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.

Weight Loss Challenge

Well, okay, since NYC last November I've realized that I've let myself go a bit.  Not just in mileage, but in weight.  I was recently discussing this with Thon, who had a similar lament.  We realized that we had something in common; we were both about the same height, both ...

2004 Retrospective

2004 was a pretty good year, all told. First, let's do the numbers courtesy of Cool Running: Running: 752.7 miles over a total of 4 days, 20m 16s - a 9:44 average pace Spin: 6h 15m 00s Elliptical: 5h 00m 00s Cycling: 131.1 miles Pretty nice. In comparison, for ...

Monthly total

Running: 116.8 miles at a 9:03 average pace Spin: 3 classes Elliptical: 3 hours This was my first - ever - 100+ mile running month. Pretty cool. I broke all sorts of personal records in the Bison half marathon, knocked a good amount of time away from my Turkey Trot record, ...

Weekly total

Thursday: 6.2 Sunday: 11.8 TOTAL: 18 Wow. I haven't had an eighteen mile week in quite a while - that's pretty low. Still, between Thanksgiving and letting my ankle heal, I think that's fair enough. Next week will be pretty quiet; I want to get some serious elliptical time in ...

Weekly total

As you can see if you check my Cool Running log, this was my highest mileage week ever - even with the short run on Sunday. 32.7 miles at just under a 9:00 average pace. Tuesday: 7 Wednesday: 7 + elliptical Thursday: 3.5 Saturday: 6 Sunday: 9 Let's try to keep that up. This ...

October 2004

Running: 92 Spin: 3 Workouts: 4 Well, I didn't quite hit the 100mpm mark again this month. One of these days I'll get back on the stick and make it happen. Actually I should be doing more like 140-150mpm by now. The new schedule will probably help things out, and ...

Weekly total

Monday: 4.5 Tuesday: 4 Wednesday: 2.5 Thursday: 7 Friday: spin Saturday: 5 Sunday: 4 Total running: 27 This was, I think, the first time since I started my schedule that I've actually run every day that I had scheduled to run. And, based on my performance on Sunday, I need to keep it up. Next ...

Weekly total

Wednesday: 1 Thursday: 4 Friday: spin Saturday: 7 Sunday: 5 Total running: 17 Okay, so that wasn't great. Three days of running when I'm aiming for six. I'm feeling much more in the swing of things now than I have for a while though, and I don't have any more travel on the books, ...

September 2004

Running: 65 Workouts: 5 That was a lot better than last month. I'm still not to the point that I need to be as far as making running a regular part of my day, but I'm getting better. I know that I need to get more consistent to help stave ...

Weekly total

Monday: 7 slow Wednesday: 5 pace Friday: spin Saturday: 5 pace Sunday: 8 slow Total running: 25 This week was much better than last week was. I still didn't really do too well when you look mid-week, although getting the five miler in on Wednesday helped a lot. My overall mileage is finally where ...


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