St. George week one done!

Week one of training in St. George is done and in the books!  And I'm quite happy with how it went.   The awesome thing about St. George is it's surrounded by a ton of mountains, so any yucky weather that's coming tends to hit those mountains and dump it all there.  So we are left with beautiful views, stunning backdrops, and no snow!  So many of my workouts have been difficult to keep up my focus because I just want to look at the scenery. 

I didn't have quite the training volume that I had in South Carolina, but the quality of everything was higher than in SC.  I'm pretty tired, but feeling much better than at the end of my first week in SC.  To me that equals improvement!  This week consisted of; two distance workouts, three speed sessions over two days, two strength sessions, a water aerobics class, three "filler" days, lots of laughing, fun, great company, and good food (I could probably work on my cooking skills, but hey, it's nutritious and filling and decent).  

I tried a new workout Tuesday for my speed session, it was a fartlek, but after the first 1K hard I did 200 medium and 800 hard.  It was an interesting variation.  I'm looking forward to doing it again.  It didn't go quite how I wanted it, but I think most of that was due to traveling the day before.  My long walk Thursday was at the fastest pace I've done in months and months and months.  Saturday I did a workout I haven't done in probably a year and a half.  It was 5k, 4K, 3K, 2K, 1K.  I was a little apprehensive about it, but it went really well!  Finishing up at an average pace of 5:02 per K.  It would've been under 5 per K if I hadn't messed up my watch at the start of the 4K and just gone sort of spacey, but it was a very good learning lesson.   I finished the week off with a 35K.  Not as fast as Thursday, but my poor legs were pretty tired.  It was still at a decent clip though.  I'm thinking of moving my longest walk of the week to Thursday instead of Sunday.  That way it won't be right after a hard speed session and weights. 

(New workout gear?)

I did find again during my long walk today that as times slowed down if I really focused on technique it would tend to pick up.  Until the end, then I was just plain tired :)  

Five weeks to go until the 50K.  Things are going as planned.  I couldn't be staying with more awesome and supportive people (besides my hubby, of course) here in St. George.  When I was doing my speed work on the bike trail someone yelled, "Go, Erin!" at me.  Took me by surprise!  I guess lots of people have seen Marianne's awesome story. 

(Lentils, spaghetti sauce, peas, and chicken meatballs.  Simple and yummy!)

The journey continues!  Easy day Monday, going to the aqua class and an easy shake out walk. 

My first major successful goal achievement of 2016!

I'm in St. George, Utah for the lead up to the 50K in February.  The weather, while not bright and sunny, is MUCH better than upstate New York this time of the year.  The elevation is a little over a half a mile, and it hardly ever snows.  The town is fantastic, with miles and miles of bike paths.  There's a great chiropractor here who also does ART, so I'm set with body work.  I'm looking for a massage therapist, and I think I'll find someone soon.  And my host family is AWESOOME!  They're fun and know everyone and everything and supportive and helpful.  I'm having a great time here, having already tried a water aerobics class and went to a PaintNite function.   Water aerobics was a blast, and a good workout.  While I was definitely the youngest person in the class, you get out of it what you put into it, and I was able to really move at times.  One thing I didn't think of was how rough the bottom of the pool was and how jumping up and down might affect my feet.  I half tore off the skin on my big toe, and while it's painful if I walk with no shoes on thankfully it doesn't hurt when I race walk.  Mission before next Monday, get some boat shoes or something for my poor footsies! 

PaintNite was fun.  I'm a bit of a perfectionist type, so I'm not completely happy with my glass, but I had fun, almost won the dance competition, and painted a painting!  I had so much fun I think I'll go again while I'm here.  Something that doesn't have a wine glass in it!

Training is going really well here too.  Today I did a 30K, and it was my most solid 30K training walk in months.  Many months.  While today wasn't a day that I didn't watch the watch (I know, a whole lot of double negatives in that sentence) I met one of my major goals today!  For the first part of the workout I was like a machine, hitting 5:41 per K (off the GPS watch) time after time.  Then I would have a split where I slowed down.  Normally my thought process would be something along the lines of, "shoot, slowing down, better pick it up."  But not today!  Today my thought process was, "Why did I just slow down?  Did I space out?  Did my technique change?  Am I legitimately tired?"  And what I found was that when I refocused and concentrated on my technique (AKA the PROCESS of race walking) my splits went right back where they were supposed to be!  By focusing on the process of my walking, what it takes to hit the times I want, instead of just focusing on wanting to walk faster, then my body was picking my times up!   I find this very encouraging indeed!  And I stayed focused and my last 10K was the fastest, albeit not by much as I was super consistent during my workout.  I focused on the hills, stayed relaxed, and was methodical with my nutrition.  It was a good day! 

I again recommend to everyone to really look at your goals.  Make sure you're setting some type of goal that you can hit everyday.  Something that you can constantly do to reach your dreams.  Sometimes life gets in the way and things suffer, but there's always SOMETHING you can do to improve yourself! 

Delicious post 30K recovery food:  Tuna marinated in something yummy over rice and cabbage!

"A goal without a plan is just a wish."

I've always been a goal person.  I like having goals.  I like having something I'm working towards.  Sometimes to my detriment.  I tend to not practice my instruments unless I have a gig coming up.  Then suddenly I have a gig and holy cow I'd better get my chops in shape!  But for race walking I tend to always have goals.  I've been doing a lot of thinking about goals lately and have made some changes to how/what my goals for this year are situated and organized. 

I've always had two kids of goals.  Goals that were time goals, hitting various PRs (PBs for my international friends ;)  Then I also had goals that didn't fit in the time category, things like doing my ab work a certain number of times per week, getting enough sleep, eating right, stretching, all those "other" things that help you reach your time goals.  But as I've been thinking about what I tell my athletes, "the only thing you can ever do is your best"  I realize that the time goals are counter to that philosophy.  Don't get me wrong, if you do your best you very well may hit that time goal, hopefully you will!  But it's not a given.  Just because I set a time goal doesn't mean I'll hit it, otherwise I'd be much faster than I am!  But I can set goals that I can constantly achieve. 

In the book, "With Winning In Mind" by Lanny Basham (same book I've recommended before and will continue to recommend) he talks about process and outcome goals.  Outcome goals are the time goals, the place goals, the making a team goals.  Process goals are the things you're going to do to achieve those goals.   Making time goals are "easy." You pick a number.  How many people really focus on HOW they're going to reach those goals?  Do you have a plan for the process of achieving your goals?  Antoine de Saint-Exupéry said it best:  "A goal without a plan is just a wish." 

I have a plan!  And many of my goals are going to be process goals.  And the awesome thing about process goals is you can hit them so often!  Some of them you can hit every time!  What a great feeling of empowerment!  Everyone knows the frustration of going to a race certain that you're ready for your best time ever, and then, for whatever reason, you don't do it.  Frustration, anger, depression, so many emotions can float around in your head.  I remember one year Dave and I were training great, feeling great, and went to do a half marathon.  We were so pumped for it, we were sure we were going to do amazing.  Well, we didn't.  And we didn't know why.  and it depressed us big time.  We both didn't really train for a few weeks afterwards because we were so upset and frustrated.  looking back now I know it was because we were so outcome focused instead of process focused.  If that same thing happened to me now I would be able to come at it with a much more positive mindset because there would've been many aspects of the race I would've been successful at, instead of only having one goal and feeling like I failed it, thus failing in totality. 

Here are some examples of my process goals for this year:
1. Base workouts more on effort and not on the time on the watch.  After every workout (where applicable) I should be able to say to myself, "I pushed myself as hard as possible and gave my best."  (note:  this does not apply to recovery days.)

2.  Do some workouts not looking at the watch.  Because I'm a numbers person I will still take splits, but I will look at them afterwards and see how they match up with the effort I was giving.  My plan is to do that for both speed sessions and long walks.  Not all the time, but sometimes.

3.  Each workout will have a technique goal, something specific to work on, think about, and improve on.  Examples are; arm swing (compact and controlled shoulders), push off, solid core, and head position. 

4.  There is a group of things I focus on in general for training; drink plenty of fluids, get enough sleep (nap when needed) do core work 5-6 days per week, strength training twice per week when appropriate for that training block, eat well and healthy.  These are all things I can achieve every day.  Even on a day when I can't train I can look back and say to myself that I did things that helped me get better. 

I urge you all to take a look at your goals.  How many of them are outcome goals and how many of them are process goals?  Are you frustrated that you haven't hit as many of your goals as you'd like?  Do you wish you could set goals that you could routinely meet?  You can! 

Competitor.com did a great article on 7 Habits of Highly Effective Runners that I think is great.  If you're looking for more motivation I strongly encourage you to read it.

http://running.competitor.com/2015/02/training/7-habits-highly-effective-runners_122921 

Set your goals, set amazing ones, and start going after them!

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!