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| sunrise on my way to Monterrey |
To get ready for my next 50K on Feb 25th, I decided to come to Monterrey two weeks early to get some training in that wasn't in snow or my local HS hallway... Here's how it's been going so far.
I arrived last Saturday after 16 total hours travel. Everyone was super nice! The lady that picked me up brought her brother in law assuming (correctly) that my Spanish wasn't great and he could translate. I got checked in to the CARE center (I've forgotten what it stands for) which is a big building with lots of dorm-style rooms. It ends up this is where kids come to live and train for their disciplines. There's track and field, rollerblading, archery, martial arts, springboard diving, BMX racing, cycling, tennis, and I feel like I'm leaving something out. There's a school on location so they can live, study and train here. This makes me slightly out of place, being an adult, but since there's coaches who stay here too I think a lot of the kids think I'm another coach.
The facilities are pretty bare bones, but functional. The dining hall serves cafeteria style food, nothing fancy, but definitely gets the job done. I'm used to eating about 5 smaller meals a day, so adapting to three meals only has been a bit of a challenge. I brought some food with me, but in hindsight not enough. A trip to the grocery store will be in order before my stay is over. There's a weight room with a lot of equipment, much of it with a "do not use" sign because it's broken, but everyone I've seen in there is working hard and having fun. There seems to be a coach for every event. I've seen a hurdle coach, long jump coach, sprint coach and throwing coach, and met and spoken a bunch with the race walk coach. Everyone is super friendly and we try really hard to communicate. Mostly people are surprised I'm here by myself,, they keep asking where my coach is.
The whole compound is located inside a big park, which has a 2K roadway around the middle. The outside half is for cyclists and the inside is for rollerbladers and runners/race walkers. The surface is really nice and easy to walk on.
The day after I arrived I had a 40K session. Saturday, when I was being shown around, I asked if it was safe to leave my bottles by the road during my workout. he thought for a minute and said no, it's a public park and couldn't guarantee someone wouldn't take the bottles. No problem, makes sense, I figured I'd wear my pack and then when I was out of drink would hurry to my room (about 150 meters and 4 flights of stairs), change bottles and keep going. No problem. He asked when I would do my workout, I said probably at 7:00 AM.
Sunday morning I wake up and go to the dining hall and have a nice breakfast. There's no WiFi in the rooms, you have to be in the courtyard area to get online, so I was sitting on a bench about 6:40 and a guy comes up to me and says, "Erin? Hi, I'm here to do your aid." Say what? They found someone to come with water, powerade and ice and he stayed out with me for the whole workout! I felt bad and told him he didn't have to do that. he said "my job today is to take care of you." Wow!!!! And I was so glad he was there. The last 15k or so of my session the temperature got up to the low 80s, way hotter than I'm used to, and the extra water to pour over me and the ice to put in my bra helped me get through the session really strong. Talk about nice! I went out later that evening for a second session and did another 5K, ending up with a 5:35K, so I was super happy about that.
Yesterday evening I saw some race walkers and introduced myself and met their coach, who speaks pretty good English. He's super nice and we had a very nice chat. One of the girls he's training just started walking three weeks ago. She's not fast but has a very nice technique. I did her cool down with her and she was so excited. We "talked" as much as our limited bi-lingual abilities would let us, and it was really nice. When the coach heard I was doing 30K the next morning he offered to do my aid for me. I told him he didn't need to do that and he said, "I have nothing else to do." Meaning his job is to be there coaching the race walkers. And he said what I have always felt, that we are all cousins in race walking and help each other!
It seems that the sickness that's back home is here too, and I wonder if I'm catching it or relapsing from what I had in NY. Today I had a 30K session planned and started off my first 2K sooooo slow and my heart rate was waaaaay up. I stretched a bit and tried again and just went slower. I came around again and the coach even said I didn't look good. Really stiff, no flexibility and not looking good in the face (lol). So I decided to stop the session (my fourth K was 6:40!) and take a nap. I laid down and five minutes later was ravenously hungry. I had a few snacks in my room and ate them and then slept for three hours straight! I've currently got a headache and a slightly upset tummy, but am really hoping the power of positive thinking, some good food, and a good night's rest will result in tomorrow being a bright new day. This was one day where the mind was willing but the body was not.
I've used the day very productively, getting ahead on my school work, I have less than two weeks left of classes and will be really happy to be done with the degree. Then I'll have a review class that's extra and then I can take the certification exams!
I've also been re-reading "With Winning in Mind" by Lanny Basham. I've mentioned the book before and I swear, every time I read it I learn something new! It's helping me get even more focused and excited about the year. And another thing it's helped me realize is this: I may not have been able to workout how I wanted to today, but that doesn't mean the day was a failure. I have used the day to work on my mental game and I have done the smart thing and not gotten myself so exhausted that it would take days to recover.
The race should be fun. I've heard there are five women officially entered; three from Mexico, one from Bolivia, and me. Then I guess there are two women who have yet to declare if they will do 20 or 50. Hopefully they choose 50!
Fingers crossed I wake up tomorrow feeling better! Happy training everyone!
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| How salty my pants were after my 40K! |
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| evening view from my window |
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| roller blade track |
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| stadium |
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| rock climbing walls |
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| volley ball courts |
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| diving pools |
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| diving practice |
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| velodrome |
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| part of the 2K loop for cyclists/roller bladers/runners/ race walkers |
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| courtyard of the dorms |
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| making new race walking friends! |
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