8K slow technique work

Yesterday: rest day

***

Today I knew it was going to be a tough day. I had to work on technique, and my right shin is extremely sore (anterior tibialis muscle soreness - just sore muscles, clearly, and no injury thankfully) from Saturday's 12K. Obviously I have to fix my technique before something worse happens!

Weather: good for January at -4C (25F) and sunny and calm. Hazy and a bit polluted, but at least it was sunny.

I started off and could not get in a groove at all. I was trying lots of different things and getting discouraged. Feet wider, weight back, tuck butt under, allow hips to rotate front to back, etc. It just felt overwhelming. Every 500m I'd stop when my watch beeped and cry out of frustration and then tell myself I had to keep going - baby steps - must keep going - must fix this technique - one thing at a time - etc. At 2km, I ran into my Wasatch Walker friends (Nancy, Diane, Shelley, and Dawna) going the other way. I was so glad to see them. I started walking slowly with them, and just vented a bit to Nancy and Dawna, who were kind enough to listen and understood how I felt. I feel a bit foolish for venting like that, but sometimes you just need a good listening ear. I really appreciated their help. Nancy reminded me to just fix one thing at a time, and I knew she was right --- I had to prioritize and focus as best as I could.

After walking with them for 15-20 minutes, I resumed my own workout and though it was slow, I was able to focus a lot better. I worked on keeping my feet a bit wider (not allowing them to cross over so far) as that is the root of a lot of the other problems, and is probably causing my shin and piriformis trouble. The piriformis was fine today (whew!); the shin, not so much, but it was going to be sore no matter what I did. I also worked on keeping my weight back, and when I thought of it, tucking my butt under and allowing hips to rotate. I had to concentrate really hard, and the mental effort was considerable in my somewhat fragile state. I was very, very slow, but I told myself not to think about that at all. I am sure I was slow mostly because of the right shin and the technique work, and I know that once I get through all of this that will improve. It's just a matter of patience, and I'm not patient. But I'm learning. Or something.

Friends are asking me if I'm going to do the World Masters in France next year. I have no idea! Of course I'd love to go, but it's a giant investment of time and money and I have to wait and see how my body returns to shape, if it does.

The food stuff has been going pretty well the last few days. Refocusing and only eating WW Power Foods seems to be helping a lot. We'll see what the scale says after a week. It's hard to get back in the groove, but being able to train again gives me renewed motivation. Racewalking and eating well do seem to go hand-in-hand to an extent. I was thinking today on my walk how racewalking is an integral part of being able to treat my body well and living a healthy lifestyle that is balanced and comfortable. I'm glad to be able to do it again, even though it's going to be tough to get through the next few months.

Total: 53:34 for 6:41/km with ave HR 145.

Garmin data here.