5K Training - week 8/8

This was the last week that I was training for my first 5K of the year. I love my new HRM and knowing how many calories I burned doing an activity! It kind of makes me want to work out more!


1/21 Monday - 1 hour of Roller Derby bootcamp - 503 calories burned!

1/22 Tuesday - OFF

1/23 Wednesday - treadmill 5K - 43:50 (14:06 pace) - ran 1.75 miles straight! (and forgot my HRM but burned around 400 calories)

1/24 Thursday - 1 hour of Zumba - 556 calories burned!

1/25 Friday - OFF

1/26 Saturday - 1 hour of Yoga - 258 calories burned!

1/27 Sunday - Ran my 5K - 39:22 (12:40 pace!) - 467 calories burned!

Calories burned this week with exercise - around 2184

Now that my January 5K is over, I decided that I am going to keep doing weekly training reports because I enjoy keeping track of them!

Until later, happy
Jamie

USA Fit 5K

Today was my 6th race in 6 months and I couldn't be happier with my result!

My last race was on Dec. 1st and I decided that I would dedicate the next 8 weeks to train for this race. Originally I wanted to be able to run the whole thing straight, but as time went on I realized that I wasn't able to increase my mileage fast enough and it honestly became less and less important. I decided to focus on just doing it as fast as I could. I hadn't done much running outside and my best treadmill 5K was 40:33. I didn't have a time goal but I was hoping to maybe get around 41 minutes.

My time was 39:22...a sub 40 minute race and a 12:40 average pace! Wow!!! My friend Rachel decided to do the race with me and she finished in 38:13 (12:18 pace). We go to the gym together so I knew she would probably beat me because she is a beast in the gym and has been running like crazy where I have done more cross training. If it wasn't for her though I could not have run as fast as I did! We started out together and I stayed with her for about the first 3/4 mile...we were running at like a 11:20 pace which was ridiculously fast! Not that I couldn't have done this pace myself, but it was unlikely that I WOULD have pushed myself at this pace for 3/4 of a mile. That is what makes Rachel a great person to workout with! :)

At that point I told her I would meet her at the finish line because I couldn't keep that pace, so I kept doing running and walking intervals. Since I have been trying to do all my walking at the gym at 4.0, I tried my best to stick to that. Run Keeper tells me my pace every 5 minutes so I was getting really excited when I got to mile 2 and was at 25 minutes...I knew I could get under 40 minutes!

Rachel and I were super proud of ourselves!

Here are a few pictures from my first two races:

The only thing bad about this race was that we had to walk a mile (literally) from a park that they advised us to park at (this race was part of a marathon and half marathon as well) so we 5K-ers could get out. After the race it seemed like a really long mile to get back to the car! At least the weather was awesome...sunny and in the upper 60s.

In 176 days since my first race, my 5K time has decreased from 45:46 to 39:22...I'm over 6 whole minutes faster and shaved 2 minutes off my average mile pace! I'm also down around 20 pounds since then. I'd call that success!

My February race is a 7K but I'm not going to kill myself on that one, it is more for fun...I want to focus on my March 5K in 6 weeks.

Until later, happy running!
Jamie

Weigh Day Friday: Week 4 of 52

So I did decide to move from WW to My Fitness Pal and have been counting calories since last weekend. I am still going to have my weekly weigh in but I am going to do them on Fridays now instead of Tuesdays. I have been tracking my weight for quite a while on MFP already so I already had the data for the past 3 weeks so I'll put it up here too.

Highest weight: 265
Goal weight: 150-160

Week #4 (1/25) - 242.0
Week #3 (1/18) - 241.8
Week #2 (1/11) - 242.2
Week #1 (1/4) - 241

Total loss = 23 pounds

I weigh myself every morning just to try to pay attention to my fluctuations. It works for me, but I know it drives other people crazy. I was "up" today, but the last two mornings I was 240.8 or so...I think the difference might have been some water I drank when I got up at 4 AM. Anyway, I'm not really concerned about that...I'm sure it will be back down in a day or two.

My biggest annoyance is the trend this month. I have been bobbling around the same 2 pound range all month. I have been AMAZING with eating and exercising this whole month...like seriously amazing...I couldn't have done a better job.  I know the scale says I didn't lose weight but I see that my clothes are fitting better, so I must have gained some muscle and lost fat from somewhere (I know I should measure but I haven't really taken the time to do that yet). Actually, the last 2 weeks I've had a ton of people come up to me and tell me that I look great. That definitely helps! I also feel myself getting stronger and accomplishing more physically which makes me feel awesome too!

Therefore, I'm going to take those NSVs and not going to worry about what the scale says, but I am definitely anxious to see the 230s! I set my daily calorie goal around 1650 but eat between 1600-1800 calories a day depending on how much I work out. I am weary of setting my calorie goal too low and I have been trying to pay attention to my body's signals so I eat only when I am legitimately hungry. I'll see how that works out in a few weeks and adjust it if I need to.

I have to point out that for my WW weigh-ins I just put my net change per week but here I am actually writing my real weight down. The prospect of publishing my weight was scary at first, mainly because I was afraid that I would quit. But, once I published my comparison photo below at the beginning of this month, I felt kind of free. So there you go, that's my weight!

In conversation with some of my friends who are also trying to lose weight, I have also said my number out loud. The most common response was "Really?" I think because I am kind of tall (5'8") that I tend to look 20 pounds less than I actually am. That's good, I guess, but I still want to see the 230s.


Until later, happy living!
Jamie