Yesterday: 8K w/5x200m @85%. Legs felt tired from all the weekend landscaping/home improvement. Got out there anyway and did the workout. Weather was amazing at 13.9C (57F) and calm and clear. Calvin came with me (yay!) and regaled me with snippets of funny YouTube videos. We brought the dogs, but regretted bringing Powder, as she was totally lagging. She did that last time too...I guess she's not a distance dog. We are both so annoyed with her that she might be relegated to casual walks.
Other than that, the walk went well. I did 6:25/km for 51:22 with ave HR 142. Then I did the 200s. Calvin did them too :). I did them a bit harder than 85%. It took me 5:28 to do all 5, which was decent I guess. Calvin did his in 3:59!!! He's getting to be a good runner.
Garmin data here and here.
Today: I woke up with tired legs. I think they were tired from the weekend's yard work/house work plus from yesterday's walk, especially the 200s. I was apprehensive and definitely thinking too much. Calvin volunteered to come along to encourage me; he was worried I'd go too fast for him but I told him that even my fastest would not be a challenge for him and that was true. At least the weather was very, very nice. It was 12.2C (54F) and calm and clear. Perfect.
I started off and my Garmin was off on the first 500m, as it sometimes is. Annoying! It had me down for 3:45 and I am sure it was more like 3:15 pace. No matter. I kept going and though my legs were slow to warm up, I did the first 2.5km in 16:56 (though I'm guessing it was really more like 16:30...darn the track for being closed!). Then next 2.5km was in 15:59, and I wondered how I'd go faster - thought my legs were pretty dead. But I turned off my brain and found another gear. Calvin encouraged me a lot especially on the last 2.5km :) :) :). The next 2.5km was in 15:32 and the last in 15:08. OK, that's kinda slow, but we're starting where we are starting, and that's what came out. I was working SO hard and my HR was 168 at the end, so I was really burning it. Total time was a very slow 63:33 (63:03???? Not sure about that first 500m) but hey, I got it done. Next time it'll be easier.
Hamstring: felt good except afterward I walked the dogs, and Powder stopped suddenly to sniff a dead bird; I fell over and pulled it a bit :( :( :(. It was sore at work but not too awful and I think it'll be OK. I am really annoyed because I made it through the whole weekend of yard work keeping it safe. Oh well.
Garmin data here.
3 comments:
Hi Tammy,
Thanks for sharing your training - I've been learning how to racewalk for the last couple of months and your blog has been very useful as a guide to the types of sessions I should be doing. I was wondering do you have any tips for improving toe off and developing a flight phase? Some online resources say that walkers should consciously push off the toe, but Dave McGovern (http://www.racewalking.org/5quick.htm) says "To push off the rear toes better don't think about rolling off the tip of the toes. Trying to consciously roll off the tip of the toes will cause most people to drag the rear foot rather than pushing off forcefully with it. Instead, think about keeping your heel on the ground as long as possible behind your body before lifting the back foot."?
Many thanks in advance for your time,
Cormac
Hi Cormac -
Dave has great advice for beginners and has taught a lot of them so I don't think you can go too wrong there; however, that being said, what I personally think of to improve my toe-off (which I need to work on now since my injury) is crushing a potato chip under my big toe with a slight lateral twist to allow that toe to stay grounded as long as I can. But I'm not a beginner and so I'm not so worried about dragging my rear foot. Beginners are often helped by short slight uphill stretches in which you focus on pushing with glutes and calves and foot as you ascend. There are also a lot of helpful drills on www.racewalk.com.
Good luck :)!!!
Tammy
Many thanks Tammy, I'll like the potato chip image and i'll give it a try!
Best wishes,
Cormac
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