Breaking the Wall

A.M. Total of 12. Kids were sick except for Jenny. She ran 2 miles with me.

P.M. Drove to Las Vegas with the family on the way to Mountain View, CA - Linkedin wanted me to visit for a couple of days, and allowed me to bring the whole family. Stayed the night with Jeff and Kimia.

A.M. Ran with Jeff for the first 5 miles on his way to school (uphill), then turned around and ran back. My chest was still giving me problems, but I was able to get going some on the way back - 37:00 out, 32:25 back.Then ran 1.6 with Jenny (Julia did 1.1).

P.M. Drove to Sunnyvale, CA where our hotel was (Marriott Residence Inn). There are not many hotels that will accommodate a family with seven children in one room, but we managed to solve that problem. On the way stopped in Bakersfield to fill up and Benjamin tried to run. He did not make it very far - about 0.6 miles, as his throat was burning. On the positive side of things, I liked the GPS and the rental van. The GPS helps with "our we there yet" concerns, can be programmed to find obscure gas stations with low prices, and can help locate places like Costco right on the route when we run out of something.  And on top of that, you can take wrong turns and still get away with it. The van (Chevy Express) tells you how much further you can go before you run out of fuel, has a very powerful engine, can do 80 with the foot barely on the gas pedal, and still achieves 15 mph at high speeds. I watched the fuel range estimator and noticed something odd. It seemed to have no better economy at 60 than it did at 80, but what made a lot of difference was uphill/downhill. Maybe because the van is so big and heavy that increased air resistance at higher speeds does not play as much of a factor?

A.M. 10 in Sunnyvale,CA. I liked the warm weather. I even found a running trail with the help of the Course Tool. It did not have the quarter marks, unfortunately. I did not like having to wait at the traffic lights while trying to get to the trail.

P.M. I am sure glad I am a remote employee. I must have some kind of anti-office allergy and it may be more than mental. After a day at the office my nose was runny, my throat started getting sore, and I got a minor fever. Sarah and the kids went to the beach in Santa Cruz. 0.9 with Benjamin. Julia ran 0.9 with Sarah. Everybody else was too sick to run.

A.M. Woke up feeling better. Logged in to FRB to see if I could map out a better route, and discovered that a bot was bringing it down with frequently repeated hits. Disabled "Hot Discussions" and  "Lost Sheep" until I can optimize those better. We really need to start using memcached there, but when I will have the time to implemented is a big question. Still ran only 8 to keep things safe.

Sarah had some interesting experiences on the trip. Somebody asked her if she was in charge of a day care. She said no, then the question was immediately "Are you Mormon?"

P.M. A meeting was supposed to end at 3:30 PM so we could leave a bit earlier to fight our way through traffic, and it was going a bit overtime. Sarah called. This gave me a chance to end the meeting with: "My wife has seven kids in the van, and she says it is time to go". Fortunately the people I work with have respect for that, so the meeting ended.

We stopped in Gilroy to buy food and run with the kids. Benjamin and Julia ran 1 mile. Jacob and Joseph did 0.6. Jenny was too sick to run.

A.M. It was an adventurous morning. Last night we stopped at Marriott Inn in Bakersfield,CA. Steven got sick and has been coughing all night. Then we woke up and found Jenny disoriented and delirious. So we called 911. The operator could not figure out where our hotel was from "Marriott Inn on Chester Lane in Bakersfield, room 1112". Google search for that phrase minus the room brings up a map with the location of the hotel. Additionally, we were using a cell phone, which should have allowed pinpointing our position to within a few hundred feet anyway. Fortunately, as we were talking to 911 dispatch, Jenny drank some orange juice and started feeling better, so there was no need for us to spend the time and effort looking up the address of the hotel. The moral of the story is that you need to know your street address when you talk to 911 - at least in Bakersfield, CA.

Along the same lines of the need of city services to progress in the use of technology. Provo City encourages residents to report graffiti, which I often do. One time the location of it was rather difficult to describe in words, so I used the map, determined the GPS coordinates, and called the police dispatch with the information. They did not know what to do with it so I had to resort to the complicated verbal description,

After the morning adventure, I ran 8 miles, then another 0.8 with Benjamin, Julia, and Joseph (Jacob ran 0.3), and we drove home to Provo. 660 miles in 9:45 with 7 kids, some of them sick. Sarah is very efficient at the stops. A small adventure on the way. About half way between Barstow and Las Vegas we were going up a hill and saw a slow moving bus in the slow lane protected (you would hope so) with a solid white line. I commented to Sarah that there must be a lot of fat people on that bus, that is why it has a hard time going uphill. Right as we approached it, the bus, seemingly in revenge, suddenly moved into our lane. I was able to react and swerve to avoid it. To complicate the matters, another car was passing us at the same time. Fortunately that driver reacted quickly, and swerved to avoid us in time, so it all ended well.

Day of rest. I needed it. I caught a cold more or less officially, although fortunately no lasting fever. Just the cough and runny nose. So now only Sarah has not gotten sick so far. So going to church was rather different today. Only Benjamin, Julia, Joseph, and Jacob were healthy enough to go. I went for the first hour (Sunday school).Then Sarah and I traded places and she went to Relief Society. Then we traded places again and I attended the Sacrament/Fast and Testimony meeting. Otherwise I spent most of the day sleeping.

A.M. Slept in on purpose, waited for the evening to run.

P.M. Really did not feel like running - considered every possible excuse, but knew well enough that none were good. So I went.  Ran some of it with the kids. Total of 10. Benjamin did 2.45, Jenny 0.5, Julia 1, Joseph 1, and Jacob 0.5. All of the running kids are running, so things are getting half way to normal healthwise. I actually felt better after the run with the nose and the throat thoroughly cleared out. Did a pickup for 0.25 just because in 87. It felt easier than I expected given the sickness.

A.M. Ran 10, some with the kids. Benjamin - 3, Jenny - 1, Julia - 2, Jacob - 0.5, Joseph - 0.5. Sarah is now up to 3 miles, today was her first day of 3. The cold is still there, but looks like it is going away. I have not had a normal dream since we got home, though. I keep dreaming of looping around Barstow, CA going back and forth between I-15 and I-40 all night long, and somehow I intuitively know that the dream is being triggered by nose congestion.

A.M. 8 alone in early AM before going to the temple. Jenny and Julia ran 2. Jacob did 0.5. Benjamin and Joseph waited to run in the evening.

P.M. 3 with Benjamin, Joseph ran 1 with us.

A.M. Did a total of 12, some alone, some with the kids. Benjamin did 3, Jenny and Julia 2, Joseph 1, and Jacob 0.5.

P.M. I made the mistake of not properly rehydrating after the run, and was punished for it. Normally, I do not have to rehydrate, but I did not realize I was not yet 100% healthy.  So the fever attacked me in the afternoon. It was 102 F. I started drinking orange juice, and that knocked it down enough to where I could work through it and even write some non-trivial code in C++ that compiled, executed, and passed a test case.

A.M. Still recovering from yesterdays fiasco. Did not run.

P.M. Ran with the kids. Started with 0.5 with Jacob, survived it. Next challenge - 1 with Joseph - passed. Then 3 with Benjamin, Jenny and Julia did 2 with us. Benjamin made me work in the last quarter - I survived it, but then was dry coughing for a couple of minutes like a chain-smoker.

A.M. Slept in and rested.

P.M. Felt better than yesterday. Ran a total of 10, most of it was with the kids. 4 with Benjamin, 2 with Jenny, 2 with Julia (Joseph joined us for a mile), 0.5 with Jacob, and 1.5 alone. Wore an HRM - 126 at 8:40 pace, 132 at 8:00, 135 at 7:30. So about 12 bpm too high. Resting HR was 68-70, about 20 bpm too high. Still had the post-run chain smoker's cough. I've had it every single time I got a cold in the last 5 years.

This condition made me think about how much different it is to be sick vs being out of shape. I lean in the direction of treating both without much of a distinction. A revolutionary and possibly outrage and mockery inviting idea, but I think it deserves some merit. A mile run test should be a part of a medical exam. If a young man cannot crack 7:00, treat it as a pathology! So if he has a minor heart problem, we discover it when he fails the test, not when it becomes a severe problem, and he dies in the middle of dinner a few years later.  Many health problems will be diagnosed and treated early before they develop into something worse with this approach.

Day of rest. I sure needed it. Went to church. Taught a lesson in Sunday school on prayer. Last week was a good preparation for it. Then we had a lesson in the Elder's Quorum on fasting, and then the Sacrament meeting with talks on obedience.

Elder Packer talks about the concept of "faith obedience" as opposed to "blind obedience". Here is an illustration that helps me appreciate the idea. Suppose I am playing in a chess tournament that has a unique rule that allows me to ask advice from somebody like Gary Kasparov or maybe a very strong chess engine for just one move. Suppose I ask for such advice, I am told to sacrifice my queen, and I do not see the follow up quite yet. Do I have enough faith to go ahead with the move?

Unlike that situation, in spiritual matters when we have enough faith to make the first move, we qualify for advice with the second. And if there is enough faith to make the second, we will receive advice with the third as well, and so on.

A.M. Still not 100%, but at least I felt enough energy to run. Did a total of 10, including the kids runs. Benjamin did 3, Jenny and Julia 2, Joseph 1, and Jacoh 0.5.

A.M. Gradually feeling better, but still at only 10 miles a day to be safe. Ran 10 in 1:19:55 with most of it with the kids. Benjamin did 3, Jenny did 2 of that. Julia 2, Joseph 1, and Jacob 0.5. I picked up to 6:00 for 0.25 to beat the 8:00 average for the run, and to test how much coughing it would produce. It still produced a lot. 

A.M. Ran a total of 10, a good portion with the kids. 3 with Benjamin, 2 with Jenny, 2 with Julia, 1 with Joseph and 0.5 with Jacob.

A.M. Finally had the confidence to bump the mileage up to 12. Did a good portion with the kids. 3 with Benjamin, 2 with Jenny and Julia, 1 with Joseph, 0.5 with Jacob. Did a pickup for a mile to test the waters. Ran it in 5:37. It did not feel too bad, but it was only a mile. The cough is almost gone.

A.M. Did 12 again. 3 with Benjamin, 2 with Jenny and Julia, 1 with Joseph and 0.5 with Jacob. Did a couple of pickups. First 0.5 in 2:58, then 1 mile in 5:50. Both pickups involved turns and an 180, so a true honest effort was probably higher.

A.M. Finally some semblance of a long run. Ended up with 17.5. Rob came down all the way from Lehi to run with me. He had to be done early, so he had already run 7 by the time we started. We did a tempo run to evaluate mine and his fitness. The plan was to go 6:00 until problems emerged on either side. Rob was a bit anxious and we opened with an 85 even though I had to hold his horses. I was pleasantly surprised with how that 85 felt because I honestly expected to see nothing faster than 88 from the effort. Then I sensed that Rob was not up to running 5:40, and eased off some. We did 87, 87, 90 (5:49), 89, 91, 91, 90 (6:01). At that point I told him to try to make it to 3. He struggled, but held off the 6:00 average finishing with 17:54. I picked it up a bit in the last quarter to be a moving target to see if it would tempt him to kick, but it did not . I ended up with 17:48 with the last quarter in 84. So it seems like Rob has an issue with neural drive - inability to kick  is an indicator of such a problem. Of course, it is no big deal if you are already going 63 per quarter, so if all Haile can do in the last quarter of a 10,000 is 61 after doing 24 of them in a bit over 63, that is technically still a neural drive problem, but I would not mind having it manifested this way at all.

I told him to ease off the intensity, and up the mileage to 10-12 a day at a comfortable pace. We'll see how that works out in a few weeks.

We finished the run with a long cool-down - he ended up with 18, and I was at 11 at that point, then I ran with the kids. 3 with Benjamin - the last 0.5 was done in 3:00. The effort was a bit higher because it was into a headwind and with 5 90 degree turns. 2 with Jenny and Julia. 1 with Joseph, and 0.5 with Jacob.

Day of rest. Went to church. Substituted in Primary. The lesson was Jesus Cleanses the Temple. Then the stars aligned and I taught the lesson in the Elder's Quorum as well. It was on sacrifice. I actually do not mind teaching, it does not stress me out even if they ask me only 5 minutes in advance (this time I had plenty of notice, though).  I do find secretarial callings quite challenging though as I have a hard time keeping track of documents, events, notes, and other things that secretaries are responsible for. I suppose everybody has different talents.

Then we had the Sacrament meeting. The talks were on repentance.

A.M. Total of 12 including kids runs. Benjamin did 3, Jenny and Julia 2, Joseph 1, and Jacob 0.5. I did a pickup for 0.5 in 2:55.

A.M. Total of 12. Did a 3 mile damage evaluation tempo in 17:16 with the splits of 5:40 - 5:49 - 5:47. So the damage is definitely present, but it is repairable. The legs felt OK in the first mile, then after about 1.25 they lost their strength. Breathing was OK. The kick was weak, I only had an 85 at the end, and I tried. So that naturally dictates the workout for Thursday - 5x400 in whatever I can, hopefully under 75. Benjamin did 3, Jenny and Julia 2, Joseph 1, and Jacob 0.5.

A.M. Total of 12. Did 2x200 pickups - 37.6 and 40.2. Ran with the kids. Benjamin - 3, Jenny and Julia - 2, Jacob and Joseph - 0.5.

A.M. Today was a historic day. My 12 year old son Benjamin was able to keep up with me through one of my intervals setting a PR of 71.9 for a quarter. I did my regular 12 miles with 5x400 in the middle with full rest. The splits were 75.3 (up), 72.7 (down), 74.7 (up), 72.3 (even roll), 71.4 (down). I like the very unscientific rule of 2:1 adversity ratio. If you run down or with tailwind 3 seconds faster that the other way, then if we made it flat/windless, you would run 1 second slower than aided, and 2 seconds faster than counter-aided, if the difference is 6 seconds, then it would be 2 seconds slower than aided/4 seconds faster than counter-aided. This unscientific rule, nevertheless, is more scientific than the 220 - age for determining your max heart rate. Using this rule for normal amounts of adversity (excluding grades over 10% and wind over 30 mph) you could be a few seconds per mile off, but you will never end up with something as  ridiculous as making a healthy 30 year old man in the top shape of his life over 50 years old. 

So in any case, the unscientific adversity rule says that Benjamin's 71.9 was equivalent to 72.9 on the track. I was very pleased to see him right by my side at those speeds for that long. He also did it towards the end of his 3 miles mid-run without stopping to drop his HR before the start, which helps a lot for the quarter, especially if you are only 12.

I was happy with how the workout went for me as well. It accomplished its purpose, which is to learn to keep pushing when HR gets up to a certain critical range where the natural response is to slow down.

Jenny and Julia did 2, Joseph 1, and Jacob 0.5.

A.M. 12 total. Did 3 with Benjamin, 2 with Jenny and Julia, and 1 with Joseph, Jacob did 0.5 of it. Did a pickup at the end in the last 0.5 in 2:55.

A.M. Waited for the snow to melt.

P.M. 20 mile run. Did a 5 mile tempo on the Fast Running Blog 5 miler course.  It went very well - I was able to increase the pace with every mile: 5:51, 5:48, 5:47, 5:47, 5:39 - 28:52.8 total time. HR stabilized at around 160, and peaked at 166 at the end. The last quarter was 83.Still too high, shows that even aerobically I am out of shape. But at least I was able to average 5:46.5 for 5 miles, and my last 3 miles were 17:13, which is 3 seconds faster than just 3 miles on Tuesday. So some progress.

Then I did some jogging including kids runs (Benjamin 3, Julia 2, Joseph 1, and Jacob 0.5, Jenny ran 3 with Sarah), and ran the last 1.5 in 8:54.9. It was very hard. I had not done a true long run in a while. I felt low on fuel. But the muscle memory helped and I was able to push through the low fuel signals.

Much needed day of rest. Went to church. Today was a special day. Benjamin received the Priesthood. He is becoming more of a man in a number of ways. 

The lesson in Sunday school was on scriptures. The Elder's quorum lesson was on service. The talks in Sacrament were on using faith to handle adversity. 

A.M. My regular 12 mile run. Some of it with the kids. Benjamin did 3, Jenny and Julia 2, Joseph 1, and Jacob 0.5. I did a pickup for the last 0.5 in 2:54.