10km along the walkway

Its a public holiday today so I figured I should take advantage of the day and do a longer walk in the morning.

I woke today with my aching back again....??? ... not sure what I had done to bring it back on.  Both sides of my back from mid shoulder down to my waist just ache.  I am ok to walk but sitting and standing just kill me.  Maybe I have gone too far with the new style and not let my body adjust?  There is more twist in my walk now and that will def pull muscles.    Today I will take it easy and just let my body do what it wants.

I headed out at 10am and it was a nice 18 degs.   Awesome!!!  The first 500m were abit ouch as I slowly got into my stride and after that I just settled into a slow but comfortable pace and just stayed at that for the rest of the walk.   Fitness is ok as I am never breathing hard.....I just dont seem to have any power to push hard enough to end up breathing hard.

While walking on my own I tend to ponder life, love and the universe and I have come to the realization that I am probably not going to be a 'great' walker again....I can still be a good walker and I know that at the moment I am an ok walker.   In my brief walking period when I felt I was a "great" walker - I managed to achieve quite alot.  I have represented my Country internationally in an Open class event,  I have competed internationally at the highest World Masters level and walked away with 3 gold medals, at World Games and at Oceania Masters where I also won Golds.  I have a New Zealand Masters Walk Record, many club records and have even managed to gain two masters records here in Aussie.

If I never compete at the World T & F level again.....I will be ok with that.  I am still keen for World Games in Auckland and local events.... but open field events I think I will steer clear of now.

But I digress............ back to my 10km.  While it was nothing stunning....it was done and I am pleased to say my hip didnt hurt and neither did my back.   Total time was an easy 1:04:06 avg pace of 6:25

10km data

Tomorrow I will decided how I am feeling and might do an 8km.   I wont be racing on Sunday as I dont know how to get to the event - even with GPS its all rather confusing so I will hang out here and do another long slow walk.... Pan Pacific Masters is my focus now in November and I really need to get my Kms up.

5km walkway

After a terrible training walk last Thursday..... walked with an oncoming storm hitting and with leaning into the wind I somehow wrenched my lower back.  I suffered with 3 days of terrible muscle pain and electric shocks each time I moved.  Finally after days of heat and ice ... it settled.

Tuesday night we went to Lady Gaga and I was worried that standing for hours and dancing on concret floors would hurt me more...but lucky for me it didnt seem to do so..... thank god I opted for sensible flat boots rather than fashion statement ones.

So its been 6 days since I have walked.....I was a touch nervous but I knew I needed to walk tonight.  I have been feeling out of sorts and cranky!!!   So I decided a quick step out along the walkway would be good..... at worst it would be an slow easy.... at best it would be a quicker and feel good.   I am pleased to say it was more towards the quicker feel good side.

Shane came along for a walk too so that I was not out on the walkway in the dark by my self.  (such a sweet heart)  My first km was an easy and slow pace to help warm up and easy the body back into it.   Then once I realised that I had gone 1km and nothing was hurting I slowly let myself push a little more.

I felt great...NOT fantastic ... but great.  Nothing was hurting - THAT to me is more important at the moment and I felt nice and smooth.  Total time for 5km was 31.07 for an avg pace of 6:13 per km.

5km data here

3000m fartlek and some repeats

Its a little breezy tonight but I really want to try a fartlek.  So I decided a 3000m fartlek was do able.

I warmed up and also did my drills to help get my hips moving.  The others were all doing 150m repeats so I knew I would have walkers around to try and pick off and this helps keep motivation up.

I started out on my fartlek and was really concentrating on my form.  Getting my hips round and lengthening my stride.  I was not going to too worried about time tonight..............oh who am I kidding..... I am always worried about my times.   Tonight was slow!!!   but I am trying hard.    I think that hearing from the others track side that they are all seeing my hips turning and Robyn even told me that I am dropping my hips for the first time.  So that supersedes the slow times.

1st km was 5.40
500m slow = 3.03  500m fast = 2.49
500m slow = 3.09 (i was also removing my jacket during this lap) 500m fast = 2.43

total time for 3000m was 17.26
3km fartlek

then I decided to do 3 x 200m and 1 x 400m   I was happy with these seeing as I had tried hard on my fartlek.

200m  = 1.01 and 1.02 and .59
400m = 2.09

5000m Track Championships at St Lucia

After walking nearly 10km on the soft sand in a fun race on Saturday....I really wasnt feeling like getting up at 5.30am to drive into Brisbane for a 5000m track race.   I am not track fit by any means.

I was keen to try and hold the better style but reality is I know that it will be pretty hard to do.   I picked up Robyn at Movie World and we had a good drive with lots of chatting....nice to have company.   Arrived with time to do a short warm up and then it was into it!

I kinda felt "heavy" .... I guess just muscle tiredness from the last weeks training.   While I felt smooth it was nothing like on Tuesday night.   I still need to work on my stride length but that will come with the more I walk.   I got a caution for my left knee and I need to work on that side to help stabalize my hips.   I am pleased to say that nothing hurt.  My body held together well and while it was a touch stiff and sluggish...there was NO pain.   YAY.

my km splits show me getting 1 sec slower with each km and I was starting to tire from trying to hold the new style.... but a few seconds is nothing really and I am really pleased with my overall time.  28:55

5000m data

Drills and stretching

Here is my list for Drills.  I will make notes under the photo 

for drills 1 to 8
the idea of these drills is to not use your arms and to have only your hips moving.  Most people do these with their arms wobbling and flexing all over the show.  The idea is to also keep your arms still..... eg in #1 no moving the elbows back and forth..... try to keep your arms still.  In # 5 (the sleep walker)  again arms still and straight.   When walking through the drills make sure you cross over the feet eg.... if using a painted line on the track or tennis court.  Place your foot over and past the white line....over stretch that front step...but making sure that your hip is also pointing forward allowing that foot to cross over.  you really want to feel your waist twist as your hip pushes forward.

For drills 9 & 10.  The arm not swinging......try to hold your short leg to keep that arm still.  The arm swinging.  Try to get the circle nice and big and right back ... most of us do half circles as we cant get our arms back over the shoulder any more.

Doing these before races is FANTASTIC for warming up the hips and stretching them out.

Now that you are nice and warm, its time to stretch.

We all know this one.  There are many different variations.  I am lacking in flexibility so this works best for me.  I used the hurdle at the track or the couch arm at home.  This opens the hip and gives the glute and hip a nice stretch.  My goal is to get my foot and knee flat on the surface.

Next is a double calf stretch.  Plant your left foot and push with the ball on the foot and have heel touching floor.   Put your right foot across to the left as in the first photo - this stretchs one side of the calf.....10 secs later and then put the right foot the same distance out to the right as in photo 2.  This stretchs the other side of the calf.

no photo for this one...

Tradionally hammy stretch.... standing put one leg on hurdle or couch and have both knees straight....lean foward to touch toe...or pull toe back towards you on the out stretched foot.

this is a lower lumber stretch for us oldies!

lean forward a little and bend the knees... hold in the core and arch your back a little as in photo one.  You will feel it in your lower back ... then keeping knees bent...lean forward making sure you keep your back flat.  If you can slowly straighten your knees - as you can see...I cant!

The other stretch we did - you need someone to help ...  but sitting on the ground with one leg out in front and the other leg frogged..(so heel against inner thigh) ... you have some one push your foot on the leg that is our front of you... push the foot back towards you.  This helps stretch the shin aswell as the archillies.

I also like to do the frog or butterfly stretch.   Sitting on the floor -  place both heels together and pull them towards your crutch.  Once at a comfortable spot.  Lean forward a little and place elbows on your thighs and push your knees towards the floor.  The goal is to have both knees touch the floor.............mine are years away from that!!!

I hope this helps :)   I know that these help me alot and I must...MUST make myself do them.

Track session and style makeover

Today we had Dave Smith coming down from Brisbane to take another coaching session.  Its great to have some one of his level watch over us and give us all pointers.

First up he showed us drills - I know drills but he put more emphasis to these ones and they certainly got the hips warmed up and moving.  Next we went through some important stretches focused more for racewalking.

Once warmed up he sent us out to do 12 x 200m....with a 1 min rest between them.   At first I was still tight and trying to hard ...but once I relaxed my hips dropped and I started to use my glutes and I just flowed.  He had me walking on the lines at the track to really help me plant my heel in front of my body to help bring the hip around.  When I felt I had it .... it felt smooth and my speed picked up.

On my last 200m I got someone to video me and also kay.  Here is the unedited video that shows both myself and kay.  Next time at the track I will get some more video and put it up.  

My 200's were :-
1.05
1.03
1.02
1.01
1.01
1.02
1.03
1.02
1.01
1.01
I am very happy with that.   Once I warmed up and relaxed, I felt great.

track data