First 5K

Finished my first 5K today (well, first *real* 5K--I ran one years ago and didn't formally register and had bronchitis and undiagnosed asthma, so I'm counting this as my first real one). Yep--I FINISHED. :)

I also won the overall women's division, with a time of 28:02. (All the faster women runners were competing in the 10K, but I STILL WON.) According to my MotoActv, the race was actually 3.32 miles, which meant my average pace was 8:27 minutes/mile. As far as personal bests, I ran my first mile in 7:54 minutes. THAT'S FAST, y'all. Although I progressively got slower, I'm still really proud of myself and excited about the possibility in competing in more 5Ks. My slowest mile was only 9:06, and at 3.10 miles (an actual 5K), my time was 26:25 minutes.

Obviously, I'm extremely proud of myself, and excited about my capability to run now that I'm properly medicated with regards to my asthma.

I'm also excited about my award, which wasn't a medal, but was a stretched canvas poster of today's event. A big one. And it's allllll mine. :D

Progress (measurements)

Lately I've been adding foods in no particular order, although I'm definitely still following the "rules": I don't add anything that's in the same food family within five days of the other, I still space them out, and I monitor my weight religiously to make sure I'm not sensitive to the food. The past 24 hours, I've added in black pepper and strawberries. Neither caused a reaction, and I'm happy to be able to add them to my "safe" foods list, although they're not absolutely necessary. Tonight I ate ONE STEM of broccoli (which didn't make me gain weight last time) and got terrible gas--I recall having gas last time, and apparently that's not a normal reaction to broccoli (which is just what I wrote it off as). :) That makes several foods that I really can't eat without gastric distress. These foods are:

1) Caffeine
2) Wheat
3) Sweet potatoes (but not normal potatoes--weird, huh?)
4) Broccoli
5) Cashews (I'm allergic to peanuts, so I guess it stands to reason)
6) Milk (although I think I'm going to introduce lactose-free milk tomorrow and see what happens)

Some foods I'm not necessarily SENSITIVE to but that I like to stay away from are butter and onions, because I don't like how they make me feel.

As far as weights, this morning I weighed in at 108.2 and this evening I weighed 108.6 lbs. I also finally took some measurements of my body this morning, and my progress looks like this:

Obviously this is a huge difference, and great progress in such a small period of time. At this point, I'm not even TRYING to lose weight. I'm just following my diet and working my ass off in the gym, and the weight just keeps coming off. I've decided to revamp my program to focus on really gaining muscle and cutting fat (rather than focusing on weight like I've been), so I'm going to be researching how to do that.

I've already discussed my training this morning, but here are my charts with regard to exercise and diet, respectively:

Also, today I did something big: I registered for a 5K. It's only my second one, and the first time, I was an undiagnosed asthmatic, ran with bronchitis, and wanted to die. My time was around 33 minutes, if I recall correctly. This time, I'd REALLY love to run a 27 minute 5K, but I'll settle for under 30. :) I'm going to be training for this in the gym and outside too, and I'm really excited--but I don't have much time! It's going to be on March 9! (Wish me luck.)

Personal Best in Running....

Today I ran a personal best on the inside track, and felt GREAT doing so. :) Since I've had my asthma diagnosed, I've been on a daily double dose of drugs to help manage it, and although my peak flow readings aren't much better, they have been improving. When I start cardio without having my inhaler, I can go for about five minutes before my heart rate is about 180 and I feel like dying. When I take ONE puff, I can go for thirty minutes without even thinking about stopping and my heart rate is a LOT lower.

So yeah, personal best. Today I was able to jog 2.7 miles in 24:27 (although the gym sign equates 9 laps with a mile, and I went 25 laps, which technically means 2.78 miles, BUT I'm going with my Motoactv instead....). My max heart rate was 181, and my average was 173 beats per minute. I could have kept going, but wanted to log the time without slowing my overall pace. I'm working up to jogging 3.1 miles (a 5K) in 27 minutes, and I think I can achieve it soon. I'm going to work on it inside, then go outside (which is harder due to the incline and planes of the road). So yeah, my pace is 9:03 min/mile, which is about the range I need to run that 5K. :D (So excited!)

I only did cardio today, but I'll log my fitness and eating tonight, along with all of my measurements. What personal bests have you achieved lately?