Running Jealousy

So it all started when I had to work the day of the Mercedes Marathon in Birmingham, Alabama. I'm a web producer for the local television station and the only one available to cover the race. So I spent a weekend watching people run these different races and thinking about how I used to run and how I enjoyed it.

I don't do much running anymore. As a matter of fact, I currently am around 75-100 pounds overweight. I'm naturally a pretty big guy at 6'4", but I'm currently 300 pounds. I've been like this now for about 2 years after getting married in 2008. Something about getting hitched killed my want to hit the gym anymore.

Before I started dating my wife, I was a mean 225 pounds and 10% bodyfat. I had fallen in line with some amateur bodybuilders in college and this had helped me achieve a level of fitness that I had never experienced. I kept it up for a couple of months after graduation, but immediately backslid upon the beginning of my relationship with my soon-to-be wife.

Back to the point of this blog; I decided while I was watching the runners enjoy the Mercedes Marathon that my place wasn't supposed to be at my desk when I should be out there running with them. So, I got fired up and decided that I would train all year to run in the 2011 Mercedes Marathon. In my zeal to get started, I mentioned it to my younger brother, Evan, who surprisingly decided that he would run also.

My little brother has never really been in shape. He's always been a giant of a person and, besides a brief season of high school football, hasn't ever felt much interest in being in shape. He is the same height and weight as me, but he doesn't have the athletic history I do. It will be interesting to see if this kind of training affects us differently.

I've found this plan for running a marathon in a year. This plan really looks like it will work for us and it seems pretty simple. I've also developed a weight training regimen and I plan to cross train with my recumbent bike.

My biggest problem right now is my diet. I try to eat right, but regularly fail at that. Evan has a similar issue since he's has been know to devour entire family-sized frozen entrees. I'm going to work on the diet part, but that's really the area where I lack the most knowledge.

I'd like to add that all comments and advice are welcome. If you run at all, then you've got more experience than the both of us. So, feel free to add anything to our running discussions.

At the time of this writing, we've finished two workouts that have consisted of walking for 30 minutes. Yeah, that is really easy, but we're easing into this stuff. Next week we'll be running for one minute and then walking for two minutes. Eventually, we'll be running for 30 minutes straight. That will be right before we get into the "Building Up" phase.