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.

Whoops.

Well, I spent the weekend with family in Dallas. Sometimes, your real life interferes with your workout life - which is the way that it should be. I did no running, no exercise of any kind, and ate -- not too much, but still a lot of food. ...

Friday afternoon workout

Well, its Friday, its lunchtime, and you know what that means ... its upper body workout time! Anyway, today I worked out with Jason, which was fun. Did pretty much the same routine as last week, with a few variations. After starting out with five minutes on ...

800m Intervals

800m intervals are more than twice as hard as 400m intervals. I did these on the treadmill at a 6:40 pace which, before Tuesday, was my 400m speed. Probably for that very reason, I could only do five of them - on the last one, my breathing was ...

Racing for the Trail

I recently joined an organization down here in Austin called Racing for the Trail. They're a non-profit set up to help fund another non-profit that I'm involved with, the Town Lake Trail Foundation. Basically, we are trying to raise money to fund the upkeep and development of the ...

Good news at the Gym

Well, I finally made it to the gym at about 7:30 this evening. I'm supposed to have some easy runs during the week, so I set the treadmill at 9:00 and did two miles. Unfortunately, I'm not able to let it go that easily, so I did the ...

400m Intervals

Same basic drill as last time, 400m intervals on the treadmill, but with one significant difference. I started out with a half mile warmup at 9:00, then launched into my intervals - seven sets 400m at a 6:24 pace. That's right, 16 seconds faster than two weeks ago. ...

10K reflection

Earlier this year I did the Cap 10K as my first ever race at that distance. It wasn't what I would call a very good effort on my part, and I turned in a 58:11 time for a 9:23 pace. I wasn't too happy with the conditions ...

Pacing

The McMillan chart is nice, but more than I need for a quick reference - and its missing some speed information that makes treadmill setting easier. So here's my version: Goal race paces: Distance  Speed  Mile Pace  Km Pace  Time Mile9.46:243:586:24 5K8.47:084:2622:09 5 Mile8.27:204:3436:43 10K8.17:244:3646:02 10 Mile7.87:434:471:17:07 20K7.77:494:521:37:09 13.17.77:494:521:42:25 30K7.58:035:002:29:57 26.27.38:155:08  3:36:00 Interval paces: Distance  Speed  Mile Pace  Km Pace  Time 400m9.46:233:581:35 800m9.06:404:093:18 1000m8.67:004:204:20 1200m8.57:054:23  5:15 1 mile8.47:104:26  7:10 Training paces: Type  Speed  Mile Pace  Km Pace Long run6.39:305:55 Easy run6.79:005:35 Stamina run7.58:00  5:00

4 Miles, Marathon Pace

So I wasn't able to get this run in on Sunday. No problem, I can do it today. I just got back from running 4 miles with Bear, his longest run to date. It showed a little, too: I had to slow down just a touch on ...

Weekly total

Monday: 4 (1 race) Saturday: 6 Total run: 10 Workouts: 1 Alright, that sucked. I went from a 5-day running week to a 2-day week. Still, my knees are feeling much better after their pounding on Monday, and I promise that next week will be better. Really. I'm even going ...


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