Awesome, Crush. I don't know about stretching though. I never stretch, I think it loosens my muscles and makes running harder. They have to be taut and energy packed; you make them loosey goosey and they are forced to operate under abnormal conditions.

I'm sure our ancestors, when they were running in the plains hunting antelopes, didn't stretch before setting out. Can you imagine, a bunch of cavemen or whatever stretching, doing jumping jacks and whatnot before going to hunt for food.

MaTT, how is your training coming along?

I started a few weeks ago not being able to run an entire mile, so I would run/walk. I am now comfortable jogging about 1.3 miles, maybe 1.5, but at a slow pace, I'd say about 10 min/mile. So it's coming along, I'm easing into it. I test myself by speeding up at the end of every run, to see how much I have in the tank, and to make sure I'm not over exerting myself. So my strategy has been to increase distance gradually, I'm thinking the speed will come later on. Going for a 5k in March, so we'll see.

It's tough sometimes because you feel you're not improving, but I just keep telling myself that I must be improving. It's just that human improvement, intellectual or physical, comes in plateaus. The trick, I think, is to keep going through the plateaus when it feels like nothing is gaining, and then, boom, a new plateau.

MaTT how is your half marathon training?

I ran 3 miles for the first time a few days ago, in 28 minutes.

i take very small steps on uphills and let the gravity take me downhill, so is very fast down slope.

go go go

no, i delayed it a little bit, i will let you know. looking for one in april.

congrats on finishing, that's a great success. are you still running?

while i feel i could finish one, i want to up my time a little.

i also went from 208lbs to 193, i'm going down to 185, so that has helped my running a lot.