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.

Weekly total

Tuesday: 6.4 Thursday: 6.6 Sunday: 4 Total: 14 Well, that wasn't great mileage. Basically, I did my coached workouts and a race, and that was it. Ah, well. Can I claim that I was tapering for a 5K? Nah, probably not. I just got busy, and I need to ...

Weekly total

Tuesday: 6.1 Thursday: 8.4 Friday: 2 Saturday: 4.25 Sunday: 3 (+ 3.5 fast walking) Total: 23.75 Workouts: 1 upper body Hey, at least it was over 20 miles. Stopping when I know I should remains difficult, but I just need to listen to my body and respect it. Sometimes, at least. UPDATE 5/19: I ...

Weekly total

Tuesday: 5 Wednesday: 2.5 Thursday: 7.75 Saturday: 9.6 Total: 24.85 Workouts: 1 upper body No running on Sunday - Mother's day kinda got in the way. But that's alright. The total for the week is pretty respectable anyway, at least compared to the crap I managed during April. No running tomorrow either, since ...

April 2004

Mountain Biking: 16 miles Running: 44 miles Upper body workouts: 2 Lower body workouts: 2 You know - that's really pretty pathetic. I'm almost living up to my April fool's prediction. Still, seeing it down here makes me realize just what a lousy month for regular workouts this has been. ...

March 2004

Running: 32.5 miles Upper body workouts: 5 Lower body workouts: 3 I didn't run at all during March until the 14th, one month after the marathon, when I did the BagelFest 5K. I then proceeded to PR it at 27:11 - not a great time, but over 5 minutes off my ...

February 2004

Swimming: 1 mile Running: 33.45 miles Skiing: 2 days Upper body workouts: 6 Lower body workouts: 1 I made it - I ran the marathon! And I haven't run since. Although I have an excuse, since I did just turn 30. Still, I will run next month - not running is ...

Second Day

Last night my ITB started acting up again. I didn't think that the skiing motion would hurt it significantly, and I stretched plenty in the evening, but I did something that it didn't like. Between that and the blisters, I almost didn't go out again today. But, ...

First Day

Its a cold Friday morning as my wife, brother-in-law and I head out up the long, twisty mountain road to Eldora, Boulder's local ski resort. It takes about forty minutes to get up there, we park, and Stephanie and I head for the rental stand. We get me ...

Heart Rate

Its been said that you can tell a lot about your general fitness level by taking your resting heart-rate. Recently, I've seen some indications that you benefit by checking it first thing in the morning, before even getting out of bed - and that monitoring it is a good ...

Post-race therapy

That was 90 minutes of pain, and I loved every single one of them. Even though she tried to be as gentle as she could while remaining effective, I was tight enough post-marathon to need some pretty serious work. My quads are still sore, and I still have ...


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