I've written blog posts plenty of times, but this is just an honest and straightforward log of what I'm doing now. I am an overweight guy. I turned 24 a few weeks ago, and was still at 225 lbs. I was more than just overweight, I was lazy. When I was younger, I ran between 4-6 miles a day, and competed in everything from regional competitions for OHSAA to running in the Walt Disney Invitational several times. I was a running machine, but once I got into college, I became busier and spent a lot of time on the couch. After a wedding and the birth of a child, I decided I would get back into shape, but was working way too many hours to do so. I changed careers, and one day was lecturing a student on the importance of setting goals and having something to work toward when he turned around and said "Hey man, what's your goal?"

We discussed a few options, so I set a big goal - I would enter the Toughguy race in England. Hoping to do this by January 2011, I had given myself a year to train. Little did I know what this would turn into.

A few coworkers got involved, and we basically spent the next few weeks running several days a week together, then training on our own as well. I agreed to enter a 5k race (something I hadn't done since high school) on the first weekend of May. I had an okay day, but finished with around a 30:00 time and was definitely anything but happy with it. I kept training, and now in June I am preparing for a much bigger race. I committed to signing up for the Vermillion Harbour Triathlon. After this, I plan on signing up for the entire Wheelie Fun series in 2011. I also have had a few conversations with friends at work about a team triathlon at Deercreek State Park in Mt. Sterling. The ultimate goal of this is to move from a lazy couch potato to completing an Ironman by 2014.

I have made some drastic changes, from working out more often and eating healthier. I also have given up soda and am working on cutting back on sweet tea. I have already seen many changes in my health (I feel better, my blood pressure is lower, etc.) and expect to see more in the future. This blog will be the log of my transformation from fat to fit, and from lazy to competitive. I will be posting workouts, gear reviews, and schedules of races here in hopes to inspire some other lazy guy or gal to get into multi-sport competition.

- brad