12/31/11 vs. 12/31/12

I've been thinking today about the difference between what I did on New Year's Eve last year, and what I did on New Year's Eve this year.

• 12/31/11 - Woke up early, drove out to Ashburn to run my first 5K ever with my younger brother.
• 12/31/12 - Forgot to set my alarm clock and ended up being almost an hour late for barely a half day at work.

Interesting contrast.  I think I'm going to plan now to run a 5K on New Year's Eve 2013.  It makes the day so much more fun.

I did run this afternoon, just for fun.  No race involved.  That was the first time I've run outside since April.  I think today was the coldest day that I've ever run outside.  But it also proved that my winter running gear works pretty well.

HDL - An Update

A little over a year ago, I wrote this post about HDL cholesterol levels.  My HDL had never been over 40.  I had always thought that my HDL would stay low.  Today I got the results of the lipid panel that was taken on Friday. (I still have the bruise on my arm from the blood test.)  Total Cholesterol: 169 (not too bad); LDL Cholesterol:  97 (still not too bad, for the bad cholesterol number); HDL:  69 (really awesome number for good cholesterol). 

The only change that has happened is the type of weight training I've been doing.  I've been lifting heavier weights, and focusing on powerlifting (squat, deadlift, bench press).  I did some research on this earlier today through an abstract at NIH:  "Weight training regimens are generally thought not to improve cardiovascular function or lipid parameters. To evaluate this further, we studied 25 men before and after supervised weight training three times each week for eight weeks. Mean plasma HDL-cholesterol level increased significantly with training, from 38.8 to 44.1 mg/dl, while calculated LDL-cholesterol decreased from 132 to 121 mg/dl."  I think this study applies to women as well.

One other thing that is different from last year to this year is that I do eat oatmeal more often for breakfast, but not every day or anything.  I think it's mostly the weight training.