dedication, perseverance, self-discipline

I thought that my stomach issues were done with after last thursday, but I guess that they still need a little more time to be resolved.  I forgot to take a watch today, so I don't know how long I was running for, but I ended up soiling mother earth twice on my run today, which is very out of the ordinary for me.  I stopped first a little past 2.25 and then a little past 5 miles.  The second stop was particularly bad as nothing solid made its way out of me.  I also had continued stomach discomfort throughout the run.  On the plus side I kept my 13 year streak of not throwing up intact even though I didn't feel too great.  This is a gross post, but I guess it is not any worse than dinner conversations my family had when I was in High School.  So, I am glad I got it over with and still got my mileage in.

It is hard to say that I actually got 7.5 hours of sleep last night although I fell asleep 7.5 hours before I got out of bed in the morning.  I woke up for decent stretches during the night because my wife was having trouble sleeping and she kept waking me up.  That is life I guess.  Anyhow, we went really slow this morning.  Probably because it was cold.  I finished in 1:35:04 to average 7:55 pace for the run.  I guess that I need days like this every once in a while.

I ran with Sasha at 5am this morning and I felt good.  At times lately I have just felt kind of run down and tired but that was not the case this morning.  We kept the pace slow again which might explain partially why I felt less tired then I have at times.  After we finished 10.1 like normal I ran a few times around the block to get the extra 1.05.  I finished with a total time of 1:24:53

I ran with Sasha this morning and we had a good run.  After doing a 3.5 mile warmup in just under 30 minutes we did a 3 mile tempo.  We started out with a 5:24 mile (1:23,1:22,1:20,1:19).  I led the first quarter, then Sasha took the next 2.  We continued this throughout with Sasha taking 2 quarters for every quarter I took.  We ran the second mile in 5:22 (1:18,1:17,1:24,1:23).  This included a 180 degree turn halfway through.  Also, at the turn Sasha asked if we could slow down a bit because he is running a race on Saturday so he didn't want to push it quite so much, thus the slowdown.  We ran the last mile in 5:27 (1:24,1:21,1:24,1:18).  I was getting slightly antsy, which is why we dip to 1:21 for the second quarter, and then I decided to pick it up the last quarter and run in front even though it was Sasha's quarter to lead which explains the 1:18.  So, over all time 16:13 (5:24,5:22,5:27).  I guess I am in a little better shape than I thought I was, which explains why I was able to drop down to 5:10 pace mid workout and not be feeling it by the end of the run, so that is positive.  I have also done few speed workouts in the last few months so this is encouraging.  After we finished we ran a few extra miles to bring our total to 10 for the workout.

I took it easy with Sasha this morning.  We ran a little later than normal today so it was actually light outside when we left.  On Wednesdays when we run together it is still dark outside when we finish running.  Well anyhow, my left heel has started bothering me some so I was paying close attention to it today.  There was some discomfort but that slowly went away as the run went on.  By the end of the run I could only feel it if I was taking a sharp turn to the left.  So, not too bad.  I think that over time it will stop bothering me if I just keep running on it so I am not going to change anything in my routine.  We finished in 1:25:45

Today has been a very strange day and although I have gotten the miles in for the day, I have not gotten them in a very conventional way.  So, last night I went with Kimia up to Salt Lake and to Kaysville for our mission reunions.  We were driving back from Salt Lake at about 10pm and just before we got past the point of the mountain the check engine light turns on.  When it came on I took a look at the temperature gauge and it said that the temperature in the engine was way hotter than it should have been.  So, we get off the highway and drive up the road to a gas station.  Evidently we were in Draper, but it looked like the middle of nowhere to me.  Our car had overheated and we didn't know what to do so we talked to the gas station attendant who knew more about cars than we did and we ended up talking on the phone to her mechanic friend.  We eventually called for a tow truck, but after we did a group of people stops to get gas and they offer to help us.  We ended up putting more coolant in the car and filling the coolant bottle with water and we decided to try and drive back to Provo and hope that we would make it, with the group from the gas station following us to make sure we got back ok.  Now, we didn't leave the gas station until about 12:30am which is why I consider last night part of today when I say that it has been strange.  Anyhow, about half way back the car started to overheat again, so we stopped on the shoulder and poured in about half of the bottle of water.  At this point we decided to try and drive it again, but just until we could get to an exit so that we could get off the highway.  This time one of the people helping us decided to come with us in our car since he knows more about cars and he wanted to be able to see where the temperature was at.  So we start driving again but the car didn't overheat again, so we decided to keep going until it got hot again.  It never overheated again so we were able to make it all the way home without stopping again.  So, we ended up not getting home until about 1:20am after which we crashed and didn't get up until 10am when the first session of conference started this morning.

So, this does all tie into running.  In part because of how late we got into town last night I was not able to run this morning, and after the first session of conference we were working on finding someone who could fix the car for us.  I never knew how difficult it would be to find someone open on a Saturday.  We eventually found someone open and they fixed the car for us, but not until we had already called about 15 other places all of which were closed.  I guess we just had some leaky coolant hoses leading into the thermostat.  So, because of this I was not able to run between the first and second sessions of conference.  So, I was finally able to get out the door to run after the second session, but due to the priesthood session I needed to get home earlier so that I could shower and get ready to leave.  I wouldn't have been opposed to watching the other sessions while all stinky since we watched them at home, but I didn't want to sit in the church all nasty wearing dress clothes.  So, I ended up cutting my run short and I just did 8 miles in 53:11.  I was at 20:28 through three miles and then I started to pick it up a bit.  After the priesthood session was over I ran again with Kimia on the bike.  We did another 8 miles in 58:34.

All in all I think that everything worked out rather well considering we could have been stranded in Draper, in which case we would have needed a ride to Provo and then back out there to pick up the car once it got fixed.  I am also super grateful that there were some kind strangers that helped us out so much.  We had never met these people, and they were almost at home for the night when they came to get gas and saw us.  These people then came all the down to Provo with us, after which they had to drive all the back the way they had come.  I doubt they got to bed any earlier than 2am.  They also refused to let us give them anything in return for the help they had given us, they just said that the next time we see someone in trouble that we should help that person.  I was rather impressed with the help they gave us.  Anyhow, this post is too long so I better finish it up now and get to bed.