Inaki's Insights

We went, competed, and came back  all in the span of a week. Despite spending over 60 hours of traveling both ways up in the air and on the ground, we managed to acclimatize to the time zone, new food, and excitement of the event. Our successes as a group and individuals were not limited to the competition alone this time, but also to our ability to adapt to all these factors. Sometimes we forget about how all of these things have an impact on one’s performance. Overall, as a team we managed this quite well.

So, the IAAF World Race Walking Cup. I want to start by providing some background. The event happens on a bi-annual basis and most Walkers consider it the third most important competition behind the Olympics and World Championships. The level of competition is sometimes greater than that of the Olympics and Worlds since each country is allowed to enter up to 5 athletes per race. When you consider that the Russians and Chinese have over 7 athletes each in the top 50 in the world…well…you can expect some tough competition. This year’s event was particularly interesting because it was held in Saransk, Russia, which is considered the Mecca of Race Walk. This is the city that hosts the national training center for the famous and successful Russian race walking program.

This year’s event saw more than 400 athletes entered in 5 different races: 10km Jr. Men and Women, 20km Sr. Men and Women; and 50km Sr. Men. My race, the 20km race, had a big field of 130 walkers entered and 124 of those started the event. Not only was this one of the largest ever fields and the largest race I’ve competed in, but it was also the cream of the crop competing.

As I said, the long travel was quite taxing, but despite all of it, I felt comfortable enough heading into the race. I had come down with a cold the Friday before making the trip, so my last few days of training in Vancouver were not ideal and my final preparations in Saransk were not optimal. However, my coach, Gerry, just kept reminding me that I was in good enough shape to not be affected by any of those minor discomforts. We focused on being relaxed, resting, and hydrating well to ensure that I would be recovered by race day.

It turned out to be a fantastic race and experience. Never had I felt such energy as I did on this course. There must have been over 30,000 people lined up along the course or siting on the designated areas around the course. Those who compete in stadiums might understand this feeling, but for a walking event, this was one of the best (if not the best) attended and well received race that I have ever seen. Despite the favoritism for the Russians, the crowds also had chants going for the other athletes, especially as the races progressed.

The race itself was really something. When you have 124 athletes lined up at the start, you know that it is going to be difficult to move up at the start. The first km was quite a struggle to settle into a rhythm  because I was fighting to stay on my feet between all the pushing and shoving. As a result,  the first km was a slow one at 4:26min, but we all expected this to change quickly. For those of us who decided to stick with the leading pack saw a drop in pace to 4:01 in the second km. A rapid change in pace like this can either work for or against an athlete. Despite being around the 60th spot after the first lap, I quickly began moving up the field to the front. By the 5km mark I was in the 22nd spot with a split of 20:36. Working with Chris Erickson and Adam Rutter, my training partners during my Australian preparation, we pushed each other along. By the 10km mark, we had worked together to chase down some walkers ahead of us, and we crossed the line to a split of 40:55 (20:19) and I was now ranked 20th. This trend of chasing down athletes continued through to the 15km mark where I crossed the line in 18th position with a split time of 1:01:36 (20:41). At around 16km I began to make a move and picked up the pace slightly. I managed to close my last 5km in (20:22), and in the process I picked up two more athletes ahead of me to finish the race with a time of 1:21:58 and a 14th place finish at a major event. I must also add that Chris Erickson had a fantastic race and managed to dip below the Olympic A standard to secure his spot on the talent-packed Australian team.

So, as an experience this race was not only my second fastest 20km time and my third A-standard within the qualifying period, but it was also the first time that I was able to race and compete against the best in the world, not just simply participating in the event. I am pleased to know that heading into London I can compete and challenge for those top-16 spots. I do need to remember that this early success needs to be replicated on the big stage, so we will focus over the next 2 and half months to have the best preparation possible so I’m ready to meet the challenge.

I should also recap some of the other fantastic results from the team. Firstly, this was the first time in a long time that we had a full team for the event, so we were real happy and excited to see where we could end up as a team. The rest of the team performed very well despite very tough conditions of 28 degrees. We had Creighton Connolly finishing with a huge PB of 1:30:49 in the 82nd position. Ben Thorne, our junior up and comer, raced strategically and crossed the finish line with a time of 1:31:26 also securing his World Jr. Championship qualifying mark for the summer  with a 10km split of 42:34. Bruno Carrière, also in his rookie season over the 20km distance,  unfortunately  struggled with the warm conditions limiting his performance to a 1:43:28. Finally, Evan Dunfee went out challenging with the front pack and aiming to achieve that elusive Olympic mark. Despite looking great through the first 10km, the conditions got the best of him and he struggled over the next couple km before abandoning the race. It wasn’t what was planned, but he put up a gutsy effort. We can expect great things from him in the near future.

The women’s race saw some fantastic performances from Nicola Evangelista and Rachel Seaman. This was a very competitive race with the likes of the unstoppable Russians and the surging Claire Tallent. I think that both our girls did a great job earning their ground and posting awesome times. Rachel finished 42nd with a time of 1:38:43. And Nicola, who was on her first ever national team, did not disappoint. We witnessed her moving up the field finishing in 63rd with a 5 min PB of 1:42:43. There’s no doubt in my mind that we will see great things from her in the future.

Other noteworthy performances include Jared Tallent‘s 3rd place finish in the gruelling 50km race with a time of 3:40:32 just behind the two Russians.

I hope I haven’t lost you yet! As you can see, this trip packed a lot of bang into a small time frame. As a team, we are very pleased with the results from this event. Despite some struggles, we believe that the Walking program in Canada has a very bright future. This was just the beginning. Now, we can focus on becoming a world-class group, that competes hard and gets results.

Thanks for staying with me on this long post! I hope you have enjoyed the read and I look forward to sharing more stories as the Olympics draw nearer…

In the meantime, check out the official results and photos from the event in the links below: http://iaaf.org/mini/wrw12/Results/Results.aspx

I hope the phrase “better late than never” applies here.  I know I haven’t been the best at keeping everyone updated, but I will make the effort to write more frequently now that the summer (and with that, the London 2012 Olympic Games!!!) is nearing.

Firstly, I’ll just say that my trip to Australia was a success. Overall, this experience propelled me and my career to new heights. As an athlete, you can’t ask for more than great weather, a strong training group, and first class facilities; all things that both Evan and I were privileged to have this past winter. By the time I got home, I had accomplished what I set out to do…to have my best winter preparation ever. Here are some of the results:

• Olympic A+ Standard
• 2 personal bests (18:45.64 for 5000m & 1:21:05.00 for 20km)
• 1st place at Sydney Track Classic
• 3rd place at Australian 20km Championships
• 8th place at IAAF RW Challenge Race in China

Since coming back, I’ve maintained that same rhythm of training that I developed in Australia. With only 5 week between our return in March and our next departure on May 8th, we had enough time to plan out a short training cycle that would prepare us for our next task: the IAAF World Cup of RW in Saransk, Russia. This next event is an important one since it will be my last 20km race before London. It will serve as a good measure of where I am relative to the top walkers in the world. Currently, I am ranked 31st on the IAAF Tops List, so we will be looking to improve on that ranking.

Check out the event website for race news and live results: http://www.iaaf.org/mini/wrw12/index.aspx and look forward to hearing from me more often as the road to London gets a little shorter.

Also check out some of the pictures from Australia in the Gallery.

-Inaki

Training since Thredbo went quite well for everyone in the group, and confidence was running high heading to Sydney for a quick 5,000m race at the Sydney Track Classic . This short race was meant to be our last fast prep session before the upcoming 20km race in Hobart, Tazmania. It sure proved to be a very fast event with lots of PBs, in what was a very competitive field of athletes.

Check out the results from the event: http://www.nswathletics.info/liveresults/2012/stc12/

Also, the following should provide a more complete story to the way the race unfolded. These are splits from my watch and from the official event:

    

Lap splits up to 3,000m from the official results.

Kilometer splits from my Garmin watch.

This encouraging result of 18:45:64 for 5,000m makes me very competitive with some of the top walkers in the world. It was very exciting to be able to compete against one of the world’s best walkers, Jared Tallent, who fought until the end and was close to catching me down the stretch. This first step of the season sets me off well for the next few races. I feel very confident that I will be able to carry this momentum over to the longer distance of 20km.

While my performance was a noteworthy one, I could not pass on without mentioning the amazing performance of Evan Dunfee. Despite struggling with a bit of a cold over the week leading to the race, he was able to put together a great performance and finish 4th in the race with a new PB of 19:08, a 14 second improvement. This performance should set him well for next weekend as he chases down the Olympic A-Standard of 1:22:30. Stay tuned to see how it goes.

Finally, here are some photos from the weekend:

Once again I have waited quite some time to write another post, so this should recap the last two weeks of my time down here in Australia.

Much like last year, I decided to make the trip way south to take part in another study headed by the AIS (Australian Institute of Sport). They have been very accommodating in allowing both Evan and I to join their group during their summer months. This opportunity allows us to maximize what is traditional our winter months with heat training and in this case also some altitude training. Over the past two weeks we have spent our time training in Thredbo, which is 1400m above sea level. We will spend one more week here before concluding the camp portion of our stay and carry on with our preparations for the start of the racing season in February.

So here are some highlights of the past two weeks:

• VO2 Max test- with a protocol that consists of 4minute intervals with a minute break in between, it starts at 11km/hour and progresses to 15km/hour until one reaches Lactate threshold. This is then followed by a 5min break. To finish off, one jumps back on the treadmill and begins a progressive increase of 0.5km/hour starting at 11km/hour every 30seconds until one reaches 15km/hour. After this, instead of increasing the speed, the protocol includes the change of gradient, so it is once again increased by .5 on the treadmill incline every 30seconds. This is increased until one can no longer continue to walk; thus, reaching their VO2Max.
             
   In my test, following the lactate threshold part, I pushed on through the second part for 10min. This means that I was walking at 15km/hour with 5.5 incline on the treadmill. For those who are used to running on a treadmill can understand how much tougher it gets once you add the incline factor, specially walking at 15km/hour. My test score was 70.9 VO2 Max, which puts me in the highest percentile of the population. I will attempt another test at the end of this study in a week’s time, so it will be interesting to see how training along with the altitude affect the score and my economy.
• Training plan - Most of the time I tend to write about what type of training I am doing, but I forget that some of you might not actually understand fully the type of training that I actually do. Usually I get the intriguing question of how much walking I do per week or how many hours of the day do I actually spend training. I have decided to put up the schedule/training plan of our first week here in Australia so that people can see what we do with our time. To your surprise, you will find out that we have a lot of rest time. Not that we are lazy or anything, but we do spend a lot of time lounging around between sessions. I must say that this “rest” time is actually imperative for our success. Because we are constantly breaking down our bodies to the point of exhaustion, the time we spend watching movies, going on the internet, or simply hanging around with the other athletes, serves a very important purpose. Recovery is actually as important as the training itself. Take a look at the copy of the schedule:
  Here is what I did during that week of training:
  Monday –  20km uphill = 1:36:00  &  8x500m speed = 1:55, 1:54, 1:51, 1:50, 1:46, 1:46, 1:44, 1:41
  Tuesday – 12km easy  = 4:55/km pace  &  Strength and Conditioning
  Wednesday – 22.5km uphill from Jindabyne = 1:57
  Thursday – 6km easy = 33:00
  Friday – 7x2km = 8:04, 7:59, 7:52, 7:49, 7:49, 7:52, 7:47   &  6km easy + Strength and Conditioning
  Saturday - 21km uphill from  Jindabyne = 1:41:00 through 20km, finished in 1:47:00
  Sunday - 7km hike
• Aches and Pains - There are always risks of pain and injury as an athlete. Therefore, it is very important that one takes the time to stretch and use all the available resources to recover properly from session to session. However, from time to time, the body demands rest. I have been slightly slowed down by some minor stiffness in my IT band, which can some time pull on your knee. To ensure that my training continues despite this, I have minimized my walking mileage and have added high intensity swimming sessions to maintain the fitness. After a few days of recovery, it all seems to be back on track. I am looking forward to getting back at it tomorrow Monday to complete the last week of the Camp in Thredbo.

As you can see things have been quite busy during the last few weeks. It will be exciting to see how training continues to progress. We have our sights set on two particular races in February.  We will be racing in Sydney at the Track Classic on the 18th over the shorter distance of 5km. This will be a good test of speed against Australia’s best walkers, including Jared Tallent. The following week we will be off to Hobart to open the 20km season at the Australian 20km Championships. Evan will be looking to dip under the Olympic A Standard and secure his place in this summer’s Olympic Games. Me on the other hand, will be looking to continue my improvement over the distance to chase down the Canadian Record of 1:21:03 that belongs to Arturo Huerta.

Stay tuned for more news on the races in February. Also for those on Twitter, I will be updating my progress on a more regular basis there, so you can follow me @InakiGomezG .

I wanted to bring to light a cool initiative that was put together by Callum Ng from BC Athlete Voice. About a month ago, Callum contacted me to ask whether I would be interested in taking part in this new program called TELUS Athlete Leadership School, which looked to deliver a leadership program through a half-day conference, workshops and one-on-one mentoring with a World Class Athlete Mentor for young athletes. Without hesitation I agreed to join Callum in bringing my experience and sharing it with these young athletes. However, I must admit that when I first looked at the list of Mentors who had also joined this program, I felt a little out of place. This program includes the following athletes as part of the mentoring team:

Bo Hedges, Wheelchair Basketball
Jennifer Brule, Rugby
Anthony Wright, Field Hockey
Ryan Leech, Pro. Mtn. Biking / Yoga
Miranda Dick, Wrestling
Stephanie McCann, Pole Vault
Auburn Sigurdson, Softball
Inaki Gomez, Race Walking
Georgia Simmerling, Ski Cross
Ben Rutledge, Rowing
Taylor Dick, Wrestling
Donovan Tildesley, Paralympian Swimming

For those who follow Canadian sport, you may notice that the list includes several Olympic and Paralympic Gold Medalists along with many other Olympians and successful athletes in their respective sport. So, I questioned how I would be able to provide the same level of expertise as many of these amazing athletes. However, I soon realized that every athlete, no matter what level of success they have reached, has something important to share. While my successes are nothing short of encouraging, I have come to realize that what young athletes require is not dependant on an individual’s achievements, but rather on our ability to share and encourage them to see for themselves the true value of sport. Over the next few months, myself along with the other Mentors will provide both guidance and friendship for these young athletes, enabling them to gain valuable tips.

Check out some of the pictures by Jeremy Lim, www.jeremylim.ca:

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It has definitely been quite a while since I last sat down to write a post, and this is an appropriate time as any to talk about what has happened since my last post.

Upon my return from Europe, I took three weeks off from anything related to walking to allow my body  and mind to recover from what was a very long and taxing season. During that time I began studying for the LSAT, a standardize test required to be taken by aspiring law students. I recently wrote the test on December 3rd. I am confident that things went well, and I will now await my results which should be released in January. All my applications have also been sent out, so I am hopeful that I will receive an acceptance letter for the Fall 2012 Term.

Although studying for the LSAT was a priority during the past couple of months, I also return to my training ways 9 weeks ago. Training has been progressively building in the level of intensity. Currently, my training plan has transitioned from a base type to one that combines both mileage and speed along with strengthening at the gym. This block of training is planned accordingly to ensure that both Evan and I head down to Australia as prepared as possible for what will be a very exciting and challenging few months of training.

Our trip to Australia, a 3 month trip, will provide a great opportunity to train in warm weather and avoid our cold, wet Vancouver winters. Our first month in Australia will entail taking part in a study that will test the effects of “Living High, Training Low”. The study will see a group living in CAT Altitude tents at 3,000 meters and training ‘low’ in the town of Thredbo at 1,300 meters. The control group, on the other hand, will be “Living High, Training High”, meaning that they will be sleeping under the normal Thredbo altitude and also training at that same altitude. Although there are numerous studies done that look at the benefit of Altitude training, the AIS, Australia Institute of Sport, is looking to further extend on that research with this study. I am certainly very excited to take part in this study, as it is likely to have some benefits leading to the race in Hobart, Tazmania on the 25th of February. We will continue to train in Canberra for the remainder of the three months.

On another note, the AAP (Athlete Assistance Program), also referred to as ‘Carding’, which is administered by Sport Canada, was released in November. Some great news came out of this announcement, as four race walkers were selected to this program: Evan Dunfee, Ben Thorne, Rachel Seaman, and myself. Both Rachel and myself were nominated to receive the C-1 Senior Level Carding, while Evan and Ben will both receive Developmental Cards. The Carding system provides athletes with the much-needed financial support. If you are interested to learn about the AAP system take a look at the Government of Canada website: http://www.pch.gc.ca/pgm/sc/pol/athl/index-eng.cfm 

Also during this past month, we had our annual Racewalk West team retreat in Whistler. We had the opportunity to plan out our season while also spending some quality time bonding as a group. I will put up some of the pictures for everyone to see.

Finally, perhaps the most exciting news of all, I want to share the news that yesterday was the birth of my first nephew, Kai Gomez, a baby samurai indeed. Both my brother Iker and his wife Kaori have  been waiting anxiously for this moment over the past 9 months with their arms wide open to welcome this new baby. My parents also had the opportunity to be in Japan where my brother lives to also welcome Kai into this world. Here is a picture:

The excitement of being an uncle and beginning my preparations for the Olympics has been the best start to this new season. I hope that you guys are as excited as I am to get this season going. There are just under 8 months left until the London Olympics, and I can definitely begin to feel the excitement building. As you can see with this post, the ground work is now laid out properly to ensure that my preparations for next summer are as good as possible. I would like to thank Sport Canada, Athletic Canada and the AIS for facilitating this upcoming season’s training with the financial support  and training opportunities that I am receiving.

For those of you who are active on Twitter you can now follow me there @InakiGomezG.

It is crazy to believe that the 2011 season is all wrapped up. It was just over a week ago when Evan and I had made our way to Germany after a solid month of training in Leeds. After a long season, we were eager to get this last race under our belt and put together the type of race that we knew we were capable of.

The race took place in Naumburg, Germany, a small town about an hour south of Berlin. We were definitely very lucky with the conditions on that day, as we woke up to a sunny and a cool morning of 17 degrees. With such conditions, I was very confident that I would be able to carry on with my plan to break that Olympic A Qualifying standard. So, I went off at the start with the plan to hold 4:07/km. I managed to hold that pace for 5km going through the line in 20:42, but I also felt very strong and confident that I could continue to push the pace. And so I did, dropping the next 5km to a split of 20:39, crossing the half way mark in 41:21. I knew that I would need to pick up the pace in order to go under that elusive Olympic mark, so I began to chase down kilometer after kilometer. I managed to gain some ground on the standard after 15km with a split time of 1:01:48 (20:27 for the third 5km). Being under the target pace gave me a sense of confidence to push hard without the worry of blowing up and failing to cross the line under my goal. So, I went on picking up the pace. I managed to do my last 5km split in a time of 20:18, which in turn got me well under that desired mark. I finished the race in 3rd place overall in a time of 1:22:06 (Olympic standard = 1:22:30), 24 seconds clear of qualifying for my first Olympic Games. To my surprise, along with this massive accomplishment I received 250 Euros as prize money for my placing.

After having qualified for next year's Olympic Games

The race saw many other successes. Firstly, Evan managed to have a great performance finishing 5th in a time of 1:23:45 (minute and a half PB, and well under the Olympic B Standard of 1:24:30). He was the third walker in our group to go under the Olympic B standard in less than 7 days after Ben Thorne, our up and coming walker, managed to have a fantastic 1:24:12 performance in only his first 20km race in Edmonton. I am very confident that both Evan and Ben will be able to get under the Olympic A standard to solidify their place at next year’s Games. To wrap up the Canadian success, Rachel Seaman crossed the line breaking the Canadian Record for the third time this season in a time of 1:33:33 (3 seconds short of an A standard). I also want to give a mention to another amazing performance in Naumburg. Brendan Boyce, the Irish walker whom we had stayed with in Leeds, managed to qualify for the Olympics over the more gruelling distance of 50km, crossing the line with a time of 3:57:58 (You can follow Brendan here: http://www.brendanboyce.co.uk/). I definitely look forward to seeing him continue to get faster over the distance. And finally, it was great to see Alex Wright, the British walker, put together a solid SB performance of 1:26:45 after a season of injuries.

Here are the official results for the Naumburg race:
file://localhost/Users/inaki2002/Library/Mail%20Downloads/Ergebnisse-International-Gehen-Naumburg.htm

Here is the Athletics Canada news release about the race: http://athletics.ca/display_news.asp?newsid=1263

This wraps up the 2011 season, one full of exciting performances and experiences around the world. I definitely want to thank the British Race Walking Center in Leeds, UK (Alex Wright and Lauren, Brendan, Andi Drake, and Ian Richards) for their hospitality and h support as we prepared to finish the season on a high note.

I look forward to getting back to training in a few weeks and chipping away as we prepare for next summer’s London Olympic Games.

Since China, Evan and I made our way around the world to Europe to spend more time away from home. We got in touch with our friends in Leeds to train with them at the UK Race Walking Center, based at the Leeds Metropolitan University. We have been living at our friends’ Alex Wright, Lauren Whelan, and Brendan Boyce (Irish walker who also raced in Shenzhen) house. As a group, we have made the most of the company sharing food, shelter, and good company. Our stay in Europe has definitely been made easier by them.

Training wise, we have put together some solid heavy training weeks to prepare us for our next race taking place in Naumburg, Germany on the 24th of September. Part of our preparation (although more for fun than anything), we decided to include in our training a Race Walking Mile race this past Friday and the UK Athletics National 10km Championships, held in London this past Sunday. The Mile race was a fun one as Evan, Brendan, and I managed to go under the British National All-comers Record of 5:58. Brendan managed to just go under the official time with a 5:58 performance, but was bettered by Evan’s 5:52 and my 5:49 performances. As part of this event, I managed to score 170 pounds for coming first place, which will definitely help with the expenses.

From the Left: Brendan, Evan, and me (after the record-setting performances)

The other race in our schedule was the UK 10km Champs which took place in Victoria Park, London near the newly built Olympic Stadium. Because the Naumburg race is fairly close now, Gerry (our coach) planned for me to use this as a strong tempo workout, and so, he had me do the first 5km at 20km Race Pace (20:35-20:45), followed by an easy 1km (5min/km pace until the chasing pack had passed me and put a gap on me) and finally finish off the race with a strong acceleration to chase down the leader. By the time I made it back to the front of the group, Evan had taken over the lead, so I pushed along with him for the last kilometer of the race. Conscious of the judging that day (who had given me 2 warnings in the first 3km while walking by myself), I finished conservative to make sure that I was not shown the Red Paddle. In turn, Evan went on strong to finish in first place taking home his second National Championship of the season (adding the British to his Canadian collection). He managed to negative split his race and finish in a solid 42:18 in a very tough course with wild winds. On the other hand, I finished just behind him with a time of 42:22 for second place. Needless to say, it was a successful weekend of racing for the Canadian contention swapping titles in a span of three days.

Photo By: Mark Easton - http://markeaston.zenfolio.com/p836766127/hc9d3de5#hdc6661c

With less than 2 weeks until the start of the race in Germany, we now begin to put the final touches to our preparations. I am pretty confident with my fitness, and I look forward to heading over to Naumburg to see what I can accomplish. I will let you guys know how the race went in a couple of weeks.

I haven’t been the best at keeping up to date with the blog for the last month, so my apologies to anyone who was eagerly waiting to hear about my adventures. I will attempt to give a thorough recap of the events since China.

Last time I posted I left off with our preparations in Victoria. After this training block, Evan and I felt confident that we would be able to cope with the tough conditions in China. So, we traveled on the 9th of August ready to race in what would be a very deep field. The start list had very competitive field with seven 1:20 walkers and another 6 walkers under the Olympic B standard. I was ranked 15th with my 1:24:38 PB from earlier in the season, but I knew that my fitness was better than that.

As a team, we arrived 6 days before the athletics program began, so that gave us plenty of time to get a feel for the whole Games atmosphere, including the opening ceremonies. These were remarkably done. The stadium where the ceremonies took place was constructed for this sole purpose, which one can imagine to be quite an incredible structure. Much like the Birds Nest in Beijing, this stadium was also built out of metal that interconnected itself.  Here is a computer version of the stadium:

Now, let me recap the race. As I have mentioned earlier, I was ranked 15th, so I came into the race with the goal of trying to finish in the top 10. I began the race quite conservative taking into consideration the tough conditions on that day. At the start of the race, the temperature hit 29 degrees and +78% humidity. The temperature only got hotter from there as the race continued to unfold. I managed to go through 10km in 43:03, which was quite conformable. I was ranked 12 at that point of the race, and I knew that I would have to put a solid effort to break into the top 10. With 5 laps to go, I pushed on catching one by one, jumping place all the way to 7th place with just over 3km to go. To my surprise, I had managed to jump 5 spot in less than 7km. Nonetheless, I continued to push on and chase down the two other athletes in my sights. I finished the second 10km in a time of 43:18, and the process also overtook two walkers ahead of me to finished in 5th place. Not only had I moved up 10 spots from where I was ranked coming into the race, but my performance would also go down to be matched by 3 other Track and Field athletes from Canada as the best placing by any athlete on the team. For those interested, here are the official splits for the race:

Overall, my experience in China was a very positive one. It definitely set me off on a good note heading over to the UK for the following month of training.

How can you manage to do hot weather training when mother nature is not willing to cooperate with a nice summer in BC? Well, you go to Victoria and lock yourself in a heat chamber for an hour and a half every day for 2 weeks.

Yes, Evan and I are currently doing some preparation training in Victoria at the Pacific

http://www.piseworld.com/index.php/research-ainnovation/about-spin

Institute of Sporting Excellence (PISE) located at the Camosun College, Interurban Campus. For the next two weeks we will be spending an hour and a half each day in a chamber that controls the heat and humidity to +35 degrees C and 80% humidity. The reason for this, is to allow our bodies to begin the adaptation to the effects that such conditions pose on the body. The idea is to prepare our bodies to manage as well as possible the harsh conditions that we will experience in Shenzhen later in August. We hope that by the time we arrive in China, our bodies will be able to economize the process of cooling our body temperatures while allowing us to work hard and walk fast.

We will be traveling to China on the 9th of August, and the race will take place on the 18th. I will keep you guys up to date with the preparations here in Victoria.

Enjoy the summer!