racewalking year in review

2010 was a tough year, with some bright spots.

January-March I was dealing with my foot injury (peroneus longus tendonitis at the insertion into the first metatarsal) and not able to walk much at all; I did only 118 miles total for all 3 months.

At the end of March, Jim Leppik started coaching me, which has been great. Though my foot injury improved with PT and stopped hurting eventually, I was pretty darn slow from not racewalking all winter PLUS being low on iron and not aware of it. My workouts were not very good, I had a few bad 10K races, and it was a bit discouraging. In addition, I struggled with ingrown toenail problems throughout April, and calf spasms in May. A bright spot was doing the Salt Lake Half Marathon in very nice weather in April (April can be dicey here, so that was good).

We figured out the iron problem in time to get a few good workouts in before the USATF National Masters' Outdoor Championships in Sacramento in July. In fact, just a few weeks before that, I set a PR in the 5K of 27:57 on a nice downhill course on the Provo River Trail (accurately marked every 100m). I was only 3 seconds off my track PR at the Masters' Championships, doing a 28:39 in the 5K. The 10K a couple days later was slow, due to low iron and lack of hard enough training at the distances required for a good 10K.

I had some really nice workouts from late August - early October, enjoyed cruising the Little Grand Canyon Half Marathon with Sarah and Jessica, and in general things were looking up. In our handicapped 5K series for our racewalking club, I came in 3rd overall after all 7 races, which wasn't bad considering the things I struggled with this year.

October started off with a bang, with a fast PR in my 8K fartlek workout. I was feeling like things were great...and then my foot started to hurt again. Jim figured out my foot problem and tweaked my technique, but then my hip couldn't handle the change and gave me fits all month. Fortunately, after a bit of rest it was more than fine for a nice PR of 2:11:18 in the Two Cities Half Marathon in Fresno on November 7, one of the bright spots of the year. Unfortunately, 3 days later I caught some horrible viral illness which still has me feeling sluggish and slow. I only did 63 miles in November and 54 in December, due to my illness.

Mileage total for the year was low, at just 1028 miles. But this was due to injury and illness, not due to any lack of motivation, so I'm hopeful for 2011. The World Masters Championships are in Sacramento this summer, so there are some great races ahead when I'm healthy.