better and the first words that comes to mind is IM BACK! I am feeling back to normal and am feeling great again. Last year I had a similar few weeks that I feeling down and not performing. After that short period blew over, I was able to great great training in and raced very well again.

Since feeling good again ive had speed work on Saturday and a fartlek today. Saturday we did 5km, 4km, 3km, 2km, 1km all with 3 minutes rest. The goal of the first three intervals was to be between zone #2 and zone #3, not pushing it too much until the 2km and the 1km when I could push a bit more. I finally felt really good and it showed with my times. My times were:

5km: 25:16 (Low Lactate)

4km: 19:45 (2.3 Lactate)

3km: 14:26 (2.8 Lactate)

2km: 9:30

1km: 4:28

I felt good and controlled. My lactates were very good for the pace. Today I did 3 X 4km/1km fartlek and it went very well again. Today was the last hard workout that I could do before my next race since it is only 2.5 weeks away now so I wanted it to be a confidence booster. My times were:

1st: 19:15 (2.8 Lactate)

2nd: 19:09 (3.6 Lactate)

3rd: 18:59 (6.1 Lactate)

I am very happy with how the workout went today. It felt a lot easier than the last time I did this workout over a month ago. The only thing I was not happy with today was my lactates. The first two were fine but the last one was too high. I think that if I didnt push so hard my last km (did 4:39 last km) that my lactate would have been lower but I pushed and the lactate showed. This workout showed that my goal of walking around 1:36 for 20km's is not unrealistic.

My next race is the Art Keay Memorial Racewalk on Toronto Island on May 30th (photo above is of me racing there last year). I am really looking forward to this race since it is one of only two races that I will walk in Canada this year. Its really fun to have my family and friends come to watch me race since it doesnt happen very often. I will walk a 20km there and will have my TEAMmate Maria Michta there with me. Maria will be heading to Canada to train with me for 13 days before the race to do some final preparations. Its going to be really great to have a training partner for a little while.

Keep on walking,

Rachel

Ups and Downs of Training

Ever since the race on Long Island on April 11th I have been struggling a little bit with different aspects of my training. Ever since the race my heart rate has been 6-7 beats higher when doing my easy paced workouts. To go along with it, I havent been feeling well. At first I just thought that I was tired but these things went on for weeks. I was feeling very unmotivated and started to feel like my season was going downhill before I even had the chance to go up. I was still walking my normal pace in my zone #1 workouts but I just wasnt feeling well doing them. After a few failed workouts and depressing days, I finally started to see things going up. After not making any conscious changes I started to see my heart rate slowly start to drop and within just 3 days my heart rate dropped 6 beats. Thank goodness I am starting to feel normal. I dont feel out of the woods yet but I know that the climb up is beginning and im starting to get excited again.

I have my next race on the Toronto Island in Canada on May 30th (Art Keay Memorial Race Walks). I will be racing 20km's there and am looking at it as being my first real race for time this year. Even though I had some weeks of nothing feeling very good, I know that I didnt loose any fitness towards my goal of beating my personal best time this year. I will be heading back home to Canada on May 14th and joining me will be my TEAMmate Maria Michta from New York. She will be coming to Canada 13 days before Art Keay to train with me. I am looking forward to having a training partner and getting geared up for the race.

Tomorrow will be the first test of weather this little blimp in my training is truly done. I will do 5km, 4km, 3km, 2km, 1km speedwork. Looking forward to it.

Keep on walking,

Rachel

Disappointing Race

After my trip back to Canada for two weeks after the USA World Cup Trials, I flew to Philadelphia this past Friday to race at the Penn Relays on Saturday. I was feeling really good and confident going into the race after having some really good training. I decided to go out in the lead from the gun and push the pace right away. I may have pushed a little too much in the first km as I went through the first km in 4:20. That was not my plan, I was hoping to start off between 4:24-4:30 since my goal was to walk as close to 22:00 as possible. Other than making sure to try and stay in the lead the whole time, my motivation was lacking a little but during the race. I didnt feel the the need to push myself as much as I should have and once it came to 450m's to go and Joanne Dow made a move around me, I just couldnt respond. She dropped me very quickly and I ended up loosing by almost 11 seconds in just the last lap. I was very disappointed with how the race went but I still see that I still walked a personal best by 18 seconds walking 22:30.40 so I cannot be upset with that.

Now I am back in San Diego where I will train for 3 weeks before I go back to Canada for the Art Keay race on May 30th where I will walk a 20km. 13 days before the race, my TEAMmate Maria Michta will come to Canada to train with me there before the race, where she will also walk a 20km. I am very much looking forward to that.

Keep on walking,

Rachel

Tough Race on Long Island

Well we raced a week and a half ago on Long Island at the USA World Racewalk Cup trials and its and understatement to say that everyone had a tough race. The course was quite brutal. We went to see the course the day before the race and were very surprised at how it was. It was a 2km loop, very windy, uneven road with pot holes. It was probably the worst course I have ever raced on. Still, we put the stress of the course behind us for the race and still tried to do what we could. I came in with a goal of walking 1:36 but I knew by 8-10km's that it wasnt possible on this course. My goal changed from trying to walk a fast time to trying to win the race. I ended up walking alone from 4km's till the finish. I was a little surprised that none of the top girls that were in the race were able to maintain a good pace but this course affected everyone severally. I ended up finishing in 1:39:25, way off my goal time but I won by almost 2 minutes so I was very happy with that.

Right after the race, I traveled back home to Canada to visit my family. I havent been back home since September so its been great to see everyone again. My training has struggled a bit since I have been home but sometimes its more important to spend time with family. I have been able to spend everyday with my 20 day old niece so thats been so great.

I leave Canada for Philadelphia on Friday for the Penn Relays. The race is on Saturday morning and ill be racing a 5000m on the track. I have been to this race twice before, 2004 and 2006. I have always done well there so im looking forward to a fast time.

Here are a few stories about the racewalking events for the race this weekend: Philly Daily News #1 and #2.

Keep on walking,

Rachel

Beautiful Anna is Born :)

Well, first and foremost, I wanted to share a picture with all of you of my newborn niece, Anna Laila Christensen. She was born on April 1st and she is absolutely beautiful! My sister, Rebecca, and the baby are doing very well. Now I still have to wait another week until I am able to go and see them. I am so excited that it is very very difficult to not be there in her first few days of life but I am so much looking forward to getting there.

Before I am able to get back to Peterborough (my hometown), I have my race on Long Island on Sunday, just one week from now. I have now started my taper and I am feeling good! At first I was feeling a little tired for the first half of this past week but I took a day "off" (just 6km racewalk) and ive been feeling better since. I did 6 x 2km's on Tuesday and 10 x 1km's on Saturday, both workouts in race pace and they went pretty good. One more week of taper and ill be ready to go!

We travel to New York on Thursday and the race is on Sunday at 10am for the men and 10:05am for the women. Wish me luck in my first 20km race of the season. Looking forward to a good one! You can find the results here.

Keep on walking,

Rachel

Feeling Good....2 weeks to go!

We have had a really busy month. After coming back from Flagstaff we immediately had company with my sister Renee, her boyfriend Tyson and fellow Canadian racewalker Bruno Carriere. They were with us for a week and it was a lot of fun but busy and tiring. After they all left we had a few days "rest"before my parents came for a visit. It was AWESOME to see them! I hadnt seen them since our wedding in October. We had such a great visit. We spent a few days in Arizona visiting my grandpa who lives there in the winter and went around to Sedona, Flagstaff and Grand Canyon. We were able to catch up with some of my European friends for dinner and training the next day while in Flagstaff for the night. The picture to the left is of me, my parents and good friend Sabine Krantz. It was nice to be back there again, I love it there!

The week that my parents were here I had great training. It was the week after doing 145km's which I think is my highest week ever and I was feeling great. It was nice to have my training partners with me again. Even though it was a great week of training, I was exhausted from being in the car for 21 hours over 4 days and doing some other sightseeing around San Diego with them that I didnt get much rest. By the time Saturday came around I was exhausted. My fartlek workout started off ok but I felt dead right from the beginning. My parents left the next day so it was back to regular life, or so we thought... We got an unexpected visitor, Lauren Forgues. She came out to train with us and will be here until April 7th. I am very happy shes here. We are good friends and its nice to have someone to hang out during the day with while we rest from training.

I have managed to get a really good block of training in, 6 weeks with 132-145km's per week and im still feeling good. This week is the last hard week before I slowly start to decrease my mileage and taper for my race on April 11th at the USA World Racewalk Cup Team trials on Long Island, NY. This week I had two really good key workouts that have been really good confidence boosters for me. On Tuesday I did 12 X 1km/500m and after a few days "rest" after the busy week with my parents I was able to get a really good workout in. Here were my times:

1st: 4:52

2nd: 4:51

3rd: 4:47 (25:24 for 5km)

4th: 4:47

5th: 4:46

6th: 4:43

7th: 4:44 (50:24 for 10km)

8th: 4:40

9th: 4:42

10th: 4:40 (1:15:36 for 15km)

11th: 4:40

12th: 4:39 (1:30:40 for 18km)

I felt really good, I even had to hold myself back from pushing more because I knew that I was already going fast enough. My heart rate was very low for me considering I can hold high 190's for a whole 20km race. I can tell that I am getting to the point where I am getting into really good shape that I need to be careful that I dont push too much since I am feeling so good everyday. I have been walking 5:40/km pace for my long walks also with a lot of ease. My heart rate has been lower than normal walking that pace and im feeling very relaxed. Today (Saturday) I had my last pretty hard workout before the race (which is 2 weeks from tomorrow). I had 3 X 4km/1km which is the same workout I did last week but I crashed doing it. Today was a much different story...here were my times:

1st: 19:16 (2.2 Lactate)

2nd: 19:03 (3.0 Lactate)

3rd: 18:54 (4.7 Lactate)

This is the best that I have ever done this workout and it felt easier than in the past. Last year I did this workout in June and my times were 19:47, 19:37 and 19:08 so today was much better and a few months earlier than last year. I felt very comfortable today and found that I had tocontrol myself and sometimes slow down so that I wouldnt push too much. The last 1km of the last 4km I could definitely start to feel the lactate build up in my legs and so I knew that the number would be a little high but im happy that I could stay consistent and finish strong. I am very happy with this workout especially with my split times: 5km's in 24:51, 10km's in 49:33 and 15km's in 1:14:22. My last 1km easy was a little slow (5:54) but after stopping to take lactate, my legs stiffened up a bit and it was hard to get going again.

These workouts are really positive for me leading up to the race in a few weeks where I will be looking for a good PB. Now I get to look forward to some fun workouts in my final preparation and a good taper.

Keep on walking,

Rachel

Training Partner for 9 days :)

After leaving Flagstaff, AZ we made our way to Albuquerque, NM where my husband Tim competed at the USATF Indoor T&F Championships where he won his 12th indoor title and his 43rd national title. It was a great weekend for our TEAM also as Tyler placed 4th in the mens race, Maria won the womens race and Lauren finished 4th. They all raced really strong. You can keep track of our TEAM at our new blog for Champions International.

After leaving Albuquerque we finally made our way back to San Diego. After a very long trip back we arrived at our apartment in Imperial Beach, CA. On Monday afternoon my sister Renee, her boyfriend Tyson and our friend and fellow Canadian racewalker Bruno Carriere all arrived to visit with us for a week. I hadnt seen my sister since our wedding in October so it was so nice to see her. Bruno had expressed interest to us at the USA Junior Racewalk Camp in December about coming to San Diego to train with us and we were able to get him here during his spring break. It has been a week so far and its been so great to have a training partner for once. He has been able to get his highest mileage week ever of 110km's. He is getting in really good shape and it looks like he will have a good racing season ahead of him. His first race will be at the USA World Racewalk Cup Trials race on Long Island, NY on April 11th where most of the TEAM will also be competing. The picture above (a little blurry) is of Bruno and I at the 2009 Canadian T&F Championships.

My training has been going really well since coming down from altitude. My heart rate has been a lot lower for the same times that I was doing before we went to altitude. My body has been doing really well. Now I have had 3 good mileage weeks in a row of 138km, 137.5km and 125.5km (with a day off in this 3rd week). This week I should have around 145km's before I take a week "easy". My next race will also be at the USA World RW Cup trials. Looking forward to a good one there!

My parents will be coming to San Diego on Saturday for their spring break so I am really looking forward to seeing them. I will have 2 training partners with them being here for the week so that will be nice :) I miss training with them everyday like I used to when I was home in Canada. We will be heading to the Grand Canyon when they are here and so we will be stopping over in Flagstaff for a few hours so that we can see all of my friends that are up there training (Erik Tysse, Olive Loughnane, Sabine Krantz and Bastian Krantz). It is going to be so nice to see them all, its been awhile!

Keep on walking,

Rachel

Last few days at 7000 feet

Our last few days in Flagstaff were interrupted by some bad weather. We ended up getting a lot of snow that forced us to train indoors for a few days. Luckily on the Monday I only had 12km easy racewalk to do and the guys were supposed to do some 500m's anyways. On Tuesday Lauren and I had intervals to do so all in all it worked out really well to be forced to train indoors on the indoor track at NAU.

Tuesday I had 7 X 2km's with 2mins rest inbetween. I had a good feeling after the workout on Saturday and I knew that I wanted and needed to do better than the week before since last week I tried to do the same workout but it ended up being a bit of a disaster and was very discouraging. I think that last week I still wasnt 100% over my bad cold. Luckily this week it went really well and I felt really good, even better than Saturday. The goal today was to just make sure that I started "slow" enough and gradually got faster for each interval. Here is how it went:

1st: 10:15

2nd: 10:12 (2.3 Lactate)

3rd: 10:02

4th: 9:56 (3.9 Lactate)

5th: 9:54

6th: 9:47 (3.6 Lactate)

7th: 9:38

I felt really strong and I know that I wasnt pushing too hard. I technically could have gone faster since my lactate really wasnt that high. 4.0 lactate is considered what you can for 20km's but I didnt think that I needed to push any more since technically you can walk about 10 seconds faster per kilometer than you do at altitude so I was walking plenty fast. Thanks goes to Coach Tim for walking a few of them with me.

On Wednesday we left Flagstaff to drive to Albuquerque, NM for the USA Indoor T&F Championships where we have four of our Champions International TEAMmates racing today (Tim Seaman and Tyler Sorensen) and tomorrow (Lauren Forgues and Maria Michta). What a difference the drop in altitude makes. It is 2000 feet difference here than in Flagstaff and we have been feeling great since we have arrived here. My heart rate has been so low and training has been feeling so easy. I think that Tim and Lauren will have a great benefit from being in Flagstaff.

We will be finally making our way home to San Diego tomorrow, I really look forward to getting back home and going about regular life. We have had a great training camp with lots of good memories.

Keep on walking,

Rachel

Finally Adjusting to Altitude

Well we have now been in Flagstaff for just over 2 weeks and this time more than the other two times that we have been here, I have been having trouble adjusting. This was mostly happening because I was sick the first week that we were here. This delayed the adjustment a lot and I also know that if you get sick at altitude that you have the potential of getting no benefits from being here. This started to worry me a lot. My heart rate was really high and I was feeling terrible. I took the first Saturday easy instead of doing a fartlek workout I just walked easy distance. A few days later on the Tuesday, I had been feeling better so the plan was for me to do 7 X 2km. I clearly was still not completely recovered from my cold because I felt terrible. I ended up only doing 5 X 2km's and 2 X 1km's. This really made me feel discouraged but still I moved on with the rest of the week hoping that Saturday's workout would be better. The weather was supposed to be getting bad on Saturday so we decided to try and workout at the NAU Lumberjack Skydome (indoor track). This facility is amazing! Its built of wood and is massive, its sort of hard to tell from the photo above. It was a bit of a treat as far as indoor tracks go since it was 300m's. Coach Tim wanted me to do 12 X 1km so that I could get a positive workout in and feel good. I walked the first 5 with Lauren as her workout was 6 X 1km and 6 X 500m. We started off easy and gradually picked it up. My times were:

1st: 5:12

2nd: 5:09

3rd: 5:05

4th: 5:02

5th: 5:01

6th: 4:53 (3.2 Lactate)

7th: 4:52

8th: 4:48

9th: 4:48 (4.0 Lactate)

10th: 4:49

11th: 4:49

12th: 4:45 (5.0 Lactate)

Im really happy with the workout. It felt pretty easy for the most part and im just really happy that I had a good workout. This is technically my first "hard" workout in over a month. I think that even just based on this workout that I could probably walk 1:40 for 20km's at altitude but even thinking that, I really dont think that I want to go to the IAAF World Racewalk Cup in Chihauau, Mexico this May. Id rather spend my time and effort going somewhere that I can walk a good time. We will see....my racing schedule has not been set yet.

We only have a few more days left here in Flagstaff. Unfortunately starting yesterday we got a lot of snow. I still managed to walk 25km's in a blizzard but it was tough. Today there was no way that we could train outside. It looks like I am at home in Canada here today. Instead of walking on the treadmill we decided to go back to the indoor track and walk on the outside lane there instead for 12km's. Tomorrow we will go back to the track again and I will attempt to do 7 X 2km's again. Should be fun :) Then we leave on Wednesday to go to Albuquerque, NM for the USA Indoor Track and Field Nationals where Tim, Lauren and a few of our other teammates will be competing. Tim will be attempting to win his 12th Indoor Championship title and also trying to surpass Henry Laskau in overall National Championship titles. Currently he is tied with 42 titles.

Keep on walking,

Rachel

46:25 and then off to Flagstaff!

Tim and I had a nice and busy 5 days at home before we left for our drive to Phoenix to visit with my grandpa and then race at the US 50km Racewalk Championships. We had planned on meeting Lauren Forgues, Trevor and Bruce Barron there to race and then drive up the mountain to Flagstaff for altitude training. Myself, Tim and Lauren had planned on walking just 10k and Trevor 20k. The plan was for Tim, Trevor and I to walk together for 10k this way they would help me get a 10k PB hopefully and it would be a good pace for Trevor enroute to his 20k. Tim and I had been sick the whole week (Tim worst than me) and so Tim didnt want to push himself too much before going to Flagstaff. The race went really well. It was great weather (maybe a little chilly for the first few laps) and the course was great (other than the hairpin turns that consisted of just one cone). We walked 9:22 for the first lap (2km loops) and progressively got faster with the next laps being 9:18, 9:18, 9:17 and 9:09. It was a nice negative split with the 5ks being 23:19 and 23:06 finishing up in 46:25. A minute and 5 second PB, wow! It felt great, it didnt feel terribly hard but not super easy either. I am thrilled with the time especially since I have done barely anything fast, no km's at that pace in practice at all really. This bodes really well for later in the season since we are starting to do some fartleks now twice a week. Trevor also finished up really strong breaking the US Junior 20km record by almost 6 minutes walking 1:31:51. Lauren also had a very good race walking her 2nd fastest 10k ever in 51:16. It was a great start to our training camp in Flagstaff. I think we could have all walked at least a second faster per turn since they were so tight so that gives us a lot more potential for the next race.

We are now in Flagstaff and luckily for us, the snow storms seem to have stopped, at least for the time being. There is quite a bit of snow on the side of the road but the roads are completely clear. We love it up here! We are staying in the same condo as last year, right beside our 2.5km training course. We will be here for 2.5 weeks and then we will be driving to Albuquerque, NM for the US Indoor Nationals where Tim hopes to win his 12th National Indoor title and surpass Henry Laskau as 2nd most National Championships of anyone in track and field for the USA. Im really looking forward to watching him race since it will be my first time at that meet.

Keep on walking,

Rachel

Champions Again!

Well as you know, I have been having hamstring problems and so I either havent been able to finish speed/fartlek workouts or do many at all. This was different than last year for sure. Last year I did not many fast workouts but the ones I did were successful and gave me a lot of confidence for Millrose Games. My build up was a lot different this year though with much less fast work. Even though I didnt really want to test my hamstring anymore before the race, my coach, Tim, wanted me to walk 2 X 500m's not all out but fast enough to build up my confidence a bit before the race. I ended up walking them in 2:11 and 2:07 and didnt feel like I was pushing all out. This helped my confidence a lot although I still did get very nervous the day before the race.

I was feeling very good all day Friday. We went for a 2km hike just to wake up our bodies and loosen up a bit. We headed off from Long Island into NYC on the train for my 4:35pm race time. We met up with the rest of our TEAM that were also racing there and then headed to the Madison Square Garden to warm up. I felt very calm once I was with everyone and was warming up. The race started 15 minutes earlier than scheduled and that made all of us very upset. With no choice, we all headed to the start line early and I just didnt worry about it. Before I knew it, the gun went off and all the girls bursted to the lead and me, well, I was left behind a bit. After that I got a little worried about getting lost from the lead girls so I did my best to get around everyone and finally caught up to them within about 50m's. I sat behind Loretta and Teresa and then Teresa made a move around Loretta and I went with her. I then sat behind her until a lap and a half to go and then passed her and put the hammer down. I managed to beat her by 3 seconds in the last 250m's (roughly). I wish that Coach Tim would have told me to pass Teresa sooner because I think I could have broken my meet record but im still very happy with the win and especially happy with how easy the race was. Throughout the whole race I was looking over at Tim and being like 'hey, this is easy, I am going to win this'. I knew it after a few laps that I would win because of how good I felt and how easy it felt. All this with virtually no speed/fartlek work.

Tim's race went equally well. He led the race right from the beginning and led till the end. He looked great, much better than Andreas haha :) (see race photos at: http://www.racewalk.com/defaultRW.asp)

You can see the women's race video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHHC7fTGomY and the men's race video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaYOIM-lBdM&feature=autofb.

Now we have been home in San Diego for a few days and we leave again tomorrow (Friday) for Phoenix to race at the US 50km RW Championships there on Sunday. I will be walking a 10k with Trevor and Tim as they walk 20k. Ill be looking for a nice PB! Wish us luck!

Keep on walking,

Rachel

What a Week of Weather!

There was quite a bit of bad weather all around the world this past week and even though San Diego is usually excluded from this, this week it was a different story. It was brutal conditions all week here. It was raining so hard and the wind was incredible. It was so windy on Thursday that when I was regular walking to our starting point on our training course here, the wind literally knocked me over and I dove into the mud. At that point, I took it as a sign that I should take the day off. Tim had wanted me to take a day off sometime soon anyways because of my hamstring and I hadn't taken a day off since Christmas day, so it was ok.

I tried again to do a fartlek on Tuesday but after doing 4 X 1km/500m I had quite a bit of pain in my hamstring again and so I decided to stop. I wasn't even going very fast, I was only doing 20km pace for the 1km's (4:52/km) but the pain still came on. Since I still had pain I decided to get an appointment with our massage therapist and get her to do some needling in my hamstring since that has helped relax it in the past. Ive still been able to train every day but just easy zone #1 workouts, nothing fast. To say the least, I am a little under prepared for the Millrose Games which are this coming Friday, January 29th. Last year I had only done a handful of speed/fartlek workouts before the race but this year I have only had one! I think that with just my base work that I have a lot of strength and that I should still be able to walk fast, I just wish for my confidence that I would have had a few more workouts faster than zone #1.

This week with the day off I did 114km's. I wanted another 130km + week but because of the day off, it wasn't possible. I did a really good 25km walk yesterday. Its the "fastest" zone #1 walk ive ever done. I walked 2:22:31, a minute faster than last week and it felt so easy and heart rate was good. Today I walked 15km's (in 1:26:14) this morning at around the same pace and we took lactate after to make sure that I haven't been walking to "hard" in my easy days and it was 1.0 lactate which is perfect since it is supposed to be 1.2 or under for zone #1 workouts.

We travel to New York on Tuesday for Millrose Games. We are really looking forward to the trip and to see family and friends. Wish us luck!

Keep on walking,

Rachel

TEAM Together Again

After being sick last week I was ready to start another week with hopefully better luck. On Tuesday, Bruce and Trevor Barron arrived in San Diego for a 2 week stint of training with Tim and I. Immediately they showed relief of not having to train in the cold winter conditions in Pittsburg. Trevor spent 5 months with Tim and I last year training with lead to his success at the World Youth T&F Championships in July. We are hoping for another successful year for him with the World Junior Championships in July in Canada. It was nice for Tim to have Trevor back so that he would have a daily training partner.

My week started out well as I felt back to normal on Monday. We did our first "fast" workout of the year this week. First, Tuesday we did 12 X 500 "fast"/500 "medium". It went really well for me. It didnt feel like I had to really work hard to do "fast" and I didnt break down throughout the workout, I got faster with each one. I started out in 2:26 and finished in 2:18 and did my "medium" ones in about 2:55 average. It felt good to move my legs a little faster which will help me not feel so stale at the Millrose Games in under 2 weeks from now. As the week went on I started getting a little sick again for some reason but this time it was just through my nose and throat. It started to affect my breathing in training, especially for our first speed workout session of the year. We were doing the Mexican speedwork (1k, 800, 600, 400, 200) and I was supposed to do 3 sets. I started off my first set well but it was hard to breath because of being sick. After the first set my breathing got better but then throughout the 2nd set, my hamstring started to feel like it got pulled so we decided for me to stop after the 2nd set. I had felt some tightness after the workout on Tuesday but hadnt felt it the rest of the week so I hadnt worried about it. Here is how my sets went:

1st set:

1000m: 4:43

800m: 3:31

600m: 2:46

400m: 1:46

200m: 0:49

2nd set:

1000m: 4:35

800m: 3:37

600m: 2:43

400m: 1:46

200m: 0:48

It was all feeling very comfortable and I was hoping to be able to push a bit more on the last (3rd) set but unfortunately I was forced by my hamstring to call it a day early. It ended up being a good decision because today (Sunday) I was able to have a really good 25k workout. It was the easiest 25k I think ive ever done. I ended up walking 2:23:31 for my overall time and it felt very comfortable and my heart rate was really low. This is even more promising since I am still a little sick so I feel very happy with how training is going so far. I did 135km's this week and I am hoping to have a little bit higher week this coming week before we lower the mileage a bit for the Millrose Games. We are looking forward to some good races in NYC again this year.

Keep on walking,

Rachel

Happy Holidays...yes they were!

We have been away for the past 2.5k weeks for the holidays. We first were on Long Island, NY with Tim's family for Christmas. It was the first time that I was away from my family for the holidays. It was hard at first but after a few days of learning new traditions with my new extended family, I started feeling happy about where I was. It was definitely a completely different experience being at the Seaman house for Christmas. They have Santa Claus come for the kids and the whole deal. It was a lot of fun!

Besides all the Christmas activities, we were able to get some pretty good workouts in. Even though Long Island got the biggest snow fall in history while we were there, we were able to get to a gym and train on the treadmill (even though it was like pulling teeth to get Tim on there). It felt like the old days in Peterborough training on the treadmill in my basement every day because of the regular huge amounts of snow and ice on the ground. We did our first "fast" workout of the season at an indoor track (so that we didnt have to go on the treadmill one more day). We did the rhythm workout which is 100m, 200m, 300m, 400m with 100m "medium" in between. I am happy with how it went. I wasnt super fast by any means but it felt like I pushed myself a bit and felt comfortable. The next day I was able to train with Maria Michta (3rd at the 2009 USA National Championships) walking 20km's together. It was so nice having someone to walk with again since I mainly train alone.

Th day after Christmas we flew to South Texas for a Junior Racewalk camp where Tim and I are the lead clinicians. It was a 9 days training camp where the top juniors from the US and even Canada came to train together. We have been doing this camp for the past 4 years and its always a lot of fun and very motivating for everyone to train hard towards their goals. It was great for me to have some guys to train with for a whole week, what a treat! On the first Monday of the camp, we did our first lactate test of the year. It went so well for me. My numbers were so much lower than the same day a year ago so it shows that I am in great shape for this time of year, even better shape than this time last year so we are looking forward to a great new year!

As usual, we had the 1 mile race on the Friday (which happened to be New Years Day) and a 5km race on the Saturday morning. It ended up being a super windy and cold day on the Friday for the mile. At 9am I raced with all of the boys or anyone who could walk around 7:10 for the mile. I was the only girl that could so it was me against the boys like last year. I felt very cold and almost "cooled down" by the time the race started. My arms were frozen and it was hard to move. I still managed to walk 7:11 even though my head wasnt in it. An hour later, the rest of the kids went and lucky for them the wind had died down a bit and the sun had come out and it was warmer. Why couldnt we have had that an hour earlier??? A lot of the kids did really really well. It was great to see them get lots of personal best times.

The next day the 5km went equally well. My goal was to help my training partner for the week, Alex Chavez, break 24 minutes for the first time. We stayed together for 4km's and then I yelled at Alex and told him to go as hard as he could for the last km. He clearly had much more of a kick than me since he walked 4:20 his last km finishing in 23:20 and I walked 23:38. I was really happy with my race since it was a few seconds faster than last year at this time and it felt much easier. I didnt have that 2nd gear to go faster but I felt like I could have held the pace for 10kms which is promising for my race in a month in Phoenix. Overall it was a great camp!

Now back in San Diego, we are getting some more good training in and starting to think about doing some fun workouts to get ready for Millrose Games which is just 3 weeks away on January 29th in New York City.

Keep on walking,

Rachel