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