We have had a really busy month. After coming back from Flagstaff we immediately had company with my sister Renee, her boyfriend Tyson and fellow Canadian racewalker Bruno Carriere. They were with us for a week and it was a lot of fun but busy and tiring. After they all left we had a few days "rest"before my parents came for a visit. It was AWESOME to see them! I hadnt seen them since our wedding in October. We had such a great visit. We spent a few days in Arizona visiting my grandpa who lives there in the winter and went around to Sedona, Flagstaff and Grand Canyon. We were able to catch up with some of my European friends for dinner and training the next day while in Flagstaff for the night. The picture to the left is of me, my parents and good friend Sabine Krantz. It was nice to be back there again, I love it there!
The week that my parents were here I had great training. It was the week after doing 145km's which I think is my highest week ever and I was feeling great. It was nice to have my training partners with me again. Even though it was a great week of training, I was exhausted from being in the car for 21 hours over 4 days and doing some other sightseeing around San Diego with them that I didnt get much rest. By the time Saturday came around I was exhausted. My fartlek workout started off ok but I felt dead right from the beginning. My parents left the next day so it was back to regular life, or so we thought... We got an unexpected visitor, Lauren Forgues. She came out to train with us and will be here until April 7th. I am very happy shes here. We are good friends and its nice to have someone to hang out during the day with while we rest from training.
I have managed to get a really good block of training in, 6 weeks with 132-145km's per week and im still feeling good. This week is the last hard week before I slowly start to decrease my mileage and taper for my race on April 11th at the USA World Racewalk Cup Team trials on Long Island, NY. This week I had two really good key workouts that have been really good confidence boosters for me. On Tuesday I did 12 X 1km/500m and after a few days "rest" after the busy week with my parents I was able to get a really good workout in. Here were my times:
1st: 4:52
2nd: 4:51
3rd: 4:47 (25:24 for 5km)
4th: 4:47
5th: 4:46
6th: 4:43
7th: 4:44 (50:24 for 10km)
8th: 4:40
9th: 4:42
10th: 4:40 (1:15:36 for 15km)
11th: 4:40
12th: 4:39 (1:30:40 for 18km)
I felt really good, I even had to hold myself back from pushing more because I knew that I was already going fast enough. My heart rate was very low for me considering I can hold high 190's for a whole 20km race. I can tell that I am getting to the point where I am getting into really good shape that I need to be careful that I dont push too much since I am feeling so good everyday. I have been walking 5:40/km pace for my long walks also with a lot of ease. My heart rate has been lower than normal walking that pace and im feeling very relaxed. Today (Saturday) I had my last pretty hard workout before the race (which is 2 weeks from tomorrow). I had 3 X 4km/1km which is the same workout I did last week but I crashed doing it. Today was a much different story...here were my times:
1st: 19:16 (2.2 Lactate)
2nd: 19:03 (3.0 Lactate)
3rd: 18:54 (4.7 Lactate)
This is the best that I have ever done this workout and it felt easier than in the past. Last year I did this workout in June and my times were 19:47, 19:37 and 19:08 so today was much better and a few months earlier than last year. I felt very comfortable today and found that I had tocontrol myself and sometimes slow down so that I wouldnt push too much. The last 1km of the last 4km I could definitely start to feel the lactate build up in my legs and so I knew that the number would be a little high but im happy that I could stay consistent and finish strong. I am very happy with this workout especially with my split times: 5km's in 24:51, 10km's in 49:33 and 15km's in 1:14:22. My last 1km easy was a little slow (5:54) but after stopping to take lactate, my legs stiffened up a bit and it was hard to get going again.
These workouts are really positive for me leading up to the race in a few weeks where I will be looking for a good PB. Now I get to look forward to some fun workouts in my final preparation and a good taper.
Keep on walking,
Rachel
After my trip back to Canada for two weeks after the USA World Cup Trials, I flew to Philadelphia this past Friday to race at the Penn Relays on Saturday. I was feeling really good and confident going into the race after having some really good training. I decided to go out in the lead from the gun and push the pace right away. I may have pushed a little too much in the first km as I went through the first km in 4:20. That was not my plan, I was hoping to start off between 4:24-4:30 since my goal was to walk as close to 22:00 as possible. Other than making sure to try and stay in the lead the whole time, my motivation was lacking a little but during the race. I didnt feel the the need to push myself as much as I should have and once it came to 450m's to go and Joanne Dow made a move around me, I just couldnt respond. She dropped me very quickly and I ended up loosing by almost 11 seconds in just the last lap. I was very disappointed with how the race went but I still see that I still walked a personal best by 18 seconds walking 22:30.40 so I cannot be upset with that. 
