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.

Recovery Run

On the menu today was a nice easy seven miles.  Once we got to RunTex, Gilbert told us that we should go out for about 50 minutes and be back "by 6:45" for drills, sprints, and yelling.  Sounded reasonable at the time.  I headed off with a pack to do ...

2000M Repeats

Well, I was wondering how I was doing and I definitely have to say that I feel weaker now than I did this time last year. In fact, on August 10 I did four repeats in 8:53, 8:24, 8:34 and a kind of lame 9:12. Today? ...

Slow Speedwork

This morning's workout was way more effort for way less speed than I would have wanted.  I know that part of that is because its really humid (indeed, most people other than Jay were off their pace today), and part of it is due to the fact that I was working through ...

Tempo Race aka Chasing Amy

Damn, but today was hot.  And tiring.  Well, I don't know if it was tiring so much as I was tired doing it.  I seriously thought about staying home, but decided that I needed to do the workout like I had planned since I missed it on Wednesday; then Thon ...

Wilke Not so Bad

I know, isn't it amazing? Getting up 15 minutes earlier to be at RunTex for a 5:45 start, now, that sucked. But while Wilke itself was hard, it wasn't the soul-destroying workout it has been in times passed. We did the long warmup which is, oh, 2 1/2 miles or ...

“Recovery” run

The purpose for today's run was to recover before a difficult week next week; we're doing Wilke on Monday, a "tempo race" on Wednesday, and 16-18 miles on Saturday.  What does Gilbert consider a good recovery run?  Well, apparently its Mt. Bonnell, or at least the Scenic loop leading up ...

400M Circuit

I showed up at about two minutes to 600 this morning, ready to do some serious fartleks (3 on, 1 recovery), and found out that there'd been some kind of mixup and we were heading to do circuit instead. Ah, well. I chatted to Jay on the way ...

Frustrating Mile Repeats

I almost didn't get out of bed today. It was cold, wet, and nasty - and the night before we'd been kept up by our neurotic critters complaining that there was a thunderstom. The rain continued off and on throughout the night, and it was pretty wet come ...

Wilke

I ran Wilke today for the first time in - oh - months. And it felt pretty bad, too. The one bright moment was that the weather decided to cooperate, settling in at the mid-fifties for the morning's run. Rather than park at RunTex I drove in closer, to ...

Four Mile Tempo Run

What's that? A four mile tempo run 3 days after Pervasive? Well, if that's what the man wants... yes, the tempo run was on the calendar today, and it was indeed intended for everyone to do. Gilbert was late today, or rather we were all early - ...


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