By Michael Walton, Myvoicedc Contributor

I arrived in San Diego, CA where my coach Al Joyner resides, on Wednesday, June 18th in the morning. After an extremely long flight and a layover in Las Vegas that made it that much longer, I was happy to finally arrive at my final destination. I’m sure the sprint workout I did 45 minutes prior to my 8:45 P.M. departure from BWI Airport probably didn’t help things. None the less, I’m here and focused on the job at hand.

After a brief sleep I was awaken by my coach and off to a morning practice session at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, a pretty short drive from San Diego. A lot of Olympic level athletes from various sports come to the campus to live and train. It kind of reminds me of college with Olympic sports being the majors.

Although Al has been my coach for many years, we often don’t physically meet until I’m into the race preparation phase of my training. Everything else is communicated through phone conversations, emails, and occasional video footage. (Technology, gotta love it)

Our session Wednesday focused more on quality runs emphasizing technique. It allows him the opportunity to evaluate my form and make any necessary adjustments. As I walk on the track I immediately noticed a strong head wind blowing against the direction that I’ve been instructed to sprint.
So… I brought this to my coach’s attention to see if I could run with the wind, which is easier and translates to faster runs. His response was that “I must have forgotten who I was asking”. So I began my run into the wind.

The practice session went well and the evaluation of my technique while not perfect was very good. After a five hour break we returned for a late afternoon workout which we slightly adjusted because I was a bit sore from the morning session.

With the beginning of Olympic Trials being days away I am feeling great. This morning we hit the weight room and I’m scheduled to hit the track again in the next two hours followed by a long overdue ice bath which I am look forward to but am not looking forward to, if you know what I mean. I’ll check back in soon to let you know how it went!

- Michael Walton -
www.mikewaltonusa.com
www.myspace.com/mikewaltonusa
www.michaelwaltonfoundation.org