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