shins on fire

I am still very much in the newbie stage as a racewalker, learning the technique and limited by the strength of my shins, actually. I was pretty excited to time my first 5km under 44 minutes, woohoo, which is slow as molasses, but it was LEGAL. For any of you who are like "pssh, I can walk 15-minute miles without even training," you probably don't know rule #2 of racewalking: we don't talk about racewalking.

Just kidding. There are only two rules in the sport.

When I first contemplate trying the sport, my sister insisted I had to watch a Malcolm in the Middle episode where the dad gets into racewalking. LMFAO...they have AERO HELMETS!!!! Youtube did not dissapoint:

Most people are familiar with the first rule, that you can't have more than one foot of the ground at a time. That would constitute a "flight phase" i.e. you would be running. And thus disqualified.

Rule #2: your front leg has to land on the ground straight, i.e. you can't bend the knee until it passes under you.

Weird, right? that's why those elite walkers look like they have no knee joints. Anyway, you land on your heels with your toes pointing up to enhance the kinetic chain. toes up =>> straight knee.

So apparently I have weak shins, and walking easy for an hour (LEGALLY) would be like doing bicep curls for a whole hour with wimpy arms. The training priorities are technique first, which at this point involves primarily anterior tibialis muscle building, before I can really start training.

In conclusion, it looks like I will not be Quadzilla, or Abzilla, but at this point...SHINZILLA.