8 - Taking a breather for CDC

This week starts a slight ramp down in preparation for the Distance Classic.

Notes to self on diet:
1) Eat 3 hours before the race (that would be at 3:30 am)
2) Low acid food - no OJ.
3) Nothing weird or different.
4) No mystery goos
5) No Gatorade, except Gatorade rain, maybe
6) Pasta the night before (no sauce)
7) Don't stuff yourself!
8) No cheating with empty calories (chocolate, cookies, etc.)
9) Hydrate before the race (by the book)
10) Hope for short potty lines before the race.

Now, for this week's schedule:

Mon 8/7 - Rest (but cross training instead since I skipped it on Sunday) - did 25 minutes Hard Core routing (abs, mostly)
Tue 8/8 - 3 mi (nope, rested instead)
Wed 8/9 - speedwork or 6 mi (results: another hard core cross, plus 2 miles, plus 2 miles at speed training in the evening)
Thu 8/10 - rest
Fri 8/11 - rest/stretch
Sat 8/12 - rest
Sun 8/13 - RACE DAY! Chicago Distance Classic. Goal: One hour 45 minutes.

Actual time: 1:48:21. I started out way too fast (like the marathon in June) and maintained an 8:06 pace until the 15K point. Then ran out of gas. The last 6K was at an 8:41 pace - slow. This race was a lot of fun. There were a couple of people there from TNT that I was running with, but kept losing them. After the race, my parking ticket stub got mangled by the ticket pay booth (it was wet!). Had breakfast in Oak Park after the race.