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.

May 2004

Running: 91.5 miles Upper body workouts: 2 I need to get to the gym more :-) Other than that, while I didn't hit my 100 mile goal, I did do more than twice as many miles as in the month before (a really wimpy 44). I also joined Gilbert's ...

Weekly total

Tuesday: 6 Friday: 3.5 Saturday: 8 Sunday: 2.5 Total: 20 Twenty miles isn't great, but since that covers a vacation (where previously I would have run zero) and over half of it was done in the coastal Florida humidity - I'll take it.

Gentle Fartleks

Well, moderately gentle at least. Marcus and I got up early enough to get in a couple of miles of speedwork before leaving Florida. As soon as we were outside, we were wondering why the heck we were so eagar to run in humidityville. Ah, well. This was ...

Eight miles in Florida

You know something? The Garmin Forerunner is a pretty incredible gadget. Its especially useful when you're running in an unfamiliar place. Unfortunately, its pretty useless when you forget to press "Start" at the beginning of your run. Luckily, I did the same basic route that I ...

Easy run

You know something? Florida is humid. And warm. Even before 9am. I got to go on a nice run with Marcus, a friend of ours whose birthday gave us the reason to be here; and Scott, another friend who was nice enough to let us all stay at ...

Vacation

Well, I'm on vacation until Monday - currently in Fort Walton Beach, in the Florida panhandle. Time for some running in the next few days, I hope, and I did bring my Forerunner so that should make things a little easier. None yet, but I'll keep you posted.

800m Circuit

When I got to RunTex this morning, I was still tired - both from a relatively late night last night, and from Sunday's race. Pushing that extra few percent really does take it out of you. Did some pre-run stretching, focusssing on my ITB since it had been ...

Weekly total

Tuesday: 6.4 Thursday: 6.6 Sunday: 4 Total: 14 Well, that wasn't great mileage. Basically, I did my coached workouts and a race, and that was it. Ah, well. Can I claim that I was tapering for a 5K? Nah, probably not. I just got busy, and I need to ...

2004 ABIA 5K

It finally happened. In what could well be my last 5K race this Spring, I hit my goal of a sub-25 minute 5K. Way cool. Anyway, it was a bit of a drive to get out to the airport, but I guess that beats living next to the airport so I ...

Just some 400s

Today was pretty light since many of us are doing the ABIA 5K on Sunday. We did the standard run to Austin High. I started out slow, I know I did, but the first mile went by in 8:05. We did slow down a little bit on ...


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