Preparing to race again

After racing in Indianapolis in Mid June, I knew my next race wouldn't come until late July, I had a month to refocus after what I saw as a slight disappointment of races in Indianapolis.  I had been working my butt off, having great workouts, keeping my mileage steady between 50-65 (higher when not racing), but just hadn't found that extra gear yet.  I knew that refocusing on strength the next few weeks would take my mind off the races and get me extra strong for the Mile race coming up.

At first I didn't know for a bit where I would be racing on the 23rd.  I had two possible options of racing at the Ryan Shay Mile or the Fisher's Indiana Mile, a first year race.  My hopes was to get into the Ryan Shay Mile for a few reasons...1)the town it was in, 2)The course/road ran on 3)the competition had been strong in years past.

As I pushed on in the training, I started working out with Charlie's camp a few mornings a week, adding in longer repeats at slower paces, but much more volume than I had been doing.  The first workout of 5x1200 felt so easy, running 5:10 pace for the first few and "letting loose" a bit on the last to run 4:40 pace to finish the workout in 3:30.  I also joined them for one of the most popular York workouts (in my books anyhow), the fartlek friday.  In sits in 3 sets and consists of an easy 10 min of jogging, 1 min walk, 5 min hard (basically a mile or close to it), 1 min walk, 5 min of sprint/jog (light poles) to work the change of gear/pace, 1 min jog, 5 min of Indian file (change of pace again), 1 min walk, 2x200 (typically in the 30-33 range).  The 3rd 5 min segment was usually the hardest, but that was my favorite time of the workout!  All of this added strength work was helping me feel really good about myself and I was starting to feel the benefits of the longer work...

...that is until my glute and right IT band started to flair up on me.  I would get a massage a week leading up to the race, extra electric stim and ice at Olympic Chiropractic.  After two strong weeks of added work, I forced myself to cut back and get on my bike to add in the extra work.  I managed to do a nice time trial a week and a half before the race which still kept my mind sharp knowing that I hadn't done any speed work since my last race in mid June (outside of those 200's on fartlek friday).

As it got closer, I found out about 1 1/2 weeks before the race that the meet director at the Ryan Shay Mile, Matt Peterson (great guy) gave Charlie the go ahead to let me know they accepted my entry!  I managed to do a nice time trial a week and a half before the race which still kept my mind sharp knowing that I hadn't done any speed work since my last race in mid June (outside of those 200's on fartlek friday).  I ran an unmarked odd distance of 1100 meters.  A future training partner (Kuzy) ran the first 800 with me.  We went through in 2:04 (feeling easy) and I pushed in to the end running a solid 2:55.  Considering how tight my It band was and just not having that fluid motion in my legs, I was happy and knew I could get to the race confident and strong.

Over the next few days I again ran short and easy and doing all the therapy I could to get myself to the start line as fresh and loose as possible.  The Wednesday before, scorching hot and humid day, I did 4x400 on the road with Charlie on the bike to freshen up a bit and see how the legs were feeling.  The day before I was ready to call up and cancel my trip...but I'm glad I didn't, by the 3rd and 4th 400 I was feeling so much more loose than I had in over a week and knew I'd be fine to race on Saturday.  I finished that "workout" running 61, 61, 60, 59.  I was working on staying smooth and not pushing too hard, especially with the weather being 95 degrees and humidity levels right about 100%!

I was ready to toe the line Saturday and see what my body would give me!

to be continued....