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.

Pace run

According to the schedule I was supposed to do nine miles at marathon pace this morning. I ended up doing six miles at 8:27. Considering that I'm visiting my dad up in Dallas, and I had to hunt to find a trail on which to run (they're close ...

The Long Run

The long run goes a big way towards defining a distance runner. It shapes our minds, our bodies, and all too frequently our weekends. Today's was no exception. And, if I'm going to get out of here on time, I'm going to have to make this a ...

Repeats

Well, I was feeling a little tired at lunch, and I ended up eating a nice relaxing lunch and running some 1000m repeats in the evening instead. Then again, I wasn't supposed to have done last night's elliptical workout until tonight, so it all works out in the end. I ...

Elliptical

Ninety minutes on level nine == 1,200 calories. According to the display on the machine, at least. That's approximately equal to the calorie burn from running ten 9:00 miles (for me), with much less stress on my joints. That makes today a 2,000+ calorie exercise day. ...

Around the Dam

I was down for another seven miles today - the schedule had me targetting a 9:00 pace, but my legs were still a touch tired from yesterday so I ended up at more like a 9:10 for most of the run. I did a slow warmup (hard to do ...

14 miler

Finally, an entry about running! My plan was to go in early and knock out fourteen miles before getting to work today, but I had some ideas on the drive in that I wanted to get down before they were lost forever - so I ended up taking a ...

Working Out … and a Book

Between trying to do stuff that I didn't get done yesterday when I was out riding, the fact that it got dark on me, and my desire to finish reading Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (recommended by Leila), I didn't do my long run today. I did manage ...

Broken Bikes

Nothing too bad happened, but it was a series of breakdowns that characterized my most recent trip out to the hill. I was the first with a minor issue: going down the first decent hill in the middle of Fat Chuck's Demise I realized that I had my back ...

Rocky Hill Ranch

Since this week's been pretty shot as far as staying on schedule anyway, and because its a whole lot of fun, tomorrow morning I'm off to Rocky Hill for 3-4 hours of mountain bike goodness. Slippery singletrack here I come! Er, if I don't run at all on Saturday, I'll ...

Gym Workout

I had my first gym workout in a while for lunch today. Nothing fancy, just met up with some friends for Chipotle and lifting. We warmed up for 5-10 minutes on the elliptical, then headed for the weights. Bicep curls - 10 reps of 70, 8 reps of 75, ...


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