Following Leadville I stopped caring about my athletic endeavors. I ate everything I wanted (often too much), didn’t exercise much (relatively), and put had put on 15lbs by the end of the holiday season. This was much needed for my mind, but I’ve still got a good portion of that weight and my next athletic goal is upon me – a sub-18 5k in early May. I’ve not run that fast in 20 years, but with little focused effort I’ve slowly been getting faster each year (19:15, 18:53, injured, 18:28, 18:13 over the past five years) since I gave up running and became a cyclist (go figure).

I’ve been running roughly 10 miles a week for a few months now. I think that’s all my knees can handle so it’s probably all I’ll put in for this. I will, however, focus the effort. I’d like to see three runs a week, but I’m not sure I can do that while limiting my miles as much as I want; I need one speed day, I want one long day, and one short and easy day would be nice. I’m thinking the short and easy needs to go. I’ll be working out the details shortly, but figure lots of 400s, 800s, and 1600 repeats with an hour on the road or trail on the weekends.

On the cycling side of things, I want to get a road upgrade, but the timing may not be right again this year as I’d need to focus on that now and the running goal is more important to me. I will need a goal after this one and for late summer or fall. Leadville is happening again, but I’ve reached my goal there and really only care to finish this year. Would I like to go faster? Sure, but I’m not putting all my eggs in that basket for a third year in a row. A cyclocross upgrade can’t happen as I’ve no real desire to push for Cat 1. I’m open to ideas.

Anyway, the running goal. I’ve got the speed as evidenced by a handful of tests I’ve done with some virtual running hardware (5:30 miles are no problem), and I’ve got the cardio system to absolutely shred my [relatively] untrained [for running] legs to pieces. I suppose I simply need to pair those two? Steady running will be the ticket. I’d also like to drop around 10lbs so this post is mostly about that public announcement – I’m getting serious about my eating again. I’ll look skinny. I do better with goals when I announce them so here goes.

The plan is to pick back up MyFitnessPal and track the calories. I’ve been eating like a madman lately and getting a hold of my calories will surely drop weight fast. If I get down to my goal too quickly I’ll go back to my tried and true point system I “invented.”

This all starts tomorrow (February 5th), three months until race day.

Update: This all starts today (February 5th). Morning weigh-in was 3lbs heavier than expected (177 versus 174), which should mean I’ll shed a few extra quickly for notification. Will be doing an FTP test tonight to ensure I’m not losing cycling power over the course of this.