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