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.

Good workout

Well, this is going better than before. I made it into the gym today for a workout, although I ended up doing another upper body focus with Marcus instead of my scheduled lower body. I was pretty stiff from Friday and so we ended up doing some higher ...

Workout

I did a really nice workout with Marcus today, which reminded me just how long it had been since I'd done a good full body gym hit. We worked pretty much ever major muscle group, and even got in 20 minutes of fast cardio as a warm up. ...

Elliptical

Ninety minutes on level nine == 1,200 calories. According to the display on the machine, at least. That's approximately equal to the calorie burn from running ten 9:00 miles (for me), with much less stress on my joints. That makes today a 2,000+ calorie exercise day. ...

Working Out … and a Book

Between trying to do stuff that I didn't get done yesterday when I was out riding, the fact that it got dark on me, and my desire to finish reading Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (recommended by Leila), I didn't do my long run today. I did manage ...

Gym Workout

I had my first gym workout in a while for lunch today. Nothing fancy, just met up with some friends for Chipotle and lifting. We warmed up for 5-10 minutes on the elliptical, then headed for the weights. Bicep curls - 10 reps of 70, 8 reps of 75, ...

Gym Shoes

What kind of shoes do you wear to the gym? Probably just old running shoes, right? If not, then I'd like to know, because that's what I wear and they're not ideal, especially for the elliptical trainer. I've found that my toes become pretty "hot" and a ...

Spin

Its Friday evening - must be spin time. We did an endurance circuit today, and it was pretty good. I worked my muscles a lot more than my cardio, but I'm not really sure if that's because I'm improving my lungs or just that the workout leant itself ...

For every bad spin class…

For every bad spin class, there is a great spin class. Its Friday, its 5pm, and that means that its time for Jenn's downtown EOW class. And she's back! Everything I hated about the substitute on Tuesday was perfect today. A great mix of non-stop music, ...

Crappy spin class

Well, this was my first really bad spin class. Jenn was out sick, and whoever we had as a replacement - she never did give her name - was pretty bad. Hard to understand, not a very good leader when we did understand her, and no sense of ...

90 minute elliptical

I missed my Tuesday elliptical workout because we were having an election gathering at our house - even though none of the networks were broadcasting the result shows in HD. Ah, well. I did get one in this evening though, and it went fairly well. If I bring a ...


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