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.

Circuit

We’re doing circuit training every Tuesday for the next month; Gilbert thinks that we could all use some additional strength training. This was a pretty normal day other than that: we did our warmup (about a 9:30 pace), drills, sprints, and launched into the first of the 800M intervals, which I did far too quickly:

3:44   800M
3:38   Exercises
4:14   800M
5:16   Exercises (had to wait for a bench)
4:04   800M
3:36   Exercises
4:08   800M

At this point we broke off from the circuit and did two fast-feet repetitions, then called it a day. The cooldown was a bit faster than the warmup, but not too bad. So - a good workout but nothing special.

We did have a slight change in the exercise routine. We did the high-knee bench steps, but instead of doing each leg seperately we did a sort of bounce between the two of them. After that we did pushups, crunches, prone arm/leg raises, and then a new exercise where we stood with our backs to the wall and slid up and down - that’s a bad explanation, I know, but its all I have for you at the moment. After those we wrapped up with some lunges, and then headed into the next set of 800s.

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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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Activity

One comment, leave your comment.
  1. I think I know about those up/down wall things. That was one of the exercises I had to do for my back therapy. Which reminds me I need to get started on those again.

    Rough workout, Richard. 800’s between the weights? That’s rough!


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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