Zombie Gym-boree

Friday's visit to Gold's Gym was an object lesson in one vital thing that I overlooked. I must digress...

I went over to Northcross Mall to pick up my IBM 10K packet, and on the way there, I noticed the fine Fuddrucker's restaurant. I had planned to go eat at Subway, but somehow, the idea of a grilled chicken sandwich and those fabulous wedge cut fries called to me. I went to Fuddrucker's as if in a food-enhanced trance after the packet pickup, and happily ordered my grilled chicken combo. Settling in with my book (Neal Stephenson's "The Confusion"), I waited on my order. Once it was ready, and slathered with cheese and barbecue sauce, it was time to chow down. It was really good, of course. Anyway, after reading maybe 30 pages, I packed up and left.

Now, I normally don't go into details about food, but it lays the groundwork for what was to follow. Right after I finished up at Fuddrucker's, I headed over to Gold's for my workout. The cycle warmup (just 15 minutes) was not quite as usual. My HR was much higher than normal during the cycle warmup...about 150-155 peak instead of the usual 125-128 peak. That was because of the large meal that was being digested at the same time. A lesson learned, which is, don't eat a big 'ol meal right before working out. Duh.

That moderate malaise colored the rest of the workout, but I persevered, and finished all the exercises despite it. By the time I was done, I felt fine, but I sure won't do that pre-workout feeding again! I spent most of my time on core stuff, but added the minimum leg stuff (quads/hamstrings/calves) and a somewhat abbreviated upper body workout (curls/bench/tricep extensions). I felt good after finishing up, and I'm glad I went, but I sure wish I had had better sense about my pre-workout meal. Oh, well.

Tomorrow is the easy 4 miles and stretching, and then it's race day on Sunday. I'll shoot for a PR, which would be 47:52 (7:42/mile), set back at the Capitol 10,000 in April, 2005. Frank has graciously offered to pace me, since my PR 10K pace is his "easy" marathon race pace for Chicago. That way, we both get what we want out of the race. If I'm having a great day, I'll try to get more out of it, but I'd be happy with a sub-48:00 time. My recent speedwork and tempo runs have all been "PR" times, so maybe I'm due for a great race? We'll see on Sunday. Let's hope for overcast skies and temps as low as possible this time of year. The course is pretty much dead flat, with a nice long one mile gradual downhill (it's not much of one, but it does slope ever so gently down in that stretch) at the finish. Not too many turns, either, so the course is certainly faster than the old IBM course, which twisted all around.