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.

Circuit

We're doing circuit training every Tuesday for the next month; Gilbert thinks that we could all use some additional strength training. This was a pretty normal day other than that: we did our warmup (about a 9:30 pace), drills, sprints, and launched into the first of the 800M intervals, ...

Marathon Training Schedule

I've been looking over my schedule for the next four months, and I thought I'd share it with the peanut gallery. Basically, my weekday runs are pretty static: Monday 10 miles, pace or progressive Tuesday 6-7 miles, form/strength Gazelle workout Wednesday 4-5 miles, recovery run Thursday 6-7 miles, speed ...

Mt Bonnell

<singing talent="low">Oh what a wonderful feeling, everything's going my way.</singing> Today's run was very pleasant indeed. I was a little concerned that it wasn't going to happen at all though. We had plans to go down to Luling to visit the Watermelon Thump today, and we worked out last ...

600/200/400

It was a quiet crowd at RunTex this morning - a lot of the regulars were out for one reason or another. That's too bad really, because it was beautiful outside! The morning heat (with extra humidity on the side) that's been plaguing us recently has faded and ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

800M Circuit

This was another warm day here in Austin. We met up at RunTex at six as normal, and after a little chatting headed off to the Austin High School track for some circuit training. I ran over to the school with Tess, who's on her third week with ...

Fall Training Program

I got my fall training program yesterday, and I thought I'd give y'all a sneak peek at it. Its actually fairly simple. Monday: 10 miles This will usually be a progressive run (steadily accelerating) or a pace run (constant marathon pace throughout, which for me means about an 8:00 pace (aka ...


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