Breakneck speed, eating good in the neighborhood

This morning was our "recovery/maintenance" run of 7 miles. Deanna decided to challenge us, although she told me that I was the pace-setter and she was the one keeping up with me. Well, I wish I'd've known. ;) We ran the entire distance in 1:17:46 which came out to a pace of 11:06 per mile. That was insanely faster than last week's 11:30 pace. Estimating from how long it took the last of our running group to reach the finish line, we probably got separated over three quarters of a mile.

I've got to stop my extended stints at Hot Salsa Friday if I'm going to do these Saturday-morning runs with a full head of energy! Last night I went two hours, which was a half hour longer than I'd planned to go. Plus I didn't eat as many carbs this morning as I'd hoped to get. I was running a little late, so instead of eating my Frosted Mini-Wheats as I'd wanted, I ate the Subway Spicy Italian sandwich I'd bought the night before (as part of their dinner-for-two deal, much cheaper that way!). All that combined with the 11:06 pace made for a tiring run. On the positive side, I felt almost zero muscle soreness at the end of the run, so my legs are definitely getting stronger. Speaking of which, this morning's seminar was on strength training.

Eating the past two days has been a breeze. I wasn't sure if I'd have the willpower to keep going on this diet, but I've been discovering a lot of great ways to keep myself full with minimum calories. Rice, pasta and noodles have helped tremendously. Chinese food is great for keeping meat intake in moderation, as long as you keep away from breaded and fried stuff like Panda Express orange-flavored chicken (a whopping 500 calories in a mere 5½-ounce serving!). In general, dieting has helped me broaden my eating variety by challenging me to think outside of the fast-food box. Not only that, but as a numbers guy, I'm actually finding it fun looking at calories and figuring out creative ways to eat them.

Watching calories has been great at helping me pick strategic times to splurge, and as any dieter will tell you, food rewards make it so much easier to stick to a diet. Today, I was able to eat so well during the afternoon (thanks to a Boca Burger for lunch) that I had space for a mile-high chocolate cake at dinnertime ... yum! Still, I only ate half of it because it was so feloniously rich. And I still ended up 300 calories under budget ... take that, Atkins and South Beach! My college weight is still a long way away (30 pounds to go!), but I can see it peeking over the horizon.

Next week on the trail will be my second milestone: the big ten-miler!