Week In Review-Race Season!!!!

     Ready set go!!!!  It is officially race season for yours truly.  The Pittsburgh Marathon may have been the first race, but there was a nice break until I actually started having races come so often.  This week I ran 2 races in one week and I am excited for the ones that are quickly approaching.  This week I may have not had the miles but I will be making up for it in the coming week.

MONDAY: Normally I do my speed workouts on a Tuesday, but since I was running a race on Thursday I wanted to do my speed workout early in the week.  I went to the track and once again it was full of young kids doing a club track meet.  I used my .3 mile course that goes around the block but has some hills thrown in to do my workout.  I would jog a lap at 50 percent speed then I would bump up to 75 percent speed for my second lap, walking one minute after each 2 lap set.  My goal was to drop time each set.  I was pleased after doing 5 sets and dropping a few seconds each time.

TUESDAY: I dedicated this whole run to finding a few things for the #Runchathunt. If you are unaware of this please go on the page of @runchat and check out all the items for the hunt.  I ran a slow 6 miles, but managed to knock off 2 items of the hunt.    The first was a picture of a trail.  There is a small trail that goes around my house. It is a short one but It you ever want to see a bunch of deer and ground hogs it is a great one to go on.  The second was a dive bar.  There just so happens to be a small bar on the main road I run everyday.  I have actually never been inside the place because from the outside it looks like a house turned into a bar.  It definitely meets the requirements of a dive bar in my book.   I have actually heard they serve pretty good wings though. Call me crazy but I think I will just take everyone's word on that.  In the week I also managed to get a picture of the sun setting over Pittsburgh and a picture of a funny sign.  The Hunt last until the end of June and I will do another run this week to find some more items on the list.

WEDNESDAY:  With having a race on the following day I decided to rest and use this day to stretch and foam roll. 

THURSDAY: THE GATEWAY MILE- You can read my review of this race on my previous post.  I ran a 6:15 mile and placed 2nd in my heat.  I felt really good and I know I could of went faster.  I am excited to see how much time I can drop through out the summer before the Liberty Mile in August.  My goal is to be in the low 5 minute mark.  I have no doubt I can do this.

FRIDAY: I had all intentions of running 6 miles until I looked at my schedule and realized I was going to be running a race on Saturday. Once I realized this I decided to take this day off.  This was going to be my first 5K of the season and I wanted to see where I stood early in the season.

SATURDAY: VERONA 5K- I will have a review of this race on Thursday.  When I woke up my right foot was very sore. I thought my dog probably jumped on when I was sleeping.  When I arrived at the race I warmed up and still could feel some pain in my foot.  My goal was to run under 24 minutes.  I finished in 22:58 and I even had to stop 3 times to loosen my shoe because of the pain.  Later I realized the pain had gotten worse and it finally hit me that pain was my gout flaring up.  If you don't know what gout is, it is a type of arthritis that effects certain joints in your body. When it flares up the pain basically feels like that bone is broke.  The good thing is once it flares and you take a pill the pain diminishes over a few hours.  Now I am left wondering how fast would my time have been if I didn't stop and wasn't in pain.  Next week I have no race and will take the week to get in some good long runs since the goal for the summer is not the 5k races, but it is to PR my half and full marathon in the fall.   In 2 weeks I will either be running the Oakmont 5K or the Wilkins Twp. 5K. The Oakmont race is a flat fast course, and I have ran this race a few times and really enjoy it. The Wilkins race is my hometown though and I have won my age group here before. It is a harder course and the competition is not as good.  I will decide this week which one I do. I am leaning toward Oakmont.

SUNDAY(TODAY): I plan on going to the gym and doing some cross training. My foot is still a little sore so I don't want to run on it until tomorrow.

This week I realized my training is working, I am dropping times and I can see a noticeable difference when I am running a race. I feel so much better than I did a year ago.  I plan on really stepping up the training in the next few months. 

What races do you have coming up? 
What are your goals for the summer?