Im BACK :)

It has been a week since I have started to feel better and the first words that comes to mind is IM BACK! I am feeling back to normal and am feeling great again. Last year I had a similar few weeks that I feeling down and not performing. After that short period blew over, I was able to great great training in and raced very well again.

Since feeling good again ive had speed work on Saturday and a fartlek today. Saturday we did 5km, 4km, 3km, 2km, 1km all with 3 minutes rest. The goal of the first three intervals was to be between zone #2 and zone #3, not pushing it too much until the 2km and the 1km when I could push a bit more. I finally felt really good and it showed with my times. My times were:

5km: 25:16 (Low Lactate)

4km: 19:45 (2.3 Lactate)

3km: 14:26 (2.8 Lactate)

2km: 9:30

1km: 4:28

I felt good and controlled. My lactates were very good for the pace. Today I did 3 X 4km/1km fartlek and it went very well again. Today was the last hard workout that I could do before my next race since it is only 2.5 weeks away now so I wanted it to be a confidence booster. My times were:

1st: 19:15 (2.8 Lactate)

2nd: 19:09 (3.6 Lactate)

3rd: 18:59 (6.1 Lactate)

I am very happy with how the workout went today. It felt a lot easier than the last time I did this workout over a month ago. The only thing I was not happy with today was my lactates. The first two were fine but the last one was too high. I think that if I didnt push so hard my last km (did 4:39 last km) that my lactate would have been lower but I pushed and the lactate showed. This workout showed that my goal of walking around 1:36 for 20km's is not unrealistic.

My next race is the Art Keay Memorial Racewalk on Toronto Island on May 30th (photo above is of me racing there last year). I am really looking forward to this race since it is one of only two races that I will walk in Canada this year. Its really fun to have my family and friends come to watch me race since it doesnt happen very often. I will walk a 20km there and will have my TEAMmate Maria Michta there with me. Maria will be heading to Canada to train with me for 13 days before the race to do some final preparations. Its going to be really great to have a training partner for a little while.

Keep on walking,

Rachel

Ups and Downs of Training

Ever since the race on Long Island on April 11th I have been struggling a little bit with different aspects of my training. Ever since the race my heart rate has been 6-7 beats higher when doing my easy paced workouts. To go along with it, I havent been feeling well. At first I just thought that I was tired but these things went on for weeks. I was feeling very unmotivated and started to feel like my season was going downhill before I even had the chance to go up. I was still walking my normal pace in my zone #1 workouts but I just wasnt feeling well doing them. After a few failed workouts and depressing days, I finally started to see things going up. After not making any conscious changes I started to see my heart rate slowly start to drop and within just 3 days my heart rate dropped 6 beats. Thank goodness I am starting to feel normal. I dont feel out of the woods yet but I know that the climb up is beginning and im starting to get excited again.

I have my next race on the Toronto Island in Canada on May 30th (Art Keay Memorial Race Walks). I will be racing 20km's there and am looking at it as being my first real race for time this year. Even though I had some weeks of nothing feeling very good, I know that I didnt loose any fitness towards my goal of beating my personal best time this year. I will be heading back home to Canada on May 14th and joining me will be my TEAMmate Maria Michta from New York. She will be coming to Canada 13 days before Art Keay to train with me. I am looking forward to having a training partner and getting geared up for the race.

Tomorrow will be the first test of weather this little blimp in my training is truly done. I will do 5km, 4km, 3km, 2km, 1km speedwork. Looking forward to it.

Keep on walking,

Rachel

Disappointing Race

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.

Now I am back in San Diego where I will train for 3 weeks before I go back to Canada for the Art Keay race on May 30th where I will walk a 20km. 13 days before the race, my TEAMmate Maria Michta will come to Canada to train with me there before the race, where she will also walk a 20km. I am very much looking forward to that.

Keep on walking,

Rachel

Tough Race on Long Island

Well we raced a week and a half ago on Long Island at the USA World Racewalk Cup trials and its and understatement to say that everyone had a tough race. The course was quite brutal. We went to see the course the day before the race and were very surprised at how it was. It was a 2km loop, very windy, uneven road with pot holes. It was probably the worst course I have ever raced on. Still, we put the stress of the course behind us for the race and still tried to do what we could. I came in with a goal of walking 1:36 but I knew by 8-10km's that it wasnt possible on this course. My goal changed from trying to walk a fast time to trying to win the race. I ended up walking alone from 4km's till the finish. I was a little surprised that none of the top girls that were in the race were able to maintain a good pace but this course affected everyone severally. I ended up finishing in 1:39:25, way off my goal time but I won by almost 2 minutes so I was very happy with that.

Right after the race, I traveled back home to Canada to visit my family. I havent been back home since September so its been great to see everyone again. My training has struggled a bit since I have been home but sometimes its more important to spend time with family. I have been able to spend everyday with my 20 day old niece so thats been so great.

I leave Canada for Philadelphia on Friday for the Penn Relays. The race is on Saturday morning and ill be racing a 5000m on the track. I have been to this race twice before, 2004 and 2006. I have always done well there so im looking forward to a fast time.

Here are a few stories about the racewalking events for the race this weekend: Philly Daily News #1 and #2.

Keep on walking,

Rachel

Beautiful Anna is Born :)

Well, first and foremost, I wanted to share a picture with all of you of my newborn niece, Anna Laila Christensen. She was born on April 1st and she is absolutely beautiful! My sister, Rebecca, and the baby are doing very well. Now I still have to wait another week until I am able to go and see them. I am so excited that it is very very difficult to not be there in her first few days of life but I am so much looking forward to getting there.

Before I am able to get back to Peterborough (my hometown), I have my race on Long Island on Sunday, just one week from now. I have now started my taper and I am feeling good! At first I was feeling a little tired for the first half of this past week but I took a day "off" (just 6km racewalk) and ive been feeling better since. I did 6 x 2km's on Tuesday and 10 x 1km's on Saturday, both workouts in race pace and they went pretty good. One more week of taper and ill be ready to go!

We travel to New York on Thursday and the race is on Sunday at 10am for the men and 10:05am for the women. Wish me luck in my first 20km race of the season. Looking forward to a good one! You can find the results here.

Keep on walking,

Rachel

Feeling Good....2 weeks to go!

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

Training Partner for 9 days :)

After leaving Flagstaff, AZ we made our way to Albuquerque, NM where my husband Tim competed at the USATF Indoor T&F Championships where he won his 12th indoor title and his 43rd national title. It was a great weekend for our TEAM also as Tyler placed 4th in the mens race, Maria won the womens race and Lauren finished 4th. They all raced really strong. You can keep track of our TEAM at our new blog for Champions International.

After leaving Albuquerque we finally made our way back to San Diego. After a very long trip back we arrived at our apartment in Imperial Beach, CA. On Monday afternoon my sister Renee, her boyfriend Tyson and our friend and fellow Canadian racewalker Bruno Carriere all arrived to visit with us for a week. I hadnt seen my sister since our wedding in October so it was so nice to see her. Bruno had expressed interest to us at the USA Junior Racewalk Camp in December about coming to San Diego to train with us and we were able to get him here during his spring break. It has been a week so far and its been so great to have a training partner for once. He has been able to get his highest mileage week ever of 110km's. He is getting in really good shape and it looks like he will have a good racing season ahead of him. His first race will be at the USA World Racewalk Cup Trials race on Long Island, NY on April 11th where most of the TEAM will also be competing. The picture above (a little blurry) is of Bruno and I at the 2009 Canadian T&F Championships.

My training has been going really well since coming down from altitude. My heart rate has been a lot lower for the same times that I was doing before we went to altitude. My body has been doing really well. Now I have had 3 good mileage weeks in a row of 138km, 137.5km and 125.5km (with a day off in this 3rd week). This week I should have around 145km's before I take a week "easy". My next race will also be at the USA World RW Cup trials. Looking forward to a good one there!

My parents will be coming to San Diego on Saturday for their spring break so I am really looking forward to seeing them. I will have 2 training partners with them being here for the week so that will be nice :) I miss training with them everyday like I used to when I was home in Canada. We will be heading to the Grand Canyon when they are here and so we will be stopping over in Flagstaff for a few hours so that we can see all of my friends that are up there training (Erik Tysse, Olive Loughnane, Sabine Krantz and Bastian Krantz). It is going to be so nice to see them all, its been awhile!

Keep on walking,

Rachel