5,000 indoor nationals recap

 

 

I'd say it was a pretty successful day for me and my athletes!  AJ won his second junior national title and was third US male.  He continued on to 10,000 for an official PR.  More importantly he learned a lot about himself, racing issues, and how to improve going forward.  That's worth more than any PR to me!

Michaela had her first race longer than 1500 and boy did she kick it!  28:08 for a junior nats qual time.  She unfortunately learned the hard way about the joys of chaffing, but also did a fantastic job pacing.  She also learned a ton and with a few more solid months of training we're going to see a HUGE improvement from Michaela!

Katie had a solid race.  She continued on to 10,000 for a strong sub hour time.  Sometimes life gets in the way of training as hard as you may like, and it's how an athlete deals with that that really shows their metal.  Katie's mental toughness is so impressive, and I know her dedication to reaching her goals will make her such a tough competitor.

Dave had a solid 5,000.  He was first master and second US competitor.  He also smashed his age group record. 

I had a strong day.  I claimed the silver in the 5,000, just snagging the age group record by around a second.  Along the way I hit the qualifying time for indoor nationals.  And I continued on to 10,000 and broke my American record by around a minute.  I almost stopped at 5,000, I had some serious tummy pains.  But I thought I'd lay back for a bit and see if it righted itself.  After an easier K I started feeling better and so picked it back up bit by bit.  I never got back to where I was at the start of the race, but finished strong.  I am a bit disappointed in myself that I didn't push harder.  I think I could've pushed more.  I think I went into "comfortable mode" during part of the race instead of really giving it what I had.  It did seem to knock some cobwebs out of my system as my workouts seem to have jumped up a notch. 

I leave Monday for the final preparations for the Olympic Trials.  There's 7.5 weeks left, plenty of time for lots of hard work and improvement. 

Happy New Year!!

Soooooo tired, but feeling amazing!!!

Whew!  A second hard week of training is in the books!  I got in some amazing training and learned so much about what I'm capable (and not) of, where some of my boundaries are, and how to plan out the next nine weeks before the 50K Olympic Trials. 

One of the things I love about coming to train with Ian is his great knowledge base.  We have such great conversations about training ideologies, ideas, and concepts.  And he's got a reference for just about anything.  I leave feeling like I've learned a lot and extra motivated to get out and train. 

Since the first week I did such high mileage I started week two a bit on the tired side, but ready to give it what I had.  Where my 10x1K speed session went amazing two weeks ago, this last week it was a little rough.  My legs were tired and heavy.  I pushed as much as I could, and never gave up, but times were getting slower and slower.   The good thing was my technique still looked pretty good.  Ended up a lot of it was low blood sugar, and after a really good lunch my afternoon speed session of 10x400 went much better.  I had pep back in my step. 

Thursday's long one was good, until about 25K.  Then we both kind of hit the wall.  30K was good for the day.  But again, after a good meal and a massage I went out for a solid 8K in the evening.

Saturday was a great day.  We did our Saturday road race, a Santa run.  Almost everyone was dressed up, except me.  Then I realized, that since I was dressed all in black, I was the lump of coal!  the race was quite hilly, the last two K especially.  I did a 24:34, and was quite pleased with that on tired legs.  My afternoon workout was 30x30/30 which is 30 minutes of 30 seconds all out and 30 seconds recovery.  I hit my 5K split in 24:50.   A really, really solid day. 

However I was to pay the price on Sunday for the 40K workout.  I knew I was tired and it wasn't going to be my fastest workout, so I decided to not look at the splits.  I went decent through about 22K and then, poof, nothing left in the tank.  My legs would not go.  I wasn't low on sugar, my legs were just dead.  I still had to get back to the car.  It took me 80 minutes to cover the last 10K back to the car.  Luckily it was a beautiful day with wonderful scenery.  I'm not sure my body has ever been as tired and sore as it was last night.  Even after a massage I was moving around like an invalid.  A good night's sleep, a REALLY easy walk today, and I should be good for my last hard day in South Carolina.  I'm doing my third 10x1K in the AM and 10x400 in the PM session.  The rest of the week will be traveling home (hazzah!!!!) and getting ready for USATF indoor 5,000 national championships.  My plan is to continue on to 10,000 and see where I'm at.  All my athletes are racing and I'm really excited to see how everyone does.   There have been some amazing workouts happening and a whole lot of hard work going around.  Makes me really, really proud. 

So learning has happened, schedules adjusted, plans made, goals getting ready to be met.   Looking forward to going home, seeing my sweetie, taking some nice hot baths, and some of Dave's yummy popcorn.  Then off to St. George, Utah for final training before the Trials!

Training update and remembering the big picture.

Talk about a crazy couple weeks since the 50K.  It's been full of ups and downs, frustrations and excitement.  On the Thursday after the 50K Dave and I did our usual Turkey Trot 5K race.  It's a pretty flat course for where we live, gets a good crowd, and we LOVE the shirts (it's all about the shirts after all).  I was hesitant to do a hard 5K that soon after the 50K, but we signed up for it knowing we could always just do it for fun and go easy..... hahaha, yeah right.  If you know Dave and I at all you know we're not really wired that way.   It ended up that the race went fantastic!  According to my GPS watch (not official, I know) the course was decently short.  But I figure either way I did a sub 25:00 effort and I was over joyed with that!  Took it easy a few more days and Dave and I did a speed session on Sunday.  We did a workout Dave really likes, but slightly different.  We did 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 500, 400, 300, 200, 100 twice.  It's 6K worth of speed work.  I really want to work on my turnover and speed, and Dave's great at going super fast, so we thought it'd be a fun workout.  And it was!  It was really tough, mentally and physically, but we both did great.  He had the fastest times for all the 100, 200, 300s, but I had all the fastest 400 and 500s.  We both went faster than we have in quite a while, so I was really happy with both of us. 

Then we decided to finish up the siding on the bunkhouse.  We had what we thought were going to be some of our last warm days, so we worked like crazy.  I spent a lot of time up really high on a ladder reaching waaaaayyyyy over holding my breath to hammer in nails.  My chiropractor said this is probably what caused my back/SI joint and shoulders to go totally wonky.  And I mean, wow.  I went out later to do a 30K and hobbled home and barely finished 14K.  I cross trained a lot, and a week later did a 30K with Dave in Olean for orchestra weekend, but it was one of my slowest 30K times in years.  So I was getting really frustrated.  How am I supposed to train hard and go faster and really push myself to reach my goals on February 21 if I can barely finish a 30K.   Those few weeks where I could barely go anywhere were really testing me mentally.  I was very frustrated and thinking about when I should retire (now?).  When things are going well it's super easy to get out and workout, but when things are not going well it can be hard to get out of bed. 

(Beautiful sunrise on my way to South Carolina)

Through the frustration I kept stretching, rolling, seeing my chiropractor, got some massages.  I think what finally did it was I saw my chiropractor the day before I left for South Carolina and then saw an ART practitioner the day after I arrived in South Carolina.  They both really got stuff loosened up and my second day in SC I felt great!   Ian and I went to do a speed session at the track, and even during my warm up I felt better than I had in months!  We did 10x1K, a session I haven't done in quite a while and was a little nervous for.  I did them all between 4:42 and 4:46!  The majority of them were 4:43 and 4:44.  I haven't done that consistent of an interval session all year!  And it felt like I was pacing, like I had another gear somewhere.  Alas, it was not in my legs that day, but it would be.  I backed that up with 8x400 in the afternoon.  They weren't as fast as I would've liked, but I got them done fairly quickly and pushed through all of them. 

The rest of the week included a solid 30K, A double speed session on Saturday that in the afternoon we did a 5K road race.  It was fairly hilly, and I got stuck at the start.  In the first 150 meters Ian gained probably 50 meters on me just from not getting stuck behind people.  this course was significantly short, but I extrapolated out and I think I would've been about 24:30, not bad for hills and a second speed session.  At this point in the week I had already covered well over 100K too!   Sunday finished off with a really solid 30K and a not so solid 10K.  I finished that 40K, but man I hit the wall.  The most important thing?  I got it done! 

(never send us to the store after a long workout, we may drift from our intended plan)

(smiling after a 40K, that's what good company, good weather, and a good course do!)
We went home and had an amazing massage therapist there to work on us.  She did a great flush of my sore, tired muscles and it felt amazing!  She really helped get things loosened back up.  This week I tried, the day of my long walks, going out for a second session.  I know there are elite 50K guys that double up on long days, and I wanted to, carefully, give it a try.  Thursday when I did my 30K I went out for a 5K run in the evening.  I thought that doing the second session as a run might be a bit easier on my system than trying to RW.  I figure I'll do it running for a bit and then try walking it.  The 5K Thursday went well, I definitely had to warm into it, but by the end I was moving really well.  Sunday, after the massage and rest I felt great!  I didn't time my run, but I felt like I was moving great.  I know you're not supposed to play the numbers game, but I knew if I ran a 6K I would hit 170K for the week.  I thought the boost it would give me mentally far outweighed the sin of going father just to add numbers up, so I put my headlamp on and headed out in the dark for one of the best feeling 6K runs I've ever done! 

(post 6K run photo, with headlamp to see in the dark)

This week I've had two solid distance walks, two days of speed all well under my 5K race pace, and days in the middle of them that built strength and helped me recover.  I think this week may have been my best training week ever!  

And what's interesting about that is it came right after such a horrible week where I was on such a low and am now on such a high.  There's that picture that floats around the internet of:  This is what you think your road to success should look like, and it's a straight line.  And this is what the road actually looks like, and it's a bunch of squiggles going everywhere.  I have felt like that these past two weeks.  Squiggling everywhere, but still working my way towards my goal. 

I also am reminded that it really is true what I say to my athletes....  it's not the few amazing workouts you have here or there, it's consistent training over time.  Sure, my workouts weren't that great a couple weeks ago, but I was doing as much as I could, cross training to fill in gaps, and still moving forward.  I was giving my best at whatever I was doing and making the best of the situation I was given.  Over time the hills and valleys fill in and as long as you're steadily going upward you're making progress.  You never know what could make something turn around; a workout, a change of scenery, a word of encouragement from an unexpected source.  The thing to remember is things generally do turn around for the better, you just have to stick with it. 

So here goes another solid week of training, where I will continue to work as hard as I can with a well thought out schedule, decent weather, good company, and lots of focus.  I miss Dave, for sure, but I know that I am moving towards accomplishing amazing things and these times apart really mean something.  I think I sometimes train harder because I feel like I have to make the time apart worth even more.   Guess I'd better go get ready for my second session!  Happy training everyone!

(the fruits of some of my down time between training sessions)

50K aftermath

Now that it's almost a week after the 50K I've had more time to think about how things went.  While I am still disappointed that I didn't at least break 5 hours, I think I gave it pretty much all I had.  But something very unexpected happened out of the whole thing;  I was selected as the USATF Athlete of the Week!  It's quite an honor, with the list usually filled with Olympians and World Champions.  And it wasn't an easy week either!  NCAA had their Cross Country championships, so some good performances there to contend with.  Here's the article:

http://www.usatf.org/News/Race-Walker-Erin-Taylor-Talcott-named-USATF-Athlet.aspx

There are a few factual inaccuracies (my time and that I set a national record.  I already have the national record with my 4:33:23) but it was very nice. 

Another thing I was thinking about was how tough a lot of the people out there were on race day.  Everyone has goals and dreams and hopes for what they'd accomplish.  It's hard when something like the weather gets in the way of your race plan.  I saw a lot of people going out smart and still hurting from the heat.  I saw some people succumb to the heat.  And I saw some that were going to finish no matter what.  So here's my nominations for the most amazing/gutsy/stick-to-it-iveness performances I saw out there.

Darlene Backlund is no stranger to the longer events, getting out there and strutting her stuff with the best of them.  Having just turned 70 she was out there to prove something, a big something!  And boy did she, and in style!  No 70 year old woman has ever raced a 50K, at least until Darlene!  I was lucky enough to witness Darlene finish, with such a huge smile on her face!  As she then proceeded to wibble-wobble for some timey-wimey (anyone catch the reference?) across the line, then hit the ground with leg cramps.  What a champ!  I'm so amazed by all she does and continues to do. 

For the men I had a hard time deciding, but I'm going with Matthew Forgues.  Matt is no stranger to race walking, having been quite successful in his younger years.  However we haven't seen much from him in the last few years.  I will admit that I was quite surprised to see him on the entry list, and entered in the full 50K no less!  But he went out smooth and smart, I think just about on pace to hit the 50K Olympic Trials qualifying time.  I'm not sure at what point it was, but eventually the heat did do a number on him (as it did everyone!).  But he never gave up!   I could see he was determined to finish, and he did!  He finished his first 50K after not racing in quite a while in 90 degree temperatures!  I'm super impressed.  That type of mental fortitude to me means he could be a fantastic 50K walker.  I really hope that he continues and focuses on the 50K!

Dave and I were able to use some of our recovery time working on the bunkhouse, and I'm so happy that we have all the siding done!  I'm done being up on ladders and scaffolding for a while for sure!  And we got it done on what will probably be the last nice day of the year.  Whew!

There's a turkey trot held every year in Cortland that we like to do.  It's a 5K, really flat, pretty fast, and they have great race shirts.  This year we didn't know if we'd want to do it four days after a 50K, but we signed up for it figuring we could just do it as an easy walk if we needed.  We ended up pushing it fairly hard and doing quite well!  The time on the clock showed 24:10, but it seems a fair number of people's watches were showing it being short.  But we figure, even if it was the shortest that some watches were showing it that effort was still a sub 25:00 5K.  I'm pretty darned happy with that!  Still feeling just a little tired, but really pretty good.  I'll be ramping training back up starting next week.  Then the week after that I go to train for two weeks with Ian in South Carolina, so that'll be two really solid weeks of training. 

I have 12 weeks before the 50K Olympic Trials.  I have goals of what I want to accomplish and a plan of how to do it.  I just need to get out there, put the work in, and work as hard as I can.  No excuses, no slacking off, no giving up.  Twelve weeks of being tough and working hard. 

50K recap

Holy macaroni, what a day!  I am so happy to have retained my 50K title!  While my time was waaaaayyyyy off what I was hoping to do, there were a few things that went very, very well that I am incredibly happy about.  I made the whole race without a single warning or caution!  I've been working really hard the last few years on my technique after my DQ at the Olympic Trials in 2012 and I believe it is really paying off.   My race bib was #20.  As you can tell from the (very busy) board, my number isn't on it!

Another thing I am totally thrilled about is my glute strength.  For years I have had a muscle imbalance between my glutes.  My right glute medius did not want to fire like the left side.  I was officially half a lazy ass!!!   This would cause my hip to collapse, putting strain on my hips.  This would cause me to go out of adjustment fairly often, and sometimes at very inopportune times, such as right before a race.  I kept trying to work on my glute strength, but it's hard to get a muscle that isn't used to firing to fire, especially when there are so many muscles around it to easily take over.  So it wasn't just a matter of me trying harder, that I was definitely doing.  But two things have really turned them around.  First, when Quentin Rew from New Zealand came to visit he gave me some core exercises to work on.  I had been doing core work, but nothing like this.  Compared to what I had been doing it was "easy" but really hard at the same time.  After a few months I saw a huge improvement in my core strength which equaled fewer trips to the chiropractor.   But the second thing was a very interesting find.

When Dave and I went to the Huntsman Senior World Games they had a big expo.  I wandered around it a few times looking at all the cool stuff.  One of the booths had this funky machine that people were standing on and wiggling all over.  I was curious so went over for the talk and gave it a try.  The idea behind, in very simple terms, is the platform vibrates your body and muscles are forced to involuntarily activate.  This makes them work.  I noticed on my first time on the platform that I could feel one area of my right butt jiggle differently than the left.  It was my lazy glute muscle!  I couldn't believe I could actually feel it!  I went out for a workout after being on the platform and went significantly faster than I thought I would, and could feel my glutes a lot more powerful than I usually did.  I got a bit excited. 

I went back and talked to the owners of the platform and they agreed to help me out.  They're so amazingly awesome, so I now have my very own platform.  I use it twice a day for 10 minutes, generally watching TV.  I don't feel that one muscle in my glutes anymore giggling differently and I feel so much more stable and powerful in my core.  It's a amazing!   If anyone wants to know more about the platform here's the website.  I'm happy to answer questions, and I'll keep everyone updated on how it's helping me continue my preparation.

http://relaxhealthandtone.com/

So that's all the good, now to the "needs improvement" section of the race.

Leading up to the race I kept checking the weather forecast and it kept going up and up so I knew it was going to be hot.  Whenever I cross train inside, for example on the elliptical, I will go to our exercise room and crank up the gas heater full blast and get the heat up to about 85 and humid.  So I thought I'd be decently well ready for the heat.  It worked well for me in 2013 in Florida.  There I was slower than I was in shape for, but stayed pretty strong.  Not this year.  I was decent through 20K, the next 10K was okay, and the last 20K was just finishing.  Very seldom have I felt that hot.  One thing I think helped in Florida was there were more water station, and you could get personal aid on both sides of the course so you could drink about 3 times as often.  Florida also had an extra water station and an angel with sponges soaked in ice water.   I've decided that I like sponges way more than towels.  I felt like I couldn't get enough water wrung out on me with the towels, and they were too small to wrap around my neck without falling off. 

But I think I just was not in the shape I needed to be.  I also was not as dogmatic and structured about my race aid as I usually am.  Luckily there's almost 13 weeks between now and my next 50K race.  I'm going to spend 2 weeks with Ian Whatley in South Carolina and 6 weeks in St. George, Utah so I'll have plenty of quality, uninterrupted, and hopefully snow free training weeks.  I'm focusing on my strength, both RWing strength as well as muscular strength.  I'm going to really focus on the cross fit classes.   So I'll take a few days easy, let the massive chaffing heal a bit, and get ready for the next one!  I feel like I have to redeem myself after that poor showing.  I have to stay focused and on my game.  No slacking off, no making excuses, no wimping out.  And with that thought in mind I think I'll go do some core work!

Getting ready for the 50K!

We're now at the point where weather.com shows what possible race conditions could be in Santee for 50K nationals, which means time is getting close!  I always look forward to my favorite race distance, probably because, well, it's my favorite race distance!  Training has been going well, I've had some great training blocks, and I've worked on/improved my muscle fitness more than in past years, thanks to going to a cross fit gym!  I'm healthy, no injuries, just a couple little niggles (as all athletes tend to get) and decently close to my race weight.

One thing I've always been really happy about my 50Ks is my race nutrition.  I feel like I usually do a really good job of staying hydrated and fueled.  Only once did I feel like I was missing something, that was the 50,000 I did on the track in Oregon in 2014.  The cool thing about that was since it was on a track I could ask for stuff every 2:12 and I was able to try a bunch of things, that was awesome.  I know what my stomach will (and won't!) handle, and about how often I need to take stuff.  I learned too that having a wide variety of flavors, textures, and brands is a really good idea.  What can be your favorite flavor at the beginning of a race/workout, can turn your stomach later on.  I've learned to trust my instinct that if it doesn't "sound good" don't take it!  Not to the extent that I won't take anything, but just to find the flavor/brand that sounds good at the moment. 

Texture is a big deal to me.  If I don't like the texture there's no way I'm going to be able to get it down at the end of a 50K.  So I love trying new stuff to find what works.  At the beginning of races/workouts I'm able to handle energy gels that may be a bit thicker, but near the end, the thinner and smoother they are the easier they are for me to swallow. 

Recently I tried Honey Stinger Energy Gels.  They're quite yummy and nice and smooth.  You do have to like the taste of honey, as that's one of their main ingredients, but their ingredient list is very short compared to some companies. 

And if you're able to chew things during a race I love my Honey Stinger chews.  They always taste good to me (sometimes I eat them as a "treat" instead of candy, if I'm really craving something sweet.

With drinks I've got a few different products I like.  Amino Vital is an energy drink, and their grape flavor I NEVER get tired of.  I used to drink stuff like Gatorade, which I still will occasionally, but sometimes it gets too sweet for my tastes and I can't get it down.  I NEVER have that problem with Amino Vital, and if you're a person who likes some protein while you race, this has some. 

I usually plan to drink every lap, which since the course is a 1.25K loop, means I'll get to drink a lot!  I'll take an energy gel or chew anywhere from every 6.25 to 8.75K.  I'll take a wide variety of flavors and brands with me so that no matter what I'm in the mood for it'll be there.  I've got my pre-race breakfast all set, some yogurt and a banana with peanut butter.

Training between now and the 22nd will be focused on getting me as rested and sharp as possible to go out and see what I can do.  The national 30K gave me a lot of confidence, so I feel ready to hit my goals.  A lot of people will be racing and chasing time standards, so I should have some great people to race with, which is always nice.  My parents will be there cheering and doing our aid table.  They are old pros at it now and do a fantastic job.  

I will of course let everyone know how it goes!  Thanks so much for all your support!

I am a professional shoe lacer and number pinner....

Or at least I should be.  I mean, think about how many times in my life I've laced up my shoes.  And I've been to more than my fair share of races, so think of how many numbers I've pinned.  And since race walkers have front and back numbers I've pinned twice as many as the average single-numbered athlete! 

So why is it I still sometimes tie my shoes too tight and pin my numbers crooked?

Seriously, kids learn to tie their shoes around age five or six, right?  Let's even say seven.  That's 30 years of shoe lacing experience I have.  And being an athlete I wear sneakers a lot.  I can't think of the last time I wore dress shoes.  Let's say I learned to tie my shoes at the age of 7, just for easier math.  And let's say I have to tie my shoes an average of twice a day.  That would be almost 22,000 times I've tied my shoes. 

The author Malcolm Gladwell made popular in his book Outliers the theory/concept that 10,000 hours of practice will make you a master.  While I haven't tied my shoes for 10,000 hours, surely 22,000 ties (actually 44,000 since I have two feet, duh...) should be awfully close. 

So I ask again, why is it I still sometimes tie my shoes too tight and pin my numbers crooked?

Dictionary.com defines practice as:
1.  habitual or customary performance; operation:

2. habit; custom:

3.  repeated performance or systematic exercise for the purpose of acquiring skill or proficiency:

 

It is the third definition that concerns us here.  Repeated performance or systematic exercise for the purpose of acquiring skill or proficiency.  I'm pretty sure I remember, all those eons ago, when I first started to tie my shoes that I had to really concentrate on it.  I had to think about how my fingers looped and where the laces went.   I had to make sure that the tongue in my shoe was straight and not bunched up.   After a while it became habit and I didn't have to think about it anymore.  Now I can tie my shoes without looking.  So how much of those 44,000 times did I really "practice" correctly and properly lacing my shoes? 

 

One of my favorite quotes is: 

"Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect."

Vince Lombardi

 

How true!  So in simple terms I am not a professional at lacing my sneakers because I don't perfectly practice.  And never mind when I'm pinning my number, half the time I'm not thinking about where I pin it, I'm thinking about my upcoming race or talking to people.  It's only when I pin my number the night before, in the privacy of my room, that I actually focus on it and my number looks straight, even, and nice!

 

When I was teaching music I used to stress that the first few times played through music were the most important.  It was then that if you made a mistake that the mistake wanted to become permanent.  Really focusing on what you were doing and thinking about every note, nuance, phrase, and dynamic were super important.   Basically I was trying to get them to practice it perfect!

 

Think about your race walking.  How often do you go out and just do your workout?  You've been doing it for years, so you've got the technique down, right?  You go out and do your speed session and push, you do your long walk and get your miles in.  I just got off the phone with a reporter and one of the things I said to her as she questioned me about the technique of race walking was that I think there's always something that can be improved in a race walker's technique.  There's always something that can be tweaked, polished, or worked on.  How exciting is that?  There's always a way you can get better!  There's always improvement to be made!  In theory you could never reach your potential because there's always something more you could be doing!  Yet how often do we really focus on our technique? 

I urge you today to not just do things, but to mindfully practice them.  Practice perfect practice!  Think about your laces as you tie them.  Focus on your technique as you're going for your workout.  Be aware of the jobs and chores you're doing.  If you are used to mindfully practicing the little "unimportant" things then it'll be even easier to perfectly practice the important things!

 

 

Cause for celebration and focus for workouts!!!

Many of you know of my 50K struggles, my quest to have equality throughout all of track and field, which is lacking with the exclusion of a women's 50K.  Victories have been made, but there are many more battles yet to fight.  So boy, oh boy, was I surprised when I was scrolling through my Facebook feed and saw the announcement from the IAAF that was made on October 27th. 

Since women's 50K is not a recognized event by the IAAF there are no world records kept by the IAAF.  There are masters records in age groups, but otherwise, the fastest woman who has ever raced a 50K (Monica Svenson) does not have the world record, she holds the world's best.  Seems a bit like semantics, but I don't think it's just semantics.  When Ashton Eaton broke the world record in the decathlon in Beijing this fall at the World Championships he earned a $100,000 USD bonus for doing so.  There are other countries out there that will give their athletes bonuses for breaking world records.  I vaguely remember Sergey Bubka getting a new car every time he broke the world record in the pole vault.  Besides the potential monetary rewards of breaking a world record there's getting your name in the record books.  You can say you're a world record holder.  The best I can say is I'm a world best holder (I do hold the world's best for the women's 50,000 race walk.  Basically I'm the fastest woman to ever walk a 50K on the track).  It's interesting when I say this to someone.  The conversation goes something like this:

Me:  I have a world's best in the 50,000 race walk!
Other Person:  You mean a world record?
Me:  No, a world's best.  Women don't get to keep world records at that event/distance because the IAAF doesn't recognize it as an event the same way they do for the men.
Other Person:  Well, that's dumb.

I have had some permeation of this conversation multiple times. 

So getting back to my Facebook scrolling I see a post from someone in Australia that had a mention of 50K.  That wasn't horribly unusual, but having the word "women" next to it certainly aroused my attention.   The newest edition of the IAAF Competition Rules has come out.  And with it's release the newly elected president, Seb Coe released a statement.  Part of his statement reads thus:

"Also noteworthy: the distances run at the iAAF world Championships
Cross Country have been standardised for both men and women as 10km;
the Distance Medley Relay and the women’s 50km Race walk have been
added as official world Record events; in line with many other sports."

Score TWICE for women's equality!!!!  Women are now running equal distance as the men in Cross Country AND the IAAF is going to recognize women's 50K race walk for world records!!!!!   I now have one more thing I can strive for the same as a man, I can strive to set a world record!!!!!!! 

Hmmm, maybe I'll go do another workout :) 

30K nationals recap

What a day! This was my first big race both racing and having my athletes racing hard.  I was a little nervous how all that would work out, but I'm glad to say all went fine.  There were a few moments of stress and I'll have to work on the warm up aspect, making sure I'm warmed up properly, athletes are warmed up properly and everyone is ready to go.  But that's just a small thing to tweak.  

I'll start with the shorter distances and move up.  AJ did his first 20K.  This kid is awesome.  He's been walking less than an year, and most of that year has been mainly running with a few race walking workouts.  He did his first 10K in June and totally kicked it.  We decided to give 20K a try since he's such a strong kid.  He's a strong runner and walker and we thought he'd be good to handle it.  It was during cross country season, and his coaches weren't as understanding of his race walking as I could've hoped, so he did it based off two walking workouts per week and high running mileage.   I thought a good pace for him to try would be 5:30 per K pace, which would be a 1:50 for 20K.  He came through 55:49 for 10K, so nice and solid.  He then tightened up and did slow down the second half, but stayed strong and kept fighting.  AJ earned his first national title!  1:55:08 (I could have the seconds off by a few)  I am so proud of how hard he's working.  He's got goals and is ready to work hard to achieve them!  Keep your eyes out on AJ!

Katie did her first 30K.  We did it as a way to really focus on building her base so she could get nice and strong.  She spent a good solid month working with a PT in Michigan to strengthen her glutes up.  Since then her SI joint has been so much more stable, which has meant really consistent training.  We had the goal for her of 6:30 per K pace or under, which would be 3:15 for 30K.  She did her first 5K in 32, which would be a 3:12 and she finished just under 3:12!!!!  To top that off she placed fourth female in the national championship!  And her last lap was her fastest, by just a second, but fastest is fastest and  I'll take it!  I am just so proud of how hard she's been working and how focused she is on her goals.

Dave did the 30K, but continued on to do 50K.  For the first 35K he was so super consistent, right on pace.  He did his second best 50K time ever!  And what really makes me happy is he finished the race hydrated!  And his stomach wasn't upset (he's had problems with nausea before) and he didn't have any cramping!  I think that's such amazing progress.  And he placed 4th in the national 30K.  I'm super proud of him. 

My goal for the 30K was to be sub 2:45.  I wanted to out at 5:30 per K pace, which is 4:35 for a 50K and see if I could hold it.  I figured if I could do it for 30K today, then in five weeks I can go another 20K at that pace.  I started off a little under pace, but picked it up.  And made my last 5K my fastest and my last lap my fastest by 21 seconds to finish at 2:44:57.  I'm very happy with my effort and how I'm feeling afterwards.  I think I'll recover really well and quickly and will be back training for the 50K.  As some additional icing on the cake I won the 30K! 

So I'm really proud of everyone.  Everyone's been working hard and training consistently.  I can't wait to see everyone's progress!  I'm one super happy coach/athlete right now!

(bummer I don't have any pictures of Katie :(  But she was out there looking awesome the whole darned time!!!!)

How coloring leads to increased stress

I have always loved to color.  Of course once I reached a certain age then coloring was not cool anymore, something kids did.  But that was fine, I was going to school or working or training and didn't have time for something as "silly" as coloring.  Then it seemed I was reading a bunch about coloring for adults and how it relieves stress.  Yes!  I thought.  I can legitimately color again!  I can find coloring books that aren't Rainbow Brite ore Care Bears or something.  I could find grown up coloring books!  I was quite excited, however I didn't rush out and find a coloring book.  It ends up that it would be another year or so before I would find a coloring book.

 

 

Fast forward to my last trip to China.  As I was wandering around Shanghai with my friend we went by a store that sold lots and lots of paper products.  And there, in the window, just staring at me, was a coloring book!  For adults!  I was drawn in, with no control over my feet. 

 

It was awesome!  Pages and pages of different things to color.  And it was only about US $4 or so.  Luckily the store also sold colored pencils and pens.  I was set!!!  I did spend some time  in China coloring and made a few pictures I liked. 

 

Fast forward to when I get home.  I had preordered a book through Barnes and Noble and went in to pick it up.  I love books and love to read and try to take advantage of our library system, but this was the third book of a series and I was eager to read it.  I told myself I was going in to get my book and not look around and not buy any other books.  I was waylaid!  In between the two front doors B&N tends to have their sale books.  On this day the entire right side was covered with coloring books!  I stood no chance!  But they were awesome!  Patterns!  I love patterns!  I love the symmetry, the designs, I love patterns!  So we bought two of the coloring books.  I immediately went home and started to color.  I'd color while sitting on the couch watching TV, or while I was sitting in a chair with the book in my lap. 

 

 

 

 

I think my favorite so far is the middle one.  Now this is supposed to be a stress reliever, right?  Well guess what?  I spent so much time huddled over my coloring book that I annoyed a few of the nerves in my lower back.  Talk about stupid thing to do!  I even thought a few times while I was coloring, "gee, I'm sure sitting here with poor posture."  Never ignore those little thoughts you have!  Luckily I caught it early with the help from my amazing chiropractor and it's easily "fixed" but yesterday's workout did not go as planned because, of all things, coloring.  Sheesh... 

 

 

It's SOOOOOO good to be home!

They say home is where your heart is, but for me home is where Dave is.  So after a long trip to China seeing Dave, even if it was in Utah (well, technically we found each other in the Denver airport first) was like coming home.  I guess that's why I tend to say, "Let's go home" when we're traveling, even if that means we're going to a hotel, because as long as it's with him it feels like home.

Of course, now as I write this I really am home, sitting on my couch with cats sleeping all around me, cows mooing in the field, and chickens running around in the yard.  The leaves are starting to turn, weather is getting colder (boo!), and things are trying to fall back into a rhythm. 

China was a blast.  It was fantastic seeing old friends and making new ones.  I got to spend time in Shanghai with a friend and we had a great time seeing the city, getting stared at for being "blonde" and eating yummy food.  Workouts went pretty good, especially considering how hard it can be to find a place to train in Shanghai.

The races themselves were both good and frustrating.  Recovery from the 100 miler took longer than I had hoped, so I was not in the shape I wanted to be.  When I went I really wanted to be in great condition and improve on what I did last year.  Alas that was not to be.  I found after the first day I had to change my mentality from "racing" to "working as hard as I can."  It might not seem like an important distinction, but it really took the pressure off my mind and let me just get out there and work.  It was all about the process, not about the outcome ("With Winning In Mind by Lanny Basham, I've mentioned it before, but if you're just now reading then go get this book and read it!!!!) I did have a few people say that my technique looked much improved from last year, and the judges seemed to agree this year, I only got one yellow paddle during the entire four days of racing! 

So I left wishing I could've/would've gone faster, but feeling like it really helped get me off to a solid start again.  The worst part was my SI joint went out of whack the last day and I DNFed the final race.  Usually I can race through that, but this time it was sending a lot of shooting pain down my legs and up my back.  I guess all the travel and three days of racing before it was just a little too much. 

Since we figured this could be my last trip to China we decided to send me to Beijing for a few days.  It was awesome!  I got to see some of everything; the Great Wall, Tianamen Square, the Forbidden Palace, the Summer Palace, pandas, the Bird's Nest, Temples.  It was fantastic. 

From Beijing I flew to St. George, Utah for the Huntsmans World Senior Games.  While I am not yet old enough to compete, Dave is, and we thought it would be fun for him to go and get some speed work in.  Plus they used me as an official so I earned us a place to stay and some money.   Dave did fantastic, setting the 3,000 men's 55-59 age group USATF record.  I was super proud of how he raced all six races in three days!  He's really been working hard and it's paying off. 

I guess I can never leave China without getting sick, but luckily this time I was able to shake it off very quickly so it didn't affect training for more than a few days.  Dave and I had some fantastic workouts, including one really strong 30K walk.  I feel like my strength is really coming back and I'm moving really well. 

Another one of the reasons we went to St. George was how close it is to both Bryce and Zion canyons.  The original idea was to go camping, but with me catching cold and the temperatures getting down to the low 30s at night, we thought that wasn't one of the smartest things we could do.  We met some wonderful people who offered us to stay at their house and we could just drive to the canyons to hike.  it was perfect and they're so unbelievably wonderful!!!!

Here's us in the middle of a nice 8 mile hike at Bryce Canyon.  If you haven't ever been and have the chance, definitely go!  It's beautiful!

Dave and Eric after one of their races.  Eric is an amazing athlete who competes in so much more than race walking.  And a super nice guy!

Even though the trip to China and Utah was wonderful, it was so nice to get home again.  The moo cows were very happy to get more apples.

So things are back on track.  Workouts are going better than they have in months, I'm focused on my goals and taking things one day at a time.  Progress is being made on the bunkhouse and we're chipping away at it little by little.  My athletes are working super hard and it's showing up in their training and racing.  Everyone is racing at the national 30K on Sunday and I'm super excited to see how everyone does.

Sometimes what I need is a different workout

I've been lax in writing posts, but it's because I've been out training!  It feels amazing to be out on the roads and the track sweating and working hard again.  And with working on the bunkhouse when I can, cooking, eating, going to classes at the gym, life has been very full!

I've had a nice change in mentality the last few weeks that has really helped.  I was getting frustrated that I wasn't going as fast as I "should" be going.  Once I adjusted my thinking from what I should be doing for someone in shape, to thinking of myself as out of shape and getting back in shape then it was so much easier on me mentally.  Now each workout feels like it's building instead of being slower than what I want.  I had to realize that the Isle of Man race really took some out of me and the extra weeks off afterwards didn't help either.  Now I'm feeling good and enjoying pushing. 

One thing that helped too was to make my workouts more effort based.  It can be really frustrating for me if I'm doing a standard workout of say 1K repeats to not see a time down as far as I want.  So instead I do workouts based on effort.  Today I did a Norwegian fartlek.  I did one minute hard, one minute easy, two minutes hard, one minute easy, three minutes hard, one minute easy, all the way up five minutes and back down.  It's 25 minutes of hard and 8 minutes of easy for a 33 minute workout (I do not end on an easy, I end on the one minute hard).  This workout I can do anywhere; out on the roads, in a park, track, wherever.  I can pay attention to how far I go or not.  Today I did it in one of the parks in Owego that's constantly rolling, so I had the extra challenge of powering up some hills.  It was perfect for today since I know I wouldn't have seen times I would've wanted on a typical repeat workout.  Instead I finished my workout knowing I gave it all I had during my hards and had a very successful workout! 

I think I'll be as ready as I can be for my races in China.  I wish I was in a little better shape, but I've been doing the absolute best I can.   For a while I was getting really down on myself, especially seeing the entry list for the women and their 20K PBs.  I have the slowest 20K PB going into the race.  I was thinking I was going to make a fool of myself, that people would think I had no business being there.  But I realized a few things.  First, I was probably ranked slowest last year as well, and I never came in last.  Second, I'm strong, so where some women may struggle the last few days I will still be powering away.  Third I can use this opportunity to race some AMAZING women and try to hold on to them as long as possible to help me become a better walker.  I'm going to see old friends and make new ones.  I get to visit China for the third time in two years!  So I'm going to go, have fun, and try my absolute hardest.  I learned a lot from last year and will capitalize on that to do better this year. 

So with that I'm going to go spend some time in the garden and head out later for my second speed session of the day and then go to the gym!

The results are in....

First of all, how could you have a bad day when it starts off playing with kittens!!!!  No, I didn't take one home, four is enough, but man are they cute and can bring a smile to your face :)

I had some good news yesterday, and a good day in general.  The day started off tackling the HUGE pile of tomatoes in my kitchen to get them canned.  Blanching them and peeling them took me probably about 3 hours total.  Today they're getting canned and I think I'll have about 7 quarts, which is awesome.  Then I went to the gym.  This was my fifth class.  It was open gym day, so we get to work on whatever skills we need work on.  Since I don't know many of the Olympic lifts it means I have a lot to work on!  I was getting help doing cleans and they were going really well.  Then I did some pull up work and dip work.  I've been working on pull ups as strict pull ups, but if you've ever seen a cross fit competition you know that they don't do them strict, they get a bit of a swing in there that helps them go faster.  I asked if someone could teach me that.  We worked on it and it was going really well.   The lady that was helping me had me move from the bar over to the rings to work on it and we decided we'd do the knee ups.  I'd been doing those on the bar and I'm decent at them.  You hang there and then bring your knees up as high as you can so it ends up looking like you're sitting in a chair but hanging from your arms.  Some people are super strong and can bring their legs up straight all the way to their toes.  I looked at them and thought, wow, it'll take me months to be able to do that.  Some can do it with no swing, but you can also have the swing in there to get the toes up.  So we were working on the swing and the knees up on the rings and I thought, what the heck, I'll try to bring my toes all the way up, and I did!!!!  I freaked out so much I had to drop off the rings.  I love this gym because everyone was super excited for me and happy and getting high fives, it's such a rush.  Then I did two more sets of five!  People said they were very impressed and I was on cloud nine.  My hands hurt like heck with all the hanging and lifting of bars, but I assume they'll get used to it eventually.  So it was a really good workout day!

Then as I was at the post office mailing off my passport to get my visa for China my doctor called.  And...... IT'S NOT A STRESS FRACTURE!!!!  What I do have is a low-grade strain of the lower fibers of the anterior tibialis and extensor halluces longus just proximal to the myotendinous junctions, with a small amount of surrounding fluid.   I'm still trying to figure out exactly what all that is, but I do know it's no where near as serious as a stress fracture.   What a load off my mind.  I have some people to talk to about it, see what can be done/healing time for it, but I think I'll be good by China! 

As if the day couldn't get any better from there one of my athletes is coming to spend the weekend and work on technique and he had an AWESOME workout.  He really has good body awareness for a guy (he's competed in Irish dancing a lot, guess that's why) and is able to really think about and feel things that I suggest.  Where he was getting almost no hip rotation before he was able to really open up and looked fantastic and FAST!  I'm so lucky to be involved in his race walking career and help him.  The sky is absolutely the limit for him and his potential. 

Add to that a really solid hour of working hard and sweating on the elliptical at the end of the day and I'd say (minus peeling tomatoes for hours on end) the day couldn't have been much better.  Things are looking up!

 

MRI

Tonight at 8:15 I go in for an MRI to see if I have any stress fractures in my leg. I'm very lucky that my health care professional knows me and knows what I do and it didn't take much to convince her.  None of the usual, well, just let it rest for a while.  She knows I only come in when something is very serious.  It also helped that I had advice from my chiropractor suggesting I get an MRI too.  So they convinced our insurance it's necessary and even managed to find me a same day appointment!   I'm not sure how long it will take to get results, but I'm hoping tomorrow.

I haven't had luck race walking lately but I have been able to cross train a lot.  It seems it's just when I'm really using my shin muscle that it starts to hurt.   So elliptical is fine, cycling, rowing, and even the one time I ran on it a little didn't hurt.  Squats and such don't bother it either.  I've started going to a cross fit style gym and having a blast.  There are some seriously strong people there!  Strong and fit!  It's really motivating to see what I can do.  The coach there keeps saying he's impressed with how strong I am for someone who hasn't done these moves before, which is a nice little boost to my ego :)  And he says I'm a really fast learner.  Since I'm not doing much walking right now it's really nice to still be able to get out there and work really hard and sweat a lot! 

 

We're making progress on the bunkhouse.  It slowed down a little because there were just so many things around the house that we had been neglecting.  Tomorrow I will can up a BUNCH of tomatoes, so that'll be great in our pantry.  Next after that is apple sauce.  Apples are falling off the trees and our massive store of apple sauce from two years ago is officially gone.  So I need to get on that! 

We got a new shipment of baby chicks yesterday, they're super cute, as they are at that age.  The cats are happy with lots of mice to chase and bugs to eat.  The cows are super happy because I throw them apples to eat.  Dave has been having some great workouts and getting stronger and faster.  My other athletes are working hard and seeing improvements, which always makes me really happy. 

Hopefully tomorrow I'll get a report on the MRI, until then I'm going to stay as positive as I can and do all the strength work that sometimes gets undone because there just isn't enough time in the day.  Fingers crossed!!

It's not all bad

I know a lot of my posts lately have been a little on the down side.  I promised myself when I first decided to do a blog that I would always be honest and open and not try to hide things or sugar coat them.   In athletics, as in life, there are lots of ups and downs.  Sometimes it feels like more downs than ups. 

Yesterday was a big down day.  A big down day.  I was feeling so hopeful in the morning.  I had been to see my awesome chiropractor who does so much more than just chiropractic.  She found that two of the muscles in my shin had sort of stuck together.  After a lot of muttered "words" under my breath as she was torturing my leg, it was feeling much better.  But she said there's a chance that I may have a stress fracture.  I'm still hoping not, but it's something we have to have in the backs of our minds.  But the next day I woke up with my leg feeling the best it's felt since Isle of Man!  Still, to be on the safe side I took it easy.  She told me Epsom salt baths, anti-inflammatories, compression socks, the works!

Next day my leg felt great!  I was so excited to go for a nice, easy walk. I went out and got started.  Felt a little stiff, as expected, but it was okay.  But by 2K it was starting to hurt.  Not to the point it got at the Isle of Man, but still getting bad.  I was so frustrated but I thought, okay, I'll cross train.  I'd found that the elliptical doesn't hurt it at all, so I would just do a hard workout on the elliptical.  I turned the power on, jumped on, and the power went off!  Wiggled all the connections, did it again, and again the power went off.  Seems there's something wrong with the electrical system.  It just seemed like insult on top of injury.  I didn't know what the heck to do.  I was so frustrated I was ready to either cry or punch a wall (I didn't do either).   I did some yoga with a friend, read through a book with some good information, tried a few exercises.  But by the time Dave got home I was feeling really, really down.  We went out and worked on the bunkhouse, and that was good to get out and do stuff.

One of the things I'd decided about a month ago is that I wanted to get in super good shape.  Not just race walking shape, but overall shape.  So last night I went to a cross fit-style class.  Holy cow!  I had a blast!  I had so much fun!  It was a fundamentals class, so make sure people can do certain moves before they jump into the other classes.  The owner (coach?) was positive, giving advice, correcting things he saw that needed improvement, giving encouragement.  I realized I had missed that so much.  To have someone there, while you're working out, telling you you're doing a good job just felt amazing.  I was working harder, trying harder, pushing more.  And I made a friend :)  I don't have a lot of friends in my town.  It's a small town and I spend most of my time training, don't go to bars, so it's hard to meet new people. 

I came home all excited and bubbly.  Dave hadn't seen me that way in quite a while.  Another reason the workout made me happy was that running didn't hurt.  While I'm not a doctor, and not making a diagnosis, I would think that if the pain in my leg was a stress fracture then running would've hurt it, but running and jumping doesn't hurt.  So that made me feel good. 

We'll see what tomorrow brings.  I took care of myself as much as I could today.  I'll do a little more stretching tonight and give it a go again tomorrow.  But I also need to keep things in perspective; I'm healthy, I have a fantastic husband, I have a roof over my head and food in the fridge, I have wonderful fuzzy cats, my chickens crack me up, I have super supportive friends and family, we're making great progress on our people barn, and I'm still here kicking and fighting.  Perspective is important!  I realized that yesterday too when I went to the class.  I was feeling out of shape but I was stronger than almost all the other people in the class.  I have to remember sometimes I judge myself by different standards. 

So chin up!  Things will get better!  I was given some great advice and will run it around in my head and get things figured out very soon! 

The setting of goals

While on the Isle of Man, Dave and I had a wonderful seafood meal in Port Erin (great name!) and got into a conversation about how does one set their goals.  It was a good conversation (as most tend to be with my wonderful hubby) that brought up a lot of interesting points.  I was talking about how I was feeling at a loss for what my goals should be and he was feeling like he tends to always set his goals too high and he hasn't met many of his goals for a long time. 

So how does one set their goals?  There's the first, to me most obvious answer, which is if you want to make a team you have to hit a time standard.  USATF/the RW Executive Committee sets standards for what times you have to hit in order to earn that Team USA uniform and go overseas to compete.  Then of course you have to hit a certain place in a trials race, but even if you hit that place without the time you can't go.  So you have a time goal. 

But that is only for a select few of the myriads of people out there competing.  And you have athletes who are not yet  quite at the level of making a national team, or juniors/youth who may not yet be eligible to make a national team.  How do they set their goals? 

Some people set a goal of winning an event.  I'm not a fan of that as it's something you have no control over.  You cant' control who your competition will be and what they're capable of.  You can still try to win, and compete like crazy, but if I want to win a 50K and Yohann Diniz shows up, well, I'm going to be out of luck no matter how hard I try.  So place goals are never goals I set for myself or my athletes (except like stated above if needed to make a team.).

Something else happens when making a goal.  One thing Dave kept saying during our conversation was, "well, I think about what I should be able to do."  As in, I should be able to do a 4:45 50K or a 1:36 20K.  But who decides what someone "should" be able to do?  How did Dave decide that he "should" be able to do a 4:45 50K or a 1:36 20K?   He said based off what he's done in training you can extrapolate out for different distances.

There's validity in that.  Andi Drake has published data of many of the top men in the world who have done 50Ks and 20Ks.  And if you follow the general curve then if you have done XX for a 50K then you can do XXX for a 20K.  There's also tons of pace charts out there for runners that show if you run a certain time for a 3K then you can extrapolate all the way up to a marathon.  So if I run this for a 3K then I "should" be able to do this for a half marathon.

Is that how we should set our goals?  By what we "should" be able to do?  I wonder if that's what Yohann Diniz thought before he broke the world record in the 20K.  Or the 50K.  Did he think, "This is what I should be able to do."  Or did he think this is what I know I can do?  Is there a difference between those two ways of thinking?   I wonder how many of the people who have made it their goal to make a national team "shouldn't" have been able to do it based on other workouts/races/times they've done, but did it because that's what they needed to do.   

Now we come down to the big question...  To make the big team next year, the Olympic Games, you have to make a time standard.  That time standard is a sub 1:35 for 20K.  Less than 10 American women have ever done that (two of them are still actively racing, they being, of course, Maria and Miranda).  Not an easy feat.  Of course if it was easy then it wouldn't be the Olympic Games, but the time standard has been lowered I believe three minutes since 2012, a significant amount.   Is that what I set my goal at?   Some people's response is an automatic, "Yes!  Go for it!  What do you have to lose?" 

What do I have to lose?  If I go off my philosophy of success is doing your best and trying your hardest, then time isn't the goal.  Hopefully doing my best will equal a sub 1:35, but many would say history has shown that I'm not that fast of an athlete.  And people will be quick to point out that I'm not getting any younger.  There's the frustration of trying your everything to achieve something and not doing it.  That is hard.  That is frustrating.  That can be devastating.  Then again, I could go for it and surprise a ton of people and actually do it.  And wouldn't that be amazing!  Am I willing to commit the time, energy, money, resources necessary to try and get to that level.  It seems daunting, it seems almost impossible.  I had just wrapped my head around having to do a sub 1:36 when they came out with the new standard of 1:35.  At the time it was shattering.  I felt like just giving up right then and there.  Now instead of taking off 5 minutes I had to take off 6!  I've taken that much off at one point before, but man, that's a lot! 

The verdict is still out.  I still haven't come to terms with what my goals should be.  It's hard to think about 1:35 when you can't go out and walk at all.  Today will be telling, going out and seeing how the leg feels.  I have certain races to use as markers to see how things are progressing.  But I keep asking myself, what "should" I be able to do? 

Looking back

It's now been 9 days since the 100 miler on the Isle of Man.  I've made it home, gotten settled back into the routine of things, and had a chance to look back at how the trip went.  There's a lot of bitter/sweet about the trip, but I came away learning a lot and having a lot to be proud of.  And a lot of confusion about what the future holds.

One thing I'm quite proud of was training for both a 5,000 and a 100 mile race.  I thought that would be quite hard to do, but I think we probably couldn't have done too much better with how we prepared.  While I'm capable of going faster for a 5,000 and a 10K, with the hot conditions and everything else, I'm quite pleased with how we both did.  And while we didn't finish the 100milers, it wasn't for lack of training and with how the first part of the race went we were on track to finish. 

As our aid station helper James pointed out, there was a lot we did right during the 100 miler.  We were super consistent at the beginning of the race.  he said he was literally setting his watch for how long it was taking us to do the loop.  We found our pace and we were sticking to it, even though I was holding myself back a lot (that's the drawback of being a race walker...).  Our eating was spot on.  We never had stomach issues and I never felt hungry, so all the food practicing was really helpful and seemed to work.  While I did stop, I never gave up.  Even when I did some miles close to 25 minutes, I was still thinking if I could just get my legs to loosen up I could still pick it up and make it.   In hindsight I probably did about 4 miles too far.  Yesterday was the first day post race that I didn't feel pain every step I took or pain when standing.  We're finally getting some of the muscles in my leg to relax and that's helping a lot.  I'm thinking of going for a short, easy RW today to see how that feels.  Fingers crossed!

But now I am left feeling a little adrift.  I'm not exactly sure where to go from here.  I wanted to focus on some endurance events for a while, but now I'm not so sure.  I'd love to focus on 20K, since it's coming up to an Olympic year, but I've had some frustration with 20K lately.   So more thought will have to go into what is coming up next.  I've got the 40K September 13th, and then the four day race in China at the end of the month, so I need to get going for those.  But after that, who knows?

Wherein I can walk 46 miles, but I cannot walk 54 more....

It is six hours since I went to the race organizers and told them that I would not be able to meet the half way cutoff point.  I had done 23 laps (46 miles) in 10:40.  I had 80 minutes to complete 4 miles to make the cutoff.  My 46th mile had taken me approximately 30 minutes and the mile before that about 25.  I had done everything I could think of; put on compression socks, took a second dose of aspirin, sat for about 8 minutes "petting" my leg to try and get the swelling out, ice, change of shoes.  None of these things worked.  I know this time that my shoes were not tied too tight.  I also know and feel confident in saying that I did not go out too fast.

In 2013 when we came to the Isle of Man we had hardly trained at all.  I was coming off my discus-to-the-knee injury and hadn't gotten hardly any miles in.  I went 76 miles at that race.  This year I trained for the event; I did 7 workouts of a marathon distance or longer, I practiced my eating, I practiced my "fast walk" technique.  So the thought going through my head as I was forced by my body to stop was: If I'm this well prepared, what is going on?

While I haven't had a chance to yet explore all possibilities, I was exploring most of them between mile 40 and mile 46.  First, the problem is I can't raise my left foot.  Sort of the same thing that happened in 2013 to my right leg, but coming from a different spot.  Here's how the race unfolded for me.

The course this year, instead of being a half mile loop around the athletic center, was a 2 mile loop in the town of Castletown.   Castletown is having a rejuvenation and wanted to have a big event, so they decided to do the 100 miles here.  It is a lovely town with a castle (shock, I know, right?) quaint shops, old-time winding cobble stone roads, and lots of friendly people.  The course started by the civic center, went out, wound through some local streets, out onto one of the mail roads, took a dog leg into a school, back on a main road, back into the village, down a pedestrian alley, back on local streets, back to the civic center where you went over the mats and tear dropped back around.  The path leading from the civic center to the first local street was about 8-10 feet wide, a small fit for 100 people to fit through.  Dave and I decided to start at the back of the pack, we thought that would help us get off to a controlled start.  It did, we started off really nice.  We found the local streets were mostly cobble, with many variations in elevation.  There were spots where we had to go up on curbs and if you wanted to walk the tangents you'd have to come off the curb.  In one spot they put a ramp to come off the curb, but it was only wide enough for one person, and at a 90 degree angle.  The turn around in the school was about 120 degrees with some loose gravel.  I found if I hiked there I could make the turn okay, but if I tried to RW I had to swing quite wide.  Getting into/out of the alley was also a one person at a time affair and those turns were hard 90 degrees.  There were many inconsistencies in pavement elevation, the first few laps I saw many people learning where some were as people scuffed their feet, stumbled, and almost fell.  Dave almost went down in the same spot on laps one and three.  I started warning him the spot was coming, then he ingrained in in his memory. 

I would say this was the most challenging course I have ever been on.  I tend to train on the roads of Owego.  There are spots where the pavement is a little rough, but really our roads are pretty good.  Marvin Park is really nice, the track is smooth.  I almost never walk around 90 degree corners, especially not 12 per two miles.  

Dave and I walked together for much of the race.  We were hitting around 12 minute miles for a bit, then moved up to about 11:45.  I felt good, was having to hold myself back.  I picked it up a bit more at one point, I think doing a lap in 11:04 or so, but was feeling great.  I would switch my technique around slightly to use different muscle groups, a strategy that had worked great for me in training.  I was eating once or twice a lap.  Mentally I was feeling awesome.  But I noticed I felt a bit sore decently early.  I decided to just not think about it.

Around 15 laps in I started to get a massive hot spot in my right calf and an annoying niggle in my left shin.  I also felt the beginnings of a blister on the bottom of my left foot.  I stopped, took my sock off, and put some oily stuff hoping that would help.  After a few more laps the two hot spots were starting to really be hard to ignore.  I decided to stop at the massage area and see if they could work some of it out.  I stopped for about 6 minutes.  The massage therapist was great, but it didn't help a lot.  After another ten miles my calf did loosen up, which was awesome, but by that point the pain in my left shin was hitting about 8/10.  I hobbled around a lap, looking at my pace and how much time I had left.  I could still do it.  It wouldn't be fun, but it could be done.  At one point I got myself geared up and said, okay, time to start really RWing again.  I was able to latch on to two really nice ladies and for about a mile I did pick it up, but that's all I could manage.  The pain in my leg was just overwhelming.  I kept going though, knowing that it was still possible.  At 22 laps finished I had a feeling all was done.  I was starting to limp pretty severely, and my left leg was just along for the ride.  I decided I'd get around and tell our aid person that I was stopping.  He was great, very supportive, tried to get me to keep going, helped me rest and see if I could get charged up again, but after sitting for six minutes, when I stood back up I almost couldn't stand.  I told him I would hobble to the finish, just to make sure, and he would meet me there with our stuff. 

As I walked about 30 minute mile pace to the finish, feeling the pain in my leg, I wasn't even sure what to feel.  I'm still not sure what I feel.  I'm so frustrated.  I know I can do this, but this is now two attempts and two times I didn't complete 100 miles.  I found one of the race directors and said thanks and spent some time with the physio.  As I was talking to her I was expressing my frustration and just wanting to figure out/understand why this happened.  She thinks it is a legitimate thought that the course did it to me.  My inexperience in walking on different aspects of the course could've been enough to throw my body off.  Now obviously the course didn't affect everyone, there are still so many amazing people out there powering their way through.  As I look at the live updates I see many of them are veterans of centurion walks, and/or people from the Isle of Man.  One event they have here is the Parish walk, which is 85 miles and takes them all around/over the island.  It's a huge event that draws 1500 people each year.  It goes everywhere, on gravel roads, you name it.  So people around here have a rich history/culture of walking and walking on many different surfaces.  I don't want to feel like I'm making excuses, but I just can't figure out why I can be so much better trained and not even make it to half way.

The though did cross my mind, silly as it is, that maybe my body just wanted me to save my first centurion number for the US list and I will have success at our race next fall.  Seems silly to think though. 

So it hurts, now everything hurts.  My calves are tight/sore (stretching did not happen when I was done) my left shin just throbs.  The blisters on the bottom of my feet hurt, and I spent so much time trying to be careful where I stepped, especially at the end, that I tensed up my shoulders like crazy and it hurts to lift my left arm above my head. I can think of few times where I hurt as much as I hurt now. 

Once a day or two has passed I will have to sit down and seriously take a look at my goals and what I think I can achieve/accomplish.  Goals have been on my mind a lot, why we set the goals we set, how we set goals, how to choose goals.  I'm in a really big grey area with my goals right now and it will take some serious soul searching to figure out for sure what's next.

I gave it my all.  I probably should've stopped a lap or two before I did.  I hope I recover decently quickly.  I really hope I can sleep...

P.S.  - I want to be totally clear, I am not blaming the course.  There were 48 people who finished the 100 miles and 32 people who finished the 100 miles for the first time and earned their centurion number.  I guess I'm blaming my preparation, which is upsetting since I tried so hard to prepare well.  it's the fine line between an excuse and a reason...