Breaking the Wall

A.M. 5 with Daniel and Mary Ann in 40:06, 2 with Benjamin in 17:45, and 4 alone in 30:54. Did sprints on dry sections, about 0.5 total.

P.M. 1 with Julia in 11:43, 1.5 with Jenny in 13:12.

A.M. 5 with Daniel, Mary Ann, and little James (Ted's son), then on the second loop we picked up Angela Wagner about 0.3 into it, and James turned around at 5.5. So I finished the 10 with Mary Ann and Angela. Total time for 10 was 1:23:11. Did quick bursts of speed (30 meters or so) throughout the run on dry stretches.

Decided to try an experiment. Some background. From my training and performances I am suspecting that my limiting factor is the failure of the brain to recruit an adequate percentage of the muscle fibers. Some evidence for that - strong evidence: improvements in 400 and 200 workouts  coincide with improvements in the 10+ mile tempo runs, frequent failure to increase speed above pace at the end of a tempo run for as little as 50 meters,  esoteric workouts required to get muscle soreness in any degree, no soreness or fatigue after a perceived all-out race effort. Weaker evidence - poor performance in sprints - best 100 meters 13.9. A frequent argument I hear about my poor performance in sprints is that it is because of the lack of the slow twitch fibers. That is correct, and it does explain the failure to run 11.0 in 100 meters. But it does not explain the failure to break 13.0. Numerous examples of world class and even collegiate distance runners suggest that when the fibers recruit properly, a slow-twitch dominant male should be able to run 100 meters under 13.0.

 As a side note, I wish we had more published science dedicated to the matter above. We tell a guy - you are slow in a sprint because you are slow-twitch, that's OK, you can be good in the marathon, because that's where you need slow-twitch. So he starts running mega-mileage hoping to be good in a marathon. And he is OK, he runs 2:40, 2:30, maybe even 2:20. But he is still not that good. He cannot even break the womens world record. Why? Because we forgot to tell him that slow-twitch fibers are no good in any race unless you can recruit them. And in all honesty we do not have a clue how to improve recruitment by more than a small margin. But not many people care to find out because few people appreciate the significance of muscle fiber recruitment in a long race.

So in this search of better fiber recruitment the goal is to find something I can do daily to advance the cause. What the science does know is that exercises that recruit the maximum percentage of fibers can help improve the ability of the brain to recruit the fibers. I have tried some of that before. The challenge is what I've tried before cannot be done daily. I know that doing 4x100 all out two days in a row gives me neural fatigue. So here is a thought. Perhaps 15 seconds at maximum effort is too much for my weak brain. What about 3-5 seconds instead? Random sprints of 20-30 meters focusing on maximum acceleration during daily runs. Good time to do it because now it is about the only kind of speed you can do on the trail. We'll see what happens.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 17:49, Jenny ran 1.5 with us in 13:22. Julia was sick, did not run.

A.M. Ran with Jeff, James, Mary Ann, Daniel, and Angela. Ran to the Boat Harbor 5 K course. Paced Angela and Mary Ann. The road was very slippery, but there was enough traction to go at a reasonable pace - maybe 20 seconds per mile slower than normal. Angela was doing a 15 minute tempo. Mary Ann was running the 5 K. Mary Ann fell back after about 0.3, Jeff and I stayed with Angela. Her first mile was 5:58. On the second mile the head wind picked up. Jeff and I did what we could to block it, but we are only that big. Second mile was 6:06. 15:00 into the tempo we stopped, briefly talked with Angela, and then ran back to meet Mary Ann and paced her to the end of the 5 K. Her time was 20:20.

I told Jeff if we lived in Ethiopia we could get paid for pacing fast women in their workouts. Of course, the supply and demand would make it difficult. There are only that many fast women that are fast enough to be able to pay, and there are a lot of capable and willing men.

Ran back to the house with the girls, then added another 11.5 with Jeff. The trail was very slippery at first, then got a bit better as the sun came out. Total time for 20 miles was 2:43:24. That was a very long run time-wise, but I started feeling energized towards the end.

P.M. Mary Ann came to our house, and ran with the kids while I worked on her computer. Julia ran a mile in 12:00, Benjamin did 2 in 17:54.

Day off. Went to church. Spent a good portion of the day reading President Kimball's biography.

A.M. 7F at the start. I think the global warming is like Santa - it happens for you if you believe it.

Ran with Daniel, Jeff, and Mary Ann. Daniel turned around at 3 miles. The rest of us ran full 10.1. My time was 1:19:46, Jeff and Mary Ann were a bit slower due to my VPB. Additionally we did short burts of speed on dry sections.

Afterwards took VanGoGo to Computune and ran back. Turns out my little detour into a snow drift a couple of weeks ago damaged VanGoGo's power steering pump.

Felt very good on the way from Computune. Did some pickups when it was dry. There was even a dry section that was long enough to run a 200, which I did in 39 with a tempo effort. Then I found an even longer section - 300 which I ran in 58 putting in a tempo effort. This was about 0.5-1% downhill, though. However, the temperature was 14F. I was not expecting sub-5:20 pace to feel so easy, natural, and enjoyable. This gives me the confidence that as crazy as my idea of daily micro-bursts of speed may sound, there may be something to it.

P.M. We got some serious snow. 1 with Benjamin and Julia in 13:30. 1.5 with Jenny in 16:37. About 0.4 into the run Jenny said - I bet you and I will be the only ones on the trail. About a minute later we saw Tyler and he joined us for about a mile.

I told Tyler - if dedication played a bigger role in being selected for the BYU team than your 3000 meter speed, you'd be on the team for sure. Unfortunately 3000 meters is short enough for natural Quality X to have quite a bit of the upper hand on dedication.

A.M. 10.1 with Jeff in 1:35:30, 9:27 average. I think that is a PR for me for how slow I've run for that long. And it was not that we were lazy - we actually put in a solid 7:00-7:20 effort most of the way, but the snow was deep, rough, and slippery. However, I remarked to Jeff that the pioneers would have loved to travel in those conditions (balmy 28 F), and especially at our speed. 6+ mph through the snow-covered plains of Nebraska and Wyoming would have been a dream for them.

A.M-2: Ran with Benjamin and Jenny to Computune to pick up VanGoGo. 2.25 miles in 23:21.

P.M. 1 mile with Julia in 13:05. The time speaks for itself - we did quite a bit of treading through the snow and slipping on ice.

A.M. Early morning run with Daniel and Mary Ann (they ran first 6). Both of them made it for the 5:15 AM start. I thought the roads would be better after a warmer night with some snow melting. However, that seemed to make things worse increasing the slippage. 8 miles at a blistering 9:43 pace in 1:17:47. Found Tyler on the trail with a mile to go, he ran with me.

Joke of the day, a follow-up to Mary Ann telling us how she met a guy with long hair at Walmart.

Teenage son: Dad, can I get a car?
Dad: Well, you need to cut your hair first.
Son: But Jesus and his apostles had long hair!
Dad: And on foot they went!

P.M. Honked at two runners - Thatcher and his training partner, possibly Neal. Maybe I should count this towards mileage. 1 with Julia in 11:26, 2 with Benjamin in 18:09, Jenny ran 1.5 with us in 13:45. Road conditions have improved, but still a lot of slippage.

A.M. Ran with Daniel, Jeff, and Mary Ann. Daniel went 3 with us then turned around. The rest of us ran 10.1 in 1:19:39. The trail was a lot better today as evidenced by the pace. Did some mini-sprints in the middle when the traction allowed.

A.M-2: Literally ran an errand - 0.6 miles.

P.M. 1 with Julia in 11:32. 2 with Benjamin in 17:30, Jenny ran 1.5 in 13:24.

A.M. 10.1 with Jeff and Mary Ann in 1:22:58. Daniel ran the first 3 with us. 2 more with Benjamin in 17:48. The trail was more slippery than yesterday, but not as bad as on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Our neighbor managed to get stuck on our street in spite of having 4x4. We were able to dig/push her out though. 

P.M-1. 2 miles cross-country skiing.

P.M-2. The roads and the trail cleared up some. 1 with Julia in 10:57. 1.5 with Jenny in 13:21.

A.M. Ran 7.2 miles with Jeff and some of it with Daniel setting up the course for Mary Ann's race. We reached an agreement so now the Fast Running Blog is the title sponsor of her races. Jeff, Daniel, and Mary Ann also got a strength workout hammering at the ice under the 800 N bridge. Jeff and I did an acceleration to determine the position of the 2 mile marker in the 5 K. We had 100 meter mark from the mile marker, but 2 mile marker is supposed to be  172 meters. So we figured if we got a split at 100 meters and then prorated the time we would place it within 3 meters, which is a reasonable accuracy considering that over 2 miles you could take a variety of tangents. So we ran pretty hard hitting 100 in 17 seconds and then continued at the same effort to 30 seconds.

Also met Nick during the run and invited him to the race.

A.M-2 Ran the race. Warmed up with Benjamin and Jenny - 1.4 miles. Jeff ran the 5 K, Nick ran the 10 K. I talked him into it saying - just run a nice marathon pace tempo at around 5:50 pace. Jeff wanted to run hard. Nick saw Jeff run hard and also decided to run hard. I saw Nick and Jeff run hard and decided to run with them for a mile thinking they would hit maybe 5:10-5:15, no faster. Good luck. First quarter in 73, minor snow/ice cover. Second quarter - fairly serious snow/ice cover, but 77 nevertheless. Third quarter - I was glad we cleared off under the bridge, at least we did not have to walk. But we did have to slow down still. Nevertheless, we managed 80. Third quarter - still some snow and ice, but mostly dry. 76 seconds. This gave us 5:06 for the mile. I did not know I could run a 5:06 mile on that type of surface with all the clothes, so I was pleasantly surprised. But it became necessary to back off so I did.

Next quarter was 87 seconds, moderate snow/ice cover, and I was pleased with that because I felt it was a nice recovery pace. However, the ice cover became fairly solid in the next mile, and I was afraid to run fast. Plus, the nervous stress from running a near all out first mile reduced my ability to focus. So I slowed down to 97 quarters for the next three. 2.5 K in 8:35, 2 miles in 11:23.

After that the snow/ice cover became lighter and I was able to speed up to sub-6:00 pace. 3 miles in 17:16. I was pleased with that. 5 K turnaround in 17:54 (2.5 in 9:19). Acceptable for the conditions.

On the way back I improved my ice cover handing and was able to speed up a bit. Next 2.5 K in 9:14. However, then I slowed down a lot in the next 500 meters on ice under the bridges. Last 1.25 was 7:13 with the splits by quarter of 87, 86, 90 (under the bridge), 88 (slippage), and 82.

The first/last mile had about 1% grade favorite the outgoing direction. However, with the dip under the bridge I think the downhill direction is about equivalent to flat and no dip.

Total time of 36:30 for the 10 K. Nick ran 33:18 with the splits of 16:28 and 16:50. Jeff ran the 5 K in 16:36. Daniel ran 19:24 in the 5 K.

Benjamin won the mens mile in 7:05. Jenny was the first woman in 8:05.

Jeff, Benjamin, Jenny and I ran back to the house for a cool down. Then I ran a mile with Julia in 10:55.

Day of rest.

A.M. 10.1 with Jeff and Mary Ann in 1:17:33. Much better traction. Did short explosive sprints.

A.M-2 2 with Benjamin and Jenny in 18:28.

P.M. 1 with Julia in 10:34.

A.M. 10.1 with Mary Ann and Jeff in 1:16:29. Did explosive sprints.  Ran 0.5 in 2:54 to measure Mary Ann's HR. It was 176. 5:48 pace felt very good, almost conversationally easy.

P.M. 1 with Julia in 10:02. Benjamin ate something bad and threw up. Nevertheless he managed to run 2 miles in 17:53. Jenny ran 1.5 with us in 13:26. 

A.M. 10.1 with Jeff and Mary Ann in 1:15:53. Had a post-VPB tempo- 5/16 of a mile in 1:37, that is 5:10 pace. Felt very strong, it felt tempo, not 5 K pace. Experiences like this make me wonder if I am just one loose wire away from being able to race a half at 5:10 pace on a flat course at 4500 feet. But where is that loose wire and how do you connect it?

Did explosive sprints.

A.M-2. Went to Iain's lab to do force plate tests. Benjamin and I ran from the car and back, total of about 0.65. Jeff and Mary Ann did the tests as well.

P.M. 1.5 with Benjamin and Jenny in 13:00. 1 with Julia in 9:41.

A.M. Big group today. Chauncy, Mary Ann, Jeff, and Daniel. First 6 with everybody, then Chauncy and Daniel were done, and the rest of us ran 4 more. 10 miles in 1:19:58. Did explosive sprints.

Did some standing broad jumps and vertical jumps yesterday, and in the process observed something and had an idea. I noticed that how far or how high I was able to jump did not quite correlate with perceived exertion. The best jumps happened not when I tried the hardest, but when somehow I was able to properly channel my force.  That led me to an idea for Quality X. The hypothesis is that a good portion of Quality X comes in how well the firing of individual motor units is synchronized. So with that assumption we want to train this ability in hopes that it will improve the performance of a runner in all distances at the same time.

So here is a rough idea. We start with a standing broad jump. Any jump that provides immediate and precise feedback on the amount of power generated will work. But broad jump is the easiest in terms of practicality - you just need a solid surface to land on, and a measuring tape. Keep jumping for maximum distance. Pay attention to how you felt when you jumped further. Try to duplicate the feeling and measure the success by the length of the jump it produces.

Once you know the feeling, in the ideal world, find timing gates, and do 10 meter sprints from a running start. Try to duplicate the feeling that produced the best jumps. Perfect that feeling in the context of running. Again, measure the success by how fast you are able to run.

Next step. 200-400 meter repetitions. Again we try to experience the same feeling of smooth and focused power, but now over a longer distance. We measure the success by the interval times. Solid aerobic base will help prevent aerobic fatigue from being a factor in the interval performance thus allowing the interval times to become an accurate measure of how we are doing on Quality X.

Next step - take it to 800 meter - 1 mile repeats and try to experience the feeling. Solid aerobic base becomes even more important.

Finally, we take it to the tempo run. Now the aerobic base is even more important, so let's hope it's there. Once we can do it in a tempo run, we are ready to race better.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin and Jenny in 18:00, 1 with Julia in 9:41.

A.M. 4 with Daniel, Jeff, and Mary Ann. Dropped Mary Ann off, another mile with Daniel, he then turned around. Another 5 with Jeff. We did explosive sprints and a 1 K pickup in 3:15 with 200 splits off 40,41,39,38,38. 5:20 pace felt sustainable, 5:04 felt manageable but not sustainable. Total time was 1:17:35.

A little later 2 with Benjamin in 17:23 - Jenny ran 1.5 with us in 13:07. 1 with Julia in 9:37.

P.M. Drive to St. George.

A.M. St. George Half Marathon. 1:14:26 officially, 1:14:29 on my watch. 5th place.

The course was great. It was measured properly for the first time in the history of the race since I can remember. The race director sent an email out saying it was certified. It was marked like a certified course as well - every mile and every 5 K, and every one of my splits made sense. From that I learned exactly how short the course was last year, and now everything falls into place. I thought it was rather odd that people ran so fast on the last year's course with as much as it rolls. I figure it was about 2:30 shorter last year, not 55 seconds we assumed from GPS readings. GPS consensus is not a substitute for course certification.

The race was a good opportunity to do a hard long tempo run in warmer weather on dry roads (although Hayden managed to take a spill on the icy bridge).

Splits by the mile according to the race mile markers except the first, which I got off Dave's GPS because we were on the wrong side of the road at mile 1:

5:40, 5:35, 5:20, 5:20, 5:44, 5:34,5:41,5:37,5:55,5:41,5:55,5:57, 6:30 for the last 1.11, 5:51 pace.

By 5 K: 17:10, 17:14, 17:51,18:16, last 1.0975 K in 3:58, on pace for 18:04 5 K.

By 10 K: 34:24, 36:07

Warmed up with Jeff.

Good group at the start. Pretty soon the group dwindled to Jeff, Dave, Hayden, Paul, Kyle Moffet, and a guy I did not recongize. Jeff controlled the pace start to finish, the rest of us hoped for mercy. We got lots in the first mile, less in the second, even less with each subsequent mile, and none after 8.

Interestingly enough, the contact with Jeff was being lost in the reverse order of placing with the exception of Hayden who lost it for reasons not related to fitness. And he fixed the order quickly, in less than a mile. Which was another confirmation of my hypothesis - for distances up to the half marathon if runner A and runner B have equal aerobic conditioning and both are racing anywhere close to 100%, both are running without a pack, and if runner A gaps runner B as early as 30% of the race distance, runner A will beat runner B. This might be true for the marathon as well if both runners are fit to run 2:09 or faster.

Or in other words, at a high level of aerobic fitness it becomes physically next to impossible to run the first 30% of your race too fast.

I lost contact with the pack around 4.5 on an uphill. But I was happy about my 5 K split, and a mid-race 2 miler in 10:40. I was also happy about 5 miles in 27:39, and 10 K in 34:24 on rolling hills. I did pay for it later with neural fatigue. Not very severe at first, but it kept getting worse, and the Bloomington loop set the seal on it to the point that I ran a 5:57 mile honestly trying.

I saw that Dave Holt was struggling and tried to reel him it. The problem was I was struggling just as much. His stride looked like he and I had the exact same problem - loss of zip in the legs. Which I explain as the brain being weaker than the lungs and heart. Not to be confused with the lack of willpower.

I made it to the finish saved by the chute from Kyle's powerful kick. Final times (official): Jeff 1:10:59, Paul 1:11:31, Hayden 1:12:41, Kyle 1:14:34 (I think).

Found Jeff, and we went to pace Mary Ann. She surprised me. I was expecting 1:24 at the very best. She ended up with 1:20:41 - a 3 minute PR with the last PR being from Hobble Creek. This is more like an 8 minute PR for her. Living up to her last name she showered her competition with a load of hammers. I think she is beginning to realize that 2:34 marathon for her is not as crazy as it sounds. Another confirmation of my hypothesis - a runner with initial world-class Quality X, even aerobically underdeveloped, is much more easily shaped into a world-class marathoner than a runner without initial world-class Quality X.

Then took Benjamin and Jenny and ran a mile out with them in the opposite direction of the racing skipping the final loop of the course. Found a runner named Jill from Spanish Fork, and pace her to the finish including the loop. Benjamin and Jenny were having so much fun with pacing that they agreed to run the loop even though it was beyond their call-of-duty mileage. Jill finished in 1:53:04.

P.M. 1 mile with Julia in 10:08.

Day of rest. Did not miss the 7 AM Stake Priesthood Meeting like I did the last few times, and was blessed for it - good talks.

A.M. 10.1 miles. Started with Chauncy, Daniel, Mary Ann and Jeff. Daniel and Chauncy ran 3 then turned around. Mary Ann and Jeff ran the whole 10.1. Did explosive sprints, felt a new sense of smoothness. However, did not feel the same smoothness during the post-VPB pickup. Possibly because of the cold air - it was hard to breathe. Felt it again when sprinting.

Total time - 1:16:06.

Hypothesis - for a distance runner a standing broad jump could be a fairly accurate measure of Quality X. Reasoning behind the madness - he does not have much fast twitch fiber volume, so the contribution of slow-twitch fibers will be significant. Thus broad jump performance will highly correlate to the ability to recruit slow twitch fibers. Which, given enough fuel and oxygen support, directly determines the performances in longer distances including the marathon.

The nice thing about the broad jump vs all out sprint is that it is non-invasive. You can do 5-10 jumps every day with no harm. So anyway, I decided to start testing myself on a broad jump regularly. 80 inches today.

P.M. 1 with Julia in 9:40, 2 with Benjamin in 17:20, Jenny ran 1.5 with us in 13:28.

A.M. 10.1 miles in 1:17:07. Daniel went 3 and turned around. Jeff and Mary Ann ran full distance. Did explosive sprints.

We also did a stair sprint test before the run. The goal is to run up the stairs from our basement as fast as possible but stepping on every step. This is supposed to measure how well the brain coordinates the contract/relax muscle cycles or whatever that is really called in physiology. Results: Jeff - 2.9, Mary Ann - 3.1, Daniel and I got both 3.6.

P.M. 1 with Julia in 9:28, 2 with Benjamin in 16:54, Jenny ran 1.5 with us in 13:00.

A.M. 10.1 with Jeff and Mary Ann in 1:17:05. Daniel ran the first 3 with us, then turned around. Did explosive sprints, felt smooth.

P.M. 1 with Julia in 9:23, 2 with Benjamin in 16:42, Jenny ran 1.5 with us in 13:03. Standing broad jump - 83 inches. Improvement from Monday.

I have a "crazy" idea. I love shocking ideas that challenge stereotypes, and make the crowd want to mock them. The reason I do is often when the crowds gets too worked up in the mockery they are proved wrong and you experience the exhilaration of a bull fighter that just stepped out of the way of a speeding bull to see the irate beast slam into a fence with full force.

So here is the "crazy" idea. If you run 90 miles a week, and marathon is your best distance, standing broad jump can very accurately predict your performance on every distance up to half-marathon, and barring fuel disasters can predict your marathon as well. In case of a fuel disaster add 10 minutes to the marathon time. But up to the half I expect the margin of error to be no more than 3%. Again, in case somebody missed it - this applies to athletes whose best event is the marathon and who run 90 miles a week or more. We are not predicting a 1:55 marathon for a thrower or power-lifter that jumps 10 feet, nor are we predicting a 2:05 marathon for a 20 miles a week high school runner that jumps 9 feet. But we might predict a sub-4:00 mile for the high schooler, though.

If the above is true, there are some interesting implications. Once you get to 90 miles a week, you should continue to run the miles, but otherwise focus on whatever it takes to improve your jump. You might have to do weights, hill sprints, intervals, or just get whipped with a twig, but the way to tell if it is effective is if it improves your jump under those conditions.

A.M. Ran with Daniel, Mary Ann, and Jeff. Daniel turned around at 3 miles as usual. Our time was 1:16:45. Did explosive sprints. Did not feel smooth today.

P.M. 1 with Julia in 9:15. Then ran with Benjamin and Jenny. We had an accident. Benjamin fell down and hurt his knee. We stood for a while trying to ice/massage it, but he still could not run on it. So Jenny and I finished 1.5 in 12:58 going back and forth on the trail, and then ran back to meet Benjamin. I ran about 200 meters carrying him on my shoulders, but he did not like all the shaking. Then we walked about a quarter, and Benjamin decided to try running. He limped a quarter in 2:12. Hopefully nothing serious with his knee.

A.M. 10 miles with Jeff and Mary Ann in 1:19:59. Chauncy and Daniel joined us for the first 6. We had a singing contest. Daniel was the judge. At 6:00 pace on the first verse of Come Come Ye Saints the scores were: Jeff 8, Chauncy 6.5, myself 4.5, Mary Ann 4.5. At 8:00 pace on the first verse of There Is Sunshine In My Soul Today: Jeff 9, Chauncy 9, myself 5, Mary Ann scored 4 because she could not stop  laughing. I suppose she got too much sunshine in the soul. Which was helpful on a day like this - it rained the entire way and I earned the title of mokraya kuritsa (wet chicken) when I got home.

P.M. 1 with Julia in 9:23, 2 with Benjamin in 17:16, Jenny ran 1.5 with us in 13:00.

A.M. Ran with  Jeff, Daniel, Mary Ann, and Matt Anderson. Daniel turned around after 3, Mary Ann and Matt ran the first 10.1. Matt had run to the house from BYU and then ran back. With Matt around I took advantage of the opportunity to share my collection of math jokes. We did the first 10.1 in 1:15:22. The trail was mostly in tempo runnable condition so Jeff and I did a tempo for the remainder of the run. We just repeated our first half, except faster. The target was 1:00:00 for 10.1. Jeff acted like he had more ambitious plans, and I went along with them to the best of my ability. Our miles splits were:

 5:48, 5:52, 5:42, 5:55, 6:23 for the next 1.05 (6:05 pace, hit some serious snow), turnaround split of 29:40, then coming back 1.05 in 6:09 (5:51 pace), 5:43, 5:45, 5:52, 6:05, second half in 29:04, a slight negative split in spite of loosing steam in the last mile.

Total time for 10.1 was 59:14, 5:51.88 average. Jeff took off with 0.75 to go and finished 32 seconds faster. My legs started caving in at that point. I could still go 6:00 pace when it was flat and I did not have to worry about the footing, but uphill, bridges, snow or puddles that would not have phased me in the early section of the tempo turned out to be too much. Jeff on the other hand handled it a lot better.

Total time for 20.2 was 1:14:36.

I was curious to get some more insight on this feeling of legs caving it and I fell for the temptation to do some power tests after the run. Fortunately I did not get injured. Unfortunately I waited too long to do them, or maybe not so unfortunately. I did them about 30-40 minutes after finishing the run. With Benjamin's help I got into a chess game right after the run and did not eat anything. I normally do not do that. But I figured it was perhaps good that I did not for the scientific research purposes. Any recovery that would have happened after the run would not have been from increases in available glycogen or blood sugar. So the results:

Upstairs sprint - 3.4. That is normal, actually near record. The record is 3.3. Standing broad jump was 75 inches. The record on that surface is 83 inches. I felt most of the explosive power was back, although some was missing. I definitely was not there in the last 100 meters of the tempo. Not sure what to think of it.

P.M. 1 with Julia in 9:30, 2 with Benjamin in 16:43, Jenny ran 1.5 with us in 12:35.

Day of rest. Got some solid sleep. Went to church. Joseph had a lesson on choice and consequences. On the way to church he stepped into every puddle of water he could find. Then his feet were wet. He did not like that. Sarah went home and got him a pair of dry socks. I explained to him why his socks got wet emphasizing that you cannot choose to play in the puddles and to have dry socks at the same time. On the way back his socks stayed dry.

In the evening he read some short words - cat, bat, rat, mat, fat. Looks like he is going to be an early reader.

A.M. Big group today. Ran with Jeff, Mary Ann, Daniel, Chauncy, and Matt Anderson. The trail was slippery, so we did not go very fast. We went to Daniel and Chauncy's turnaround (3 miles), then back, then Daniel and Chauncy got off the trail with 0.46 to go, and the rest of us continued. Matt turned off to BYU about a half mile later. Jeff and Mary Ann finished 10 miles with me in 1:21:58.   Then ran with Benjamin and Jenny. Benjamin and I ran 2 miles in 19:49, Jenny ran the first 1.5 with us in 15:42.

Benjamin and I started trigonometry. We are currently working on having him pass the pre-test for BYU Math 112. During breakfast I reminded him about the factorial function, had him play around with the calculator to appreciate how fast it grows, then explained the series for the sine, cosine, and the exponential function. He was excited about the pattern. Then I decided the most natural way to teach him the derivation of the sine and cosine of the sum would be by using the Euler's formula exp(i*x) = cos(x)+i*sin(x), so we went through that decorating the white board in the play room with geek writing.

Afterwards I contemplated how nicely everything happens to work out in the world of numbers. It is not just pretty. Even though math comes from an imagination of man, there appears to be some underlying internal beauty that goes beyond man's ability to create it. How odd. Man invents a set of simple and fairly obvious rules that roughly model the world around him, and then it turns out that  those simple and obvious rules define a  beautiful world with numerous laws of its own that manage to exist in perfect harmony with each other. A mathematician begins to discover those laws rather than create them even though he starts in a world of his own imagination. The fact that this is even possible to me is plain evidence that God created our world. If He had not, math would not work. The patterns would not be there to begin with. And if we were not His children, we would not have been able to spot and abstract those patterns.

P.M. 1 mile with Julia in 10:23.

A.M. Ran with Daniel, Matt, Jeff, and Mary Ann. Took Daniel to 3.5 turnaround, then ran back with him until it was time to get off the trail. Matt went further with us, then turned to BYU with a mile to go.  The rest of us finished 10 miles in 1:15:02. Paced Mary Ann through 1 K in 3:37. Did explosive sprints.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 17:30. Jenny ran 1.5 with us in 13:26. 1 with Julia in 9:36.

A.M. Same group as yesterday, and same course - 10 miles. A little bit faster. 1:13:01. Did a VPB tempo alternating between 5:20 pace on clear sections and 6:00 on snow/ice. Then Mary Ann was a bit feisty and I suggested we should take the sting out of her. So we ran .5 in 2:47. Did some explosive sprinting.

Afterwards 2 with Benjamin in 17:40, Jenny ran 1.5 with us in 13:24. 1 with Julia in 9:38.

A.M. Ran with Jeff and Mary Ann. Daniel picked a bad day to not show up. He and his home teaching companion are coming over tonight. He'd better get his run done before then.

We ran 10.1 in 1:13:28. Did a fast 1 K in the middle. I wanted Jeff to run 3:05, but figured in order for that to happen I needed to tell him 3:10. We did the first quarter in 75 and that felt good. Then Jeff picked it up - 1:52 at 600. To make the matters worse, there were a couple of snow drifts in the last quarter and one of them had the nerve to cover the 800 mark. Going through the snow drifts I lost contact with Jeff, but he did not get too far away. Jeff got a high 3:03, I finished in 3:05.8. I was happy with that - it felt hard, but not too miserable, and the conditions were far from ideal - 18 F, lots of clothes, and the snow drifts. Probably worth a good 2:58 in shorts in 60 F on a clear road. Mary Ann was not supposed to run fast, but she did anyway - 3:28.

P.M. 1 with Julia in 9:57. 2 with Benjamin in 16:45. Jenny ran 1.5 in 12:54. 0.5 with Joseph in 5:49.

A.M. Ran with Daniel, Mary Ann, Bryce and Jeff. Daniel went 7, Bryce about 8, the rest of us 10. Total time was 1:18:01.

P.M. 1 with Julia in 9:50. 2 with Benjamin in 17:00. Jenny ran 1.5 with us in 13:00.

A.M. Raced SLC Track Club 5 K 16:21.7, 5th place.

Warmed up with Jeff and Mary Ann on the race course at a little bit slower than 8:00 pace. Did the rest of the ritual, then the race started. Today was the debut of the new race singlet.

About 30 degrees, a little bit of a cross wind, but not too bad, clear skies, perfectly dry road. On the scale of 1 to 10 the condtions were at about 9.5 for this time of the year in that location (out in open space in the middle of nowhere about 10 miles west of the Salt Lake Airport).

Lot of trouble at the start, some of it home grown. Recongized immediately - Hobbie, Jeff, Seth, BJ,  Augustus Gray, and Fritz. In addition there were two disguised trouble-makers - Jason Shoenfeld and Andrew Hansen.

 Hobbie decided Jeff needed a new pair of shoes, so he ran the race with a 30 lb weight jacket. Hobbie just loves to be a lab rat. Thanks to him we found out today how much 21% of extra weight can slow you down in a 5 K. For the impatient, the answer is about 13%, or about 2 minutes for somebody who can run around 15 minutes.

BJ, Seth, and Jeff pulled ahead from the start. I sat in a pack with Augustus, Jason, Hobbie, and Andrew. The course was marked to near perfection. First quarter in 75, 2:32 at half mile, 3:11 at 1 K. Around this point we lost Hobbie and Augustus. Both were a surprise, I was expecting both of them to run at least 16:30. I tucked behind Jason. It felt good to be behind him, perhaps too good, but I have learned something over the years of racing. If you are drafting, do not pass until it feels dog slow. The same pace immediately behind another runner would require 5 seconds per mile harder effort upfront. If you are not ready to work 10 seconds per mile harder then better stay put. So I stayed behind Jason faithfully.

5:13 at the mile, 6:31 at 2 K. Still close enough to watch the race for first, in part thanks to a course with great visibility. BJ, Seth, and Jeff hit the mile in 4:59, BJ got dropped somehwere around 2 K, Seth and Jeff hit the turnaround in 7:50, Seth is trying to drop Jeff. 8:12 for Jason and me at the turnaround, Andrew a few steps behind. Met Mary Ann 8:32 into the race, figured she was about 40 seconds behind and would end up about 1:20 behind, but due to the race effort was not quite able to appreciate how fast she was going to run.

Andrew made a surge and passed us. The pace picked up. But soon Andrew ran out of juice and fell back. Jason is now gradually turning up the heat trying to lose me. I really liked it when were running 5:20 pace, but 5:15 feels so much harder. I am sure glad Jason is doing the work.

Too focused on racing, missed the 3 K mark. 10:36 at 2 miles, 5:23. 11:10 with a mile to go, 13:10 at 4 K. Still close enough to watch the race for first. Looks like Jeff survived Seth's surge and with a surge of his own persuaded Seth that he was the one who needed the shoes. That's the nature of racing. Many good runners, but only one pair of shoes.

13:49 with half mile to go. Looks like we will be under 16:30, maybe even under 16:25 with luck. I am wondering if I can outkick Jason, and if BJ is weak enough for us to eat him up. That would be quite a meal, he is about 6-6. Trying to not think about the fact that there is nothing good for third, and trying to also not think about the upcoming post-race tempo, just telling myself to run my guts out regardless. 15:07 with a quarter to go. Still with Jason. 15:50 at 3 miles. He seems to be struggling a bit, maybe a mental trick will work. I attempt to pass him decisively, and it works to a point, looks like he is hesitant to kick. The problem was that the pace was already so fast that I did not have much more acceleration in me. So he was able to respond and outsprint me to the finish. 16:20.6 for Jason, 16:21.7 for me.

Jeff won with 15:35.8, then Seth 15:53.0, and BJ 16:11.8. Andrew finished in 16:32.4, then Augustus 16:55.8, Hobbie 16:56.2, and Fritz 17:09.4.

Mary Ann won the race with 17:50.4, which is only 15 seconds slower than her sea-level track PR. Second place was last years St. George winner Christina Gingras with 18:34.8. Women's field was fairly strong today with the top ten under 20:00.

Jeff and I waited for Mary Ann to finish, and then 30 seconds later (18:20 into the race) started a post-race 10 K tempo. There is a saying in Russian that you are not supposed to swing your fists after the brawl is over. Well, we did anyway. Since we were not sure if the 10 K course marks from the last year would still be visible we ran the 5 K race course twice. Jason joined us.

At first we were mentally warn out from the race, and we also wanted to get to know Jason better, so we were chatting a lot. That gave us a rather odd pace - 3:57 for the first 1 K, 6:19 for the first mile, 6:14 for the second mile. After that I said in order to call it a tempo we need to pick it up, so we did. 19:03 at the 5 K (37:23 10 K from the start of the race), and then Jeff really got into it and started pushing the pace. We did the next mile in 5:47, and the 2.5 K stretch in 8:58. Then I realized it would be bad to get chicked by Mary Ann in the last 5 K and started supporting Jeff more in the pace effort. The second mile of the "don't get chicked" 5 K was 5:42. Jeff asked me how I was feeling, I told him in a manageable level of pain. He took it as a cue to speed up even more and rewarded me with a 5:34 mile. Towards the end the pace became 5:20. Jason fell back a bit in the last quarter. Total time for the "don't get chicked" 5 K was 17:37, our male dignity saved by 13 seconds. Total time for the 10 K tempo was 36:40. 55:00 from the start of the 5 K race to the finish of the tempo. Excluding the 1:59 stop that gives me 53:01 15 K.

Jogged 2 miles with Jeff while Mary Ann was getting her prize shoes at the Salt Lake Running Company.

In the evening ran with the kids. 1 mile with Julia in 9:50. 2 with Benjamin in 17:08. Jenny ran 1.5 with us in 13:08. 0.5 with Joseph in 5:45. 200 with Jacob in 1:59.