Might as well re-launch the blog...

It has been....a while.

Like, holy hell has it been a long time.

When I last left you, nearly four years ago, I apologized for not posting for a long time. I also had a different career. In between posts, I stopped working in radio, got another college degree, and now work as an English teacher.

I also gained weight. Since my last Wednesday Weigh-in (which was in 2008), I've put on over 40 pounds. Part of this is that I worked full time and went to school in there, which led to not a lot of time to work out. Part of it was that I worked the overnight shift, which has been shown to increase weight gain. Part of it was that I ate way too much fast food.

For Christmas this year, I got a Fit Bit, which has been awesome. I've been using it, and have actually recorded 77 straight days of 10,000 steps. (I was a little amused when I was happy my pedometer hit 3,000 in the archives). However, I have seen little change in weight. This has led me to deduce the following:

1) I eat too much.

2) I need to be even more active, and maybe do some aerobic exercises.

Now, I did, at one point in my break from this blog, join a gym. I tried running, but found that I was too heavy to do so injury free. I want to run again, but think that I need to lose about 20 pounds or so before I can do that.

My long-term goal is to get under 200 pounds. It will be a long and hard road to do so. The immediate goal is to get under 240. I sort of feel like I could do so before school gets out. I have a three-pronged strategy for doing this:

1) In addition to 10,000 steps, add in some more exercise. I purchased the Anarchy Workout and will be doing that. I also got some resistance bands for Christmas that I'm pretty hyped about using. I have hinted to my wife (oh yeah, I got married too. You missed A LOT between my posts) that I'd do yoga.

2) Not eat literally everything in the world. I want to eat more fruits and vegetables. Like, I maybe  could have a salad and not drown it in ranch dressing?

3) Be public about it. I want to write about it. Tweet about it. Instagram about it. Facebook about it. Call it a public shaming type thing. I also think that if I get messages from people asking me periodically how things are going with Operation Stop Being Fat, maybe I'll stick with it.

That's it for now. I hope to write a little more and see this through. Thanks in advance for your help.

New features for 2009

So, here are some new features that I have planned for 2009. We'll see how they work out.

~Smoothie review. I now have a blender and will make an effort to try some new smoothies and see how they are. They're supposedly great after workouts.

~This month in Runner's World. I love the magazine and this feature would share my favorite stories and factoids from the lateest issue.

~Alternative workouts. Its mainly a running blog, but whose to say I can't do other things?

And of course more "iPod it" and "Gym diaries"

Here's to more posting in 2009!

Welcome

Hi, my name is Alan and this is my running story,

Back in the day, I loved running. I was addicted to it. I wasn't fast, never won races, but I loved to run. When cross country season ended, I got depressed. Running always made me feel good (endorphins...FTW) and I felt better after a good run too.

My senior year of high school, I decided to run the Seattle Half Marathon, a good month and a half after XC season. I finished the race, but had both arches in my feet collapse. The blister on one foot was longer than I care to remember. (Sidenote: I had purchased an Australia Akubra hat the day before, and wearing it to school on Monday, combined with the limp, earned the name "Hop-a-long" from a few friends.)

And then I quit. I didn't ever say "I'm not doing this again!" I just stopped running. I didn't do track my senior year. When I went off to college, my dreams of being one of those joggers you see at 7 am was replaced by angrily shutting off alarm clocks and sleeping a few extra hours.

There were a few runs here and there. I bought new shoes to try to spark a comeback to the roads, but I could never get into the flow.

I graduated college, I got a job, and then I got the itch to run again. And, I will admit it, its because of this commercial:



I was sold. I wanted to run again. But, how do I get back the motivation?

Answer: I blog. I blog a lot. I run a personal blog, ran a blog about my study abroad experience to Australia, contribute to a few sports blogs. So, I figure'd I could blog about running.

The site will be more than posts consisting of "I went for a 2 miler today. Sunny outside, I enjoyed it...except for the hills LOLZ!" I want to do a lot more with this site than that. I want to help motivate, I want to put up training tips I find interesting, I want to explore what it means to run.

Also, I can't run everyday. Expect posts about biking, and maybe even lifting weights.

I should point out that I'm not a fitness freak. Far from it. I have a terrible diet, brought on mostly due to my house's close proximity to a Hardee's. By nature, I detest mornings, which is the only time I'll have to run. I drink more pop than should be legally allowed. Lets just say, this getting into shape and running and exercising on a regular basis thing is going to be hard.

One last thing, I feel I should explain the title. I tried to figure out what to name this thing for awhile. I wanted something better than "Alans Running Blog" but that seemed boring. I thought about a music lyric or a running quote, but nothing seemed to fit. And then, I started thinking about what I found rewarding about a run, and I thought of...a sweaty t-shirt. Its probably a quote somewhere, but sweat is your bodies reward system. It lets you know you had a good workout. At least for me, there is something highly rewarding about getting to admire the back of your own shirt before hopping in the shower.

I can't wait to get started,

Alan