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?

Gateway Mile Recap

     It has been over a year since I ran a 1 mile race.  Normally every year I try to run at least 2 of them. Last year I was unable to run both of them, so today I was really pumped to get out and run the Gateway Mile.  Here is my recap of the night.
     First I have to give credit to the people that put this race on.  With it being a free race, there is no big name sponsor to buy everything.  Tammy and Don Slusser basically do all this on their own with the help of some friends.  They provide the bibs, refreshments, and prizes.   The race is held on the track at the Gateway Middle School in Monroeville.  When you arrive you sign in at a table and sign up for which ever heat based on your predicted time.  Depending on how many people decides the break down of heats. This year there was around 80 runners total and 6 heats.  Heat 1 was the fastest of the all the heats and the winner won the race in 4:25.   There was about 20 runners in the heat and the slowest time was a 5:15.
    The race's were very organized and as soon as one heat ended they would have a 2 minute delay and the next heat would line up at the start. The second heat had the first place female who ran a time of 5:25.  and placed 4th overall in the heat.  I was scheduled to run in heat 3 where the predicted times to finish were from 5:45-6:18.   As we lined up at the start they realized that the race was too crowded and asked if a few of us wouldn't mind dropping to heat 4.  I didn't mind doing this since it has been a while since I ran a mile competitively.  As the race started I took the lead for the first 100 meters in order to get out the pack.  Five runners stayed with me and we soon formed our own little pack and ran most of the race together.  Around 800 meters a younger kid took off and broke away from the pack. I figured he went way to fast and would die down and we would catch him.  He did get tired but he built himself a half lap lead at one point and even with my kick I couldn't catch him.  I did manage to come back on him and only lost by 4 seconds.  My time was 6:15.  I am not mad at this time but I am not happy with it. 
    Any time I have ever ran the mile( and this is going back to high school ) one thing I would do is sit back behind a runner and let them set the pace for the race and I would use my kick to win.  Had I stayed in heat 3 my time would of been faster because everyone ran faster times.  Instead I let someone dictate my pace and I didn't worry about the person who went out ahead giving me a slower time that I would of liked.   
    One great thing though about this race is everyone that shows up is so nice and they cheered everyone on. You could tell people went into heats they had no business being in just to try and challenge themselves. No one got mad and we all cheered until the last person crossed the finish.  
    After all the heats they announce the winners. winners of each heat receive homemade fudge from Tammy Slusser.  I hung around to talk to some of the runners and I was amazed that some of these guys came from all different colleges to run.  The competition was really good this year and once again it was a great time.  It still lacks the number of female runners but hopefully next year that will change.

WHAT I TOOK AWAY FROM THE RACE
I realized that my speed work outs are working a lot. I was not tired when I finished the race and I know I could of went faster.
Don't under estimate a runner, I should of kept the distance closer between me and the lead runner.
I still have time until the Liberty Mile to drop my time.  

Also after talking to some of the runners I am going to meet up with a few of them one night a week for a group run where they can help me out with any kinks in my running.  I will take some good advice from great runners any day.