Race Recap: ATL's Finest 5K

Feeling a little nervous on the way to the race

This past Saturday I ran my third 5K AND I made a PR! It wasn't the time I was shooting for, but I'll take it and be proud about it!  I finished at 31:18.  I feel like once I get past that speed goal of finishing under 30 minutes, I can shoot for my first 10K (if there's any left to register for this year).  Just like I used the c25K app back in February to help me get started running, I'm going to use either the Bridge to 10K or Couch to 10K program to increase my distance (start date is pending). 

I don't know why, but I've become kinda obsessed about finishing in under 30 minutes.  I haven't done any "official" type of speed work, I've been more focused on the endurance part. IDK. I'm still a beginner in my eyes, so I'm trying to really figure out where to start with it.  I've done it before, just not during a race. I completed 3.1 miles on a flat trail at 29:37-something seconds.  But anyway, back to Saturday's race...

Doing my leg swings

I got there later than I should have. I'm not that much of a wake-up-at-5:30-a.m. type of person. So I hit snooze until the very last minute. My clothes and everything else were already layed out, so I got dressed, grabbed half a banana and was out the door. I arrived at the race with maybe 5 minutes to spare. I had to take advantage of the little walk from the train station to the bib pick-up tables for part of my warm-up.

I looked down at my Nike+GPS app and saw I was already at 30 minutes, so I started sprinting towards the finish!

A proud girl representing an awesome running group

I knew what to expect with the route since I had practiced it with my running group the week before, but those hills maaan, I let 'em get to me.  During Saturday's practice run, I trotted up the first and kept it going, trotted up the second and walked for a few seconds. During the actual race, I stopped to walk in the middle of both.  I think I started off too fast in the beginning and it affected my overall pace. Either way, I'm still learning from my mistakes and will keep it moving. I'm still proud of myself :)

So Versatile, So Convenient, So Quick...It's the Chicken Wrap...Again!

I'm notorious for not having enough of this and being out of that.  Since there were no leftovers from last nights grilled chicken caesar salad, I concocted this instead...

I had never purchased this pre-cooked grilled chicken breasts before.  I usually have to go through the motions of cleaning, seasoning, and grilling the chicken myself.  I noticed two of the ingredients were some type of corn syrup and corn starch, so I don't think this will necessarily become a staple. Though it's tempting.

Altogether, the wrap was about 216 calories

And of course on the side, one of my favorite snacks, baby carrots. 

Did you know baby carrots has it's own Twitter? @babycarrots

Review: I Used Lose It! to Lose It!

I found the Lose It! app for iPhone's while randomly browsing iTunes one day.  I had no intentions on counting calories at the start of my weight loss journey, but this colorful, easy to use app caught my interest.  It just looked fun to use.  It wasn't like keeping a written food journal in a diary.  This app does most of the work for you.  You  just have to log it.  That was May 2009.  Three weeks later into June 2009, I had lost the first 15lbs.

I was one of the early Lose It! app users before they developed the website into what it is now.  Now you don't have to have an iPhone and a recent Android version has been released.  

When you first set up your account.  It will ask you to enter the standard info (i.e. Today's Weight, Goal Weight,  Height, and how much weight would you like to lose a week) that assists in determining your daily calorie budget.  My current calorie budget for maintenance mode (to maintain my current weight) is 1,964 calories a day.  If you're trying to lose weight, of course yours will  be lower, depending on your stats of course.  Once you've entered this info in, you can start logging your food and exercise calories.

The food database has been updated several times, so it includes almost every food and/or restaurant you can think of for every meal (breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack).  If not, you can enter the item in manually.  The same goes for exercises (especially if you use a HRM which may give a more accurate calories burned count).

I eat so many carbs and not enough protein - working on that!

I like the Report feature (the full version-visible only via the website) which shows an analysis of your calorie trends including nutrient information. I'm able to see a breakdown of My Nutrients.  I particularly like to keep up with my Fat-Carb-Protein (& Fiber) percentages now that I am in maintenance mode.  Whereas, when I was just trying to lose weight and thought all of that was overwhelming, I just wanted to burn more than I ate.  Today's Fat-Carb-Protein percentages weren't that great.  I like being able to see this because its a quicker way of assessing what I am doing "wrong"; I like the extra control it gives me over my diet.

There's other extras like the ability to add friends so you can motivate each other, participate in the forums for additional help/resources, graphs showing your progress, and badges congratulating you for different achievements and milestones.  My most recent badge was one for "Smooth Sailing".  Earning the "Smooth Sailing" badge means I'm doing a great job of maintaining my weight.

I have heard of the other calorie counters like My Fitness Pal. I've never given that site a try, but I liked the convenience of the Lose It! iPhone app upfront.  I'm always on my phone anyway, so... this made it 10x more likely that I'd continue its use.  Two years later and 60lbs lighter, all using this app to track my calories, is proof!

Do you keep a food journal? Did you find it tedious or helpful?