Running Towards Fitness

Personal Awareness
The ancient Greeks used to believe that a healthy mind and a healthy body not only went together, but were both critical for happiness and a successful life. They were also intertwined, meaning that a weakness in either area would affect the other. When I started this transformation I was overweight and full of excuses. And by overweight I don't mean just a few pounds - I weighed over 70 pounds more than I do now. I finally took my life into my own hands and started exercising. At the time, I had no idea where it would lead - to a stronger body, a happier, more nimble mind, and a chest full of race medals. Healthy mind, healthy body, indeed! It hasn't been easy, or without issues, but I wouldn't trade the experience for the world.

February 2004

Swimming: 1 mile Running: 33.45 miles Skiing: 2 days Upper body workouts: 6 Lower body workouts: 1 I made it - I ran the marathon! And I haven't run since. Although I have an excuse, since I did just turn 30. Still, I will run next month - not running is ...

Second Day

Last night my ITB started acting up again. I didn't think that the skiing motion would hurt it significantly, and I stretched plenty in the evening, but I did something that it didn't like. Between that and the blisters, I almost didn't go out again today. But, ...

First Day

Its a cold Friday morning as my wife, brother-in-law and I head out up the long, twisty mountain road to Eldora, Boulder's local ski resort. It takes about forty minutes to get up there, we park, and Stephanie and I head for the rental stand. We get me ...

Upper Body II

This time I did upper body on Wednesday, since I figure that my legs will be getting a pretty good workout in Eldora on Friday. Lat pulldowns, wide grip: 3 sets, 90 lbs Lat pulldowns, narrow grip: 3 sets, 100 lbs FreeMotion lat pulls: 2 sets, 80 lbs (+10 from last week) Rhomboid row: ...

Last beginner swim

I won't make it to class on Thursday, as I'll be out sking for the first time. Which should count as cross-training as well, I guess. So for my last class, we did crawl (100m), backstroke (50m) and breaststroke (100m). On the crawl, I'm doing pretty well. Every ...

Upper Body I

Started out with twenty fairly hard minutes on an elliptical trainer, then moved to the workout. This one took us over one and a half hours, which is a little longer than it usually does. Need to pick it up a little next time. Bench press: 3 sets, 35 ...

I need a break

Actually, my body needs a break. I tried to do a nice, short 3 miler today, after a pretty good amount of stretching. More than I had time for on marathon morning, to be honest. After about a quarter mile, my right knee started hurting - that ...

Upper Body II

Today, we tried doing the Upper Body II workout (back/shoulder/bicep) with three people instead of two. It didn't really work as well as it did with just two. Maybe this will become the Wednesday workout with Jason and we'll do legs on Fridays instead. Or we'll figure ...

Heart Rate

Its been said that you can tell a lot about your general fitness level by taking your resting heart-rate. Recently, I've seen some indications that you benefit by checking it first thing in the morning, before even getting out of bed - and that monitoring it is a good ...

My legs are weak…

... and I really shouldn't be surprised. Started out by getting on the treadmill, which was a bit too optimistic. Every time I started running, I stopped about 30 seconds later because I'd identified another muscle group that was inadequately stretched. By the time I'd stretched everything, ...


About

I'm Richard Stanford, a fit, happy runner. Of course, that wasn't always the case. Dip into the archives to follow my progress from couch potato to sub-four hour marathoner.

I also like to cook, write, code, and play with power tools...

Personal Records

DistanceRaceTimePace
Marathon2006 Freescale3:54:078:56
20 Miles2006 RunTex3:00:089:00
30K2005 RunTex2:42:448:45
Half M2006 3M1:42:577:51
20K2005 Decker1:40:428:06
10 Miles2005 Pervasive1:20:138:01
10K2005 Dublin Dr Pepper48:437:51
5 Miles2005 Turkey Trot37:017:24
5K2005 Margarita Run22:327:15
4K2006 Fila Relays17:247:15
1 Mile2006 Congress Ave6:236:23

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May 20th 2007
Tags: Running, Races

One Comment

2007 North Trail Half Marathon

I'll start out by saying that this wasn't a PR.  Not even close.  It was, however, a really fun race, taking place in the middle of a fun weekend, surrounded by fun friends. Fun! Going into it I knew that I wasn't going to PR.  To be honest, I was more than ...
May 19th 2007
Tags: Running

No Comments

Update

Well, so much for keeping the blog current, eh? I've been doing pretty well, most of the time. I'm currently in Dallas just a few hours away from running in a small half marathon (400 people, give or take) - and I've only managed to get up to 10.5 miles ...
April 10th 2007
Tags: Running

No Comments

Lunchtime Ladera

This was my third time to run Ladera Norte, and its actually getting easier.  I walked once, about 3 minutes into the hill, for a minute (timed), then ran the rest of the way.  Not that I was fast - the remainder took me a solid 5 minutes - but I ...
March 4th 2007
Tags: Running, Races

9 Comments

2007 BagelFest 5K

I'm very glad that I did this race.  I almost didn't - the idea of doing something where I know that I wasn't going to come close to a PR was not terribly enticing - but I've done it every year since I started running, and its been a whole ...
March 1st 2007
Tags: Running

One Comment

Unplanned 3 Miler

Well... I know that I said that I wasn't goint to run today... but I did anyway.  You see, at lunch today Thon offered to run his 3 mile hill loop with me this evening.  Naturally I stuck to the gameplan and told him that I wasn't running until Saturday.  ...
February 27th 2007
Tags: Running

One Comment

Rollingwood Revisited

I went to Rollingwood for the second time - or at least the second time since my recovery - and while ended up running a slightly different course due to inattention, it was a fantastic run.  Last time I averaged a 9:41 pace (9:54, 9:30, 9:46) around the hills, and it felt ...

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Famous Marathon Times

RunnerTimePace
Al Gore4:58:2511:23
Oprah4:29:3010:17
P. Diddy4:14:549:43
Will Ferrell3:56:129:01
George W. Bush3:44:528:35
John Edwards3:30:188:01
Carrie Sapp3:29:067:59
Boston Qualifier3:10:597:17
Lance Armstrong2:59:366:51
Gilbert Tuhabonye2:23:075:28
Paula Radcliffe2:15:255:10
Paul Tegat2:04:554:46

People I Train With

Alex - Addicted to Exercise
Carrie - Tri to be Funny
Erine - Thousand Miles
Frank - Running Blog
Gilbert - Gilbert's Gazelles
Jay - Leotian Blog
Mike - BROTH