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.

Mile Repeats

Today started off with an odd feeling, since Jay was hanging out down with the pack. For a minute I thought that I'd screwed something up by biking yesterday and that today was a recovery run for me (and a track workout for his pod). He soon let ...

Biking Recovery

I didn't really feel like getting up early to go running again today, considering that I was still feeling somewhat sore from Saturday's 22 miler, so I went out for a one hour recovery ride instead, figuring that I'd get a lot of the same benefits from it. I ...

Sorry for the delay

As of tonight, I've caught the blog up with where it's supposed to be. Everything from August 16th on is new. Please check 'em out. I'll try not to get behind again - at least, not for a while. As of this post, that means that ...

Recovery Run

Met up at 5:45 this morning for a recovery run. While the weather was nicer than Saturday, it wasn't as cool as Sunday had been and the air was hot and heavy. I was feeling my quads some as we headed down the first hill to the trail, ...

22 Miles in the Heat

This was just a little brutal. I'm really glad we started running at 5:30, because by the time we were done at 9AM it was already 88 degrees. Heck, it started out only 10 degrees cooler; but at least the humidity wasn't as bad as it could have ...

No Tempo for Me

My goal had been to make it back into Austin in time for the 5:30 afternoon class' tempo run in the heat, but I didn't make it in time. This means no more running, just taking it easy and trying to eat right and drink enough for Saturday's 22 ...

North End of the Trail

Steve had to start working away earlier today, so I was on my own for this one. I decided to head out from my hotel and pick up the trail at its Northern end (or close to it), then go South past where I had started running yesterday, turn ...

Running with Steve

I'm in Dallas this week for a multi-day company-wide meeting, which means I got to run with Steve again for the second time in two weeks. He was staying at a different hotel than I was, and my original plan had been to head down on foot to meet ...

South MoPac Loop

This was my second time out on my bike, and I took it pretty easy. I spent an hour or so running all the wiring for my new Cateye bike computer (cadence, etc) so that I was happy with it. That meant starting pretty late in the morning, ...

Mt Bonnell Again

Isn't it funny how a 14 mile run up one of the hilliest courses in Austin can become a recovery run when you're nearing the peak of a marathon training program? My Garmin missed the first mile (or so) of this run - I hadn't turned it on since running in ...


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