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