SEA LEVEL TRAINING AND MORE

First and formost, HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my LITTLE FRIEND THEA from NH. Hope you had a lot of fun, ice cream, and Cake

Toni-Lynn Salucci, Me Litzy and Mariana

Im writing this post from the place where my life in the United States started. Im in Costa Mesa, California for some sea level training. I plan on staying here for a period of six weeks. During this time I plan on doing some track races with a major focus on the 10km.Im quite nervous and excited about this new addition in training. Its has been almost 7 years since I last stayed at sea level to train. Me and my Coach are very confident that in the long run this decision will bea great benefit.

The main issue I had before taking this step was the ITA after school tutoring program. Things are going so well that the last thing I wanted to do was leave my kids. The good news is that I have two wonderful people that were willing to help me out during the time Im gone. Under the supervision of the Immigrant Resource Center, Norma and Phil will be fully in charge of the program while Im gone. In the past two weeks, the kids have been fairly busy with stadarized testing which means barely homework.Plus, Im glad this upcoming week calls for their spring break. So, in a way Im glad the sea level training block is happening now.

While here, I have done a couple of short races to test my track abilities. One of them was at the UCI Spring Break Invitational where I had the opportunity to visit and cheer with Coach and members of ITA NH Track Club. For this meet I focus on racing the 1500m. Ended up finishing 4th with a time of 4:29.74 just a second slower than my personal best. Not bad at all after, a week of traveling, high mileage, and adjustment to new environment.

My second race was this past Friday at Cal State Fullerton. Once again, I raced the 1500m with no taper. Finish 5th with a 4:36. I was not very happy with the results as I was hoping to be faster than the previous race. Im sure high mileage (100 miles per week) and running more hills than usual play a significant role on my performance. My body just felt tired. An hour later I jumped into the 5km to use as a workout. I ended up running with an amazing group of collegiate athletes from Cornell who where pacing their teammates. It turned into a fun,and fast workout. That night, I ended up running 17:07 for 5km.

Next on my schedule, Mt Sac Relays.