I’ve been dieting for about a week now in preparation for doing some stair climbing races in 2012. I have been fairly fit, but I weighed 80 kg (about 178 lbs) which is at least 20 lbs more than I need to weight. I want to get my body fat from 20% down to about 7% to be able to compete in stair climbing. The goal is to get in the top 100 stair climbers this year. I think that’s attainable, of course I have no idea yet!

Anyway, I was sitting here at the computer two hours after dinner of 2 corn on the cob, and I felt my carotid pulse. Seemed slow. I timed it with the stopwatch – the iphone is good for something!

It was 48 beats per minute.

Usually I’m at about 56, sitting at the computer. That was good news.

We’ll see if I can get down to my 36 beats per minute of years ago… not sure I’ll ever reach that again, and it was lying down… I’ll try tomorrow morning when I wake up. Since I didn’t exercise today maybe I’ll dip down to 42 or something.

So, dieting seems to have helped my heart rate fall pretty well. It’s no wonder, I already feel like my veins and arteries are clearing out. I feel lighter on my feet already too. Maybe I lost a couple pounds so far – up to 5 maybe. I noticed arms are thinner, face a bit thinner, leg veins starting to show occasionally… and stomach just starting to lose a little bit.

Great to see the changes… they make it all worth while. Nobody can compete at the top with 20% body fat. Even 15. One ultra runner insists the best of the best are always at 5% body fat – whatever sport it is. Stair runners have the problem of lifting pounds of weight to 1,000 feet vertical distances… each pound lost before the stair climbing race saves 1,000 foot/pounds of effort up that many steps.

I want to be a winner, not looking at others that beat me at the race and wondering why I’m not there yet.