To Infinity and Beyond!

Coming off the high of running my first 5K, I started thinking about "where do I go from here". I've proven to myself that I can handle running a 5K in a respectable time of under 40 minutes (39:33 to be exact), I wonder what else I can do. Maybe running more will help the scale start moving! So, I've come up with a bit of a plan...

First off, I'm jumping on the calorie zig-zagging bandwagon. I have my nice spreadsheet (thanks Cass!) all set up and I know what I'm aim to eat every day. it varies from a low of around 1300 to a high of around 1900 (which is today, no idea how I'm gonna eat that much but I'll go for it, haha). And I'm lining up bigger workout days with higher calories days. Its also nice to have a bit more of a cushion on the weekends too. I've read that people have had success busting plateaus with it, and I'm hoping it'll help FINALLY bust mine. It's a nice combo of eating more while changing things up constantly. As you can see from my chart, I haven't really gotten anywhere in the last month... that line is a 7 day moving average. I was good for a while, then Easter came along...

The second part of my plan is getting my running to improve. I've decided on two 5Ks that I'm running in the next month. One is next Saturday, and one is Sunday, June 5th. That'll give me a month to really see if I can bring my time down. I've started to do interval runs to try and get myself used to running faster. I did 1K laps around the lake where I ran a little more than half of it (at a pretty quick pace for me) and then walked the rest. I was totally wiped from the running and I was planning to do 6K. However it was landscaping day and my allergies got the best of me. Running with a scratchy throat is NOT FUN!

So, I'm gonna do interval runs a few days a week, and once a week I'm gonna do a longer run (more than 5K) at a pace I feel comfortable about. I'm gonna resist the temptation to speed up at the end to get a better time. I just want to up my milage and that should help my endurance in shorter races (like get used to running 6-7K so my 5K is better). I'm planning my first "long" run on Sat. or Sun. (depending on what night I see the boyfriend).

I'm really getting the running bug, and I'm REALLLLY hoping it helps me start losing weight for real. I'm cleaning up my eating, trying to focus on basics instead of stuffing myself with chicken breast every night so my protein number is sky high. More fruits and veggies and natural foods, less junk. Hopefully less alcohol (kickball on Thursdays is a serious test of my willpower. But I had gotten the scale below 150 and then I blew it and it went back up again, for like the third or fourth time. I just want it to stick! And running faster becomes easier if there is less of me, so there is my motivation. I don't have aspirations to become a distance runner. But I'd love to be a faster short distance runner and get more comfortable with slightly longer distances. So, onward I go... to infinity and beyond! (haha, I may have just watchign Toy Story 3....)