Time to Buckle Down

Its been 2 weeks since I started training and so far ive been feeling pretty good. Ive been slowly building up the mileage and doing weights 3 times a week. Ive been a bit slow to start. My heart rate has been pretty high and my pace has been slow but I am seeing progress.

Today Athletics Canada released the 2011 World Championships/Pan Am Games qualifying standards. AC has made some good steps in the right direction. They have released the standards earlier than ever and they have stayed with the IAAF standards. The bad news for me is that they are using the Rising Star criteria again for both events. Since I went to the 2009 World Championships under the Rising Star criteria, I am no longer eligible EVER to compete at any major international event with the B standard, I will always have to achieve the A standard which is considerably faster. I now have to break 1:33:30 for 20km's in order to qualifying for anything, which is a minute and 20 seconds FASTER than the Canadian Record!

Since taking my 3 weeks off, I have come back to training feeling a lot more confident in my potential. I know I can make big jumps and can achieve the A standard. I dont know if it will come this season or the next one but I know that I have the potential and that if I work hard and do everything I can to improve, that I can do it! I have re-committed myself this year to doing all the right things and train like a professional athlete. I have no reasons why I shouldnt be doing everything that I need to. Its time to buckle down and focus on getting my times down! Lets get it done!!!

Keep on walking,

Rachel

Here We Go Again...

Three weeks off just flew by! Before you know it, you're back at it again. I didn't do much training during my time off. I only ran and at the most 3 times a week. I was really happy to see that I didn't gain any weight and when I did run, I felt like I didn't loose much fitness.

Last week I started back training. First day was 6km racewalk in the morning and 6km run in the afternoon. As usual, the first day racewalking felt weird and not very smooth. I feel like this every year after taking my time off. I only racewalked 3 times last week and ran on the days inbetween and hiked on Sunday. As the week went on I started to feel a bit more normal racewalking. My heart rate is still high for me but everytime I racewalk the average heart rate has been going down bit by bit. This week I will racewalk 4 times and so far im feeling so much better. I also started doing weights again last week. I havent done weights for a few years and now that I am back at it, I don't know why I ever stopped. I LOVE doing weights!!! Im not doing anything heavy but i'm doing typical distance athletes weights. Low weight and medium amount of repetitions. I am doing weights three times a week at Cuyamaca College. I signed up for the Strength and Conditioning course. It basically gives me access to the weight room and I can do whatever I want and all I have to do is record the machines I use and the weight I set them at. I have been spending a lot of time at the College because Tim is now the men's cross country coach there. The picture above is of the men's team, Tim and I at their 2nd race. Its been a lot of fun. Tonight I also started a yoga class. I am hoping that it will help increase my flexibility. I have never done yoga before but so far so good, I didn't embarrass myself too much :)

I am feeling very excited for the new season and I feel like I have changed my approach to training both mentally and physically. This year is going to be different and I cant wait to get the ball rolling. Here's to a good season!

Keep on walking,

Rachel

Time to Call it a Day, or Year...

Well I have finally come to a decision. It was a difficult decision for me but I know that I made the right one. I have decided to stop training for the season and take a break. After getting hurt a week after Nationals and struggling to get back into training after that, I just thought that I was going to have enough to prepare properly for a good race. I have been struggling with a lot of different things this year and I didnt want to end my season with yet another disappointment by putting myself in a situation that I wasnt prepared.

As I reflect on my season, I am extremely disappointed. Its hard to go from such a breakthrough year in 2009 to not improving from that in 2010. I know that I need to think about the positives and I did have personal bests over 5000m's and 10km's and those were two PB's that I really wanted to get. I also have to realize the different reasons why I struggled in the 2nd part of the season. The car accident was one thing that really hurt me mentally and I had such a hard time recovering from that. I am going to take this year as a learning experience and I am going to implement the things that I had wanted to for this past year. I am going to start doing weights again, I am going to keep building my mileage up since I realized that once I dropped my mileage at different times in the season that I tended to not do as well, I am going to try and race more often and most important, I am going to work on my mental toughness.

I have spent my first week off training in Florida with my mom, 3 sisters and niece. It has been a great trip and a nice way to get my mind off racewalking and just have a good time. I am looking forward to going home tomorrow and get into a regular routine. Tim and I wont be doing much travelling at all until Christmas time so im really looking forward to that!

Thanks for everyone's support over the past year. It has really helped me through a lot of the rough times and enjoy the good times! Talk to you all again in a few weeks as I begin my base training for the 2011 season!

Keep on walking,

Rachel

On the Go Again

After Nationals I had to make some decisions. Since I didnt get the National or Provincial funding standards I knew that I wanted to race at least one more time to give myself another chance. This season has been so disappointing for me to say the least. It seems like everything that could go wrong, did go wrong for me. I have been in the best shape of my life this season but you would never know it by my race results. When I was in my best shape of the season, the race I went to had a course that was detrimental for every competitor that was there. After that race, my mental state really struggled. It seemed as though after that I would get myself psyched up for another race and something else would happen.

I was able to train for a week after Nationals and was feeling really great until I did 22km's on Saturday August 7th and then my knee started feeling really tight a few hours after the workout. I had been feeling some IT band tightness after my race in Toronto but didnt think much of it until after that 22km workout. After that Saturday I could not bend my knee for a few days and was forced to limp when I walked normal. There was NO way that I could do any sort of exercise. Luckily I was able to see a chiropractor right away on the Monday to get some laser therapy (bio-flex laser) and it worked like a miracle. I still wasnt able to train for another few days but the laser just cleared the pain right up. My massage therapist in Peterborough (Josh Martin at Return to Function) said that the pain in my knee probably had to do with my very tight hamstring. It is also most likely from doing 50 laps on the track since the pain is on my inside leg. I have been able to train since last Thursday starting off with a run and it went well. I am now back home in San Diego and am back into training after yet another set back.

I am now debating what I should do for my next race. There is a race in the US, a race in Canada and a few races in Europe. Its very frustrating to have to extend my season till the end of September to try and chase a time but I know that I am capable of walking my goal time. As of right now a race in Germany on Sept.18th and a race in Norway on Sept. 25th are the front runners for me to do. I might do both. I will make my decision in the next few days.

In the meantime, I am in San Diego till Sunday morning then I fly to Fort Lauderdale, FL to spend the week with all the girls in my family (Mom, 3 sisters and my niece). Too bad im not getting ready for a warm weather race because I will be training in some heat!!! We'll see how it goes.

Keep on walking,

Rachel

4-Time National Champion

This picture is what my race looked like for all 20,000m's! The plan for my race at Nationals last week was for me to just stay one step behind Tim and let him drag me through to a good time. I was a little concerned with the race being on the track, especially at the University of Toronto. It is such a soft track which is basically bad for every event in track and field. The softer the track, the slower the times because the more energy you use. Either way, I was very optimistic going into the race and was feeling great!

We were hit with a bit of a surprise 15mins before the race. I went up to the race director and asked where our personal aid station was going to be (it is in the IAAF rule book that in a 20km race, you are allowed to have your own personal drinks). The race director said that we werent allowed to have personal aid. I laughed, and they didnt. They were serious. I was not impressed. They should have warned us well in advance that we werent allowed to have it because its crucial to our race. Its like telling a sprinter that they are not allowed to wear spikes. I was extremely upset but I dealt with it. Their reasoning behind not letting us use our own drinks was because they said that it would stain the track. The track is terrible quality. Anyways, all of the athletes were sneaky and used a sports drink that was clear so that it looked like water so that we could have electrolytes in this summer weather.

I was feeling really good in the warm up and was ready to go. The gun went off and I was feeling so good and it felt so easy, I couldnt believe how easy. I was just going along with Tim feeling like it was a workout. Had a first easy km in 4:52 and then went right into race pace of 4:48. Went through 5km's in 24:08 then the 2nd 5km's in 24:02 for a 10km split of 48:10. At this point I still felt as though I could do that same split for the second half of the race or at the worst a bit slower. My ultimate goal was for 1:36:41 (carding standard). Then at around 12km's my legs started hurting and I struggled from there on. I was still feeling like I was pushing but my legs were just not moving very fast. I ended up having some 5:15km's in there and it was just ugly. I ended up struggling to a 1:38:48 for my final time. I have to say, I attribute the pain in my legs to a few things. The biggest reason: the crappy soft track. I never train on a track let alone a track that soft. I am so used to training on asphalt everyday that I think the softness of the track really hurt my legs. The second thing was that I couldnt use my regular sports drink, Maxim. The drink I had to use usually makes me have cramps by 15km's and thats why I dont use it anymore in training/racing. I think that it didnt have enough salt/electrolytes in it and so my legs were cramping a bit. Even though I didnt get the time I was hoping for, one really good thing came out of the race. I established a new Canadian 20,000m Track Record. Now I can say I have 2 Canadian Records.

Now I am continuing to train as I am trying to make some racing plans for the next month and a half. There really isnt many options left unfortunately. I was hoping to go to Europe for a race in Finland but that race is now only 10km's for women. I have a few options on the table and I feel pretty good about them. One is to do another track 20km's in San Diego (yuck, another track race) and/or to go to New Jersey for the USA 40km RW Championships which is on the road :) Since I have only done 1 road 20km this year, I would much rather go to the race in New Jersey. Ill keep you posted!

Keep on walking,

Rachel

Nationals on Friday

Tim and I arrived into Canada this past week and
have really been enjoying time with my family. Its been so nice to be back here again and finally have Tim here with me since he hasnt been here since June 2009! Its also nice to be training on my old course again and seeing a lot of familiar faces.

Training has continued to go well for me. I have been feeling good and workouts have been going well. I have now backed off on the mileage since I race this Friday morning at the Canadian Track and Field Championships. I am really looking forward to this race. Its been really hard not racing in awhile but im ready to go. Im feeling really calm since Tim will be pacing me :) Im a lucky girl, thats for sure! Hes always very good with pace and so I will be able to just shut my brain off and follow him. Unfortunately because of road closure expenses, we will be racing the 20km's on the track. I have done 20km's on the track twice before and I think ive handled it pretty well.

Well we are off to Toronto tomorrow for the race. Wish me luck! Im feeling really good and really looking forward to the race and seeing all my friends again.

Keep on walking,

Rachel

Making Some Progress

We just got back from a weekend in Cincinnati, Ohio for the first Clinic of Excellence. It went so well! It was sold out so I was flown out to assist Tim and Jeff. It was soooo HOT and HUMID there! Living in San Diego, you dont get much of that so it was a bit of a shock to the system. It made training a little interesting. I had to stop my workout on Saturday because I thought it wasnt worth putting my body through the rough conditions. Whenever I help with the clinics, my training is definitely not the main priority but its worth the break because I really enjoying meeting new racewalkers and learning about them and watching them make improvements.

Training has continued to go well. I am feeling pretty good these days other than still having problems with my left hamstring but I know how to deal with that now so it doesnt disturb my training. Today I did a speed workout of 5km, 4km, 3km, 2km and 1km all with either 3mins or 2mins rest. I had done this workout on May 8th so it was nice to have something to compare it to. My body felt really good in the warm up but my heart rate was really high. My heart rate was high yesterday also but I know that it is because of the long days outside in the 90+ degree weather and getting home late on Sunday night (1:30am) from our flight. Here were my times:

5km: 25:00 (2.3 Lactate)

4km: 19:44 (1.4 Lactate)

3km: 14:35

2km: 9:32

1km: 4:39

Once I got past the 5km and the 4km it was hard to get myself going a little faster. My hip also made it hard with the stopping for the rest (unlike fartleks) so it was even harder to get up to speed. My times for the most part were very comparable to last time I did this workout but I know that my body was more tired than last time because of the weekend. My 1km was where I wanted it to be. Last time Tim really pushed me the last 1km and it was too fast so this time it was just right. I am very happy with the workout. Its showing good promise for my race in 2.5 weeks.

Now ill be home for another 10 days until I leave to go to Toronto for my Nationals. If anyone is interested in going to a clinic in Toronto, we will be hosting one there on the weekend of August 14-15th. You can find more information here.

Keep on walking,

Rachel