Racewalk Training: Gary at Austin High Track 5/21/11

Gary, age 67, Austin, Texas. Next fall, I will have been racewalking for 5 years, so you would think I would at least be starting to get a handle on decent form by now! It's a hell of a lot better and still coming along but I think I still have enough progress to make to keep me occupied. Even to get my form as good as it can get given my age and lack of flexibility and any detectible genetic athletic ability whatsoever.

Anyway -- what's good is that my knees are straight and I am, for the most part, upright -- not bending over forwards. Better hips, slightly longer gait, more fluidity. More pop in my step. Better.

I am still ungodly slow but I doubt that I will ever be very fast, even in my age group. I wasn't a very fast runner, either. And now that I am 67, while I can get moving pretty quickly for a short time, I poop quickly as well. But I have started to work on quick-stepping during my workouts. Just adding in longer and longer spurts of moving my feet a lot faster, with a quicker and sharper heel pop. What I would like to happen would be for my "default", what seems to me to be a "normal" racewalk, would just get faster, as I develop better form and maybe a little more wind as well. We'll see how it goes!

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Sports

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• racewalking
• racewalk