Some Hardware For A 5K

Five weeks of six weeks

Weight today: same

Total lost: 5 pounds in five weeks

almost 1/2 a sheet of graham cracker:25
1/2 cup of oatmeal: 150
1 tsp of sugar:15
1 tbl of powder creamer with coffee: 30
2 tsp of sugar with coffee:30
total: 250

1 cup of Special K cereal:120
1/2 cup of 1% milk:55
1 tsp of sugar:15
1 slice of toast:70
1 tsp of Smart Balance light butter:15
2 tsp of natural peanut butter:66
handful of special K:45
1 tbl of powder creamer with coffee:30
2 tsp of sugar in coffee:30
total: 345
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running total:595

handful of Bugles: 150
1/2 of graham cracker sheet:35
small portion of chicken bake(est. 1/4 cup):75
small portion of taco dish: 100
small slice of lasagna: 45
1/4 cup of salad:30
1 tbl of powder creamer in coffee:30
2 tsp of sugar in coffee:30
total: 495
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running total: 1,090

small slice of cake: 75
small helping of apple crisp:100
1/2 cup of vanilla ice cream:130
another helping of apple crisp:100
total:405
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running total: 1,495

4 oz apple: 64
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running total: 1,559

Today's challenge: Staying on-calorie during a big family birthday party at our place. It being at our house should help. Also trying to squeeze in a run today.


Actual fitness: 4-mile run

Note on day 4 of no Sweet-n-low: Yesterday, my stomach hurt about half way through my race, not sure what that means...otherwise I had a headache last night, but that could be that maybe I didn't have enough water. But, really other than the race, no queasiness in my stomach.

Note on picture: Yes, I know, you can't eat this, but it sure left a nice taste in my mouth when they gave it to me.

Some Hardware For A 5K

Before leaving for my race yesterday morning, my husband and I have this conversation.

"So, what time does the race start?"

"9:00"

"So, when will you be back?...How long does it take to run a 5k?
A half an hour?"

"Yah...(pause, as I think to myself...it better not take half an a hour.)"

"Well, hopefully not more than 23 minute to be exact."(I'm roughly estimating an 7:30 minute per mile pace.)

"Yah, so I'll be back around 10:00."

Ten 0' clock rolls around as I dial in our home number,

"Honey?"

"Yes?"

"I'm going to be a little late because I have to wait around to pick up my medal."

"You're medal?!!!!! You won?!"

"No, I didn't win. I did get second in my age group and it looks like maybe fourth over all the women."

"Alright!!"

I finished yesterday with a time of 23:13. My time at the half way point was 11:40. The race officials didn't call out any time at the 1, 2, or 3 -mile marks and I didn't wear a watch. But I do believe this time means I ran faster in my second half of the race than in my first half.

I can probably directly attribute that to this wonderful kick I gave at the end in my attempt to beat this guy at the end of the race. I almost got him. He beat me by half a second at the most. Oh well.

All of his buddies were cheering him on, and it just made me smile inside to think that he was trying so hard at the end to prevent a "girl" from beating him.

There were 340 participants and I'm not sure how many were women, but I figure even if a third were women, I was faster than 100 other women. Cool.

When I woke up yesterday morning at 6:00 a.m. to get ready for the race, I really wrestled with going, but after about 15 minutes of laying there thinking about it, I finally decided I really needed to go so that I could get an idea of my current 5K fitness level.

I'm glad I did. There's plenty of room for improvement here on this time and it was nice to bring home some hardware. It was cold, windy and overcast during the race. But with about 400 meters left, in the race the sun broke through the clouds and started shining. And the first thing I thought was..."cool, I can hang my laundry out to dry on the line and it will dry twice as fast..."

My second thought was..."Ok, now to beat this guy who stopped and walked twice before me."

Ahh...the things you think about during a race.

Well, I hope you're all having a great weekend.