Married in 10 days!

I cant believe how quickly the wedding has come. It is now only a week and a half away and with not much left to do, I can now just enjoy and look forward to the big day. I mostly am looking forward to my family and friends coming for the wedding. My sisters are coming in just a few days so that they can be here to help me with the final touches. Here is a picture of Tim and I at the spot where we got engaged in March in Sedona, Arizona.

Training has been going pretty well but I have been pretty stressed and mentally tired from all the wedding preparations. The last few days I have been more relaxed and have been feeling better while training. My mileage has been coming on slower than I would have liked because I have been pretty tired and busy. Last week was my biggest week of the new season at 114km's. This week I should have around 120km's and then I will have about 3 weeks of pretty low mileage because of the wedding and our honeymoon in beautiful Hawaii where we will be for 11 days. I have managed to get up to 18km's for my longer walks but this week will do 20k for the first time since the Ontario 20km RW Championships on September 20th. The last three Sundays I have gone hiking. Hiking is a really great break from racewalking or running but allows you to be on your feet for hours so its a good workout and gets your body ready for the longer racewalking workouts.

I will be continuing to do base training for the next few months, trying to build mileage and get stronger. I will not be racing until the end of January at the Millrose Games again. Looking forward to it!

Keep on walking,

Rachel

Training on the Strand

Finally after barely being in San Diego since April, I am back and getting into a new routine.

A lot has happened since I was last here. We decided to move from Tim's studio apartment to a two bedroom apartment that is 20 meters from the trail that we train on every day, the Silver Stand. The main reason for moving was to have more room but more importantly to be closer to the trail so that we didnt have to drive to practice every day. It has been so great living so close, we are loving it so far! The apartment is still a mess from moving but it is coming along.

Along with the new apartment, we have bought a "new" car. Its a 2007 VW Rabbit and VERY importantly, its AUTOMATIC :) haha! I dont know how to drive standard so we had to get an automatic so that I would be able to drive. It has felt so good being able to drive here. I feel so much more independent now.

Training has been going ok. I started training again on September 7th and was pretty stressed the first few weeks of training because I was packing up all my stuff in Canada and getting ready to move. It was a big step for me. I walked at the Ontario 20km RW Championships on September 20th as a workout. It went really well. I was actually very surprised how good I felt. I ended up walking 1:52:21, walking every 5km faster than the previous one. I tried to walk with some of the other walkers during the race to try and help them and so that I could have some company! The last 5-6km's I walked with a man named JP who was doing his first 20km. He did so well! His PB for 10k is around 55 minutes so that shows how well his first 20k was! It was really fun walking with him.

The last week I have been feeling much better. My heart rate has been getting lower and my pace has been getting a little faster. I have been consistently under 6 minutes/km on my easy days which is fine for this point of the season. It will just gradually get faster in the next few weeks. I am using my disappointment from Berlin to motivate me and I am really looking foward to this coming season!

It is now October 2nd and Tim and I are getting married in 29 days! WOW! Time goes fast. I am feeling pretty much ready. There is some stuff that I still need to do which is typical but I am looking forward to having everything done and being able to enjoy the week before the wedding with my family.

Keep on walking,

Rachel

Week #1 Done!

After 3 weeks of rest after my very long season, I finally got back to training a week ago. So far things have been going well. Usually the first few times I racewalk after having my annual break, I usually feel awkward. This year was the first time that I can remember not feeling like that. I pretty much felt like I got back into racewalking, almost like I never stopped...until I look at my watch. My times are slower and my heart rate is higher but that is to be expected after having that much time off and not really doing much training if any at all.

Sunday I have the Ontario 20km RW Championships in Welland. I will not be racing this by any means. I will simply be participating and doing the 20km as a workout. So far the longest workout I have done is 12km's easy. Tomorrow I will walk 15km's and that will be the longest walk I do before Sunday's 20km. Im confident that I can walk around 2 hours comfortably. It will mostly just fun to be there and see so many faces that I havent seen since June at Nationals.

I have still been having problems with my left leg at the attachement of the glute and hamstring and so I managed to get an MRI appointment on Friday so hopefully something positive will come out from that.

Keep on walking,
Rachel

Disappointing Day in Berlin

Sorry it has taken me almost 2 weeks since my race to put up a post race report. If you saw the results you would have probably figured that I was pretty disappointed about how it went.

I had a very good last week of training and resting before the race. I remember feeling so happy with how easy training felt and how it was great how low my heart rate was. I was eating well and resting and drinking a lot. I didnt do anything unusual, I did everything that I did in preparation for any race.

The men's 20km race was the day before mine and the weather was pretty warm for them (around 25-28c) so I figured that the weather would be warm for my race also but the thought of it being over 30c never crossed my mind.

I ate really well the morning of the race and felt that I had eaten enough to last me through the race which started at noon. I got to the course and it was hot like I knew it would be. I figured it was around 30c which I have raced in once before in Brazil so I knew that I could do it but that I would have to have a different race plan, no personal best time today! I did usual 3km warm up with my heart rate monitor on and my HR was really high, too high. I didnt know if it was because of it being hot or because of nerves. I just shook it off and went to the call room. It was in a tent and it was super hot and we had to be in there 30 minutes before the start of the race. I just relaxed and stretched. When they brought us out to the start line, I really felt the heat, it was brutal but tried to not be bothered by it.

When the gun went off, all I was trying to think about was not being drafted by the whole group. I knew that they would all go out pretty fast so I was trying to stay back, even if that meant that I was in last place. I went through 1km's and my split was 4:53 and I was in last place! I tried to feel like I was easing into a pace and a good feeling but all I was feeling was a little heavy and tired, after a couple kilometers. I tried to keep up a good pace but I found myself going slower and slower as the race went on. I was just dead. I couldnt believe that this was happening to me in the biggest race so far in my life! This was my dream all season being in Berlin. I felt tired that I was racing so poorly when my parents flew all that way to see me race. I was feeling terrible but I didnt want to stop, I wanted to finish, I didnt want a DNF for my first World Championships. I felt like I was dragging my body to the finish line though. It was just terrible! The last lap I honestly felt and thought that I was going to fall over, if not then at the finish line. I managed to not fall until around the finish line when the volunteers kind of caught me. It was terrible. My body temperature was so high. At that point I knew that the weather had to be higher than 30c. When I saw my parents after the race, they had a thermomitor on their backpack and they said that it got up to 38c during the race, 38!!!!!! I just couldnt believe it. No wonder I felt so horrible! I ended up finishing in 35th place in a time of 1:45:45.

Right after the race, the only thing that made me feel somewhat ok was the fact that I was now on a break from training and could enjoy the rest of the time that I had in Berlin. It was nice touring around the city a bit with my parents and after they left, I went to the track to watch the rest of the meet everyday. It was so amazing seeing such incredible performances. It made me really motivated for when I get back training that I want to just continue to improve and be ready to come back in 2 years and do so much better. I have a lot more to improve and im looking forward to dropping more time on my personal best.

So far I have had almost 2 weeks off training and will have 1 more week to go before I have to start training again. I am doing the Ontario 20km Racewalk Championships on September 20th where all I have to do is win which will not be a problem at all. I will just do the race as a 20km workout. It should be fun to see everyone that I havent seen from the Canadian racewalk world again! For now though, I will continue to enjoy my break!

Keep on walking,

Rachel

Berlin Tomorrow, Race Sunday

My time in Kamen has gone very well. I have had very good training and have enjoyed my stay here with the other athletes. We havent had the nicest weather since Saturday. Its been overcast, 18c and sometimes raining lightly. Its been nice for training in the morning but for the rest of the day, its very gloomy.

On Saturday I did a Norwegian Fartlek and I felt great! My plan was to do the "hard" sections at around race pace or just under and I think I managed to do that. I felt very comfortable, relaxed and that I got into a very good rhythm. After that workout, I am feeling even more confident towards the race on Sunday. From now on I will just been doing easy walks except for Wednesday when I will do 5 X 1km at race pace just to do a little something to wake me up a few days before the race.

Part of the team leaves tomorrow for Berlin. I leave in the morning with some of the other distance athletes. I am really looking forward to getting over there. Its a 3.5 hour train ride to where we are staying now.

My parents will get to Berlin on Friday and we will probably get together on Saturday, the day before my race. I put a picture up from last years World Racewalk Cup because my race this weekend will just be like a World Cup, the only difference is that all of the other track and field events will be contested throughout the week also. Im not nervous (yet) thinking about the race because I have been to two World Cups already and I know that this race will have all the same girls and all the same protocalls so it will be nothing that I havent already experienced.

I wont update again before my race but I wanted to keep you all informed that I am feeling great and ready to go on Sunday! You can find the results at: http://berlin.iaaf.org/results/racedate=08-16-2009/bydate.html

Wish me luck :)

Rachel

In Kamen, Germany

I arrived in Germany yesterday after a long travel from San Diego. I arrived at 7:30am which I hate doing because you then have to try and stay awake all day to best adjust to the time difference. This time I have a 9 hour time difference so we will see how I deal with that compared to 6 hour difference from Toronto.

The training centre we are staying at is very nice. This is a picture of the centre and the town from an areal. There really isnt much to do around the town so we are sort of restricted to our rooms in a sense. Our rooms however are very nice. We all have our own room and they are very modern. I will be here until August 11th when I take a train to Berlin. There are quite a few bike paths here. The one that I have been training on is around a corn field which is sort of neat and different. I just have easy distance for most of the time I am here except for a Norwegian fartlek on Saturday and 5 X 1km on Wednesday. The race will come before you know it!

My parents decided to come to watch me so I am really excited about that. They will be staying with my good friend Sabine Krantz's parents house (the top German racewalker). I havent seen them since Nationals so it will be great to see them and to see them here! After my race we will do some sightseeing around Berlin. Im really looking forward to getting to Berlin!

Stay tunned,

Rachel

Last Hard Workout before Worlds!

Today I did my last hard workout of the year, I guess! Sounds kind of strange to be done all the hard work for the season. Things went very well today though. Tim walked with me to help me and we did 7 X 2km with 2:30 rest. I felt very good and strong. My heart rate was very low for me which was nice to see. We also took lactate four times. All results from today showed good fitness for me leading up to Berlin. Here are my times and lactates from today:

1st: 9:47

2nd: 9:45 (2.1 Lactate)

3rd: 9:44

4th: 9:45 (2.4 Lactate)

5th: 9:41

6th: 9:38 (3.2 Lactate)

7th: 9:35 (3.7 Lactate)

All of my times were either at or under race pace and my lactates didnt even reach the theoretical 4.0 which is the amount of lactate that you can hold for 20km race pace. I am now really looking forward to the race in Berlin as this workout shows that I am ready for another good time, hopefully a PB!

I leave on Monday morning for Germany! I am really looking forward to going and doing as well as I can! I also just found out that my parents will be coming to watch me so I am really excited about that!

Keep on walking,

Rachel