video from yesterday

A few technique videos, taken yesterday 6k into the 12k workout.

Picky things I noticed:
1) Left arm not going back far enough; arms coming a bit too far in front in general.
2) Right leg crossing the midline too far.
3) Right glutes appear a bit weaker, and right knee is drifting in.
4) I'm STILL leaning forward a teeny bit. Dang it.
5) Hips are too tight - not allowing free enough rotation (this is a consequence of #4).

What is good:
1) Knees straight.
2) Good toe-off.
3) Ahhhh, no more RW good stuff, but hey, I look fashionable in the cool Athleta jacket my mom gave me :).
4) Despite having gained weight I don't look too awful. Black tights are good haha.

easy 5K on the track

Today Jim wanted me to walk an easy 4-5km, working on technique. OK, cool! I got Kelly to come and videotape me by bribing her with the promise of a latte afterward.

My coach is a genius...pure genius I tell you. He told me just one thing to fix: rotate the hips more and relax. Voila! Instantly better (see videos below). He's amazing and I owe a lot to him.

The weather was lovely - upper 40s (probably 10C) and a little breeze. Wished I could be out longer in it, so after my workout I biked to work :).

I felt much better today than on Tuesday. Kelly thought I needed more toe-off so I worked on that a bit in addition to keeping my hips rotating freely. I stopped every couple laps and looked at the video for some instant feedback. It made me feel better to see that not only was I lots more legal, but I looked 100% better than on Tuesday. Whew....

I am going to post the videos so you can see how CRAPPY I looked on Tuesday and how much better I look today. I am very ashamed of the first video and it pains me to post it, but I will for the sake of comparison.



Here's today's video - much much much better.



My total for the 5K today was 30:14, and I was breathing pretty hard at the end. Still quite out-of-shape as far as racewalking goes. Sigh....well, that will come. This is a long road back.

Eating hasn't been so good this week. Weight is up and I look and feel kinda nasty. Must work on that too...going to owe my friend Gisela $10 this week for my FAIL in the food department. Well...at least I have lots of inconsequential "first world" problems :). 

Garmin data here.

cross-training; videos from race

Today I did 45 min on the elliptical. I was a bit stiff and heavy-legged, but it felt OK. I was glad to do it and loosen up a bit!

***

Here are a couple videos from yesterday's race, taken when I was VERY tired, in laps 45 and 46 of a 48-lap race.

video 1
video 2

3x1km @ 85% effort

More video today. It's helping, though. I walk a lap, look at the video, adjust, walk another lap, etc. I am sure I will be legal for the race now, but the question is how fast will I be?

Today I did the 3x1km. It was nice at the track: 57F (14C) and sunny and clear. This time I remembered to set up the camera OPPOSITE the sun so that you can see better.

My warm-up was better today. I was legal by the end of the first 400m. The second 400m was iffy, but then I was fine on the 3rd and 4th warm-up laps. Total time for all 4 laps was 9:28, though I stopped in between each one to check the video briefly.

I really worked on straightening up today - my coach said if I didn't lean so much from the waist/hips that it would help. I felt a LOT better and much smoother, and it looks better too, I think. It's still not perfect...tuck my butt under, keep the right hip low as I bring it through, stay straighter, etc. However, I was encouraged by two things 1) I was a bit faster today, and 2) I felt smoother and stronger and able to push a bit harder and know that I was still legal. The hours spent poring over video are paying off I think. I hope.

Split times: 1st km was 2:43, 2:46; 2nd was 2:44, 2:45; 3rd was 2:46, 2:46. I will admit that it was more like a 90% effort than an 85% effort, but my heart rate was not too high. It averaged 156, 161, and 162 on the 2nd 500m of each of the 1km intervals.

Here's the video:



Garmin data here.


***

I'm feeling better about the race now. I think I was much more illegal on my warm-ups than I ever was while doing the interval workouts over the past few weeks. I suspect that some of my fitness gains are real, and so hopefully I'll at least be able to get the All-American Masters standard for my age group, which is 1:26:37. If I have a bad day on race day all bets are off, but if not, it should be attainable.