Hey everybody, first time posting here. Just read through everyone's stories and finding them very motivational. I was a track runner in high school, sprinter and hurdler. Def not a long distance runner. Picked up running in college, casual 3 mile runs usual. Been running on/off over the last 20 years (mostly off) and finally something clicked this last June. Had just lost 15 lbs juice fasting, wasn't overweight but went from 140 to 125 lbs and suddenly running became a LOT more enjoyable, easier, and pain free. Realized that there are a lot more running books out there than when I was a kid (Galloway) and have been obsessed with Jack Daniels and Pfitz in the last few months. Been nice to have an idea of how fast to run during regular training runs using Daniels' charts and have a challenging marathon plan coming up. Planning on running my first marathon in Chicago in Oct of this year (if the dang thing doesn't sell out in an hour!) using the Pfitz 18/55. In the meantime, I'm gonna train for a half marathon this May using Pfitz 12/55 just to get a feel for the miles (up to about 30-35 miles a week right now) and the specific workouts. Anyway, it feels really good to finally see some progress with my running after 20 something years of screwing around!

On a personal note, I'm a 39 year old pathologist, mother of a 7 year old boy, live in Chicago and enjoy running, gardening, rock and roll (Neil Young, Sonic Youth, Sparklehorse, Lightning Bolt are some faves, love going to shows), reading, and just became a vegetarian. Like the idea of running an ultra at some point but first things first  Look forward to following everyone's running endeavors.

Hi everyone. My name is Tricia.  I was told about this group and thought it sounded like a good place for me to come and check out.  After a little lurking, I think it might be a good fit for me.  I am starting my first marathon training cycle on Monday.(21st)  I am going to follow Pfitz 18/55 plan with a little extra mileage for my first which will be the Coeur d'Alene Marathon in Idaho. I have been running now for about 2 years and I have done 6 halfs and many 10ks, a 12k, and 5ks.  Last year I dealt with some minor injuries.  ITBS was my biggest hurdle in the fall.  I went through PT and have been focused on keeping up my excises and working my core to prevent a relapse.  This year I have started off which getting used to the structure of the marathon plan so I am ready to dive in. i picked the Pfitz plan because I wanted something challenging and with higher mileage.  I have followed the Ryan Hall plan for my halfs and really enjoyed the plan and the difficulty of it.

I ran this same race last year except I ran the half and I love the course and the support was great.  Goals for this race are first and foremost to finish.  I have not set an official time goal yet but I will set something after February 23rd when I race my half.  I ran a 1:58:47 last year and many right around 2:00x while dealing with the ITBS but I feel I am faster now, although I am unsure of how fast.  So once I better establish where I am at I will set some better goals.

On the personal side, I am a stay at home work at home mom.  I run a business out of my home so I am fairly busy.  I have 4 kids and 3/4 are in school all day and my daughter is in preschool.  I have been married for almost 10 years and my husband is very supportive of my running which I am very thankful for!  I am a early morning runner which I really enjoy.  It makes me get it done.

Thanks and I am glad I found the group.

Thanks for the welcome and yes I have had my fair share of Graston and it works very well. I also foam roll daily if not a few times a day.  I am symptom free now and hoping to keep it that way.

Tricia,cwelcome, and join us in the ongoing monthly thread. But can I just say: I recommend looking into Graston for the ITBS. That, and foam rolling, if you don't already.

Hi Tricia! Come on over to the Jan 2013 thread. 

Hey everyone! I'm Sharon, and I've been logging my runs on RA for a little over a year, and have been lurking in the Donuts group ever since you guys moved here from RWOL. I thought the time was past-due for an introduction!

I ran track and cross-country in a small high school, but stopped running for all of college and then some to gain some pounds and lose all fitness. I started eking back into running in March 2011 and have been clawing my way back up the fitness ladder ever since.

I ran my first marathon last May using the Hansons method with a goal of "just finishing," and did so with a time of 4:34 (despite the temps hitting the 80's in the last hour -- yowza!). I ran a 25:00 flat 5k this fall with little training, which makes me hopeful that with a lot of focus and work, I can try to get as close to a sub-4 marathon as possible.

My biggest problem is definitely consistency -- I find it all too easy to talk myself out of a run. I'm getting a lot better, and have found that gathering momentum by running most every day helps keep myself from getting off track. Which is part of why I like the Hansons method. I thought that officially joining you guys would also help with my struggle for consistency too, so I hope you won't mind seeing a wacky one in your midst!

Hi guys and gals.  My name is Dave.  My user name is an amalgamation of my sons' first names (Brayden and Connor).  I live in Hilliard, Ohio, a suburb of Columbus and, although it's probably difficult to tell from my writing, I actually make my living in marketing communications.  In essence I'm a writer and public speaker.  I'm 45 years old and have been married for 22 years to my lovely wife who had no interest in running, but roots for me anyway.

Like many, my distance running adventures began when I found myself silly out of shape.  Now, I may not have invented yo-yo dieting/weigh loss, but I think I perfected it.  If I stand really tall and stretch a bit, I'm basically 6 feet.  I left high school and went to boot camp weighing a slim 167 pounds.  By the time I graduated college, I was 205.  Having been athletic, I continued to play sports - softball, golf, etc. - and I would lose weight and gain it back many times over the next 15 years or so.  Whenever I dieted I would run, but never more than 5 or 6 miles at a time.  Any kind of exercise and I can drop weight pretty easily.  I'm sort of obsessive about diet and exercise.  When I'm in - I'm all in.  When I'm not "into it", I'm not into it at all.  There's never any middle ground.

At any rate, in late 2005 I was tipping the scale at better than 240 pounds, sleeping poorly, and suffering heart palps.  Right before Christmas, I met with my best friend at a restaurant for a drink and we started discussing weight loss and getting fit.  (He is quite fit, by the way, and an excellent runner who was really just listening to my sob story).  It was probably the beer talking, but I said I needed a long-term goal and thought we should maybe do a marathon.  He laughed and said it better be something fun (we had done a team triathlon several years earlier and, long story, but it wasn't much fun), so we settled on the Walt Disney World Marathon in January 2007.  I figured that gave me more than a year to prepare and we were off.

Over the course of 2006, I lost more than 50 pounds.  Now if there is really such a thing as slow-twitch and fast-twitch muscle fibers, I'm a fast-twitch guy.  I was always a really good sprinter, but a terrible distance guy.  I tried running the mile in 7th and 8th grade, but was promptly lapped in my 8th grade year by a 7th grader and that was the end of that.  I was one of those people who, if you asked me about running a marathon, I would tell you I didn't even like to drive that far.  The mere thought was ridiculous.  And so it was in 2006 that once my long runs extended past 6 miles, every distance was a new PR for me.  When I hit 20 miles, I thought I was an Olympian and I was certain I was really prepared for that first marathon.  I even talked about going sub-4.  What a fool!

The 2007 Disney World Marathon was held in weather - and I'm absolutely not exaggerating one bit - where the temperature was 200 degrees and the humidity was 500%.  Okay, I'm exaggerating a bit, but it was hot!  I was walking by mile 14.  My finish time?  How about a 4:58:00.  As I stood in the swimming pool at the resort feeling horrible that afternoon, my wife said, "Okay, I hope you're done with your mid-life crisis!"  I thought I was.  That was not a fun run.

Of course, it turns out I wasn't.  I was back at Disney again in 2009.  The weather was better, but my training was horse dung and I ran just 2 minutes faster.  For the next few years I ran on and off, but slowly started regaining that lost weight.  In an effort to inspire myself once more, early in 2011, I signed up for the Air Force Half Marathon and the 2012 Disney Marathon.  Paid for them and everything.  Now the AF Half is held in September, but by August I had already decided I wasn't going to run it, because I'd hardly run at all that summer and certainly wasn't in shape to run a half.  Then at the last possible hour, I thought about the spent money and started to waffle.  My wife finally convinced me to run.  "Why not?" she said.

So I went to the Expo (Dayton is about an hour from my house) and picked up my packet for the race the next day.  During the Expo I ran into Marshall Ulrich who was hawking his (at the time) new book (which is very good by the way) and we got into a conversation.  Now I didn't know Marshall Ulrich from Adam (GOOGLE him, if you don't know him!), but he asked me if I was running the marathon the next day.  "No," I said.  "I'm running the half.  But I'm not in very good shape and will probably have to walk a lot of it."

And, in one of those moments that's seems ridiculously insignificant to me now, he said to me with a smile on his face, "But you are going to do it right?  That's the important thing!"  And it was like the light went on.  I was inspired.  I showed up the next day and promptly ran a decent half.  Well, I ran a decent first 8 miles and walked a lot of the final 5.1, but finished in a reasonable 2:16.

As soon as I finished, I grabbed my Higdon Intermediate II plan and wrote it out day-by-day in a notebook.  Then over the next 17 weeks, I proceeded to follow the entire plan to the letter.  I ran every single mile.  I showed up at Disney weighing 180 pounds and hoping I might be able to hang with the 4:15 pace group - at least for as long as possible.  It was a perfect running day and I left the pace group behind around mile 7 and finished in 4:05:38.  I don't care what anyone says, there are few things are as motivational as success.  All of sudden, I was uber-inspired. I felt sure I could run a sub-4 marathon if I got my weight down further and put in more miles.  I graduated to a Pfitz/Hanson combo this year and put in several 250-ish mile months (ME?  250 Miles in a month?) and just posted a 3:57:19 at the 2013 Disney Marathon (despite some GI and late run struggles).  It's all quite unbelievable to me as I sit and consider it now.

And you know what?  Running has become fun to me.  I love that it's as challenging as I want it to be (I'm ridiculously competitive) and that I actually weigh less now than I did for most of my college career.  I also love the camaraderie of the running community.  Seriously, it's amazing.  So many great stories and so many great people.  People running for causes and honoring others.  It's really something else.  And I always tell my wife that if I didn't run, I'd probably be spending a fortune playing golf (and sucking at it) and I'd weigh 250 pounds, so in contrast this is inexpensive and a healthy activity.  I love that I suddenly have goals for running like someday getting a BQ (even as I type that it sounds sort of ridiculous), but maybe not as far fetched as it once was.  I've even started playing with the idea of a triathlon someday (I've become big fans of the Ausssies Crowie Alexander and Macca), but my swimming would require serious work.  Maybe when my youngest heads off to college!  :-)  If nothing else, even as much as I love Disney, I need to at least try to run a marathon that's not held in Orlando, Florida and see how that pans out!

Anyway, that's my story.  My biggest regret?  I wish I'd discovered that I would enjoy this sport so much when I was in my late 20's or early 30's.  Alas...