Breaking the Wall

Day of rest. Watched the General Conference.  My favorite talk was by President Uchdorf with his two word sermon: "Stop it" regarding our tendency to get offended and hold grudges, and his mention of the bumper sticker: "Do not judge me because I sin differently than you". I also liked Elder Nelson's: "Can an explosion at a printing shop produce a dictionary?" in reference to the Big Bang theory, and Elder Rasband's "Do you ask a drowning person if he needs help, or do you just jump in and help?"

A.M. Ran with Benjamin and Jeremy. Did a 0.6 pre-VPB pickup, felt strong. Dropped Benjamin off at 6, ran 2 more with Jeremy, 2 more alone, and 2 more with Jenny and Julia. Total of 12.

P.M. Ran 1 mile with Jacob and Joseph. Joseph wanted to earn a trip to the Y on the mountain. Normally we take our kids there when they turn 8 as a right of passage of sorts. But he wanted it early. So I told him he had to run sub-8:00 on our course slightly longer than 1 mile hilly course. He ran 7:49. Jacob did 8:14, which is also his new record.

A.M. Ended up doing a medium long run of sorts. Started with a 5 mile warm-up. Then did hill sprints. This time there were more like hill strides because I did not want a repeat of hamstring fiasco of last week. I did 6 of them up 334 foot stretch up 6% grade in 19.0, 18.6, 18.4, 18.2, 18.0, and 18.0. The hamstring still tightened up, but it did not bother me as much as last week, I could still run mostly normal pace after that. Then I ran 6 with Benjamin, including a post-VPB 600 in 1:53. The hamstring began to fuss after the first quarter, but I managed to maintain the pace in spite of it. Then I ran another 3 with Julia and Sarah. Jenny ran 1, she was having leg problems from her accelerated growth. She is now about 5-4, about half an inch taller than Benjamin, even though she is only 11.

P.M. 1 with Jacob and Joseph. Then Joseph joined me for another 2 on a bike. I was not sure how he was going to handle it. His bike has only one gear, he is 7 years old, and the course is hilly with grades up to 6% in places. Julia struggled on that course last time I took her. However, Joseph did not. He kept up with me just fine on the hills, and our time for a little over 2 miles was 14:53.  

A.M. Ran with Benjamin and Jeremy. They warmed up with me, then did the start of my tempo. My workout was 2 miles uphill, then 1 mile jogging recovery, and 3 downhill. Jeremy made it to about 900 meters up, the split at 800 was 2:53. Benjamin made it past 1100 all the way to his turnaround. The split at 1000 was 3:35, and at 0.75 4:19. My mile split was 5:50 as the next quarter brought on some serious headwind. The next mile was 5:59, so 11:49.9 for 2 miles. I was feeling tired from yesterday's 18 mile day, and decided to take it a little easier in the 3 mile downhill tempo. First mile was 5:21. Then I fell into a coasting grove where 83 quarters felt good, but anything faster did not, so I coasted like that for 1.5 miles. Second mile was 5:32, and the next 0.5 was 2:46. Consistent, but slow. Passed a guy that wanted  me to tell him what I was training for. I did not have either the time or the lung capacity to give him any kind of answer, much less the one that I would have wanted to give him. But I will give it here. The moment you begin to insist on training for concrete immediate goals such as a particular race you reduce yourself to being slower than your potential because training properly involves long-term conditioning. It also involves a change of lifestyle, and a creation of good habits. Thus to say "train for a race" is an erroneous oversimplification of the process.  You train to be fit, and when you have the fitness or you want to test your fitness you race. You may introduce race-specific elements into your training to make sure you do well in a race of particular importance. But all of that is minor details compared to the issue of general fitness, which most recreational runners seriously lack ironically due to the mindset of "train for a race". With no race in near view they stop training consistently and lose whatever fitness they may have gained by "training for a race". Without training being a solid year-round process they are not able to progress. With that in mind, I never think too much about which race I am training for. When you are fast, there will always be a race to prove it. I just train to be faster and once in a while I race to evaluate the quality of my training. 

With 0.5 to go I began to question if I was just holding back, or perhaps maybe I was tricking myself and 5:32 pace was really all I had in me today. So I decided to see if I could speed up to 5:20. The effort was successful. I ran two quarters in 79 each, which gave me 5:24 for the last mile, and 16:17.3 for the 3 miles.

Finished the 10.5, then added 2 more with Julia. Jenny took a break to let her muscles and tendons heal. Total of 12.5.

P.M. 1 with Joseph and Jacob in 8:34, 2 more with Joseph on a bike. He surprised me by maintaining 7:00 pace on the uphill. Our time was 14:21 for 2 miles. 

A.M. Ran 8 with Jeremy, then 4 with Benjamin, Julia did 3 of that. Did a post-VPB 0.5 in 2:39. Jenny rested trying get her muscles to heal.

P.M. 1 with Joseph and Jacob, then 2 more with Joseph on a bike. 

A.M. Ran with Jeremy, Benjamin, and Gary. Benjamin did 5, still recovering from the stomach flu. I paced Jeremy and Gary through a 4 mile tempo, which we did at slightly sub-7:00 pace. The weather was challenging - snow and wind changing directions. I did a post-VPB pickup for 700 meters uphill. The first quarter was 91, the next 300 1:03 with the same effort. So going from 6:04 pace to 5:36 as the wind all of a sudden changed directions. Then ran 2 alone and 2 with Julia. Total of 12.

P.M. 1 with Joseph and Jacob, 2 more with Joseph on a bike. 

A.M. Started with Chad, Jeremy, and Benjamin. Benjamin turned around after 3 to make it 6. I started the uphill 3 mile tempo after about 2.3 miles. It was one weird day. The wind was blowing as usual, but felt not too bad. So I went through the first mile in 6:02 feeling quite good and  thinking the others will be somewhere around 6:10, maybe 6:20 if the wind picks up. The second mile was 6:20, and I could not understand why - I was not feeling bad, nor did the wind feel like it picked up, but I was getting progressively slower with every quarter.  Then I did not feel the wind too much, but for some odd reason the next mile was 6:49 giving me 19:11 for 3 miles. I turned around and ran an 89 quarter until I met Chad and Jeremy. I was still wondering how in the world I could have run a 6:49 mile with a tempo effort. Then Jeremy turned around, and I ran with Chad. I stopped for a VPB, then ran to catch up. The catch up mile was 6:17, and it felt weird as well. There was some headwind and uphill, but it should have been sub-6:00 with that effort. Last week I was catching up to Jeremy in the same spot and going in the same direction and hit 5:40 pace quite comfortably. I felt like I all of a sudden for some odd reason I was running with a shorter stride, and began to wonder if there was some kind of health problem involved. Then I noticed that part of my face was numb. It was fairly cold, and I was wearing just shorts and a T-shirt. My hands were cold as well. Chad went on to the 9 mile turnaround, and I ran another 3 mile tempo this time in the opposite direction - tail wind and downhill. I went through the first mile in 5:51, but in some ways it felt like 5:20, and for the life of me I could not go any faster. Then the next two miles were 5:43 average, and I ended up with 17:13 for 3 miles. At this point the pace started feeling more normal, although still not 100%, and I wanted to go further, but it was time to turn around and meet Chad.

So I ran back for another 1.5 miles and re-joined with Chad. I was planning on a nice relaxing 6:30 pace that would eventually deteriorate into a more relaxing 6:50 or even 7:10, but Chad surprised me. For about 2 miles he was going 6:00. Then he slowed down to 6:15. If there was any relaxation for me, it happened in the last mile, which we did in 6:58. Chad averaged 6:15 in the last 9 miles of 18. 

When we got to the house, I was at 19 total, and Chad was at 18. I took Jacob and Joseph for a mile, and Chad joined us for one more mile. It ended up being a brisk mile for a cool-down with Joseph running 8:18, and Jacob 8:24 on a hilly course. 

Jenny and Julia ran 2 miles. 

Day of rest. Went to church. The talks in the Sacrament meeting were on resurrection, which is traditional for Easter. One of the speakers was a recently returned missionary. I spent a good portion of the Sunday School lesson in nursery providing company for Stephen. He seemed to have calmed down, but five minutes after I had left the nursery leaders brought him back to me. He behaved very well through the rest of Sunday School and in the Elder's Quorum, where the lesson was on immortality of the soul from the teachings of President George Albert Smith.  I say Stephen is thinking - forget that nursery nonsense, I am ready for the strong meat of the Elder's Quorum.

A.M. Ran the warm-up with Benjamin. I was still bothered by the 6:49 mile on Saturday and wanted to get a better understanding of how it happened. So I repeated the 3 mile uphill tempo. The conditions were similar wind-wise, but it was warmer. The first mile was 5:58, then 6:10, and 6:31 to produce a total of 18:39 for 3 miles. That was more reasonable, especially considering that one quarter was 1:44 when the wind picked up to the point of stopping me dead in my tracks. So without that quarter I averaged 6:20, which is acceptable for that section.

On the way back I decided to stretch my legs with a quick downhill mile, and did it in 5:14. Then I rejoined with Benjamin and we finished the run. Then I added 2 miles with Jenny in 16:53, which is a progress for her as she has been struggling with injuries and growth. Total distance was 12.6 miles. Julia ran 1 mile, recovering from a stomach flu.

P.M.  1 mile with Joseph and Jacob, 2 with Joseph on a bike.

A.M. Ran 3 with Benjamin, then he turned around and I ran more. Still felt like I had an ax to grind against the hill and the headwind. So I ran the nasty mile in 6:09 shaking my fist at it. On the way back did it 5:12. Ran home, then added 2 miles with Julia. Jenny did 1, was dealing with a sick stomach. Total of 12 miles.

P.M. 1 with Joseph and Jacob, then 2 more. 

A.M. Ran with Jeremy. Did a 4 mile tempo, 2 up and 2 down. Jeremy joined me for the first 0.5 and a middle quarter on the way back. The tempo splits were 5:55, 6:03, 5:29, 5:14 - 22:41.9 for the whole thing. Then ran 2 with Julia - Jenny did 1, and finished 2 more with Benjamin. He ran total of 6. I ended up with 12.6 for the run.

P.M. 1 with Joseph and Jacob, then 2 more alone. 

A.M. Ran with Benjamin and Jeremy. Benjamin did 6, Jeremy 8. Then added 5 more including 2 with Joseph and Julia, and 1 with Jacob. Did a pickup for 0.5 in 2:38.

A.M. Ran with Benjamin and Jeremy. Benjamin did 6, Jeremy 8. Then I did 2 with Julia, and 2 more alone. Jenny ran 1. Total of 12.

P.M. 3.25 total. 1.6 with Jacob and Joseph, then the rest with Joseph riding a bike. 

A.M. Long run. Started with Jeremy and Benjamin. Benjamin went 3, then turned around, total of 6. Jeremy did 16. I did a catch-up mile in 6:09 uphill into the wind, then on the way back ran a tempo. My time for the first 10 was 1:15:25. Then I felt sluggish starting out the tempo, but about 4 miles into it found a decent rhythm. Caught the Air Force ROTC guys doing their 2 mile test. At first I caught the back of the pack, but it gradually kept getting faster, very gradually so that it was difficult to notice. So I still thought I was passing the 8:00, maybe 7:30 pace group when I heard their timer announce 6:53 mile split for whoever I was passing. Then I realized that pretty soon I will be seeing guys that are running it in sub-13:00 and maybe one of them will run with me when he starts to kick. This is pretty much what happened. I kept passing them until about 200 to go, then one of them passed me back and I latched on behind him. His time ended up being 12:24. My quarter around that spot was 80. The earlier ones were around 83. I was happy that there was an 80 quarter in me mid-run around mile 17. But I think it wore me out, because the rest of the run was difficult. Part of it was the wind changing direction around that time, but part of it, I think is the fatigue from that surge. But it is good to feel this fatigue because you will feel it, and more than that in the marathon. So I did my 3 mile stretch with the splits of 5:37, 5:34, 5:39 in 16:50, after that I was cruising at slightly sub-6:00. Total time for 10 was 57:39. My heart felt tired this time unlike 2 weeks ago.

Jenny and Julia ran 2. Benjamin ran 1 with Joseph and Jacob in the afternoon.

Day of rest. Went to church as usual. It was a Fast Sunday. We had a testimony meeting. Then a lesson in Sunday school on Jacob 5, the allegory of the olive tree. Then a lesson on temples in the Elder's Quorum.

A.M. Ran with Jeremy and Benjamin. We did 8.25 miles. I did two pickups - 1000 uphill in 3:38, and 800 down in 2:38. Then I did 2 with Jenny and Julia, and 2 alone. Total of 12.25.

P.M. 1 mile with Jacob, and 1 mile with Joseph, total of 2.

A.M. 8.25 with Jeremy. Did a pickup for 600 in 1:57. 2 more with Benjamin, Sarah ran 1 of those, then 2 more with Jenny and Julia. Total of 12..25. Benjamin ran 5.

P.M. Paced Joseph in his mile record attempt. He ran 7:37 on our hilly course. Benjamin ran with Jacob. 

A.M. Ran with Benjamin and Jeremy. Benjamin did 7, Jeremy 8. I did the tempo workout. 2 miles uphill, then 3 mile downhill after a mile jog recovery. Benjamin stayed with me through the first mile of the uphill tempo, which I did in 5:53. Jeremy made it to about half mile. The second mile was 5:57, giving me 11:50..3 for 2 miles. In the downhill tempo I ran 15:56.6 with the splits of 5:16, 5:23, 5:17. After the first mile I started drifting into slower than 5:20 pace, and it went on like that to 1.75 mark. Then I said, enough of that, and decided to monitor my splits every 100 meters until I was back on pace, and then every 200 meters after that. That worked, I was able to kick myself out of the rut, there was only one 200 after that that was 41, every other was 40 or faster. In the absence of a strong training partner that will be annoyed by a slower than 5:20 pace, I think the next best thing is 100 meter splits and visualization. 

So it was 10.5 before I got to the house. Then I ran 2 with Jenny and Julia. After about 0.8 Julia wanted to go faster, so I went with her, while Jenny stayed back. Julia ended up running 7:59 for the last more than a mile stretch, which is uphill. I still need to measure it with the wheel to know exactly how far it is. Her total time was 16:49 for two of those stretches which I round off to 2 miles, but it is more.

Total of 12.5 miles for the run.

P.M. 1 with Joseph and Jacob. 

A.M. Started with a 4 mile warm-up, then did 6x100 uphill near the house. The splits were 18.3, 18.1, 17.8, 17.6, 17.0, 17.0. 17.0 is my new record for that stretch. No hamstring problems. I was happy about both the speed and the safety progress.

Then I ran 6.25 with Benjamin. We did 2x100 as well, this time coming out of the canyon, so I would say aided, but for a sprint it is not so much. I've done a workout once where I I did 100s in the canyon, then immediately drove to the track, and was able to repeat the "aided" times on the track. Those were not slow for me either, somewhere around 14.6 - 14.8. That was back in 2005. Our times today were 15.0 and 14.8. I was happy about that, not only the times, but also how it felt. I could visualize myself running 800 if not the mile like this if I could just find a way to relax some more, and be more efficient. Even though I could not find a way to run faster, I felt it was not because of strength, but more because I did not know what to do with my legs at those speeds.

Then I did 2 miles with Jenny and Julia. Total of 12.25. 

P.M. Jacob and Joseph ran a mile time trial on the track at Orem High. I paced Joseph while Benjamin paced Jacob. Joseph ran 7:09.3 with the following splits by 400: 1:44, 1:49, 1:47, 1:46, and 3 seconds for the last 9.34 meters.  Jacob ran 8:00.4. His splits were fairly even with around 2:00 - 2:01 per lap, and his last lap was 1:58. 

A.M. Did 3 miles with Julia, Jenny did 2. Then 9 more alone. Did a couple of tempo pickups. First a mile in 5:51 uphill into a headwind. On the way back, the last 1.5 in 8:40 which included uphill to the house. Total of 12. miles.

P.M. 1 with Jacob and Joseph. 

A.M. Celebrated my 39th birthday by pacing Chad through the Uneventful Provo River Half-Marathon, or in other words we drove up to the start and Chad did a time trial. The target was 6:00 whenever possible, and I was thinking it would be nice if we got a low 1:20, or maybe even a little under. In fact I was thinking that after we had finished the first half.  But then I moved up front and for an experiment decided to see how Chad would handle 5:52 pace. He groaned, but was not falling back. So we did my 3 mile tempo stretch in 17:34 and caught up to the 6:00 guy who slipped away from us during the uphill/headwind detour earlier. Then we held on to 6:00 or around that in the last mile. The finishing time was 1:18:42.

During the run I felt sluggish. The pace did not feel like a jog, I felt I had to concentrate. In fact, until we got to the headwind, we were running side by side and I made zero effort to push the pace letting Chad take the initiative. Even when I moved forward once we hit the headwind, I could tell I was going too slow at first as Chad kept running into me. However, around 3 miles, and around 8 I had to make a VPB stop, falling back by about 30 seconds each time and both times caught up in a little over half mile with what felt like my own half-marathon race pace effort. So I did have another gear, but for one reason or another was very reluctant to shift into it. Maybe it was psychological. I told myself - you are pacing a 1:18 half that will likely deteriorate into 1:20 later on, and my body refused to work any harder than it had to. 

Overall, I think this sluggishness on my part ended up being a plus because it happened to hit Chad's fitness level right on the dot and he ended up with a 4 minute + PR.

We jogged to make the total 20. During the cooldown we met Benjamin and he joined us. He ran the total of 8 miles, having run 1 mile with Joseph, and 1 mile with Jacob earlier. Jenny and Julia ran 2 miles. 

Day of rest. Went to church. Had recently returned missionaries speak in the Sacrament meeting again. We get those quite often in this ward, I think recently it's been almost every other week. One talk mentioned a 9-year-old girl in Zambia who is the only member of the Church in her family that walked to church alone for an hour each Sunday. I think there is an aspect to the missionary program of the Church that does not get frequent enough attention. Those who are in the church take it for granted, those who are not are not close enough to the Church to be aware of it. There are thousands of young men and women that would not otherwise even know where countries like Zambia are that end up dedicating two years of their lives to serving in those countries learning the language and becoming intimately familiar with their culture. Their parents and grandparents would not otherwise know where those countries are. I understand that we are not unique in sending missionaries to other countries. Where we are unique is that we send them by assignment for two years and expect them to learn the language. We also expect them to do more than just preach the good word. They are expected to figure out what they need to do to convince people to make significant changes in their lifestyle. Anybody who has served a mission will know the difference between telling people to do better and seeing through to make sure they actually do better. You cannot get away with a superficial approach. If you do not immerse yourself into what the people you are working with live you will not succeed.

When I lived in Russia I happened to run into an influx of foreign, mostly American, missionaries when things opened up. However, it was not until I had met the LDS missionaries that I found somebody who has some depth behind them. They were the ones that were not afraid to invest their skin into the matter, so to speak. This was definitely a plus. While the message alone was convincing enough for me, to observe the messenger living up to the message made it even easier to believe.

A.M. Did 10 alone + 2 with Jenny and Julia. Benjamin had a sore throat, ran just 1 mile.

P.M. 2 with Joseph. Jacob ran 1. 

A.M. Did a tempo run. 2 miles up in 11:56, then 3 miles down in 16:14. The two mile tempo went OK, the splits were 5:56 - 6:00. Then in the 3 mile tempo I started with a 5:19, but then lost steam and dragged the next two miles in 5:27 and 5:28. Wore an HRM today for the first time in several months. On the uphill after the first mile HR was around 154, then it climbed to 159 in the second mile. On the down tempo it hit 159 after the first mile then was stuck at 156 and refused to go higher until I kicked in the last quarter in 78, then it was around 160. I had to kick in 78 to run 5:28 mile, so that shows how I was dragging in between.

I think the problem was the accumulated lack of sleep. Got home, turned around, ran at about 6:00 for 0.8 to catch up to Jenny, Julia, and Sarah, then finished the run with Jenny and Julia. Total of 12.5 miles.

Benjamin ran 1 mile. 

P.M. 2 miles with Joseph. Jacob ran 1.  Benjamin did 1.

A.M. Total of 12. Benjamin did 3. Jenny and Julia 2. I did 1 uphill in 5:51, and 2 down in 10:36. It felt better than yesterday, the nap helped.

P.M. 2 miles with Joseph, Jacob ran 1 with us. 

A.M. Ran 2 with Jenny and Julia, then 4 with Benjamin. Then did hill sprints, 334 feet on my usual stretch. The splits were 18.6, 18.2, 17.6, 17.5, 17.2, 17.3. Then ran 5 more miles, did a pickup for 0.75 in 3:49, it felt good, felt like things were clicking together.

P.M. 2 with Joseph, Jacob did 1 of them. 

A.M. Started with 2 with Jenny and Julia. Then Benjamin did 4 today again, the first 2 with me.  I continued into the canyon. On the way back I ran a mile down but into a headwind in 5:12. Then at the very end I did a pickup for 0.5 in 2:53.

P.M. 2 with Joseph, Jacob did 1 of them. 

A.M. Total of 20. Started with Benjamin, he went to 2.5 and then turned around making it a total of 5. Jenny and Julia did 2. On the way up I ran a 2 mile tempo. Wore an HRM. It was a bit colder this morning, maybe 40F, but there was a headwind on the way up. I had an experience similar to two weeks ago, except this time I had an HRM to gather some numbers. So my splits in the 2 mile tempo were 6:06 - 6:14, total of 12:20. HR for the most of it was stuck at 146. This is a good HR for 6:10 pace uphill into a headwind. The problem is that I could not go any faster, and I felt like I was not getting enough oxygen even though there was not a whole lot of air going into the lungs. So essentially I was experiencing what I normally would when it is 10 F, even though it was much warmer than that. I am wondering if I have developed a circulation problem of some kind, need to get it checked out.

On the way back I ran a 10 mile tempo. The wind turned around, and was actually quite strong. I had a weird experience again. For a long time I could not bring my HR over 140. I was still going around 6:00 down South Fork even with that low of an HR because the grade is quite steep. But for the life of me I could not speed up. Then I got out onto the Provo River Trail and was maintaining slightly sub-6:00 on average, but HR was stuck at 142. When the headwind eased off or I hit a sunny spot, I would speed up to 5:45 or even 5:40 with HR going to 146, but the headwind came back and HR would drop to 142 and so would the pace. On the positive side of things, I hit more warmer spots on the 3 mile tempo stretch and was able to beat the time from last week split by 1 second with 17:33. Total time for 10 was 59:22.

So this is really odd. What's up with this HR drop into a headwind? 5:55 pace at 142 HR into a headwind down 1-2% grade is good, shows good efficiency, I am quite happy with that. What I am not happy about is that for the life of me I did not have another gear with the headwind blowing. I tried upping the turnover, still no result. The moment the headwind stopped all of a sudden I could up the HR to 146 and go faster. Two suspects I can think of. A blood circulation problem, or some weird biomechanical issue that makes me not use all of the muscles when the headwind is blowing. But that problem was not there on Tuesday when it was warmer. So I am thinking it is circulation.

P.M. 2 with Joseph. Jacob did 1 with us. 

Day of rest. Went to church as usual. Sarah and I were the speakers in the Sacrament meeting today. Our talks were on Matthew 22:35-37 - the two great commandments of the law - love God and love thy neighbor. Then we had a lesson on king Benjamin's sermon in Mosiah 2-4, and a combined priesthood, relief society, and young men and women meeting where the bishop talked about family history.

A.M Ran 6 with Benjamin. Jenny and Julia did the first 2 with us. Then did a blood circulation declogging workout. The working theory is that the reason I have a hard time hitting decent HR and particularly struggle with that when the weather is a bit colder is that there is some kind of congestion in the circulatory system. My plan to test the theory - increase intake of fiber, take Dr. Christopher's Blood Circulation formula, and do workouts that maximize HR and keep it high for as long as possible. The thought is that there is some gunk that does not get washed off the walls of the pipe unless you have a particularly strong flow. So I wanted to do an experiment to see what would max out the HR. I heard of some research that showed you get good results with 30 seconds fast/30 seconds slow. So I tried a variant of that - 200 meters fast, 100 meters slow. It did not seem to work too well, 200 of fast running was not enough for me to get the HR too high - I hit around 156 eventually. Fast was 40 seconds into the headwind/uphill, and 36 downhill/with tail wind. Slow was about 8:00 pace, or 30 seconds for 100 meters. Then I tried a 600 after about 300 of rest due to the marks being painted over. Well, I got to rest 300 and figured I needed to go 600 to make up. This time I managed to hit 164 after hitting the quarter in 70, but then I could not hold the HR and it dropped to 162 with the pace dropping to 37 for the last 200, and I ended up with 1:47.8 for 600.

P.M. 2 with Joseph, Jacob did 1 with us.