Breaking the Wall

A.M. 10.2 with Jeff in 1:18:13. Did a pickup for a mile in 5:34. Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 16:54. Julia ran 1.5 in 12:52. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:46. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:36.

A.M. 10.3 in 1:22:50. Met Jeff on the trail. After a while we found Kevin and he joined us for a bit. To our disappointment another part of the trail is under construction. They are building a bridge at Lakeshore drive (mile marker 1 of the Fast Running Blog 5 Miler). Fortunately there is a reasonable detour that goes right past Luz's house. However that does mess up our tempo runs. But I hope they will be done with it before we really get into them. On the positive side, when the Lord pours out more blessings on us than we can receive in our current house and it is time to move, that bridge will expand our options.

Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah. 

P.M. Took Benjamin for a 6:00 pace to failure workout. Cold air made him fail earlier than I hoped. He did 88, then another 100 in 22, then 23, 25, kicked in 22 - 3:00 at 0.5 but then felt too tired to go more. To not let him get off the hook I challenged him to run a fast 100 after a 200 jog. He did 20.1. Then he jogged 100, and I challenged him again to run a 200. He ran 44.3. Then I challenged him to run another 100. 20.1 again. Then we had a quarter left to make it to the mile. I added up his splits and realized he needed only a 96 quarter to have his total time for the mile be 6:00. So I challenged him again to run a quarter as fast as he could. He grumbled and said he absolutely could not do 90. I told him I did not care, I just wanted to see what his best was, even if it was 1:40. He ran 87.3. Thus we got 5:51 for the mile in fragments of 800 - 100 - 200 - 100 and 400. 

Then we got in the car and he said - "I am so exhausted I do not think I could run a 100 in 25!" I figured the opportunity to teach him to sense the limits of his body correctly was too good to pass up, so I called his bluff. We got out and he ran 100 in 19.1.  We ended up with a total of 2.25 miles.

1.5 with Julia in 12:56. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:46. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:35. 

A.M. Temple day. Ran earlier than usual. 10.15 in 1:17:55.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin and Jenny in 16:46. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 12:56. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:34. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:36. With 100 to go I challenged Jacob to beat the 2:40 guy. Then we walk into the house and he tells Sarah: "Mommy, I beat somebody. I beat a guy I do not know!" Different kids react differently to the invisible virtual nemesis. Joseph kept asking me why we could not see the 6:00 (5:30, 5:00 as he got faster in his half mile run) guy that we were trying to beat. 

A.M. Met Jeff on the trail. We did a speed workout of sorts. 1.062 mile down 0.5-1% grade but with a bridge in the middle in 5:36 (probably 5:16 at the mile). We only wanted to go a mile but we missed the mark. Then after some jogging the same mile backwards (uphill). Around 0.7 the stress of the pace created a need for a VPB, so I slowed down to avoid the disaster and told Jeff to finish the interval while I took care of the business. My split at 0.75 was 4:06, his was 4:03. Then I coasted through the last quarter in 90. I did not realize it was that slow, but I guess running in the dark alone I miscalculated the effort. Jeff finished the mile in 5:23. Total time for 10.4 was 1:19:56.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 16:41. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 12:51. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:30. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:54. 

A.M. Met Jeff on the trail. Ran 10.2 in 1:19:22. Did some pickups (100s, 200s, 400s) totaling a mile at around 5:05 pace.

P.M. Worked on breaking the 6:00 barrier with Benjamin. The plan was go 6:00 pace to failure, then kick, when the kick becomes slower than 6:24 pace stop. Benjamin made it to 1000 in 3:43 (2 seconds ahead of schedule), but then he panicked and said he could not go anymore without failing to break 6:24 pace over 100 meters first. That was revealing and helped me understand why he is struggling with a sub-6:00 mile. Fast pace produces a certain measure of emotional stress and he does not yet know how to handle this type of emotion. He is only 10 and his emotions have not yet matured, but I would imagine many adults have a hard time running fast for the exact same reason.

So the hypothesis is that interval training can be used to treat a certain type of deep emotional problems. Fast pace will very predictably cause some type of emotional blow-up if there is an underlying weakness. The individual can be prepared and know exactly where that blow-up would happen and can be prepared to make an effort to control it. Thus he will develop a skill that he can use when that blow-up rears up its ugly head in other situations.

Since it was obvious that Benjamin's failure was of emotional nature, I told him he had to finish the mile in segments.  So after jogging 600 I told him to try to run 2:17 for the remaining 600. He made it to 300 in 1:06, continued for another 50 meters, and then bailed out. I had him jog back 50 meters, and told him to bust out the gate and blast the first 100 as fast as he could and then hang on to dear life for the remaining 200. I was thinking he would end up with something like 1:03, be he surprised me and ran 59 (5:15 pace) with the splits of 18-20-21. That gave us 5:48 total for the mile in three segments of 1000 - 300 - 300. 

This is the furtherest Benjamin has run at sub-6:00 continuously, and also the fastest segmented mile he has run in a workout. The good news is that he consciously understands the problem, and with each try is more and more prepared to deal with the beast.

Our total distance  was 2 miles.

2 with Julia and Jenny. We stayed together until about 0.3 to go.  Then Jenny took off. I stayed with Julia for about 200 meters, and then went after Jenny so I would get her time. Barely caught her before the finish, our time was 16:58. Julia finished in 17:27.

0.5 with Joseph in 4:39. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:49. 

A.M. 15.5 in 1:53:56 with Jeff. Michelle joined us for 13 miles. We paced her through a 5 mile tempo run on the Provo River Trail. Had to change the course due to construction, and ended up with 3 180 turns.

The target was 31:00, 6:12 or 93 quarter pace. Michelle ran 30:56 with the following splits (by quarter): 95 - 90 - 93 - 93 (6:11) - 93 - 93 - 96 - 94 (6:16, 12:27) - 93 - 93 - 93 - 93 (6:12,18:39) - 93 - 89 - 93 - 94 (6:10, 24:49) - 92 - 94 - 93 - 88 (6:07,30:56).

Jeff and I immediately continued with the quarters of 80 - 82 - 81 - 76 (Jeff was a step or two ahead and got 75), with 5:19 for the last mile and 36:15 for 6 miles. The we jogged back to Michelle, ran some with her, dropped her off at the house, then ran some more finishing the last 0.75 in 4:25 (5:53 pace).

P.M. 2 with Benjamin and Julia in 17:28. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:37. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:28. 

Day of rest. Went to church. It was a Fast Sunday, so we had a Fast and Testimony meeting. In Sunday school the lesson was on the fall of Adam. In the Elder's Quorum the lesson was on keeping your covenants.

I have noticed a trend just in the last 10 years that the legal agreements have been getting longer and more difficult to read. The older generation seems to remember a time when many business deals were done with no written agreement at all. That is one consequence of raising people who do not feel it is important to keep their promises. The lawyers get richer while less real work gets done.

A.M. 10.3 with Jeff in 1:17:12. Did 4x200 pickups in the middle - 35.5, 33.9, 34.7, and 31.9.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 17:25. Julia ran the first 1.5 with us in 13:11. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:38. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:26. 

A.M. Met Jeff on the trail. 10.25 in 1:21:48.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin, 0.5 in 3:00. 1.5 with Julia in 12:47. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:41. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:36. 

A.M. 10 in 1:18:49. Met Jeff on the trail. We also found a new friend. His name is Brian Brockbank. He ran with us for a few miles. After dropping everybody off did a fun pickup. Decided to run for as long as I felt like at a pace that I enjoyed. It ended up being a mile in 5:37.5. I would have gone further, but it was time to get off the trail, and I did not feel like running a weird distance.

Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah. 

A.M-2. Did another attempt with Benjamin to break  6:00 in the mile. We thought of some ideas of how to help him overcome the mental block he hits around half way through. We decided if Jenny met him at 0.5 and raced him for a quarter he would certainly make it to 0.75, and then he can smell the barn and kick. So we warmed up 1.2 and started. He was doing great through 500 (1:51), then something happened and he said he had no energy. So we stopped at 600, and jogged back to try again. This time he made it to 600 in 2:14, one second ahead of pace, but then panicked and stopped without any effort to try to hold the pace any further.

Then it was clear. There was something in his brain that was programmed for self-defeat. The moment he realized the success was inevitable he could not handle it. A week ago nobody was waiting for him, and he made it to 1000 2 seconds ahead of pace, then quit without trying to hold on. Yesterday with Jenny waiting for him at 1200 (0.75) he quit at 800 (0.5) while right on pace. We bring Jenny to 800, and now he quits at 600. I asked him why, and he admitted that he realizes he would not quit while racing Jenny, and if he hits 1200 on pace he would not quit at all, and he just cannot handle it.

So to make a dent in his mental block I told him to try again and this time run (given the fatigue from the previous to tries) run as slow as he felt he would need to up to 800, then race Jenny to 1200. So he did 1:35, 1:49, 1:31 - 4:55 racing Jenny. She held on up to about 300.  

So we ended up the whole deal with a total of 3.56 miles. We will try again on Saturday. Hopefully the lessons learned would help us.

P.M. 1.5 with Julia in 13:33. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:38. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:28. 

A.M. Jeff slept in. 10.3 in 1:22:53, some of it with Brian. Turns out that I had been to Brian's house before. I served in his area (Little Cottonwood Stake in Murray) in 1995 during my mission .  Brian was 8 years old then.

Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah. 

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 16:51. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 12:44. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:35. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:31.

A.M. Dan (Dragon Vulture) joined me today at the house. We met Jeff on the trail. Then we found Brian and he joined us as well. We were being lazy today, 10.3 in 1:25:16, and that with no snow! A lot of talking in the dark. We did a short pickup to test Dan's HR - 0.5 in 2:51. His HR was 154 at the start off 8:00 pace, and got up to 184 towards the end.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin, Jenny, and Julia in 17:10.  0.5 with Joseph in 4:27. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:50. 

A.M. 16.3 with Jeff and Dan (Dan ran 15.2, we jogged back to him after pickups). The plan was 2x1.5 at 5:20 pace, and then with a mile or two to go run 5:50 pace to test fuel levels and sneak in a fuel stimulus. Thing went better than planned, in fact too good in the first repeat thanks to Jeff's eagerness.

The first 1.5 was done in the dark (we started early because I had to go to a baptism). I wore my HRM for the first time in a while. The splits were 80,80,79,79,78,77 - 7:53. HR maxed out at 165. It felt hard from the start, but did not get much harder, and I was able to hold the pace. I do not care how hard it feels if I can hold the pace as it is getting faster. Dan ran 9:53.

I warned Jeff before the second one not to speed as doing this workout at pace was challenging enough for me already, and we hit the first one 7 seconds ahead of pace.  Now we had some light, and after the first interval I had all kinds of enzymes keeping my HR a little higher. That actually made the pace feel easier. It went like this: 79,80,82,78,80,78 - 7:57. HR maxed out at 172.  I watched the HRM readings in awe wondering why I was not yet having an out-of-body experience, but it was appropriate for the pace, so I can believe it. I think higher HR made the fast pace easier. Dan ran this interval in 9:23.

We jogged back to Dan, finish the interval with him, and then jogged some more at around 7:40 pace until we had 1.5625 left. Then Jeff and I started our fuel stimulus pickup. It started at 5:50, but Jeff kept turning up the heat, and I felt good enough to respond. So we ended up running the stretch in 8:40 (5:32.8 average pace) with the last two quarters in 80 and 77 (5:14 average pace in the last 0.5 in spite of 5 turns). My HR hit 168. I did not know it could go that high at the end of long run. I usually struggle to push it over 160.

Afterwards we jogged back to Dan and finished the run with him.

I did notice that the turns made my form a whole lot uglier. It felt like some nerve was getting pinched and the knee would lock up some. I felt a whole lot better when we were on a straight and level road. I had not noticed a similar issue before. I would say in the past it felt equally awkward the entire way, while today it felt as awkward on the turns, but less awkward on a straight road.

I was very happy with how the workout went.  It gave me some evidence that I might be on the right track with my trigger point massage and scraping.  

A.M.-2 Did another attempt with Benjamin to crack 6:00. We are trying twice a week to see if he can do it before he turns 11. He did not make it, so we have one more try left on Tuesday.

This time  we brought Julia with us. Benjamin ran to 600 just with me, then Julia ran 200, Jenny joined us at 800, Julia bailed about 30 meters later (she was only supposed to go 100, everything extra was a bonus). Benjamin's splits (by 200) were 45, 45, 44, 43.5 up to that point. Around 900 (3:21, 22.5) fresh Jenny started to gap him. He hit 100 around 3:45, then gave it a push to 1100 (4:08) to close the gap, and then hit his patented panic attack about 50 meters later.

Benjamin has a little problem with error handling. When things do not go exactly like he expects it, he panics. I told him afterwards that the correct way to handle the error was to keep on pushing, reel Jenny in as she would not have continued at 6:00 pace for much longer herself,  then use the thrill of passing to hit the mile in 6:03 or so, which would have been a 4 second PR. Who knows, maybe a super-kick with 200 to go may have even recovered the damage of drifting from 1100 to 1400. But he was mentally not ready for this.

However, according to Benjamin, we made another dent in his mental block. This is the furtherest he's ever gone at 6:00 pace. If only he learned how to be rational under stress he would have it. Even though he is little, I believe learning to be rational under stress is such a vital life skill that it should be taught with particular emphasis especially in childhood. What you learn as a child, good or bad, is easy to keep and hard to unlearn. It is perhaps a blessing that this 6:00 mile is so hard for him. If it was easy to accomplish with talent and work alone, he would not have had a chance to challenge the beast of panic head on.

Jenny was rewarded with a quarter PR of 92.5. We jogged back to Julia, then ran a cool down mile in 8:55. Thus Julia ended up with 1.5 for the day, and Jenny did a total 4 as she ran 2.5 with Sarah earlier. Benjamin and I ended up with 2.5 for this run.

P.M. 0.5 with Joseph and Benjamin in 4:33. Jacob ran 0.25 with Sarah. She dropped off Jacob and went for another 1.25. I dropped Joseph off,  Chased Sarah down, and ran the rest of it with her. Her time for the mile with me was 11:04.

Day of rest. Went to church. The Sacrament meeting talks were on the meaning of being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The Sunday School lesson was on the Holy Ghost. The Elder's Quorum lesson was on the role of Christ in the Plan of Salvation, and I had the privilege of teaching it.

A.M. 10.2 with Jeff in 1:19:36. We did a max HR test. 1.5 with the first mile aiming for 5:20, then for Jeff 72 quarter followed by 100% effort in the last quarter, for me hang on with Jeff to failure, then run best pace to the finish. Part of it was I wanted to measure our max HR values, but also I wanted to see how I would handle 4:48 pace off a mile at 5:20, and how Jeff would handle it as well.

The snow started coming down, and looked like it was about to dampen our plans. But with 34 F it was melting fast and the road was still runnable. So we went ahead. 

Jeff was a bit too excited, and blasted out the first 200 in 36 even after I had warned him the pace was too fast. But after that we more or less settled into pace to the first mile. The splits were 76, 80, 79,79 (5:14). My HRM was not working for the first 0.75 but then started working and registered 168 at the end of the mile. Jeff's HR was around 172-173. Then we sped up. I lasted for 200 meters before I eased off back to 5:20 pace. My HR went up to 173, but once the legs gave out it dropped to 171. 5:20 pace seemed manageable, but for the life of me I could not go any faster at that point. I was probably still tired from Saturday. Plus, opening with a 5:14 in the snow did some damage. I ended up running 75, 80 to finish 1.5 in 7:49.  

Jeff had a similar experience, except in a higher plane. He did 72 and it was manageable, then he picked it up to 68 and felt that he was working hard, but not getting much for it. His HR hit 186, which is not very high for him. He felt limited by leg power as well. Probably fatigue from Saturday was a factor.

We dragged through most of the remainder of the run at slower than 8:00 pace, which is a sign that we both fatigued from the combination of Saturday and today.  Then we livened up a bit in the last mile and ran it in 6:59 to beat the 1:20:00 guy. 

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 17:20. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:08. Jenny ran in the AM with Sarah (2.5). 0.5 with Joseph in 3:47. That is his new record. His splits were 1:59-1:48. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:48. 

A.M. 10.1 in 1:18:59. Found Jeff on the trail. I felt like I had made some progress in the loosening up of the right hip flexors, so we did a couple of pickups at around 5:30 pace to evaluate my form. Jeff gave me a 7 on the scale of 1 to 10. In the past, he rated me between 4 and 6. For a comparison I asked him to rate other runners who he's seen enough. Tyler got 8.5, Kyle Perry 9, Josh Rohatinsky 10, Josh McAdams 9, and Jeff gave himself an 8 based on what he's seen in videos.

I ran the last 1.5 at sub-6:40 pace, and it felt nice and smooth, although still far from perfect. The left knee flexion as the foot leaves the ground and floats up on the left side feels almost poetic compared to how it feels on the right. 

A.M-2. Took Benjamin for the final chance to break 6:00 before he turns 11. Jenny and Julia helped. He was not handling the pressure well and made two false starts each time making it to the quarter (first time in 91, second in 92) before freaking out. I told him we could not end it like this and he had to finish the mile at whatever pace he had in him. He ran 6:19.9 with the splits of 92, 96, 97, and . Julia ran 300 from 600 to 900 in 1:11. Jenny ran 400 from 800 to 1200 in 1:37.  

Afterwards we ran to Julia. Jenny sat in the car, Benjamin, Julia and I ran a mile in 8:49. So Benjamin and I ended up with 4 miles, Jenny got 0.5 + 2.5 - total of 3 for the day, Julia got her usual 1.5.

P.M. 0.5 with Joseph and Benjamin in 4:32.  0.25 with Jacob in 2:52.

A.M. Ran with Dan, Brian, and Jeff. All 10.4 with Dan in 1:19:28. Found Jeff and Brian on the trail. I had a VPB, then caught up with an 80 second quarter. Jeff gave Dan 7 on form. Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 16:45.  Julia ran 1.5 with us in 12:36. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:20. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:45.

A.M. 10.2 in 1:16:35. Did a couple of pickups. 200 in 40, and 1000 in 3:19.8.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 17:50. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:20. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:00. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:50. 

A.M. 10.3 in 1:13:26. Did a 0.75 pickup in 3:58.7.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin and Jenny in 17:13. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:02. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:45. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:55.  

A.M. 20 with Jeff in 2:17:23. Did some speed in the middle. First a 6 mile tempo on the 1.5 stretch, so 3 180 degree turns. Total time for me 34:14. Splits: 5:53 - 5:45 (11:38) - 5:47 (17:25) - 5:40 (23:05) - 5:33 (28:38) - 5:36 (34:14). Jeff and I ran together for the first 4.5 miles, then he picked it up and hit a quarter in 77, which did me in. I tried to follow, but manged only 80. Then I recovered with 84, 85, 85, 85 and was able to kick in 81. It would have been 80, but there were two dogs in the way, and I lost concentration trying to get around them. Last 1.5 in 8:20. Jeff did it in 7:46.

I was happy that I ran the last 5 in 28:21, and the last 4 in 22:36. The last 4 were 29 seconds faster than my race time at Thanksgiving. A poor comparison, given that I ran that race sick and recovering from injury, and got embarrassingly chicked, but still a sign that I am recovering.  Reminds me how the Soviet propaganda like to compare everything with the year 1913, even in the late 70s and early 80s.

I was rather spent after this tempo and was not sure what kind of condition I would be towards the end of the run especially given that this was my first 20 mile run since St. George. We went for a long jog. After a couple of miles we were recovered from the tempo, and 7:00-7:10 pace started feeling natural. We stopped talking so that the pace would drift up so we could be done with the run quicker.  With 1.5 to go we did the fuel stimulus pickup. The target pace was 5:50, and I really meant 5:50 because we were going 20 miles, and we had already got our fast running in. So I hoped that Jeff's horses would not be neighing, but I was wrong. We started out at slower than 6:00, then it became 5:50, then 5:40, to make the long story short, the last mile was 5:29 with the last three quarters in 81, 81, and 82, and 8:24 (5:36 pace) for the last 1.5. I even moved out by Jeff's side in the last quarter to encourage him to go faster.

This was a surprise and a mystery. Why couldn't I do 81s at least for the last half mile of our tempo earlier some 12 miles ago? Do a couple of miles at 5:40 really do me in so bad? Does not having somebody to draft behind make such a difference? Maybe the air was too cold? Maybe the road was too slippery (it did snow some)?

In any case, I was happy that I had been able to maintain a decent fuel shape without long runs.  Maybe there is something to gluten free diet after all. I have not had any wheat (except for sacrament bread) since Top of Utah last year.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 16:46. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:00.  Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:25. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:58.

Day of rest. Went to church. It was a busy day. Sarah and I spoke in the Sacrament meeting on receiving and following council. Then I taught a lesson in Sunday school on prayer.

We discovered that Iain Hunter's wife's grandmother is in our ward. She told me she liked my talk because she could hear it. I have a loud voice and wake up sleeping babies. 

A.M. 12 with Jeff in 1:30:06. We did a 3 mile fartlek to give me a relatively light push in the 5:20 pace department alternating 80 and 90 quarters except for the penultimate when we did 80 instead of 90, and then on the last one Jeff kicked to get a workout.

My splits: 88 - 79 - 91 - 80 (5:37) - 91 - 80 - 89 - 79 (5:39) - 89 - 79 - 80 - 82. Total time 16:47.9.  Jeff kicked in 69.

I was happy with how the workout went except for the last quarter in 82. My legs were not moving. Part of the problem was losing contact after a strenuous effort. Part of it, I suppose, was fatigue from Saturday. Part of it was 21 F temperature. And I suppose a big part, bigger than any of the above, was just plain lack of fitness. 

During the warm-up we ran past an idling school bus. We could smell it very well as it prepared to take students to school to learn about global warming.

P.M.  2 with Benjamin in 16:34. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 12:54. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:30. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:46. Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah.

A.M. 10.1 in 1:18:12. Met Jeff and Brian on the trail. Did a post-VPB 500 up a small grade in 1:41.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 16:48. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 12:53.  0.5 with Joseph in 4:29. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:40.

A.M. 10.05 in 1:17:59. Met Jeff on the trail. In the last mile played a silly game. I saw that I needed to run it in 6:15 to finish in 1:18. Yes, we were dragging as usual, so I was at only slightly sub-8:00 average. So I said, no I do not feel like running 6:15, I am too lazy. But then I ran the next quarter in 1:37.  Then I said, OK, I'll run as slow as it takes to make it. I dragged it out to the last quarter, which I had to run in 91. I ran it in 90, so that gave me 0.25 of marathon pace.

That is indeed a silly game, like a cat playing with a mouse until it decides to kill it. But I suppose years of running create a feline personality. That is perhaps necessary to avoid overtraining and maximize recovery while still eliciting an adequate training stimulus. 

P.M. 2 with Benjamin and Jenny in 15:59. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 12:03. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:29. He keeps hitting the same time. I give him updates through the run which time he is headed for, and he keeps adjusting his speed. A good way to learn pacing, I suppose. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:50. 

A.M. Jeff had a Lehi's dream this morning, so I ran alone. 10.3 in 1:16:48. I dragged along at around 7:50 pace when it was dark, and then it gradually became 7:10. Then I saw tracks on the snow. Yesterday I was a feline. Today I decided to be a canine. Changing animals. I look at the stride length and pattern, as well as the direction, and made a guess the tracks belonged to Kirk, a BYU Arabic professor that runs around that time of day. I figured he could be close enough for me to be able to catch him, and picked up the pace to something around 6:20 for a mile or so. I wished I were a dog. Then I'd be able to tell how far away he was by the smell, and also I'd be running faster.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 16:51. He decided to catch the 17:00 guy with 300 to go, so I got about 0.2 of marathon pace. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:08. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:29, third time in a row, and 0.25 with Jacob in 2:47. 

A.M. 10.1 in 1:18:20. Found Jeff, and then Brian on the trail. After dropping them off ran back to the house a little quicker. I passed Sarah, Jenny and Sarah's running partner Mary (Jenny ran 2.5 with them) going towards me. I asked Sarah afterwards how fast she thought I was going. She guessed about 7:30 because I looked completely lazy. I was actually going 6:30, so that is somewhat encouraging. 

P.M. 2 in 16:00, most of it with Benjamin. He ran 16:08. I decided to return him the favor he did me yesterday by saying that 16:00 guy was catchable with a quarter to go. Except yesterday it was the 17:00 guy and we had to run only 7:00 pace to catch him. Today we had to run 5:50 pace. Benjamin said he was not interested.  With about 0.1 to go I said I was, and ran about 4:40 pace to the finish. Thus I ended up 8 seconds ahead. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 12:48. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:35. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:52.

A.M. Ran with Jeff. 20.4 in 2:04:59, 6:07.6 avg. Had some serious digestive system issues - nausea, bloated stomach, diarrhea with lots of liquid stool . I had originally planned to do a brisk 20 with the last 5 hard, but was not sure how much of it was going to happen with those problems. So I decided to just run brisk at whatever pace was happening naturally until I felt it was not healthy to run.

I felt it was not healthy to run from the very start at any pace.  However, as I increased the pace I did not feel much worse, so after a couple of miles we settled into 6:10-6:15 groove and were coasting along. I was feeling that great, but it was not getting worse, so I just kept going. It was nice to run in shorts.

We hit the first 5.1 in 32:44 (6:25 pace), then came back in 31:16 (6:08 avg), then did turned around again and ran 30:47 (6:02). Then I told Jeff I wanted to try sub-6:00 but no faster than 5:50 and see if I can make it to the end. Jeff overdid it a bit. I managed 5:45 pace with him for the next 2.3 miles, and other than the stomach it actually felt good. But the stomach was not doing well at all as the nausea increased. So I told Jeff to go, and coasted to the finish trying to maintain 6:00 pace but slipping in places where the road was not ideal. I ended up with 6:11 last mile and 30:12 for the last 5.1, which is actually decent - 5:55 average.

Jeff finished in 2:03:11 (28:24, 5:34 average). The last 1.3 at 5:20 pace really helped his cause.

I was pleased to observe that in spite of the stomach problems and the slowing pace in the last  couple of miles I never felt fuel-deficient and the form felt quite smooth.

Afterwards I was not feeling too bad at first, and followed through with the plans to go to a science/engineering activity with the family at the Thanksgiving point. But this was probably a mistake. I started feeling bad there, was counting miles on the way back almost the same way I count miles at the end of a hard run, and then threw up as soon as I got home.  

P.M. Felt a little better, good enough to run with the kids. Did 2 with Benjamin and Jenny in 16:50. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 12:45. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:58. Jacob ran 0.25 with Benjamin in 3:14.

Day of rest. Went to church. We had a ward conference. The bishop and the state president spoke on being spiritually prepared. Then we had Sunday school less on prophets, and the Elders Quorum lesson on moral discipline based on Elder Christopherson's talk in the last General Conference.