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.

Meriden Meanderings

This morning, I parked up at the Lake Austin RunTex along with the rest of the gang for one of the more interesting gazelle workouts. We chatted for a little and then headed up the hill to W 11th street on one of our shortest warmup runs. I ...

Seven Mile Progressive

Seven miles. Simple, right? Today's instructions were similar to the other runs around the lake: 20 minutes slow followed by the remainder of the MoPac/I-35 loop at a comfortably hard pace. Well, those were the instructions. My watch battery had died, so I just hooked up ...

Not my best performance

Today was a bit of a change - we met up at a new location for our long run, starting out at Porter Middle School around Lamar and 290. There were a ton of people there, I counted at least 28 which is pretty incredible since we were all ...

1000M Repeats

This has been a really great running week so far. This morning I drove to Austin High at 6 because I had somewhere I needed to be at 8AM, so I did my warmup on the track and waited for the other gazelles to join me. It took ...

2000M Repeats

Redemption comes in many different forms. For me, today, it was this series of 2,000M repeats over around the Zilker park soccer fields. Yes, that's two thousand meters, not two hundred. The warmup run got me from my pre-workout heart rate of 84 up to the mid ...

Run-O-Rama

Last week certainly didn't lack for excitement when it came to people running, having fun, and writing about it. No siree. With the possible exception of not having much to say about my weekend, I'm damn glad to have drawn this slot to talk to you about what's ...

Seven Miles Easy

This was a very relaxed run. Gilbert told me to do the seven mile loop easy because of my race, and for once I was able to do just that. The others began picking up the pace two miles out, and while a few of them took off ...

2005 Dublin Dr. Pepper 10K

With temperatures right around 80 degrees and no cloud cover, today was very warm for a six mile race. Still it was warm for everyone, even Bernard Manirakiza who set a course record with his 31:31 performance. Personally I prefer it cooler, but we don't always get to ...

Seven Mile Fartleks

Since I have an upcoming race on Saturday, Gilbert directed me (and others) to do some fartleks around the loop. I ended up running with Amy who is in her third Danskin tri this Sunday, and had a very fun time. We warmed up by running about a ...

Easy Run

I got to sleep in this morning - I didn't roll out of bed until after 6:00 - almost 6:15! Can you believe it? Running close to the house is pretty nice after so much work down on the trail; I just got up, tossed on some old ...


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