Good Start

Had my first 5K race of the season on March 10 and I think I did pretty well. Tough course, tough weather (32 freakin' degrees and very damp), tough crowd (lots of fast runners...the overall winner was a 40 yo man who clocked in at 15 and some change, with a 5:01 pace. Egads!)

Clocked in at 25:15. That's a little bit faster than I was running at this same time last year. And I felt pretty good, albeit a little out of breath more than unusual. But then I discovered that almost everyone I spoke to, even the best runners in our club, felt breathless.

So, although the weight training and cross-training has been paying off, I simply need to get back on the roads again and build up my lung capacity. Now that it's getting lighter at night (coupled with the early DST), that should be happening real soon.

In other news, my trainer/nutritionist at my gym had said he wanted to see me once race season started so he could go over my calorie intake, possibly bumping it up a bit to keep up with the demand. I hadn't seen him in a month or so I was very curious about my BF measurement. I stopped journaling my food intake because I feel I can do this with my eyes closed now. I was pretty good about sticking to the plan even with a few setbacks (dining out with friends, bad weather pre-empting my outdoor training, etc.)

So, needless to say, I was quite surprised when he told me I was down to 16.7% BF! Evidently, my body is not done yet. All told, I have lost 10 lbs. of body fat and gained about 10 lbs. of lean muscle. My scale weight is about the same, though. Really, I don't want to go any lower than this, folks. He told me to add about 200 calories of some good carbs (whole grains, sweet potatoes, fruit, etc.) every fourth day. That works out to be Sunday and Wednesday for me which is good because Sunday is usually race day and I need the extra calories then.

I also need some new clothes but that's another blog entry, another time.