Hello 2012!

Im so excited to say that it is finally the Olympic year! We, elite athletes, wait and work so hard for this year to finally come. With being so agonizingly close to qualifying for the Canadian Olympic team, I am even more excited.

Since my last post, Tim and I have been in New York for Christmas and Texas for the US Junior training camp that we go to every year. In both places, we had great weather, better than we could have asked for. No snow in December in New York is very rare but it was great for us coming from San Diego. We were able to get some good training in with different racewalkers from around the country. Texas was a lot of fun and there were a lot of kids with tons of potential. We are excited to see what they can do throughout the year.

Training has been going incredibly well. I am very ahead of where I have ever been at this time of year and I cant help but be excited and anxious for my first race of the season in March. I have only done a hand full of fartleks so far this season but all of them have been way ahead of my times from this time last year or better than ever. For example, I did a 3 x 5km/1km fartlek and my times were 24:26, 24:04 and 23:43. I would consider this workout my best ever out of any workout. I felt so good and it felt very controlled and easy. We are just now starting to do two hard workouts a week which is earlier than last year but I want to be ready to try and get the Olympic A standard at my first race on March 11th in Huntington Beach, CA to get it out of the way. After that race, I will plan the rest of my season which will include the IAAF World Racewalk Cup for sure on May 12-13.

Its been great to have some fellow TEAMmates here training with us in San Diego. Miranda and Lauren have moved out here through the US Olympic Trials and Bruno just arrived this week from Canada to train with us for 2 months. We also have Nick Christie, a new racewalker from Tim's team at Cuyamaca College who has been improving very rapidly and he has become a very good training partner for me.

Tomorrow I will participate in a 3km race at Cuyamaca College. I havent raced a 3km in several years, around 5-6 years. I think my official PB is 13:49 so I should obliterate that tomorrow. Then on Sunday I will be in Santee, just outside of San Diego, cheering on Tim and the other male competitors as they race to see who will represent the USA at the Olympic Games. I am so excited to watch Tim race as he is in really good shape and excited at the chance to make another Olympic team but this time at 50km's. Check out www.usatf.org for results on Sunday.

Keep on walking,

Rachel