Do you know your body fat percentage? Losing 5 pounds may not really be feasible or it may take awhile.

If you weigh 125 and your BF is already say 18% - I'm guessing since you said "race" that it's already pretty low. That means you have 22.5 pounds of fat, leaving you 102.5 pounds of lean mass. If the 5 pounds you lose are purely fat, that drops you down to 14.6% body fat. And it's not easy to get that low. You'll have to experiment with getting enough fuel to do your workouts, but not so much that you're not in a slight calorie deficit. You might even look at what types of calories are you getting.

Now if your core is "mushy," building it will increase your muscle mass, burn more calories and help your riding.

Veronica