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.

Moderately Hilly Mile Repeats

This was more of a workout than I really expected it to be. If you take a look at my last time to do this workout, you will see that I varied from 7:40 to 7:20. The same thing happened today, but it wasn't quite as pleasant. ...

Another Slow Run

This was supposed to be a seven mile progressive run, but the trail was closed due to a large triathalon (fair enough) so it became a 7.5 mile comfortable run accompanied by my lovely wife. I was planning on doing two laps of the neighborhood, the first one ...

Mt Bonnell

I ran slower than I had intended to today, but it was all in a good cause. When I got to RunTex at 6:00, there were only a couple of other gazelles doing the long run - most were meeting at 7:00 due to an upcoming triathalon. I ...

Long Run Thought

I did manage to talk to Gilbert for a couple of minutes at RunTex after the workout today; I asked him how fast I should be doing my long runs. He grinned, and told me to run easy, just how I feel, but to do the last 30 minutes ...

800M Intervals

Looking back through my logs, it doesn't seem that I do 800M intervals very often. Its a common distance to use for the run portion of our circuit workout, but that's not at all the same. We started out doing our 1.6 mile warmup run - I ran ...

ForeRunner 201 for Sale (SOLD)

Update: Currently sold - or at least contract pending. Want to buy a used ForeRunner 201? I'm selling mine, and I'll take the first $45 that comes my way. There's a catch, though - the charger doesn't work. But that's okay. Here's my math. A new 201 costs ...

Easy Wilke

Well, not easy per se. But fun. Today was only 75 degrees (at six in the morning) but it was humid enough that the 1 mile warmup and drills felt like a workout all by themselves. Still, we got to the base of Wilke and Gilbert took ...

Fun Morning

I had planned to be out on the trails by 6am, but a late night out with some friends meant that I "slept in" and was up and running for 7am instead. I met up with the later Gazelles down at RunTex and hooked up with Brian for an ...

400M Repeats

I think that's the most 400M repeats I've ever done. Cool. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Today I knew I had an early morning meeting, so I drove down to Austin High and did about 2-3 laps of warmup on the track, meeting up with David ...

Its supposed to be slower than that…

But first, have I mentioned that I really don't like this weather? Now that that's out of the way, I had a very pleasant run today with two guys over from Dresden for a few weeks - just as well because my normal Wednesday running partners couldn't make it! ...


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

Sponsors

  • Amazon - Books, gear, and more
  • Dreamhost - Cheap reliable hosting
  • iTRAIN - Downloadable MP3 workouts
  • Shoes.com - Good prices on athletic shoes, gear
        NEW! Use code GIVE10OFF for a 10% discount!
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 ...

Search

Search the archives by entering keywords or topic strings.

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