I am 19, overweight, with asthma. I am not a runner (at least not yet). I am unhappy with my appearance and my lack of athleticism so I have begun dieting and excercising more frequently. It's working and I'm happy with my progress but I'm the kind of person who loses focus and quits things easily if I don't have at least one long term goal. For most people, being an ideal weight is their goal. For me, I think setting an ideal weight would only make my habits more unhealthy to acheive it which defeats the purpose. It doesn't matter if I'm 100 lbs if I'm still not healthy.
I decided that I want to run a marathon by the time I'm 21 (Summer of 2012 - a year and a half away). That's realistic right?
Like I said though, I'm not extremely healthy now and I have no running experience so I have no idea where to start. A friend was trying to help and explain cross training or something and interval training and I nodded my head but I still don't know how to start. Or more importantly, I don't know how to slowly push myself to run longer periods of time without stopping and run faster. HELP PLEASE!
I decided to time my pathetic mile last week. I knew it wouldn't be pretty but I just ran as much as I could and would speed walk the rest. My time was 13 minutes and 52 seconds. That's my starting point.
I decided that I want to run a marathon by the time I'm 21 (Summer of 2012 - a year and a half away). That's realistic right?
Like I said though, I'm not extremely healthy now and I have no running experience so I have no idea where to start. A friend was trying to help and explain cross training or something and interval training and I nodded my head but I still don't know how to start. Or more importantly, I don't know how to slowly push myself to run longer periods of time without stopping and run faster. HELP PLEASE!
I decided to time my pathetic mile last week. I knew it wouldn't be pretty but I just ran as much as I could and would speed walk the rest. My time was 13 minutes and 52 seconds. That's my starting point.