No Sesto for Me, Home Tomorrow

In case you didnt already know or notice, I didnt make the trip to Italy for the race yesterday. I thought that I was starting to get rid of this cold that I have had since the race in Hungary but it really hasnt gotten better, almost worst. Wednesday I had a decent workout and felt pretty good but the next day it was bad again, higher heart rate again and felt bad. I was supposed to fly to Italy on Friday afternoon and so I had just an easy 8k to do in the morning and I decided to try and walk on the track a bit and see if my heart rate would be any better on a pancake flat surface but it didnt make a difference, my heart rate was super high again. I decided to go onto the bike path after 2k on the track and things got worst. I went out another 1.5km's racewalking and felt terrible and so I jogged the last 2.5km's back. My heart rate was even super high running. After training, I knew that it just wasnt worth going to Italy. I knew that I wouldnt be able to perform to the level that I am capable of and I didnt want to embarrass myself or drop out. It was a very disappointing and difficult decision but it was definitely the right one. I then took 2 days off running and racewalking and just went for bike rides. I feel like I have been doing everything I can to get rid of this thing. This is the longest I have ever had a cold and I dont know why it is not going away. Im assuming that I will need to get some antibiotics to get rid of it at this point. It must be a bad virus or something.

So after the 2 days off running and racewalking, I decided that I wanted to try and racewalk today. Good news is that I felt the best that I have in a week, bad news is that my heart rate was the highest its been in the 2 weeks ive been sick. UGH!!!!! At this point I am just frustrated. Every morning I have been blowing my nose like crazy and this morning I wasnt and so I really thought id feel and do better today. I decided to stop after 8k because it wasnt worth it. I even tried slowing down to a march (almost) doing a km in 6:04 and my heart rate was still 10 beats higher than my usual 5:30 pace. So clearly something is wrong!

One thing to be excited about though is that I am FINALLY going home tomorrow after being away for 5 weeks!!! I cant tell you how excited I am. It has been a pretty good trip. It is definitely my most successful European racing trip. The 2 other trips I have done in 2008 and 2009, I didnt PB at all. Im coming out of this trip with a lot of confidence (despite this little hiccup of being sick). I am confident that I can walk that A standard of 1:33:30, even if I have to race alone to get it. I will now have just under 2 months till my next 20km race at the Canadian Championships on June 25th so I know ill be ready. For now though, I will first focus on getting healthy and then get some solid weeks of training in. Cant wait for what is to come!

Keep on walking,

Rachel