High Speeds

Was shooting for low 16 this race, but we came down with a stomach bug earlier this week and that ruined my plans. I still managed to run 16:52, a PR, and I'm hapy about that. My splits were pretty even -- 8:24 out and 8:28 coming back. I just did not have it today. The race was really competitive, even more than Draper days -- I was 17th with 16:52.

 I warmed up about 1.3, and cooled down 4, so 8.4 total. I know I haven't written much over the last month or so. Ever since I started classes at BYU, my schedule has been pretty hectic, escpecially because I'm studying Linear Algebra on top of all my regular classes and homework. This is actually the first time in my life when I have had homework that is graded. In fact, this is the first time in my life when I attended a class that gave out grades! Anyway, I think I'm settling into a regular schedule, getting more organized about stuff. I'll try to start writing more in the next couple weeks.

Easy pace today.

Ten miles total with three hard down the canyon. Time was 15:41.

Ran nine easy.

A.M. Nine easy.

P.M. Went to my Eagle board of review. I passed. Really, once you get to your board of review, the hard part is over. What I mean is, there is very strict 'quality control' at the stake level. The real test is getting your Eagle project approved and actually doing it. It has been a lot of work to get my Eagle, and I'm happy to have reached this point. Technically I'm not an Eagle untill the National advancement Board approves me, but for practical purposes I can consider my work done. One interesting thing I learned at my Board of Review was that the President of the United States is actually the honary president of the BSA. (chuckle . . .considering our current President ).  

  Another comment one of the Board members made was that a century ago, a deal was sealed by a handshake, Today, we have seventeen pages of paperwork. Back then, your word was your bond. Sadly,  that is not the case today.

Nine easy today. 

   In my Math 334 class, we were discussing a particularly difficult homework problem that had taken me something like 2 hours to solve with some help from my Dad and was stumping the rest of the class. Then Doctor Smith walked in and one student asked if we could go over the homework problem in class. I said something about the problem, and Doctor Smith, seeing that I had solved it, asked me to present my solution in front of class on the whiteboard. I did so, and the problem took about 10 minutes to write out. At first, I was reading off my homework paper, then caught what I thought was a fatal mistake in my solution. It turned out that the mistake was not fatal. I still got the correct answer on my paper. The mistake was just a misplacement of parentheses.

  In any case, when I saw the mistake I stopped reading off my paper and started solving the problem real-time, fearing that my approach to a solution was wrong and that I would be embarassed in front of class. My fears were not realized. My solution worked out and was approved by Doctor Smith. This is the first time I've written anything on the board in Math 334. At the start of the semester, it seemed like Doctor Smith was trying to scare people away. Now that the class has dwindled to 8 from 25, he seems more lax, more nice. At the start of the semester, I go tthe feeling that he was out to make people drop his class. Now, he lets people make up lost points on the midterm if they can come to his office and solve the problems they missed, lets a hard homework problem be actually solved in class and still gives credit for copycat solutions, and allows homework to be turned in whenever as long as it is before the end of the semeser.

It was windy today. Hence the time. I drafted behind Nate Hornock for the first 5 miles. I went 16:50, 18:18. When we turned around, it was like running into a wind tunnel. With about a mile to go, Nate cut to the other side of the road and started running 5:20 pace. Inexperienced as I am with racing tactics, I was caught off-guard and left in the dust. I learned a lesson, but tactics aside, I do not think I could have stayed with him even without the swerve to the side of the road. Nate gapped me by 31 seconds in the last mile. I did about 5:50 in the last mile, kicking as hard as I could. Ended up with 35:08, 7th place overall, and, ironically, set my official 5K PR of 16:50 on the way out :-). Of course, my PR from two weeks ago was weak, but a PR is still a PR.

  Studied for Linear Algebra (BYU Math 313) when I got home. I am challenging (testing out of) the class next week. I did some problems from previous BYU Math 313 midterms and a final, but most of my time was spent doing problems from an MIT final. The MIT final was longer, a little more in depth, and had problems that used the same concepts but required more actual problem solving skills. The MIT final also gave certian concepts different weight than the BYU finals and misterms did.

Did a canyon workout today. The goal was to run the first two miles of our usual three mile tempo course in 10:40, then run the last mile under 5:00. I'd tried this workout multiple times before and had never managed to hit the last mile under 5. Today was different. I opened in 5:12, then did 5:20. With a mile to go I stepped on the gas. To avoid psyching myself out. I didn't look at my split with three quarters to go. I started hurting the minute I stepped up the pace. With a half mile to go, I was 13:00 -- i'd run 2:28 from 2 to 2.5. I feared a major crash at that point, but knew that a sub-5:00 was in the cards, so I pressed onwards. I ran the last half in 2:25, 4:53 last mile, 15:25 total time. The last mile hurt like nobody's business, but I'm happy to finally have reached my goal in this workout.   

Thirteen total today. Did a canyon workout with My Dad and Chad. First we did 3 hard up our favorite tempo course. I got 17:40. After jogging for a bit, we turned around and ran 3 hard down the course. I felt like stopping after the first quarter mile. There was a headwind going down the canyon, but the headwind was by no means the only cause of my pain I had already run 7.5 miles with three hard. Currently, mIleage hurts me more than speed. This is related to the fact that my cardio is lagging behind my leg power and that I have a glycogen (however you spell that) storage problem. And all of those things are part of being 14.

  In any case, I ran the first mile in 5:14, then did the next half in 2:41. With 2000 to go, I delovped a sideache -- a symptom of low glycogen according to my Dad. The sideache forced me to stop for a few seconds which made me reach 2 miles in 10:40. Then I tied to push in the last mile, was having some mental issues, and did the first half in 2:59. The mental issues made me lose it over the next quarter. To top it off, the sideache came back, costing me another few seconds. With 400 to go I mentally regrouped and kicked. Managed to get 16:01 for the 3 downhill, 5:21 last mile.

Easy.
 

easy

Woke up earlier today to get my run done before going to my math class that I teach at a homeschooling/commonwealth academy. The accademy is small and offers classes on only Wednesday and Thursday. It is more of a collection of extra-curricular classes than a primary source of education. I teach an ACT Prep math class there. I find that a lot of people have negative additudes about and fears towards math. I am trying to correct those fears and attitudes in the class I am teaching.

Paced my Dad untill 2K to go or so then kicked. Ended up with 53:04. Did not race all out becasue of the Phoenix Half Marathon in a week. 

I went out fast and crashed. My first 10K was in about 34:00, a PR. Around 4 miles, my right leg started to burn with each step -- a sign of low fuel. Around 5 or 6, both legs started hurting. I was determined to hang on with the guy I was tailing untill at least half-way through. Shortly after I passed then start of the 10K, I lost contact. Both legs were hurting as bad as they did in the last mile or two of Utah Valley. I essentially hit the marathon wall, running my last 10K at 6:04 pace. My time was 1:15:27, not as bad as it could have been. I think that I would have run 30-40 seconds faster had I taken in some Powerade and been a little mentally tougher. I had somewhat of a mental breakdown in the last 10K, but my crash was mostly physical. In the Utah Valley half, I hadn't taken in any fuel because I hadn't needed to. I naively assumed the same would be true for all half marathons. My fuel was so low that I got confused at several turns in the course and was yelled at by the traffic-directing volunteers. Needless to say, I needed fuel. This race was a learning experience for me and my Dad.

Rode a bike for 7 miels because my legs were still to sore to run.

Went to the first three rounds of the Utah Junior HIgh State Chess Championship. In my first round I played Joanna Nhan, a Vietnamese girl, and won fairly easily. Next I played some chinese guy, I can't remember his name. He wasn't too hard to beat. This is expected. In chess tournaments, your opponents get progressively harder as you keep winning games. Since I am the number two seed, I get easy people for the first few rounds. That said, I had to keep my guard, as the third game showed. In the third round I played Terry Wang (you guessed it, Chinese. I did not play a single caucasian in this tournament. It is interesting how certain ethnicities, in particular Asians, are overrepresented at scholastic chess tournaments). I grabbed a pawn early on, but played half-asleep and missed the chance to win the Exchange. Then I made some positional blunders and Terry equalized. I could have gained the advantage again but played more careless moves and got into serious trouble. I had to sac a pawn, equalizing the material count to keep my king and rook from becoming totally inactive. Then Terry found a shocking pawn break and threatened to promote his passed b-pawn. It took several accurate moves before I equalized and ended up winning my pawn back. Then Terry traded from a probably drawn rook ending into a losing king and pawn endgame and I won. This game rattled me and hopefully woke me up. The reason Terry gave me so much trouble was because I underestimated him and played too timidly in a couple places. I expected an easy win and it almost cost me the game. I am glad to have escaped with the full point, but fear that I may repeat my mistakes tomorrow, when my opponents will not be so forgiving.

Played the last three rounds of the Utah Junior HIgh Chess Championship today.  In my first game of the day, fourth roound of the tournament, I played Patrick Bless, (a Latino this time. I mention the nationalities of my opponents because I didn't play any Caucasians thius tournament. There is a disproportianate number of Chinese and Indian kids at chess tournaments. They generally tend to win the chess tournaments.) I felt like I started playing better in this game. The proverbial lion woke up. Patrick has a low rating, but he gave me a pretty decent fight. I played a couple quick moves and may have given him some drawing chances, but he failed to realize them and I outplayed him in the endgame. 

 Sam Mason, one of my major competitors, lost this round to Stephen Yu, a 1300/1400 player who was definitely the underdog coming in. Sitting at the board next to his, I teased him before the game that if he resigned now, we would let him play bughouse (a popular alternate form of chess involving peices being passed back and forth between two simultaneous chess games) with us. With Sam effectively out of the running, the game has definitely changed. I was discussing possible outcomes of the tournament with Clancey Black, another of my competitors, and we discovered that there was a possible scenario where I would tie for first over with Clancey. He is the only other talented LDS chess player at the tournament, and in his words, "That would be cool, because we're the only Mormons that kick butt."

  I was expecting to play Stephun Yu or Jacinda Lee (another 1300 player) in the fifith round, but instead was paired against Vishwa Srinivan, another of my four serious competitors. Clancey was paired with Eric Hon, the highest rated player at the tournament. Eric's rating is 1916, mine is 1854, making me number two. This is going to make the scenario of me tying for first with Clancey implausible because if Clancey wins and I do, we'll play. If either of us loses our games, we won't win the tournament.

  This game is my first 'real' game. Vishwa, (he's Indian, not Chinese) is no pushover. He will give me a fight. We had ninety minutes per side, so the game could last up to three hours.  I took my time and he took his. The game was an unclear struggle for a while. We traded queens, and reached a critical point in the game. Vishwa spent a lot of time on a few moves. I thought that he might be able to gain an advantage or possibly draw, but I found a tactic that gave me a positional advantage (or so I thought). Vishwa made a mistake that turned my positional advantage into a two-pawn advantage. Then Vishwa walked into a trap I had calculated out while he was thinking about his move. He thought he was winning a piece, but he miscalculated and ended up losing a piece. Fortunately for me, he didn't fight to the bitter end and resigned a few moves later. He could have dragged the game out for another 45 minutes and tired me out. The relatively quick finish and long rest proved crucial to my sucess in the sixth and final round.

  Clancey and Eric fought like tigers. Their Armageddon game lasted nearly three hours. This was good for me because both of my remaining competitors wore each other out while I had enough time to be virtually fresh for the last game. Eric won -- on time. For a while, it looked like they were heading for a draw, but apparently Eric gained the upper hand at the very end. I will face Eric Hon in the last round and battle for the Championship.

The tournament directors gave Eric and Clancey a extra 15 minute break so my game with Eric Hon started later than the other games. I had Black, Eric was higher rated, and I haven't been practicing as much because I'm going to college. Coming into the tournament I was underconfident. I'm almosst surprised I didn't blow it before now. I was hoping to get White so I could surprise Eric with the English Opening, but no such luck. I will have to fight him tooth and nail in the Sicilian. That might but be a bad thing, but I was suffering from underconfidence. I thought he would be better at that type of game. It's hard to say if I was correct.

  Despite the 90-minutes per side time control, we played reasonlably quickly. Eric never more than five mintues on a move, unlike Vishwa who sometimes spent 10. I got a good position out of the opening and mnaged to divert the action in the game from his intented attack on my king to his vulnerable queenside. Then he locked things up by placing his knight on a powerful square. He started his attack and I started trying to stop his attack in its tracks and put his king under attack. Then he tried a tactic that would have seriously weakened my king's defense and possibly have decided the game -- if it had worked. Instead, Eric lost a piece -- which proved to be a decisive advantage for me. I also developed an attack on his king. I had to play patiently and carefully. Eric is a sly fox and he laid many traps -- which I carefully avoided. Having learned my lesson from my game with Patrick, I took my time and didn't move quick. There were several close calls. Several times I almost made a quick move that would have cost me the win, but something made me look more closely at the position and I saw the trap. There were certain instances when I felt prompted to make a certain move or take more time to think. I finished Eric off and won the tournament. I did not believe I'd do so well when I started the tournament. I think this is going to be a big boost to my confidence. It is the first time I have won with a perfect score in a tournament with several games and with serious competition.

  Did two miles in the morning and four at night after getting home from the tournament.

Did a 3.5 tempo today in 20:01. Started out at 5:30 pace, then faded in the last two miles.

Stepped on a drain plug today while in the shower. Got a couple puncture wounds in my heel. Was only able to run 4 today.

Foot still hurting.

My run was spread throughout the day. I volunteered at the Utah State Elementary Chess tournament. It was a lot of fun watching little kids making illegal moves right and left, playing blitz against other volunteers, and dealing with and hearing of some very interesting disagreements. In one game, both kids were left with only their kings -- a situation where it is absolutely impossible for one side to checkmate the other and win the game. Nevertheless, one kid proclaimed 'Checkmate!'. HIs opponent shrugged and said "OK, I lose". It was hilarious.

Did the same 3.5 tempo as last week in 19:23, a big improvement. After the first 2.75 at 5:30 pace I didn't have any strength left and ran 5:50 pace for the last 0.75.

Did a 6 mile tempo run at 5:50 pace. I had sideache probelms and had to stop twice to massage and do situps.

Did 3.5 hard from a majig spot in the canyon to my house. Got 19:13. Around 1.5 into the run, I had to take off my jacket and tie it around my waist because I was getting too hot. Also around this time I sped up to 5:20 pace. Somehow I managed to tie my jacket behind my back while running 5:20 pace. After the tempo we did mile time trials with Joseph and Jacob. Both set records -- Jacob 6:30 and Joseph 6:09.

Thirteen total in the rain. Did 6.25 down the canyon in 35:45. The initial target was 5:30 per mile, but got adjusted due to the rain and wind. With 2000 to go, I felt a need to use the restroom and consequently was afraid to push it in the last 1.25 -- without that I think I would have run 20 seconds faster or so.

Nine easy miles today.

First day of spring semester today! Woke up at 7:00 AM (yes that is 30 minutes too early for me :-) ) to get my run done. Easy 9 miles. My first class of the day was Philosophy 201, the history of greek and medieval philosophy. I like my professor, and think this is going to be a interesting class. Next was English 312, with a very nice professor. On the syllabus she talks about how she wants us all to do well and believes in us -- contrast that to Dr. Chahal, my vector calculus professor last semester, who stated on his syllabus that 'adequately prepared' students would need to spend 12 hours a week on homework to get a C+. So, in some ways this semester will be a break. Of course, it is the spring term, which means that we have to cover twice the material in half the time (OK, I am making up the bit about twice the material, but it sure feels like it.) MY next class is World Religions, a religion elective I'm taking primarily because it fits my schedule, but it still promises to be interesting. Anyway, I look forward to the rest of the semester.  I hope to find time to write more in this blog. 

Nine easy. In my philosophy class today, we determined that the only true or pure science is mathematics, for all other sciences rely on imperfect observations of the real world. Mathematics is pure logic. As a prerequisite to study at Plato's Academy, one had to study mathematics for ten years, because Plato felt that mathematics teaches you to think. In fact, Plato put an inscription above the door to his Academy that roughly means: Let no non-mathematician enter here. So one could argue that mathematics is merely applied philosophy. Something to chew on.

Did a 6.25 mile tempo down the canyon in 33:48. Set a 10K PR of 33:36 en route.

Ran in the Murray Fun Days 5K today. The course was short because apparently some of the parade people moved the turnaround :-). It was hot, but tolerable. I opened in 5:05, then did another 5:05 and finished in about a 5:30 mile. My time was 5:48 but I think it was equivalent to about 1610-16:20 on a normal course. The last mile was pure misery.

Pain. Heat. Vomit. . . . .

That about sums up my run. In the 75-degree cloudless weather I experienced severe cardio fatigue, had to stop three times and vomited a yellow-green substance that I think was a combination of saliva and mucus. Ended up with 1:18:01.

  Got my PR of 1:13:56 (nearly a minute improvement) in the Provo River half today. Ended up taking 2nd overall. This half was less miserable than any of my four previous halfs, with the possible exception of Utah Valley 2014. Unlike on Pioneer Day, I didn't experience any severe cardio problems and ran strong pretty much the entire way. The difference was most likely due to heat. However, I was more sore afterwards than I've been since Pheonix.

 Warmed up a bit before the start. In the first mile a dark horse runner took off and me and my Dad followed him for about a half mile. at which point I realized I was working too hard for 5:30 pace and that we were actually doing 5:00. We slowed down, but still ran the first mile in 5:08.

  I felt pretty good during the next couple miles, but with the horrors of Pioneer Day's Uneventful half fresh in my memory I was expecting a crash at anytime. The crash never came. Instead, I kept running strong untill the uphill mile. My dad dropped back a little before Bridal Veil falls. The uphill mile broke my rythym, and I had some difficulty regaining it.

  To make matters worse, I began to feel a pressing need which I thought I could endure to the finish, but slowed me down somewhat. However, a little past Nun's park I realized a VPB stop was inevitable. After my 30 second VPB, my pace increased significantly, and I was doing 5:30 for some time. I gradually slowed down untill a mile to go when severe soreness set into my calves. I then limped into the finish in 1:13:56 -- much faster than I'd been expecting given the horrors of the Uneventful half, and cooled down another mile home.

Took my Comparative Literature final today. There were as many questions as on the midterm (~10 dates, 3 short answer and 1 essay), but I had three hours instead of two like on the midterm, so I think I did better than I did on the midterm. I also didn't miss any dates this time around. I need to score ~95% on the final to get an A in the entire course and I scored 88% on the midterm so we'll see.

Six easy. Took my Theory of Analysis final today. I feel like I did well. There was an extra credit question which I was able to answer and I was not stumped by any questions (unlike last midterm where nobody, including the kid who scored above 99.5% on the first midterms, got problem 5 right.)

Eight easy. Took my Doctrine and Covenants 2 (REL C 325) final today. My professor provided the class with a very detailed study guide and most questions on the exam were straight from the guide. I ended up missing only one or two MC questions -- the written portion still awaits grading.

 Ran into Matt, a writer for an on-campus dating magazine (Two) who I'd met a couple times before. I first met him during the spring term when I was walking and talking with some friends after my World Religions class. He stopped us and asked some questions about dating, intending to use our responses in an article he was writing. As a 15-year old without permission to even group-date, I found the situation extremely amusing.

  I ran into Matt one more time after that, but didn't seen him for the entire Summer term untill I ran into him today.

  Ran the TOU half today. Ended up with second place in my age division (15-18) and 10 overall with a minute PR.

  Warmed up a little before the start. I actually got decent sleep the night before -- unlike Pheonix.  I started out with my Dad, Steve Anderson (both masters), a guy named Noah. and Jacob Stone, an 18 year-old. After four miles of ~5:30 pace both my Dad and Steve droppped back. I felt good and relaxed. for the first six miles of the race. As the course flattened out I experienced a drop in strength, and then another shortly after 7. At eight miles I was ready to drop back from the group I was with.

  Instead, I gritted my teeth and resolved to hang on untill at least 9 miles. Around 9 Noah dropped back and there was nobody over 20 still with me :). I somehow managed to stay with Jacob untill 10. We kept pushing the pace untill 10.25 when Jacob looked at his GPS and realized we were going 5:20. We slowed down after that. And then came the hill.

 I ended up dropping back from Jacob a little before mile 11, on the hill. I limped my way to mile 12 in ~6:10. at which point I crested the hill, saw the finish, and was able to speed up to 5:30 pace for the remaining 1.1. I ended up with 1:12:55, a PR of a minute (from Provo RIver two weeks ago).

Overall, I'm very pleased with this race. After I finished I was more hungry and tired than I'd been since Phoenix, so I think I really gave it everything this time.