race walk PROGRESS

Progress is slow but steady. I got my first pair of shoes specifically for race walking at Delaware Running Company last week, the Saucony Fastwitch 5, and these shoes have ATTITUDE:

Love 'em! Turns out my standard running shoe size (10's and 10.5's) that I've worn for over 15 years are a touch too loose and contributed to my heel blisters. Now I'm in a 9.5 and my feet are so much happier!

I'm figuring out little ways to kickstart the fast walker in me, because as a trained runner, walking is by default slow and steady. I've incorporated a couple treadmill runs twice a week in the morning at Fusion Fitness, and it's actually kind of fun. Almost like a game to me: see how high I can get the speed up without breaking form and going into a trot/jog. I remember learning about that transition point when I was in college, exercise physiology class--there is a preferred walk-to-run transition speed, the point where it is actually easier and more efficient to run at a certain speed than to walk that fast. Right now I'm capping myself at 5mph and seeing how long I can hold that speed for.

What else is fun is that when I go at 7am, it is quiet enough that I get to watch Curious George on PBS. Yep, while the cardio machines next to me are tuned into the boring news or overpaid pro sports, I always switch the channel to cartoons. :)

On Saturdays I've been doing a 1km marked loop at a nearby park. Then I see how far I can walk in an hour, and take splits for each 1km. Without fail, I negative split every single lap. I guess I just need to get warmed up and get a rhythm going! I've been tracking my best 5km, which is always the last 5 laps since I'm a stud negative-splitter. 2 weeks ago was 43:50, last weekend was 39:04 and yesterday was 36:09! All unofficial times without judges of course, but I am pretty focused on staying "legal."

Before I can start real training, I need to be able to race walk 5 days a week for an hour without my shins screaming at me. They are much better than a week ago. I got in all 5 days, two of them were 30-min treadmill sessions and the others were all one hour. PROGRESS.

I don't plan to enter any races until I get myself under 10-min miles. (Still nowhere near elite level, but hopefully fast enough to not embarrass myself.) Which means a 30-min 5km, and if I can do that, it's just a matter of tapping into my endurance for a sub-hour 10km and sub-2hr 20km. Qualifying for the Olympic Trials means a 1:48 20km. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. A 30-min 5km is the first goal!

In other news, I also saw my chiropractor Dr. Jannelli, my "Body Mechanic", for the first time since I retired from triathlon. He always checks that my pelvis is balanced and was SHOCKED when I came in on Wednesday. In a good way too! I've seen him for over a year now and when I lie face-down, my pelvis has always been uneven. My racewalk coach "Mr. Miyagi" has me doing all these hip mobility drills every day and apparently they are magic. Dr. J concluded that my body has been more balanced than he's ever seen it, and by far (he had to check at least 3 times because he couldn't believe it). Then he said the same thing I had been thinking this whole time--being a race walker is so much better for me than being a triathlete.

Maybe I was meant for this.

buy Wongstar stickers! help fix my knee!

Tomorrow I'm going back to Dr. Shiple's office at the Center for Sports Medicine for my first ultrasound-guided PRP injection. PRP stands for "platelet rich plasma" and he will basically take some of my blood, centrifuge it, then inject all the happy little platelets (which have magical healing properties) back into my knee. It's a pretty awesome new procedure that will help my ligament get put back together again, unlike Humpty Dumpty. It actually sorta kinda sounds like blood doping but I am making sure it gets cleared through WTC and USAT so I'm not busted for cheating. But that's how effective it is! Olympic athletes need to get a "therapeutic use exemption" thingy if they are getting these magical shots.

Here is an article that was just published last week in the NY Daily News about it: "Runners can turn to Platelet Rich Plasma injections for hamstring issues, but cost is a deterrent."

Oh yes. The downside is that since it is relatively new, there aren't enough published studies for most health insurance companies to cover it. Including mine...as excited as I was about having some big girl health insurance from the new big girl job, even mine is being a wet blanket. It will cost $900 per injection. (Cue all kinds of cringing!) Dr. Shiple says I will probably only need one or two. I'm totally crossing my fingers for just one, since I have extra magical superstar blood, and because all my money is going towards paying off my massive credit card debt. ("How much debt?" the nosy Momma Wongstar asked. "Too much!" was the Wongstar's reply.)

Sigh. So what to do?

RALLY THE FAN CLUB!!!

I've been meaning to manufacture some cool Wongstar stickers to help promote myself as a superstar and perhaps sell them for a good cause. There are lots of good causes out there to fund raise for; I always wanted to help out some of those international prosthetics & orthotics organizations... Well, over the past 4 years, I've learned that the best way to help them out was not to send money, but to donate my own personal time and skills. Many patients in the Philippines, Thailand, and El Salvador all got some good Wongstar karma and smiles.

And now I'm a patient too...does that make me a good cause?

SO. For a mere $10, you will not only get TWO of the super awesome 2011 LIMITED EDITION Wongstar fan club stickers shown above (3 x 3 inches)...you will actually get to help my knee heal faster so I can get back to the business of being a triathlon superstar!

I will even throw in a personally autographed Haamonii postcard (while supplies last of course). $10 includes shipping. International fans may need to throw in an extra $1. I am hoping to have 100 fans take me up on this deal so that I'll have enough money for the cost of the injection after the printing expenses.

Stickers won't come in for another 2 weeks, in the meantime I will go ahead and setup a P.O. box (so stalkers can't find me) and configure the Paypal account. Or you can write a check if you are like Momma Wongstar. :) I am also happy to take bank transfers!

Who wants to buy a sticker???

Edit: after consulting with my art team and lawyers, the final sticker design has been updated with a smiley star (seen at the top of the post but not in the middle "preview" screenshot). So that A) I won't get sued by Nintendo and B) what is a Wongstar without a smile? :)

ChesapeakeMan Part #5, the aftermath

Ok, so you probably noticed in my previous C-Man blog segments, there's really no mention of what place or position I was in. There's a reason for that...it didn't really matter to me. Before I did the race, at least 4 or 5 randoms actually told me "oh, you're SO going to win that race." Which is kind of rude and offensive to the other women that were racing. You should never assume that you can win a race (especially on bare minimum training and sleep), because you never know who is going to show up on race day.

Sure, I looked up last year's winning time (which was over 13hrs) and I was pretty sure I could beat that. But I had no idea what I was capable of with my current fitness level and temperamental knee, or who else was toeing the line. Turns out that this year there were some pretty strong age group women in the field. Still, the organizers granted me bib #101 (which was the very first number, heehee) since I was the only pro racing. Or maybe just the first who registered. ;)

The women's winner went an impressive 10:02, big congrats to her, and I ended up as the 8th overall woman. When I went to awards with Noreen the next morning, I still didn't even know my splits or final position--the results sheets that were printed up on the wall didn't include the special professional category. (I think because usually a pro would get top 3 and show up in the overall. ahaha!) I just knew I wasn't top 5. It was still fun to hang out and walk around funny like everybody. Various racers recognized me from the day before and thanked me for being so cheerful. One guy even insisted on giving me a hug! (Yes, these are all random people I hadn't officially met.) Here I am with Viggo, head of TriColumbia:

So I was fairly surprised to get called up as a special guest. TriColumbia was so happy to have me there that I got my very own crystal Skipjack sailboat trophy! It was such an honor and totally unexpected. It even says I'm the women's pro champion. Which technically...I was. (n=1)

As I went up to get my award, a guy from the crowd yelled "best smile on the course!!"

Hey, I do what I can.

Me and Sam got photos with our awards when we got back to their lake house. Or bay house...because it's on the Chesapeake Bay. He won the grandmasters division at the Bugeye sprint race, he was done waaaay before I was on Saturday! I wanted to say thank you again to Noreen and Sam for hosting me, and giving me the world champion treatment.

The sherpa had a work emergency and couldn't make it at the last minute, so Noreen got to step up as emergency sherpa and did a fabulous job. Post-race they even got me gluten-free pizza (loaded with bacon) and french fries and potato chips. And for my drive back home, Noreen loaded me up with more Natascha goodies--some FRS and mix1 drinks for recovery along with more snacks! I can't wait to go back even just for a training weekend.

I also would like to thank:

• TriColumbia for welcoming me to race as a pro triathlete and accomodating my crazy international travel schedule. I didn't get a chance to pick up my race packet or check in my bike the day before...since I was barely back in the USA yet, and they sorted me out quickly on race morning. The course was gorgeous and the event itself was extremely well-organized. I say that as a veteran of many WTC ironmans...well they are in fact, the same people that put on the Eagleman 70.3 race sanctioned by WTC, and the course does overlap quite a bit since it's held at the same venue, so they know what they're doing here!
• SLS3 for providing my new racing outfit and compression socks. I've been in their socks and sleeves for almost 3 years now and my cute magenta top is both comfortable and functional! I have yet to get any logos blazed onto it...I've been ridiculously busy and it's kind of fun to have "gone rogue" and be logo-less.
• Rocktape for being stylish, super sticky, and keeping my knee together throughout a full ironman.
• The Bike Boutique of Wilmington, DE: yeah, I'm not on teamTBB any more but I'll always be part of the TBB Wilmington family in Delaware. Huge thanks to our mechanic John for always making sure White Tiger is race ready!
• Token for the shiny fast race wheels!
• ISM Saddles for keep my girl parts comfortable while biking. The Sherpa loves you too!
• Haamonii Shochu...my favorite post-race "recovery beverage" ;)
• my boss and the whole crew at Independence P&O, for the opportunity to help all those kids in El Salvador, and of course for helping my "financial rehabilitation" from piss-poor pro triathlete to debt-free pro triathlete!
• Mark Cathcart, the travel sponsor, thanks for believing in me through the ups and downs!

And of course, all the members of "Team Wongstar": Coach Beck, Food Coach Amy, the Sherpa, the body mechanic, and last but never least--all of you awesome blog readers that continue to follow me whether I cry tears of happiness for going super fast, or tears of misery and frustration because I want to quit. Never quit!