Hi guys,
I just got back into jogging. I'm a bit slow, but I'd love someone else to motivate me to run. I find that I go a lot more--and longer when I have someone else with me.

I live in a small town, so my options are a bit more limited...without asking the crazy fitness fanatics I know. I posted something on craigslist, but no response yet.

How did you find your exercise partner?

Generally for weight loss you don't need to do a lot. 20 Minutes three times a week is quite sustainable. If you want to get fitter faster, include a sprint at the end of it and each time, try to increase the length of the sprint. This is the sort of thing that increases your actual cardiac fitness faster when running. And you can do more walking in between running days.

But if you decide you can't keep it up, don't feel guilty. You can lose the weight quite well with just diet if you have to.

Of course exercise is better for all sorts of reason but it won't slow you don't much if you don't exercise.

I had a bunch of ideas but then i saw you were from a small town. You could advertise on public noticeboards or newspaper is all i can think of. But it is difficult finding others who want the same thing as you.

Do you live in an apt building? One of my neighbors I'm friends with approached me to see if I'd be up for being her exercise buddy. So far we've gone 6 days in a row! We've adjusted the workouts as necessary (because of work, other plans, etc) but we always get in a good workout. Neither of us wants to be the first to cancel!

I ask work colleagues.

But running is generally quite lonely. I run 6-7 days a week. Perhaps on 2-3 of those days will I get lucky and have someone run with me.

My take on running is it will accelerate weightloss. Especially at higher weights (for me, over 180lbs). It will also make your heart and lungs healthier and give you a nice butt.

For muscle development and toning it does not do much however. Weight training is better for that which I also do 4-5 times a week, with other work colleagues perhaps joining me twice a week.

I run much better at lower weights so if I put on a few pounds with weight training I notice an adverse impact on my running. Very strange.