My Fitness Pal

On Monday two weeks ago I started using My Fitness Pal on my Ipod.  The Ipod is pretty new to me and I am having fun trying out the different functions.  This one allow you to put in your height and weight and maybe age, I don't recall for sure, and then you say how much you want to lose a week.  It give you a calorie goal and you can record what you eat and what you do for exercise.  It just needs to balance out at the end of the day.  I am loving it and have done really well with it so far.  For the past two weeks I have ended up over my calories, but only by 30 calories the first week and 13 the second, which I am counting as success.  This week I put in my lowered weight, which is four pound, two more than what my goal was, which is great!  But is also lowered my daily calorie allotment by 20 calories.  While I do have off days where I eat too much, I usually even out the next day so I am hoping it is the overall picture of what is eaten over the course of the week and not just on a given day.  Being focused at this time of year is always hard for me with Halloween candy around and Thanksgiving and Christmas right around the corner, so I need this accountability to keep me honest with myself.

5k number 3 and counting!

I know this picture is a proof, but I did buy a copy of it, just not a digital copy.  This was from the race I was getting ready for this summer.  As of last weekend I have run in three 5K's and registered for two more 5K's and one 10K.  I haven't gotten as much faster as I would like, but I am also trying to look at what I have accomplished so far.

The first 5K was in August and I ran it with my husband.  At the one mile mark I was already feeling tired and running quite a bit faster than my usual pace.  I think I might have been better not knowing my time because it got into my head and then I ended up taking a few walking breaks, pretty brief ones, but breaks just the same.  I completed it and felt good about the accomplishment.  My time was 33:13 which was better than I expected.  I came in number 206 out of 260 runners.

In September we were signed up for a 5K the day after a terrible rain storm that caused a lot of flooding.  The race went on, but there were quite a few spots of puddles and muddy areas on the course and next to the course.  This time my husband and I started out together, but halfway through we split up because I was having to walk again and I could tell he was itching to go faster.  This time was my worst at 35:46 and I was number 75 of 105.  This race had a lower turn out because a lot of people thought it was canceled because of the storm.

Last weekends race had another weather issue, we got an early snow storm.  Luckily the worst hit after the race happened.  We got 6 to 10 inches of snow and tree limbs were falling all over the place because they were still covered with leaves.  Many people lost power and school was canceled Monday in many places.  We lost power later Saturday and didn't get it back until the afternoon on Tuesday.  Looking back maybe we should have skipped it, but it really wasn't that bad while we were running and it was kind of neat to have my first snow running experience on a race day.  My goal last week was to run without stopping.  I can do this on the treadmill with no problem, but don't get too many chances to run outside to try it out there.  I ran the whole way with no walking breaks.  My time was 32:56 and I was number 64 of 93.

I had one more race already registered for this month but I know me and I need motivation to keep me from finding an excuse to quit, so today I registered for one more 5K at the end of December and, this is the scary one, a 10 in February.  10K sounds really scary to me.  I've run that far without stopping on the treadmill twice now, once last week and then again today, so I know in my mind that I can do it.  Plus February is three months away, it is actually exactly three months away.  If I gave myself three weeks to get ready for a 5K, 3 months should be more than enough for a 10K.