Saturday, March 15, 2008

Now that's fast!

I have finished a good 5.75 mile practice session in the park and I did it in 78 minutes; a 13.56 minute/mile average. Not the fastest, but certainly good enough for early training. And I did it without a lot of the pain that I’ve been experiencing lately. I have self diagnosed the problem as piriformis syndrome. “Some physicians believe that piriformis syndrome is the name given to hip/buttock pain that cannot be otherwise diagnosed.” Well, that’s sufficiently vague! And it sounds like I need a second or third opinion.

My problem with these kinds of sports injuries is the fact that most doctors (And physical therapists) have little or no knowledge of the dynamics of racewalking. It’s not running. And it’s not walking.

I did find a good racewalking site for exercise and stretching instruction and stretching is something that I usually skip, I better not. Also on the site are the results of the Olympic trials last month. That’s a 50K race and the winner did it in 4 hours and 13 minutes. Equivalent miles; 50K = 31.06856 miles. Or 8.14 minute/miles for the entire 31 miles!

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