Saturday Henry Cowell The Bench

Today is a Buddy training on your own so I decided to grab my Friend Susan again and head out to Henry Cowell Park.
We have this short little hike uphill to the bench that we really enjoy doing (not) We mostly do it to get a good cardio workout and to try to get back in to shape.
This particular hike is pretty brutal, it has a steady incline that really kicks your butt, and than you get to the hill and thats always so much fun to walk up.
The best part of the hill is when you get to the top there is a bench with a view that is awesome. You can see all the way to the Boardwalk and on a really clear quit day you can actually hear people on the rides screaming. So Susan and I made it to the bench, got a few sips of water and a little fuel for the body and headed back down. I think the total hike is a little over 7 miles.
I felt a little sore after but all and all it was all good.

Tues track practice 7-7-09 (stairs)

Today we started off doing laps, and it was one of those days when I felt like they were lucky I was there. Coach had us do 4 laps and than wanted us to sprint a certain distance than recover , and alternate the sprinting and recover for another 4 laps. Next she had us start practicing on stairs and small uphills. We are learning the technique of how to walk uphill and keep the same steady pace and also how to walk downhill and not get injured. I was very gratefull to learn the downhill technique as I always have a lot of pain in my knees after I have done a downhill hike. We practiced the rest of the hour with the stairs and hills, up and down, it was a great workout and seemed to go by pretty quickly.
Not to bad ;-)

Firecracker Race

4th of July
Saturday we alternate, one Sat. with the team and coaches and the next is buddy training or you train on your own.
I decided to enter the 4th of July Firecracker 10k Race in Santa Cruz with my Friend Susan.
This was very exciting for me because it was my first official 10k race, however I had no idea what I was getting my self in to.
The Race started at Harvey West Park and looped around the park and led us down River street, than turning onto a side street that led us up in to Pogonip area. This started the incline uphill which steadily increased to a steeper incline, for what seemed like forever. As we are making are way up the hill (at this point I was thinking we were doing the thrill of the Hill, WRONGO) they had these really great motivational signs posted saying, "Are you Ready to Embrass the Challenge Of the Hill", and I'm pretty sure one also said, "Are you Ready To Meet Your Maker. So we Finally get to the Water Stop and the Nice lady that hands us water informs us that the best it yet to come oh, and she also says in her cute little english accent, " It is rather tricky, that hill it is", I'm thinking bring it on. Well It definatley was a Thrill alright, it turned out to be one of the steepest hills I have done. By the time I finished the Ginormous Hill my legs were pretty shacky, and at this point we still were no where near finished.
The view was great at the top of the hill and the trail was awesome, I was really happy that we were in the woods shaded by trees and done with the Thrill of the hill.
We passed through the woodsy area pretty quickly and this let us back on to the streets, and looping around the urban area. On every block of the streets we had people rooting us on and giving us water, it really was nice to see so many nice people out there that really cared.
Now we got to the down hill part and we started to go a lot faster especially knowing that the finish was very close YEA.
Susan and I must of got a second wind so we decided to start jogging, this really didn't feel to bad so we kept it up and came in jogging.
It felt so great completing my first 10k race, It really made my day to see my good friend Emilee waiting for me to finish at the finish line..
I have to say that it sure seemed alot easier having my friend with me, it really went by faster just having her there.. Thanx Susan

Tues track practice

Today we met at Soquel High School Track, and if you haven't noticed yet, every
Tues we meet at the same track with the coaches. Today we mostly focused on are walk technique.
We did some lunges( I know I'm going to feel the lunges for the next few days) lunge hold, lunge hold, lunge hold, that was fun. The coaches have us doing some sprinting and recovery time and a lot of exercises to help with the walking technique. There are two that are especially fun to do, one is the girlie walk and that is where we are walking kind of like Charlie Chaplin with our hand in front of us swaying them back and forth, I know I look too funny. And the other is with are arms in straight out in front palms facing up in a cup position, looks like we are walking holding an egg, that is where we all are cracking up, and so is everyone in the bleachers that is watching us.
At the end of every workout the coaches will have us do stretches along with some leg, arm and stomach exercises.
It's all about the walking technique and stretches this week....
Practice, practice and more practice.

Saturday 6/27/09 8 miles

Training started @ 730 am at Dominican Hospital, we started in back of the Hospital and followed a chalk marked route down Soquel turning by Harbour High School, making are way up to DeLaveaga Park, and let me tell you it was UP!

The uphill was a lot more than I ever expected and there were times when I thought what the heck am I doing, this is crazy!! there is now way I'm going to make it up there. but I just kept treaking a long and kept thinking that I can do this, no sweat.... ha ha ha and boy was I sweating.

The uphill finally came to an end and we started back down and that eventually came to the paved streets and headed back towards the start, I kept telling myself, Almost there, it's just around the bend.

I was really lucky to be walking with one of my coaches Haley, who is soooo Awsome. She really helped me to keep up the pace and than some. She would make me pick a focal point way a head of us and then we would sprint to that point, we did this all along the trail on our way back and before I knew it we were sprinting back to the start and I Finished !!!
My time for the day was a little over 2 hours.
I felt pretty good right after i finished, it was probably the addrenalin still kicking in.
That all changed when I drove home and it hit me like a ton of bricks!! Felt like a Mack truck hit me and I could barely keep my eyes open, Nappy time for me. I was pretty useless for the rest of the day and pretty crabby. But come Sunday I felt more human, I have to tell you I had some pretty achy muscles though but not still feel lively and ready for more!!!!
So ready for Tuesdays uphill training. GO TEAM

Tues. Track Training 6/23/09 Back from Camping.

I know I haven't made a entry in a while but we had a family camping trip planned. So we packed up and headed out to Kern River for some much needed rest and relaxation and some river rafting, let me clarify that for you I didnt do any rafting just relaxing ;-) relax ;-)
Came Back on Monday evening and back right back to training at the track Tues. Right off the bat coach Terry has us start doing laps. So she has us doing the straight part of the track sprinting and the round parts just Race walking, oh she had us do about a dozen of those or so, seemed like but honestly we did maybe 2 miles. She than had us doing lunge exercises and a variety of others, than we finished off with some more racewalking laps. I felt pretty good after we were done and I have to tell u it was a great workout!!
So a couple days have passed before I made this entry and you know I was not sure if I would be able to get the energy up to make this entry or ever walk again!! Those lunges killed me and I think the other exercises may have caused some of the pain I am experiencing. Getting up and down from any kind of sitting position is very difficult and causes some pain and the toilet at this point is my enemy to try to get up and down from. I am feeling every muscle these days and walking pretty funny looking so much so that, when I was leaving the grocery store a bagger came running up to me asked me if I was ok and just started pushing my grocery cart for me ;-O
It turned out to be the start of a great conversation and maybe a great lead to a donation woo hoo.
Can't wait till Sat Training...Bring it on

6/16/09

Today Training turned out to be really fun and A LOT of hard work.
I have never racewalked before, so learning all these new techniques is very challenging.
I felt like a cross between a salsa dancer moving my hips and a clown with big feet trying to walk like a duck. So many things to remember to do, Coach Terry telling me " Michelle take shorter steps"," swing those hips more", "make sure your heel comes down first"," lift those toes up Higher"," relax your shoulders", um how do you relax while walking like this? You just keep on practicing!!!!
Our fantastic Coaches had us do several laps back and forth, all of which were different drills to help you perfect your race walking skills. We did a good hour and a half workout and finished up with some really good stretches.
Still can't wait for the nest training on Sat.