new tools

Two good things that came out of my conversation with my co-worker yesterday:

1. He sent me a link to Couch-to-5k, which I've been thinking about picking up again now that my knees aren't bothering me when I run. I started the week 4 schedule today, and it went really well. I'm probably going to do each week twice (starting at 4) just to be safe, so that would have me finishing the program at the end of May, I think. Then I can take the summer to build up my speed and do some heart rate training.

I can run without hurting myself now, but my heart rate goes through the roof on the running intervals--170s-180s. I don't feel sick or lightheaded, but it should be a good 20-30 beats lower than that per minute to really be in the healthy range for my age. I need to work on getting my resting heart rate down, too.

Anyway, once fall hits, I think I'll be ready to sign up to run a 5k.

2. He brought his copy of FitDay PC to the office for me to install. I've been wanting to start tracking my nutrition better, and I love all the little charts and things. I know I could do it online, but it's nice to have the offline version, too. Right now, my ratios of protein/fat/carbs look pretty good, though I haven't researched much on optimal percentages. I'm going to look into that soon.

I remember when I first started using FitDay to track calories back in 2003, almost 80% of my calories were coming from fat. Eighty. Percent. Now, it's closer to 40%. What do you know, I am eating healthier! :) Not that fat is the only indicator of a healthy diet...it's just a good gauge of how far I've come personally.

Anyway, I need to go home, but I may add more to this post later.