Posted by Derek Lee-Wo on November 29th, 2006 in Training
Back in June 2006, I turned 38. I was overweight at 230 lbs which I think is actually classified as obese. I didn’t do any kind of physical activity and simply walking up stairs was a chore if I went up too fast. I decided I need to make a change and that I wanted to be as fit as I can be by the time I turned 40. That gave me 2 years to get my act together. I set a goal of losing 50 lbs by the end of 2006.
I knew I wanted to start running since it’s one of the highest calorie burning exercises. I had tried running in the past, but I was never able to stick with it past 2-3 weeks. I decided to do some research and I came across a lot of references to something called C25K in people’s blogs. Further digging pointed to me the C25K running plan at www.coolrunning.com. The idea behind the plan is to take a couch potato, like myself, and get them to the stage where they can run a 5K or 3 miles, without walking, in 12 weeks. The plan tells you exactly how much to run and how much to walk and it gradually builds up the amount of time spent running.
I started the plan at the end of June and it was tough even doing the initial 60 seconds of running, but I persevered. I didn’t want to make too many changes at the same time so I waited until I did the plan for 2 weeks before making a change to my diet. I started tracking everything I ate and I was sure to maintain a calorie deficit of at least 1200 each day after factoring in any exercise. On my non-running days I did 20-40 mins on an elliptical trainer. After 13 weeks (I repeated one of the weeks), I graduated at the end of August and was able to run 3 miles non-stop. That was quite an accomplishment for me.
For the next 3 months, I have been increasing my mileage to the point where I’m at now. I’m currently running 25 miles per week. I also managed to lose 47 lbs so far. I am 3 lbs shy of my initial weight loss goal! It seems hard to believe I’ve actually been running for 5 months now.
I have come to enjoy running and I’m so happy with my weight loss progress, I’ve set a new goal of reaching 160 lbs, although I haven’t set any target date. This is a weight that I’ve probably never been at for the last 20 years!
During the course of running, I decided I wanted to run a marathon and I’ve set my eyes on the Dallas marathon in Dec 2007. I’ve since decided I want to take this to the next level and actually try and qualify for the Boston Maraton in 2009. I would be 40 yrs old and thus need a qualifying time of 3:20. If I don’t make it in 2007, I’ll have 2008 to keep trying.
So, my goal and dream is to run the Boston 2009 marathon and this blog will document my journey to get there!
