High Speeds

Eight slow miles in about 64:00.

Did a two-mile tempo down the canyon with my Dad in 10:55.

From the start, my legs hurt. I did not feel like running, much less running fast. Originally I was planning to only run the first mile, but it turned into an "until the standard bearer fainteth" run. At 1 mile, I asked my dad when I should stop. He said 2000, but for some reason I didn't stop at 2000. I still don't know why.

Then, I made it to 1.5 miles and really wanted to quit, but thought of how sad it would be to drop out with 800 to go in the Olympics. That motivated me for another 400. Then, with 400 to go, I started feeling nauseous. That almost did it for me, then the thought came, "Jesus suffered what you're going through, and infinitely more. You can do this." After that, it still hurt, but it was bearable. Like unseen hands were bearing me up.  

I finished with 2:00 for the last 600. Total time for 8 was 1:00:24.

From Dad's blog :

Eight slow miles. Two with Julia in 17:46.

Five easy miles. Recovering.

4.5 easy

Went to the Utah Elementary State Chess Championship with my family. Julia scored 3.5 out of 6, Jospeh 3, Jenny and Jacob 4, and William 1 out of 3. I volunteered as a TD and played blitz in between rounds. It was funny to watch all the little kids hanging their queens and making illegal moves and getting out of stalemate (impossible without some serious rule violations).   

From Dad's blog :

Six slow miles. 

Seven slow miles, including 0.5 with William in 5:05. 

eight easy.

Eight easy.

Won my first 3 games in the chess tournament. See next entry. 4.5 easy.

Five easy. Went to the final 4 rounds of the Utah Junior High State Chess Championship. In my fourth round (first for the day), I faced Eric Tokitka (or whoever his last name is spelled), and won. He was 300 points below me, so the result was unsurprising. This was my last easy (relatively) game for the tournament. 

      Round five is when the fun began. All the top players were paired against each other. My opponent was Clancey Black, about 100 points below me at the time, though that was due to inaccurate published ratings. He had taken first in state (with me second) twice. I had played him twice before in a tournament - a draw and a loss. 

     Anyway, I opened with an unexpected opening, causing Clancey to spend too much time on the clock - a reoccurring pattern for the remainder of our game. He attacked too early against a solid defense and ended up trading queens to avoid loss of tempo. This prevented any future attacks against my king, which caused me some relief. The game was now headed in a direction I was more comfortable with.

    After thinking hard on several moves, Clancey finally moved too quickly and dropped a pawn. I managed to trade off pieces and win the pawn up rook endgame.

  In the sixth round, I played Sam Mason, 150 points above me. He smashed me in the opening and won the Exchange (Bishop for Rook) , but like Claney before him, spent too much time on moves. He also dropped a pawn and gave me connected passed pawns which could prove dangerous if he blundered. (Hope all the chess detail isn't too confusing :-)).

 But Sam was still winning. My only remaining tactic was hypnosis. In chess, hypnosis is when you make moves that are not the best, necessarily, but set up easy-to-miss traps for your opponent. So it was with me and Sam. I gave him a 'free' pawn and he took it, after 7 or so minutes thought. Then the trap was unavoidable and I won back the Exchange. The game ended in a draw. I might have had a win in the endgame, but I missed it. A draw was definitely more than I'd hoped for.

In the last round, I was tired, hung a piece, and lost after a botched, desperate, counter-attack. I ended up 4th overall, and 2nd in my grade for the 3rd year in a row (but not to Clancey), and with the distinction of being the only player at the tournament to play Sam and not lose.

Eight easy miles. 

Eight easy miles.

Eight easy miles.

Eight mile in 60:10 with 4x400 in 75, 74, 71, and 76 (uphill).

Eight fun miles in the snow.

Eight easy in the snow.

Eight easy.

Did a 2-mile tempo in 10:47. Mile splits of 5:33 and 5:14. Last half mile in 2:33.

Eight easy.

4x100 uphill (75, 76, 75 and 71) My Dad told me to gap him on the last one and I did.

Eight easy.

Four down the canyon in 22:57 (new PR). In other words, 22 minutes and 57 seconds of voluntary pain to get a PR.