I'm an overweight light weight

I must admit I was feeling pretty good about myself. I'm down 10 pounds the first five weeks of the year. I've traveled 99 miles on foot (counting tonight's three, 1.5 of which was running). I've altered my lifestyle and in some measures altered myself.

Then I ran into one of the regulars at Airport Road Park. (forgot the camera and the mp3 player; no pics yet and the soundtrack was my wheezing). This guy is pushing 60, and he's the most consistent runner I've ever seen. That's saying something, as much track and cross country as I've watched. This guy just cranks out lap after lap, same pace, never stops and if he breaks a sweat, I can't tell. So my third running lap (last one, they were 1/2-mile laps) I wound up stride for stride with him. The natural question: How many are you doing. "This makes 11 miles. I'm thinking about doing another one." So I ask if he's training for a marathon, and he says he just did one at Robins AFB. Ran it in 3 hours, 44 minutes, good enough to qualify for the Boston Marathon, which he said he does not plan to do. All I can say is, even at 234 pounds (that's what I weighed afterward), I was able to keep up with him for a lap. Or he was just pacing me. That's probably the way it went. But it definitely helped to be running with someone. Wish I'd gotten his name, but it held motivational value just running and talking with him a little. Maybe I can get more from my body than I'm getting now.

I'm happy to note that the extra half-mile lap caused me no problems, and I got a pretty good sweat going. So I'm thinking I'll keep that routine the next two weeks and then perhaps add another half mile. The rest of this week is going to be outside the normal plan, though. I'm going to be otherwise involved tomorrow and Wednesday, so the workout will take a back seat until Thursday.