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.

Bloodwork

Feel free to skip this post - it is vaguely fitness related, and this is a useful place for me to keep all of my statistics… Anyway, I had my annual physical today, and got my bloodwork back (they’d taken it at my last MCL visit, so that we could discuss any issues today). Everything looks good, especially the cholesterol - which, considering that I eat like crap, probably says more about the value of a vegetarian diet than anything else. Either that, or I picked good parents. My glucose level was officially 3% too high, but the doc said that this was probably due to this being an early morning blood test and not to worry about it.

      

Lipid Panel
Triglycerides 73 < 150 mg/dl
Total cholesterol 120 < 200 mg/dl
HDL cholesterol 50 > 40 mg/dl
LDL cholesterol 55 < 130 mg/dl
HDLC ratio 2.4 < 5.0
 
Metabolic Panel
Glucose 103 65-99 mg/dl
Urea nitrogen 8 7-25 mg/dl
Creatine 1.0 0.5-1.4 mg/dl
Bun/creatine ratio 8 6-25
Sodium 138 135-146 mmol/l
Potassium 4.0 3.5-5.3 mmol/l
Chloride 103 98-110 mmol/l
Carbon dioxide 28 21-33 mmol/l
Calcium 9.3 8.5-10.4 mg/dl
Total protein 7.1 6.0-8.3 g/dl
Albumin 4.3 3.7-5.1 g/dl
Globulin 2.8 2.2-4.2 g/dl
Albumin/globulin ratio 1.5 0.8-2.0
Total bilirubin 0.6 0.2-1.5 mg/dl
Alkaline phosphatase 69 20-125 u/l
AST 16 2-50 u/l
ALT 14 2-60 u/l
 
CBC
White blood cell count     4.9 3.8-10.8 k/mcl
Red blood cell count 4.59 4.20-5.80 m/mcl
Hemoglobin 13.6 13.2-17.1 g/dl
Hematocrit 40.5 38.0-50.0 %
MCV 88.2 80.0-100.0 fl
MCH 29.6 27.0-33.0 pg
MCHC 33.6 32.0-36.0 g/dl
RDW 14.4 11.0-15.0 %
Platelet count 215 140-400 k/mcl
Absolute neutrophils 3102     1500-7800 /mcl
Absolute lymphocytes 1333 850-3900 /mcl
Absolute monocytes 294 200-950 /mcl
Absolute eosinophils 152 15-500 /mcl
Absolute basophils 20 0-200 /mcl
TSH 0.87 0.40-5.50 miu/l

Phew - that was a lot of typing. Still, this way I have a reference for the next time I get some numbers and I can compare them. I won’t necessarily understand what I’m seeing, but at least I can try to spot some trends over the years.

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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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One comment, leave your comment.
  1. Mark
    Sep 1st 2004
    10:30 PM

    and it’s going to take me even longer to look a lot of that stuff up to see what the heck they are!


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Famous Marathon Times

RunnerTimePace
Al Gore4:58:2511:23
Oprah4:29:3010:17
P. Diddy4:14:549:43
Sarah Palin3:59:369:09
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
Haile Gebrselassie2:03:594:44

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