Bad day at Krakow Town Square

Well I have been avoiding writing this blog for the last couple of days because i was trying to forget my race at the IAAF Challenge in Krakow. What started out well ended very slowly. After going through 10km in around 45.20 (not sure exact split) and sitting comfortably in about 3rd or 4th position I walked slower and slower each lap; pratically going backwards and it was a long last 10km finishing in 1.32.59 in 6th place. I'm very disappointed with the result as I usually get faster throughout the first half of the season in every race and was confident after World Cup. But who knows? The good news is that my hamstring pulled up ok and is feeling good (I hope so at that slow speed!). Ryta Turava made a great comeback to form winning in 1.28.33 (for full results see http://www.iaaf.org/WRC08/results/index.html#). I will still race La Coruña on 7th June the last round of the IAAF Challenge before the Olympics. It will do me good to have another hard hitout and it's better than training alone here in Girona.

I'm off to Italy tomorrow to see Matt as his team competes in the last five days of the Tour of Italy and to get some treatment from physiotherapist, Karin Stephens at the AIS cycling headquarters in Varese. I will train around Lake Varese which is great for race walking but terrible for allergies at this time of the year. Hopefully I can find some good form there too!