This past year has been a year of change for my fitness and health. Nearly a year ago, I began a military training class at 211 pounds. Over the course of the 6-week class, I got down to 195. I lost another 4 pounds a month later when I had some wisdom teeth removed. In September, I injured my back, and put those 4 pounds back on. Through the winter holidays, I put on another 3 pounds. I lost a few pounds, but I was stuck between 195 and 197. In April, I did a two-week liquid diet (protein shakes and soups), which broke me out of that rut, and took me down to 186. As of this morning, I'm now down to 184, and the liquid diet has shrunk my appetite so that I'm eating at most half of what I used to at each meal.

Over the course of this year, during the periods of training, my focus has been on short-term goals - lose 1-2 lbs/wk. I've been thinking about what I wanted to select as a “high-water mark” - a weight that I do not want to ever be over again. I'm not planning on making any major changes in my training and diet, and I'm sure that my weight loss will slow. I've selected 175 as my first high-water mark, and set as a goal being that weight by my birthday, September 14th. That will put me at 3 lbs/month loss; along with running speed work and endurance, and body-weight-resistance strength training, I believe that's a reasonable rate of loss.

I also have performance-related goals for my running. By July 1st, I want to be able to do 1.5 miles in 14 minutes. (That's a requirement of my employer.) As long-term goals yet without dates, I'd like to do a 5K in 30 minutes, then a 10K in 60 minutes. All 3 goals involve running approximately the same pace, just for a longer period of time straight.

Why am I making this public? Well, first, I'm excited about the progress I've made; I'm in better shape than I've been in 10 years. Second, by making it public, it makes it a lot tougher for me to change them (to make them easier, anyway). So, to summarize, my fitness goals as they currently stand:

• July 1st - 14:00 1.5 miles
• September 14th - 175 lbs (-9 from today)
• Long-Term - 30:00 5K
• Long-Term - 60:00 10K

I'll post updates as these deadlines arrive.