Ok, well this is sobering to read! This and the other poster who said I couldn't break 21 by that year. I'm in no position to argue with anyone about the odds of getting to my dream in any given time frame and not going to turn this into that type of thread. Better to take it month by month and see what I can do.
Older and Not Much Wiser wrote:
Two years is not nearly enough time to lose that much weight and regain optimal age-adjusted fitness. After two decades away from competitive running, you're pretty much starting from scratch -- like you never ran. As a point of comparison I ran well under 14:00 in my prime and just broke 17:00 at age 55, but I'd been running well since turning 50.
For the record, I actually started at 192 (back in late July, before I'd really made a commitment), so I've lost seven pounds so far. A lot of that was kind of unintentional, actually, as I was on an overseas trip in a hot climate and we were walking quite a bit every day, just to get from one place to another. I've walked 45 min to an hour every other day the past week, so I'm making progress there, and plan to start some cycling today.
Will also start some weight training, under advice of a professional trainer who is a good friend, but may not be able to do that until October as I have a heavy work/travel schedule in the next 2-3 weeks.
Improving my diet is proving hard and may need some help with that. Back in the day, like many of us, could get away with eating almost anything and run it off. Obviously not true now.
Two years ago, during another fit of motivation of a couple months, was able to lose 12 pounds and get to a point of mixing jogging and walking (3 miles of jogging 250m and walking 150m). Unfortunately, I gradually slacked off over the winter and did not pick up again until now.
Open to any more comments on this, overall, and here's another question: Any thoughts on ideal rate of weight loss to shoot for? I'm thinking 6 pounds a month. I don't know what my ideal running weight will wind up being. In my good days decades ago, I was a skinny 120-125 or so on a 5-8 frame (even lighter in college and HS). I figure I should shoot for more like 140s and try and add a little muscle.