RUNiversary! My First Year Running and Blogging

One year has passed since I started on this fitness journey, and this blog.
I just thought I would throw out a few thoughts and some stats..


My main reasons for undertaking this marathon quest were to, lose weight, improve my overall health and energy, prolong my life, and ultimately all so that I can be a better husband and father. As some may know, I had a major health scare a few years back, which involved some pretty scary emergency heart surgery. You can read more about that here:  About Me (& My Heart)


I started walking right after the 2010 LA Marathon. In the weeks leading up to then, I had started trying to watch what I eat, and had lost a few pounds. But still, at that time, I was around 268lbs and felt pretty unhealthy.. lethargic, knee and hip pains as soon as I stood up from bed, very sedentary.
Juiced up with inspiration from the LA Marathon, and bloggers like @GWJones00, (http://therunningfatguy.blogspot.com/) I began.. slowly.


At first, it was pretty painful short walks around my neighborhood. I think my first "recorded" walk was only 2 miles, and it took me almost 45 minutes. I eventually progressed to walking the block, but trotting faster or jogging across the intersections, then resumed walking. It progressed from there. Unbelievably, 2 weeks ago, I was able to finish the 2011 LA Marathon. Pictorially, here's my year in a nutshell:

My first 2 mile walk in green is superimposed at the beginning of my recent 26.2mi LA Marathon run


I was not the best about consistently blogging or tracking my training and diet over the whole year. Still, I looked over my data on GarminConnect and DailyMile to gather some fun stats: 
Miles of Training:      800 miles
Calories Burned:      100,000
Donuts Burned:        500
Half-Marathons:         2
Full Marathons:         1
Triathlons:                 1
Weight Lost:           45 lbs
Blogs Started:           1

	Resting HR	Blood Pressure	Beta-Blocker Dose	Weight
2010-Feb	76	136/76	400MG (Max!)	268Lbs
2011-Mar	56	100/53	100MG	223Lbs

One year has gone by pretty quickly, and I am pretty satisfied with my progress. I still have some work to do, and my goals for the upcoming year include:
 - lose some more weight. Would like to get down to 190Lbs
 - improve my running. I've never been overly concerned about pace, and I still am not. I would; however, like to improve my running endurance and be able to run longer (even at slow pace) without taking so many walking breaks.
 - eat better
 - expand my running horizons, maybe incorporate some reasonable trail running, hiking, etc.
 - learn to swim better, and start doing a few more Triathlons, work up to the Olympic Triathlon distances
 - start my kids running, biking, swimming more
 - blog more consistently.. this blog, Facebook, Twitter, they all definitely keep me accountable and motivated!
"If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"  <geeks click here!>

Since I have acquired at least a few friends and followers over my first year, I guess this blog truly exists. I will try to blog more regularly, so I can "exist" more in 2012.

Thanks for listening!
 -J