A.M. 12.5 miles total. Rather unplanned, but I realized that I did not have enough miles for all of the children too late and figured I rather have a less than perfect taper than have Julia run alone. Jenny did a 400 meter time trial at the Orem High track. Her time was 77.3, an improvement of 6 seconds over her PR from last year. Her splits were 18.5, 19.3 (37.7), 20.3 (58.0), and 19.3. I was quite happy about that. Now with proper endurance we will soon be seeing 2:40 in the 800 and sub-6:00 in the mile, and the endurance should be on its way - we finally figured out how to run 4 miles daily. She ended up with 4 miles total. Julia did 3, Joseph 3, Jacob 2, William 0.5, Benjamin 8. Benjamin and I did a pickup for 0.5 at what I thought would be my marathon pace aiming for something like 5:45, but it ended up being 5:30 on a non-aided stretch. I was happy about that as well. In the evening I showed Benjamin the video of Steve Cram setting the world record of 3:29.67 in the 1500 meters while racing Said Aouita. The reason I wanted him to see it was Cram's 400 meter kick. He never reaches the blazing speed of Aouita and almost gets caught on the home stretch, but his height and leg length prove advantageous in leaning so he ends up winning by 0.04 s. Benjamin has a similar strength - the ability to power through a long kick. It is also interesting to compare the age progression - Cram was born in October of 1960. He ran 4:31.5 in 1973 , then 4:22.3 in 1974, 4:13.9 in 1975, 4:07.2 in 1976, then 3:47.7 in 1977. I do not have the exact date for the times, but it would reasonable to assume they were reached some time in late spring or early summer. Benjamin so far has 4:31.58 at 5700 feet of altitude in 88 F heat at the age of 14.4 which we should probably compare with Cram's 4.13.9 at the age of maybe 14.7. So about 18 seconds minus heat/altitude adjustment behind pace for 3:29 lifetime 1500, but hopefully he can close that this Thursday in Greensboro, NC. He really does not need 3:30 1500 for a good marathon, 3:40 will be sufficient. But a low 3:30 will sure be nice. So I told him to stay within 10 seconds of Cram throughout his life up until he is 25 - let's see if he can do it.
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