Well, I have went and done it. I have been told by many people for quite some time that I need to start blogging. Well, it is something I have wanted to do for quite some time now, so I took the plunge!

Check them out and let me know what you think. The first post is big on both of them because it is a bit of background information. The subsequent posts will be somewhat smaller.... well, you guys know me..... hopefully they will stay a bit smaller.

Check em out, let your friends know, link to me, subscribe, leave feedback, stumble me, del.icio.us me, etc. All would be appreciated!

blog.2big.org - My weight loss journey

blog.262quest.com - My Quest for a Marathon

Thanks!

Good read Tim, very inspirational!

Valuable resource, thanks for posting.

Tim , i just read your weight loss blog and it was very inspirational! I have been working out on an elliptical for the past 5 months and i finally gave running a try yesterday. Its been 2 days since iv been running and i feel great! Your words are very inspirational and keep me going!

Thanks all.

That is one of the main reasons for my blog - inspiration. When I was starting (and many years before I got the nerve or motivation) I did not feel like it was possible. This is a real story, of a real person, that made it happen for real

I know inspiration was out there during my journey, and I know played a hugh part in my success. I am not done yet, which brings me to the other reason for the blog - accountability! and something to keep me focused and doing my best.

Good job with the Running Sher, doesn't it absolutely feel awesome to be able to do that?

Yes Tim , after a long time i felt like i had a complete body workout! This was one of my aims in life to run for long periods of time and i am very proud to have achieved that! There's nothing that can beat the feeling when im done running for the day

ok i just bookmarked your blogs. cant wait to read them. i know you are an inspiration. thanks for sharing your stories once again!!

just read them. they are great! thank you. i want to be like you! i am inspired! i was never a runner and am just getting into it myself. i have been setting small goals for myself. i run very slowly- 5.0 mph. i challenged myself and did 5 miles today-i couldnt believe i lasted!! the first time ever! i think i lasted that long b/c i do other cardio for an hour on a regular basis. where should i take it from here? should i try to up my speed and do shorter distances or same speed and same distance? 5.0 speed is tough for me as mentioned.

I am not a very fast runner myself, although I have gotten faster than I would have ever thought as I keep it up.

Congrats on the 5 miles, that is awesome!

I am in no way a professional, and may even have a lot of it wrong, but what I would do, and what I did do was keep the distance (and even go shorter distances at times) but try to keep the same pace. I would not whatever you do try to speed up at this time. Trying to speed up before you get a good base is the easiest way to hurt yourself. You may have a good cardio base, but your legs are not used to this so take it slow, don't over do it.

You can speed up over time, and you will automatically. You can add speed later in many different ways. I say stick to the same speed and keep the same distance for a little while. Once you get a good base and you feel good, then you can try a little more distance, or shorter distances with faster speeds.

I still run 2 mile runs, 3 mile runs, even 1 mile runs on a regular basis. Now, I am pretty regular with 5 mile runs, but I have been doing this some time now and that is a very comfortable distance to do my easy runs. I am in the process of changing those to 6 mile runs, and may be changing one of my weekly 6 mile runs into a 3 mile run and just running it faster.

But (do I sound like I am repeating myself?) take it easy, don't overdo it or you may very well hurt yourself.

Keep up the great work, you are a great inspiration and motivation around the Traineo Land!

thanks-i appreciate it! when you started-where you as slow as running 5.0 mph? how quickly did you progress with speed? did you just listen to your body or did you push yourself to increase your speed? thanks. i know you arent a professional but i value your opinion.

When I started I was running about 5 or 5.5 mph, but I could only maintain that for a couple miles. I would add about a minute at the end of my runs where I would run faster maybe 6 or 6.5 mph tops. That was when I was running on the treadmill. When I moved to the road I actually probably slowed down at first because it was so different. Then I just kept running at what felt like the same speed, and just over time I magically got faster.

I was told many times by long time runners, that if I wanted to maintain and continue to run that I shouldn't push myself, but rather take the slow road and let my body tell me when to go faster. I listened to them most of the time, but the one time I didn't listen to them and tried to push myself, I hurt myself and spent almost 3 months trying to heal. I continued to run, but couldn't run much. If I would have listened to them, I would be running much faster and further now.... but I live and I learn! It may not happen that way for everyone, but it sure made me a believer.

Patience was really hard for me, I wanted to run faster and further right away and was willing to push myself hard..... but this time, brute force wasn't the way to go. That is why I came up with the phrase "Better to take the slow approach then the No approach" because I need to remind myself of this all the time.

Good luck, and keep me posted on how everything is going, it is really cool to hear others experiences.

Congrats on the sites! Wow, one blog is hard to keep up with and you were brave to begin 2. Best of luck on both journeys.

ok thanks again tim. great work again on the sites. what great accomplishments!!

one more question-i have a heart rate monitor watch but it doesnt track miles or speed, what do you use to track that if you run outside? (if i dont want to use a car to track my miles!) thanks and let me know if you had enough of my questions!!!

No, you are fine. I use www.runningahead.com which lets me create new courses and so I map them out with the map tool so I know exactly how far I am going before I go. You can check out my profile on Running Ahead and see what it looks like before signing up yourself. I love it, because it lets me track my runs as well. I have been using it since late June. It also is very cool because it lets me post my runs and PR's on my blog without doing anything further.

The bad part is that I have to think ahead and plan my routes. I wish I had a Garmen Watch that would track that for me but I don't have the $ yet. Or, you could run first then go check on this site how far you went. I do it ahead of time and on my normal routes I know where the mile markers are too so I can do mile splits to know how fast I am running on each mile.... good to know as you progress. I didn't do this yesterday on my 14 mile run though, because it was a new route and I only knew a few of the mile marker points.

Oh, and yes Fred.... I am a bit overzealous I am sure. I plan on keeping the blog.262quest.com Running Blog up on a regular basis, and the other one blog.2big.org will probably be a little less traffic, more for major events in my weight loss... but hopefully at least once a week.

Thanks for checking them out and the comment!

ok thanks again. ill check that website out.

tim-hmm im thinking i never got myself a reward for my 100 pound weight loss so maybe i would buy one of those watches for myself. which one would you get/recommend? i was checking out their website and they had 10 diff kinds-do you know which garmin watch is the best or which one i would need? i dont need all of the bells and whistles but if im going to get a good watch i want to have the right things too.

thanks again and great job on your running!!!!!!!

First, congrats on your 14-mile run! Getting the gels and water down takes a little time, but you'll get there. I hope you recover quickly!

MapMyRun does the same thing as RunningAhead from what I could tell. The thing I liked about RunningAhead was you could import your info from CoolRunning, which I could have used when I started tracking. Oh well! I'm invested in MyMyRun, and it uses the same Google Maps interface, though I like being able to use the "satellite" and "hybrid" mode, so I can actually see landmarks, like trees, ponds, side roads, and such. I like that you can use the data from RunningAhead in your blog though.

I've heard some mixed results with the accuracy of the Garmin, but some people really love them. It would be so nice to just upload your data and not have to map out your runs. MapMyRun does allow you to upload data from a Garmin to their site. I'm not a representative or anything, just wanted to offer something I use.

thanks cindy. what have you heard about garmin>

As far as the Garmin, I really don't know which ones or what to recommend. I know I don't have the $ so I haven't even looked into them at all... sorry!

Thanks Cindy! I am sore, but feeling great!

www.mapmyrun.com is a good place too. I started off with them, but it was early on when I found the RunningAhead site and I liked the way I could log my runs and all. I do understand that MapMyRun does that too, but didn't know it at that time... Either one would be great, they both do satellite but I don't know about the Garmin uploads.

Good luck with your running!

ok thanks tim and cindy for the websites. ill check those out for starters. great job on the run! thats awesome!!!

Thanks!

Good luck with your continued running, and remember to take it easy at first and don't overdo it!

If youre planning on keeping your runningblog up-to-date I'll check it regularly

Awesome blogs Tim!

I am planning on keeping it updated. I hope to post multiple times a week, I just don't want to overdo it with useless info, just stuff that is real to my training.

Here is a question, if I can ask: How much is too much and how much is not enough on a blog like a running blog? Opinions? Thanks!

For a running blog I have no idea, I guess anything that would pertain to your running, also maybe interesting stories that happened due to your running?

I actually decided to create a blog for my weight loss, so it keeps me motivated by forcing me to update it. I will prolly work on the design some tonight, no idea when it will be up.

Very cool