Thursday, April 12, 2007

Racewalking clinic, here we come!

Tonight begins the long-anticipated racewalking clinic. I am really excited about attending, and hoping that I will learn a lot of technique, training tips, etc. Being entirely self-taught to this point, I think I'm doing pretty well, but I wonder if I had a real coach if I would be doing better. I am sure that there are things that are wrong with my technique, though I have done a lot of reading and tried to apply what I've read. Nonetheless, you can't replace a good teacher. I would never suggest that one learn to play the piano by reading a book, and so I assume the same applies to racewalking. Unfortunately, teachers for racewalking are a little harder to find than piano teachers! Anyway, tonight we are having dinner and a lecture from 6-8 pm, and then we are meeting at the Utah Olympic Oval for training sessions Friday and Saturday from 8:30 am - 5 pm. I can't wait to meet some other racewalkers and learn a whole bunch of stuff!

My training for the 1/2 marathon on April 21st has gone fabulously. I think I should be able to do an 11 minute mile for the whole thing. If I'm having an exceptional day, I might be able to do a 10:30 mile, but I think more like 10:45-11:00 is going to be expected. I did 7 miles this morning, with the middle 5 miles at a 10:24 clip, no problem. Last weekend I did a 9-miler in 99 minutes, despite being sick at the time. I feel as ready as I'm going to be, though I still have one more long training walk left, a 10-miler. It hasn't always been easy to do the training, but it's been rewarding.

I'll be back to let you all know how it went!

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