Loving Training

These days I literally have been training, eating and sleeping. I am on track to have my biggest month of mileage ever. I should hit 570km's for the month of July and I have been feeling great. My favorite part of training is the zone #1 workouts and its been nice to get back to a few weeks of base training again.

The plan after Nationals was to take a very easy/off week and then get back into the game and do some heavy training again. I did 2 weeks of base training of 140km's each week and then this week and next week I will be introducing one faster workout each week. This Tuesday I did a 10km tempo walk that was meant to be in zone #2, not too fast but not too slow. Tim walked it with me and we started off very conservative in about 5mins and stayed around that pace or a second or two faster for the first 5km's which we went through in 24:53. After that we were around 4:55/km and then the last km we pushed a bit but not too much to a 4:48 last km. We did the 2nd 5km's in 24:26 for a great negative split and finished the 10k in 49:19. The whole thing felt very comfortable and easy. I could have kept going with no problem and so it made me feel like I didnt lose any speed in the last few weeks.

On Saturday we are headed to Long Island to visit Tim's family. We are really looking forward to it since we havent been back there together in about a year and a half. I went alone in January for the Millrose Games for a few days but otherwise, it has been a LONG time. I am excited to visit our friends and family but I am NOT looking forward to the weather. We are so spoiled here in San Diego and going to the east coast is going to be miserable for training. We are going to have to wake up pretty early to train to avoid the really bad heat which will be hard because of the 3 hour time change. My parents are planning on coming to visit us in New York and will be camping at some of the parks on Long Island. Its going to be great to see them again!!!

I have been feeling great training. I have never felt this good at this time of year. Usually im beat up by the summer but I feel great and I feel like I will be ready for some good performances in September in Europe. Im very excited about it! Ive been getting some really good rest. I usually have trouble napping during the day but lately ive been able to fall asleep and sleep for along time...like 90 mins to 2 hours, wow! It is definitely keeping me going though and helping me feel fresh everyday for another workout. This week I will have a forced day off on Saturday because of the travel to New York. This will be my first day off in a month. Thats always a question people ask me, "how often do you have a day off?", and its very seldom but I dont even notice it. I am just so used to my routine and the training is very smart so I dont feel like I need a day off very often.

The picture above is of me and Nick Christie, one of Tim's athletes at Cuyamaca College, training at Mission Bay Park. Its been nice to have some company the last few weeks with Nick and Tim training with me.

Keep on walking,

Rachel

Another National Title and Back to Training!

Well I won my 5th National Championship a few weeks ago in Calgary. The race itself wasnt too exciting. The course was not so great to walk a fast time and since it was at altitude and I had no competition, I just decided to kind of take it easy. I always find it hard to motivate myself at Nationals since I have no competition. This time was no different as I won by 15 minutes. I know that the other girls have a lot of potential and I hope that they continue to work hard and drop their times over the next year. I still managed to walk another Olympic/World Championship 'B' standard and so that is my 4th of the year. This, however, doesnt really change my situation for the World Championships in Daegu, South Korea this year. Since I went to Berlin in 2009 with the 'B' standard, in Canada they dont let you go again unless you have the 'A'. I unfortunately am 13 seconds off the 'A' standard and even though I have broken the Canadian record twice this year, that also doesnt make a difference. I have put in an appeal to Athletics Canada to try and still get selected for World Championships but I know that it is a long shot and am not expecting a positive outcome but it was still worth a try. I should find out the outcome of the appeal in the next week or so. I will keep you posted!

After the race I took an easy week to try and refresh my mind and give my body a small break before I started back into hard training again. I did a lot of cross training and really enjoyed it and it definitely got myself fired up to get back training. This past week my sister Ruthy and her boyfriend Drew came to visit and it was so great to have them here! We did a lot of things that I usually dont have time for or the energy for when im training. We went to the beach almost everyday and did a lot of sight seeing, it was a lot of fun! I still managed to get in an awesome week of training too, getting in 140km's so I was thrilled about that! We have decided to do some base work for the first 2 weeks back and then we will start to introduce some faster workouts again. This week I am hoping to get another 140km week in.

Unfortunately I dont really have any racing plans for the summer because there just arent any races to go to. While I wait to hear about the World Championships, I am planning on going to Europe no matter what in September to do a 10k and a 20k to try and beat my best times in both distances. I will update you guys on which races as we make more decisions. In the meantime, Tim and I will be in San Diego until July 23rd when we will head to Long Island, NY to visit Tim's family for 8 days. I hate going to Long Island in the summer because it is sooo hot and humid, especially coming from San Diego but it will be fun for sure.

Here is an article in my hometown newspaper, the Peterborough This Week. Thanks Greg!

Keep on walking,

Rachel