Glad Thats Over!

After a missed flight and long travel home, I am back in San Diego and am so happy! As soon as I landed I went to the doctor to find out what was going on with me and to hopefully get a prescription to get rid of whatever illness I had. Turns out I had an ear infection in my left ear, a sinus infection and a very tight chest. No wonder I was having trouble training and my heart rate was so high. I was able to start on antibiotics and an inhaler right away that night and 10 days later, I was finally cured. It only took 3.5 weeks! The longest I have ever been sick. It was so frustrating!!!

On a positive note, I decided to start back to training last Monday even though my heart rate was still very high and I did my first fartlek last Tuesday and I felt good, a little rusty, but good. There was the USA 15km RW Championships in Riverside, CA and since I wasnt feeling race ready yet, I decided to walk with my teammate Lauren Foruges to help her set a new personal best and for me to get a good tempo effort in. It was great. Lauren did fantastic and we accomplished what we went there to do and she did a huge PB walking 1:14:15 and I finished in 1:14:02 staying with her the whole race until the last lap when I pushed a little bit. You can listen to a little interview that we did with Racewalk Planet Radio after the race here. Thanks Dave Snyder and the Inland Empire Racewalkers for putting on a great event last Sunday.

Things seem to be back to normal for me now. Heart rate is back to where it was before and same with my pace. Yesterday I did my best ever 10 x 1km/500m fartlek and did the 15km's in 1:14:41, 14 seconds faster than my previous best. Things seem to still be on track for one last crack at the World Championships standard of 1:33:30. Ill have my hands full in Calgary at the Canadian Track and Field Championships where ill be racing alone and facing 3700 feet of altitude. The altitude isnt that high but it technically will still affect performance. We will see what happens but I am ready for the challenge. Just over a month to go!

Im in San Diego for another 2 weeks and then ill be heading to my hometown, Peterborough, Ontario on June 5th to visit with my family and to be there when my nephew is born on June 6th, im SO excited! Ill also be doing a 5000m race on the track on June 11th in Toronto so im looking forward to that too.

Keep on walking,

Rachel