Winter Weight

I'm not talking about the post-holidays turkey, gravy, and cocktail weight gain, either. After an early morning run with KM this week, I was curious how much extra weight I had in all of my layers. I was wearing: smart wool socks, thermal tights, sweatpants, a t-shirt, long sleeved thermal shirt with a hood, running jacket, sweatshirt, thin gloves, thermal mittens, balaclava, and hat. When I got home, I found out I was wearing 4 lb of clothes, not including my Garmin or shoes.

With that much weight, the powdery snow on the trail, and the restricted of movement that many clothes can cause, I felt like I was working three times as hard as I should have! I think the 4 mile jaunt was closer to resistance training than speedwork. While it's great for getting the HR up and burning some calories, there is no realistic expectation of improving speed under conditions like these.

It got me to thinking. If the extra weight of winter clothing (and effort to move because of the weight) was that noticeable, wouldn't 5 extra pounds of body weight be similar? The weight difference between an aluminum frame bike and a carbon bike is about that much, too. Since I have declared 2010 my year to go faster, I am going to make an honest effort to lose those pesky "last five pounds" that have been hanging on. If I can run even 5 sec/mile faster or ride 0.5 mph faster, it will definitely be worth it. That means I need to watch sweets and splurges, and eat more vegetables. KM has a similar goal, so we're going to use each other as motivation. When it is finally warm enough to go frolick through the woods in nothing but a sports bra and running skirt, it will feel like flying!