Breaking the Wall

A.M. Ran with Jeff. 10.1 in 1:18:34. Did explosions. Also, did a fat 0.5 in 3:01 in the middle, and another fat mile in 6:14 at the end. Had a hard time getting the fat feeling probably due to the explosions earlier. So I learned that the fat pick-up does not work in combination with explosions. Of course, it does not. Explosions stir up the adrenal glands, you will have a hard time forcing yourself to run on fat after that. So I need to choose whether to do explosions or the fat pickups. I think I'll still keep doing the explosions and do fat pickups just to keep Jeff company.

Later 2 with Benjamin in  17:34

P.M. 2 with Jenny in 19:34. Julia ran the first 1.5 in 15:12.

A.M. Ran the Law Day 5 K, 17:23.6 officially, 7th place. 17:21 on my watch. Everybody had about a 2 second difference between the watch and the official time, so I assume the time was started a little early. Not surprising because nobody could hear the "Go" command and we just assumed that it happened and started running.

The course is a beast, first half uphill, second half downhill back to the start, but with a whole lot of sharp turns. To make things worse, it rained almost like in the days of Noah, not a good day to race on the hills, either up or down, and especially to try to turn at high speeds.

Three years ago this was still a race easily winnable in 17:42 with the second place not in sight. But the times have changed, and I think they have changed for the better. Some law firms are really interested in winning this race as a team, and every year things have been getting progressively competitive. So this year Chad recruited Jeff and I to run for his team to help him keep his job. I said earlier on the forum that the reason the Kenyans beat Americans is this. A Kenyan boy is doomed to poverty if he does not get serious about his running. An American boy is doomed to poverty if he does. I would say if at least ten law firms in every city the size of Salt Lake viewed competitive racing seriously enough to put together a team to represent them in a competition, I would take back the second half of my original statement, and the Kenyans would not be beating us anymore. So far there have been only two, and only in Salt Lake, but let's reward them with a link to boost their Google rankings:  Manning Curtis Bradshaw & Bednar and Olson Shaner.

So the teams were:

Manning Curtis Bradshaw & Bednar : Jeff McClellan, Josh Steffen, me, Emily Bates (winner of Moab Half in 1:22, 17:22 5 K at sea level), and Aimee Larkin (2:46 St. George marathoner).

Olson Shaner : Teren Jameson,  Thatcher Olsen, lost sheep Neal Ferrin, Sue Nielsen (she almost chicked me in Draper Days 2003 running 16:20 vs mine 16:06), and Emily Jameson.

I did not feel the greatest going into the race, and ran accordingly. Nevertheless, our bacon was saved with great performances by Jeff, Josh, and our Emily, and a couple of relative underperformances by Olson Shaner. We ended up winning cumulatively by 3 seconds. One nice thing about a team race is that when you have a bummer your teammates can pick up the slack.

I got dropped by everybody pretty much from the gun and ran in fear of being chicked hoping not to let the team down too much. First mile was uphill, and I ran it in 5:43. I still could see Jeff trying to hang on to Teren, and wondering if today may be the day he would beat him. This would be a stretch, though, as Jeff had only two weeks from his marathon, and he does not recover that fast yet.

At the start of the second mile I saw  Teren gap Jeff, but Jeff was still fighting. I wished I was not having as much of a bummer so I could be a little bit closer to watch. I like the story of Elijah and Elisha in the Old Testament in 2 Kings :

And it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said unto Elisha, Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee. And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me.

2 K split was 7:28. Ouch. Talk about running slow up that hill. Trying to stay positive and reel in Andrew Hansen. Maybe Thatcher and Neal after that. Timed the gaps at the turn shortly before 3 K - 9:43 for Thatcher and Neal, 9:49 for Andrew, 9:59 for me. Telling myself to use Andrew as a magnet to get the fastest possible time.

3 K in 10:58, 2 miles in 11:36. One of those would have had to be off, there was a turn in between those marks, and not a whole lot of downhill.

4 K in 14:06. Downhill. Starting to feel better. Thinking the race is not going as much down to pot as I originally imagined after that first mile.

3 miles in 16:47. Trying to stay in touch with Andrew, but just too wet, and too many turns.

Finish: Teren 15:53, Jeff 16:09, Josh 16:32, Thatcher 16:50, Neal 17:06, Andrew 17:08. Full results at Milliseconds Website.

Afterwards ran a cool-down with Jeff, and then went to Benjamin's chess tournament right there at the University of Utah, very convenient. Because I was going to be out of the home for a long time I did not want to run full 20 miles. So I ended up with 10.5 miles for this run.

I found out that kid chess in Utah is a whole lot more competitive than running. In the state cross country championship they had only about 25-30 runners in the entire Bantum division. In chess they had 70 players in just the 4th grade. Most of them rated, which means they had played in tournaments before. Benjamin was one of the few non-rated players. He played very well winning 3 games, drawing once,and losing twice. I was impressed that over several hours of playing he never lost a piece in a blunder. Both times he lost the opponent had to earn it winning on pawns at the end.  The ethnic diversity was also interesting. A whole lot of Oriental kids, also a lot of Latinos. Both times he lost he played Orientals. He ended up taking 20th place out 70 players. For a comparison, in Cross Country he took 6th racing kids a year older and taking a wrong turn.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 16:58. Jenny and Julia ran their usual distances with Sarah.

Day of rest. Went to church.

A.M. Ran with Ted, Jeff, and Ben Crozier. Paced Ben through The Uneventful Half-Marathon in 1:40:40. Ted turned around after 4.5 miles so he would get 6, Jeff turned around 2 miles later to get 10. I had 4 VPBs and did not stop my watch on those, so my time was probably about 2 minutes faster. I did about 0.5 of marathon pace running catching up.

If anybody ever wants to be paced in the Uneventful Half let me know. Great way to find out what you can do in the half without paying $40 for it or more. And you get a personal pacer/bottle carrier as a bonus as well. Although if you are running 1:15 I probably would not volunteer to carry your bottle, but then you won't need it. Anything between 1:50 and 1:15 is good, I can find a way to make it fit into my training schedule. The course is a loop starting at my house but most of it is on the Provo River Trail. Not super fast, but not terribly slow either. Appears flat, but there are a lot of bridges, and there is a very gradual grade. You are following a river after all, if there was no grade it would not flow.

Tested Jeff's wife Kimia's top end speed. At first she ran 101.5 meters on the road in 19.9, but 100 was too long to be a fair measurement of her speed.  I noticed that she was a lot faster in the first 30 meters, in fact, so fast that it took me a while to catch up. So we did it one more time, this time she was going to run 30 meters and then I was going to hold pace to the finish of the 101.5. I ended up with 17.7.

Added 2 more with Benjamin in 15:36. Did explosions. He ran his last mile in 6:52.

P.M. 2 with Jenny in 19:20. Julia ran the first 1.5 in 14:43.

A.M. 10.1 with Jeff in 1:18:10. Did a couple of explosions, fat 0.5 in 2:59, and the last fat mile in 6:03. Discussed computers and then later the role of adrenal glands in a long race. The hypothesis is that you can slow down at the end of a long race due to adrenal fatigue, and that perhaps my "neural fatigue" is more precisely adrenal fatigue. The adrenal glands are not strong enough to sustain 5:30 pace for 2+ hours.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 18:01. 2 with Jenny in 19:20. Julia ran the first 1.5 in 14:43.

A.M. Ran with Ted and Jeff. Dropped Ted off at 6. Total time for 10 miles was 1:16:38.

P.M. Julia ran 1.5 with Sarah. 2 with Jenny in 17:56. Benjamin was sick, did not run.

A.M. Ran with Jeff. Accidentally met up with Ted and two ROTC cadets, ran with them for a couple of miles. Did explosions. Did two fat miles. The first one was around 6 miles into the run, and we did it in 5:58. It was perfectly flat. The second one was the last mile of the run, so bridges and slight uphill. We ran it in 6:14. Counted breathing rate in the last quarter, which was done in 1:30 (6:00 pace). Jeff breathed 35 times a minute, while I did 44 times a minute. Clearly he is breathing a whole lot less frequently than I do. Wonder what that means aside from the obvious and true conclusion that 6:00 pace is easier for him than it is for me.

P.M. 2 with Jenny in 20:24. Julia ran 1.5 in 15:24. 1 with Benjamin in 9:38.

A.M. Ran with Ted, Jeff, and Colby. Did a pickup for a quarter at 5:20 pace and counted my breathing rate. 51 breaths per minute. What is interesting is that it takes me the same number of breaths to cover the same distance at 6:00 as it does at 5:20 pace, except I do it faster because it takes less time to run the distance. 32 breaths per minute at 7:20 pace.  Ted and Colby turned around at 3 miles, Jeff and I went on and marked the race course as we went. I did explosions early in the run, and then we ran a fat mile in 5:58 at the end of 10.1. Total time was 1:18:36.

P.M. Technical feat - got Microvision Flic Barcode Scanner ($99 online) to worth with Nokia 770 Internet Tablet over Bluetooth, so now the scanner can be used wirelessly for the race tomorrow. This is officially not supported, so I had to get my hands dirty. If anybody is interested, there are two tricks. One, to get them to pair you need to put a line

scanner_addr 0000

into /var/lib/bluetooth/nokia_addr/pincodes.  Replace scanner_addr and nokia_addr with the actual bluetooth hardware adresses of the devices.This secret was discovered with the help of strace. Good old strace has saved my rear end many times. Trick number  two was to reverse engineer the data transfer protocol, but fortunately Brendan Johan Lee had already done it for me. So I ported his driver to run on Nokia 770 and log the barcodes to a file along with a time stamp.  My hack is available for those who needed it.

Ran 1 with Benjamin in 8:22, and 2 with Jenny in 18:52. Julia was not feeling well and did not run.

A.M. Fast Running Blog 5 Miler For Frugality And Against Obesity, 27:11, 2nd pace.

Results at  http://fastrunningblog.com/reg/show_results.php?race_id=138

This was an interesting experience. This was the first race I have ever directed. I figured if somebody wanted (more) cash I'd make him work for it, so I jumped in the race myself too. After all, this was a race for frugality, so I figured it would be a good idea to make the Fast Running Blog investment count to the highest extend.

Sarah, the kids, Ted, Kimia, and a few others helped with the race logistics, which made it a lot more manageable. We got organized, and got the race started.

Jeff and I quickly pulled away from the competition. First mile in 5:14. Felt easy. Jeff had already run 15 miles at around 6:20 prior to the start to simulate running on low fuel. So he said to me he wanted to go faster to run out of fuel. I asked him to hold back for one more mile. Two reasons. One, I did not want to run 4 miles alone. Two, I did not want Jeff to run out of fuel prematurely. So he agreed and backed off. A bit too much. Second mile in 5:24. That started to feel way too easy.

Then Jeff picked it up. I went with him, but after a 200 in 38 I realized it was not a good idea, too fast. So I eased off to 5:20 pace. Hit the turnaround in 13:17, on pace for course PR, that is exactly what I got in August 2007. Incidentally Jeff was with me. Except back then he was not as fast, so he could not drop me even fresh, much less after running a brisk 15. So he stayed with me until one quarter to go, and then I dropped him and we got 26:48 vs 26:50.

However, as soon as I made 180, my adrenaline was gone. Not surprising, directing even a low-profile race does carry a measure of stress, so when racing at PR level you are going to feel it. At least that is what I think happened. I have noticed that some days I recover from a 180 or a hill just fine. However, other days, a hill or a 180 breaks me badly. Textbook exercise physiology says, well you have work harder to get back up to speed (or run harder up a hill), so you build up too much lactic acid, and then cannot recover. There is something not quite right with this explanation. Try as I might I cannot push my RER past 1.06 even when I am doing quarters every week. With no interval work it stalls at 1.04. That is in a 5-10 minute V02 test, not in a 5 mile race or tempo run. For a comparison, a middle distance runner can get up to 1.15. While RER is not a direct measurement of lactate levels, it should correlate pretty closely. RER is the ratio carbon dioxide out to oxygen in. If it is greater than 1, you are into oxygen debt. So in short, the measurements have shown I do not have a whole lot of ability to go into oxygen debt.

I have previously thought that this difficulty of handling changes of pace might have something to do with the nervous system not being able to go into overdrive. Recently, though, I am leaning towards the adrenal failure theory. It takes quite a bit of adrenaline to run 5:20 pace. You can be aerobically and muscularly fit, but if the adrenaline is not there, the heart would not beat fast enough, you would not breathe hard enough, and the glycogen in the muscles will not be made available fast enough. The symptoms seem to match. HR drops to the right level for the pace, but for the life of me cannot go up any higher even for 50 meters. The breathing slows down. The legs do not hurt, they just cannot go any faster for no apparent reason.

So to make the long story short, I slowed down. 16:04 at 3 miles (5:26, but the last 0.5 at 5:34 pace), 21:38 at 4 (5:34), and the last mile in 5:33.

I was happy with the performance, though. I missed my course PR by 23 seconds, but I could run the first half on pace, and it felt easy. And I did not die too badly.

Jeff won with 26:35, Steve Cutitta was 3rd with 28:18. Mary Ann won the womens with 29:45, and chicked everybody else.

When I finished I made sure the finish chute was being handled, and ran back to Benjamin. He ran 39:10. He was still not fully recovered from getting sick a couple of days ago, so I was not expecting a whole lot. But at least he could run 7:50 pace.

Finished timing everybody, ran 1.5 to the house with Julia in 16:37, then ate a snack (two bananas and evaporated cane juice magic drink), and then went for more punishment/conditioning. Decided I would run the Uneventful Half in 1:20 for a challenge.

Ran the first mile in 6:13, second about the same, no mark due to altered course (due to flooding under the bridge), then eased into 6:00, then a little under, and coasted hoping I would not crash too badly. Kept it under 6:00 for a while until I started hitting the uphill and the bridge tunnels. Slowed down to 6:08, felt embarrassed, an odd feeling, I was still passing runners on the trail pretty fast, including bikers, but I still felt embarrassed because it felt slow and I could not go faster.

Then turned around past Maceys, and started heading downhill. A welcome relief, now 5:52-5:56 pace again, but that's all I've got. With 100 meters to go my prayers were answered. When I hit the desperate plateau I started praying for help to get out of it. Finally the Lord sent me help. It was a little feisty dog. It started barking at me and chasing me. I knew what I was supposed to do - get angry at it and run faster. But I had a very hard time. Finished with 1:18:47, a little slower than 6:00 average.

P.M. 2 with Jenny in 19:41. Hiked the Y with Sarah for a date as well. It took us 24:36 to walk from the start of the trail to the bottom of the Y.

...

Day of rest. Went to church. Actually twice. First time to the Spanish branch, then to my ward afterwards. Took a nap in the afternoon.

A.M. Ran with Jeff, Ted, Colby, and Daniel. Ted, Colby and Daniel turned around 3 miles into it. Did explosive sprints. Also, two fat miles, not continuously. First one in 5:59, second (the last one of the run) in 6:06. Total time for 10.1 was 1:17:48. Felt sluggish as expected. According to my adrenal failure theory today was a good time to do those fat miles. Low adrenaline from a hard Saturday, so when you push two days later you are using more fat. Not too hard, though, because when you push, you push the adrenal glands as well, so you do not want to push them too much.

P.M. 2 with Jenny in 19:22, Julia ran first 1.5 with us in 14:41. 2 with Benjamin in 17:26. 0.5 with Joseph in 5:52.

A.M. Ran with Jeff and Daniel. Daniel turned around at 3 miles. We had a sluggish start. Had some interesting discussions. Different ways to measure the height of a building with the help of a barometer. The most entertaining is to commit a crime inside the building using the barometer and then request during trial that the height of the building be read. Then discussed the role of overstimulated adrenal glands on the immune system, and moved on to computers.

I did explosive sprints. Then we did two fat miles. First one in 5:59, and second (uphill and with the bridges) in 6:09. Total time for 10.1 was 1:17:41.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 16:50. 1.5 with Jenny and Julia in 15:05.

A.M. Ran with Jeff, Ted, and Colby. Ted and Colby turned around at 3. Jeff and I ran 10.1 in 1:18:12. Did two fat miles. First in 6:08, and second in 5:59. Also did explosions. Also 2 with Benjamin in 15:53. He closed with a 1:33 quarter.

A.M-2: 1.5 with Jenny and Julia in 14:38.

P.M. Went to the Ogden Treehouse Musium, and then on to Roy Highschool to see Billy Mills. Had some adventures. Our tire ripped about a mile away from the Ogden exit. However, the Lord was with us and we did not have an accident. Not only that, it ripped, but did not pop. So we were able to drive to the Treehouse and then I took the van to Firestone to get a new tire. Checkmated the Palm Pilot while waiting for the tire to be replaced, came back in time, picked them up, and we drove to Roy Elementary instead of Roy High. Somehow I got this wrong. Did not find Billy Mills at the elementary, so then eventually figured out we needed to go to Roy High. My report on his presentation is at

 http://fastrunningblog.com/forum/index.php/topic,1033.0.html

A.M. Ran 10.1 with Jeff in 1:17:03. Did explosions. Then we did two fat miles. The first one started dipping into carbs quite a bit. We started with a 91 quarter, then ran 87, 84, and 83. 84 and 83 were definitely not that fat. But it felt good, I felt the stride was nice and relaxed, felt full of energy, did not want to stop. So that gave us a 5:45 mile. We did the second mile in 5:57.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 16:54, 2 with Jenny in 20:12. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 15:20.

A.M. Started with Ted, Colby, and Jeff. Ted and Colby turned around 3 miles into it. Did explosions. Two fat miles. First in 5:56, second in 6:05. A change in the respiratory rate at 6:00 pace. Down to 15 from 17 breaths for 100 meters. Total time was 1:17:03 for 10.1.

Took HR a couple of minutes after finishing the run. The last two quarters were 89 and 88, so around 5:55 pace. Interesting difference vs Jeff. My HR went down to 78, while Jeff's was still at 111. I was at 1.62 of my resting HR, while he was still at 2.05 of his resting HR. We estimated that mine dropped by 48% in the same amount of time that his dropped by only 36%. His HR at that pace was about 20 bpm higher than mine, even though the pace was easier for him in almost every regard - percentage of max HR, respiratory rate, muscular effort, willingness/ability to talk, ability to accelerate off that pace, etc. The only questionable aspect is sustainability. I might be able to sustain that pace for longer due to larger fuel reserves. But fuel aspect aside, the pace was easier for Jeff in every way. Nevertheless, I was recovering a whole lot faster.

Shortly afterwards 2 miles with Benjamin in 17:33, and 2 with Jenny in 18:58. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 14:23.

A.M. Ogden Half, 1:12:08, 2nd place.

With the help of the Booth family (Chad is on the blog),   was able to conduct the Eden sleep-in operation. I placed my getaway car at the Union station in Ogden, had Chad and his wife Kelli pick me up taking with me the minimum I needed for the night that could be shipped back by the warm-up clothes shipping service, stayed with them overnight, then woke up at 5:45 AM, got dressed, stuffed my possesions in to the drop-off bag, and jogged to the start. Happily missed the 5:00 AM bus.

Warmed up, looked for trouble. There was not much - Alexander Thomas and Albert. Well, Alexander is a whole lot of trouble, but that is just one outclassing runner. No Hobbie, no Teren, no Seth, no Jeff, no Nick, no Mike Vick, no Paul, no Shin, no Nate Hornok, and no out of state guests or collegiate runners in the outclassing division. Of course, no Kenyans. In the beatable class no  BJ,  no Jason, no James (Fiddy), no Fritz, and no Steve. Just Alexander and Albert. So in short, not much trouble, and no wonder. You get what you pay for. LOL, what does that then say about me if I came to run? :-)

Spotted a most peculiar sight. A porta-potty with a sign "V.I.P." on it. You had to pay $300 to get in. And no, unlike St. George, somebody who made top ten the year before, or had the potential to make top ten this year was not welcome to use it. In fact, he was not super-welcome in the race to begin with either. This, of course, led my train of thought to the origin of the term VPB, which was created  for the specific purpose to ridicule the concept of VIP bathrooms at big races. Even though St. George has elite runner bathrooms, and Salt Lake has a secret bathroom that is not advertised to the general public, Ogden was the first marathon in Utah to introduce the concept of VIP!  I immediately visualized a bush with a sign above it, in big letters - V.P.B.!

From the gun I ran without thinking for the first quarter which was a mistake. I followed Albert who followed Alexander, and it felt hard because it was too fast. Then I told myself to be humble and stop having a mental block about letting Albert get ahead.  From that point on I had my head engaged. I let both of them go, and largely ignored them trying to find my own rhythm. I started find it towards the end of the first mile.

5:30 at mile 1. Rolling. 5:13 for Alexander, 5:25 for Albert.

Mile 2 - 6:10 (11:40).  Uphill. I felt good on the hill, started getting a little excited, passed Albert, he latched on, but I did not care. Was surprised how slow that split was, it did not feel that slow. Based on that began to think that perhaps a low 1:13 would be a good goal for today.

Mile 3 - 5:27 (17:07). Slight down.That felt good, although not too good. Upgraded my goal to 1:12:40. Albert is on my tail. Telling myself to relax, think pace him, do not think drop him. Do not worry about dropping him, if he is not fit, he will fall off on his own, if he is fit, he will show it later, when he starts showing signs of strength, ease off, let him pass, and sit on him, have him help me get a faster time. But he sounds like he will not be around after 8.

Mile 4 - 5:24 (22:21) . Slight down. Life is getting better with every mile, and the 5:30 guy is starting to come to me. Albert still around, but struggling.

Mile 5 - 5:20 (27:41). Down. Albert fell back.

Mile 6 - 5:23 (33:04). Down. The pace is starting to feel hard.

Mile 7 - 5:33 (38:37). Less down. Felt hard. The goal is now around 1:12:30.

Mile 8 - 5:20 (42:57). Down. Celebrated catching the 5:30 guy. Wondering if sub-1:12 can happen. Encouraged by the memory of having run 5:23 in the 23rd mile of the marathon in 2006, which would be the 10th mile of the half. Which means there is enough downhill in it to do it.

Mile 9 - 5:25 (48:22). Down. Hoped to put more gap on the 5:30 guy, because I will need it once we hit the trail with all the turns, bumps, and flatting out.

Mile 10 - 5:15 (54:37). Down. Exactly what I was expecting. 23 seconds ahead of the 5:30 guy, can I hold on to that? Goal upgraded to sub 1:12.

Mile 11 - 5:32 (59:09). Less down, turns, bumps, aka micro-hills. Happy I lost only 2 seconds to the 5:30 guy.

Mile 12 - 5:43 (1:04:52). Flat,  turns. During this mile I was confused. For a while I wondered if I was still on the course. There were a couple of opportunities to turn, but there was no mark telling which way to go. I decided to follow the simple rule of if there is no indication to turn, do not turn, go straight. It worked, I stayed on the course. However, the confusion resulted in a loss of focus, and easing off on the pace a bit. Towards the end of this mile I almost ran into two policemen riding their bikes. I overheard one of them say to the other not to "run into joggers". I was happy that he said that, I needed something that would elicit a strong emotional response. I tried to get angry about it, but could not. I thought to myself, I just went past him going 5:30, and he calls that jogging? Well, maybe if he were Ryan Hall or Haile he would have the right to say that, but how can he call this pace jogging if he himself would struggle to keep it for a quarter? But those were just thoughts, there was no emotional response that I hoped for. 12 miles of hard effort had left my adrenal glands in a mellow condition.

Mile 13 - 5:38 (1:11:30). Flat, turns.    Trying to squeeze something out of myself, but nothing comes out.

Kick - 38 seconds (1:12:08). Most likely either mile 13 mark was in the wrong spot, or the finish line was 5-10 meters off. It should have been at least 36. I did speed up, or at least kept the pace. No emotional response to the crowd cheers, though. The 5:30 guy beat me by 2 seconds.

Alexander Thomas won in 1:10:19, I was expecting him to run 1:06-1:07, at least 1:08, but apparently he decided to jog today. Albert was third with 1:13:26.

A humorous moment at the finish. My official name is Alexander as well. Sasha is a well-recognized Russian nickname for Alexander. So after he and I finished the announcer says - here comes the third place finisher. I bet his name is not Alexander. Hmm, I thought, he is going to have some fun when he finds out it is Albert. He did. The race was won by three Slavic Als. Alexander is from Yugoslavia (I think Serbia or Croatia), and Albert is from the Ukraine.

Afterwards jogged back, paced Jen Jones from Florida who I met at the starting line for a little bit. She told me her best 5 K was 19:50, best marathon 3:12, she ran 90 miles a week, and could race a marathon at 92% of her max HR. An interesting case. I believe it means she is just not able to push her max HR very high for reasons not related to the cardiovascular system itself. Similar to what I have. If I could run a 4:20 mile, I'd be able to hit my true max HR. She ended up with 1:31:32, officially second, but I saw a girl right ahead of her that for some reason was not in the results that should have been second.

Then jogged back to the aid station between miles 21 and 22 of the marathon. On the way up saw Seth, he ended up with a new course records of 2:22:51. He is finally starting to run somewhat near his marathon potential, which I believe to be 2:13 on the Ogden course, and 2:10 in Dubai, assuming his collegiate mile speed is still accessible. Then saw Nick - he ran a decent race as well beating the old course record with 2:26:02. But I think his true potential on that course is around 2:16. Again assuming that the collegiate mile speed has not been permanently lost. No Hobbie in the marathon either. Thinking out loud, if we could find a nice sponsor for Utah Valley, we could have quite a show with the top three under 2:20, and top ten under 2:30, and that without the Kenyans. With the Kenyans, even faster. Ogden has plenty of money to do it, but they choose to spend it on things like a 10 page full color glossy paper pamphlet explaining the pre-race routine times 7000+.

Saw Fritz and Walter before getting to the station as well. Fritz finished in 2:37, Walter in 2:41.

Did some work at the aid station. Tried to spot runners that were visibly out of fuel, and fed them double dozes of Powerade. Was originally going to pace Mike Warren, but he told me not to wait for him if somebody who needed it more asked for it first. Melanie Burnam ran by and asked to be paced, so I went with her. She was running strong and passing a lot of people. I liked that for a couple of reasons. First, I like the people I am pacing to do well. And, I started to get tired, and appreciated that she was getting me to the finish quickly. She ended up finishing fifth with 3:07:36, a new PR, and only 2 minutes out of money. Not bad for a mom with 5 kids and a young baby.

After the race I could feel an odd form of fatigue. I called Sarah, and told her that I finished second in 1:12 in a tone of voice that was more appropriate for reporting 20th place with 1:25. Then in the same tone I told of a number of PRs from the bloggers. So when I got home we decided it would be better if she followed the kids on a bike for their runs. They ran their usual distances.

Day of rest. Went to church. Had a lesson on adversity in the Elders Quorum. That is a familiar topic. I remember teaching a lesson on the subject a couple of months ago. Two funny incidents happened during the lesson. First, the teacher rewarded every student that brought the lesson manual with a treat. Knowing my dietary preferences he brought radishes from his garden for me. Then to illustrate various levels of challenge/adversity he wrote two math problems on the board. The first one was 1+1, and the answer to it was 2. The second was to integrate sqrt(x) from 0 to 1, it was harder, but still doable without having to write, and the answer to it was 2/3. Then William started crying, so I missed the rest of the lesson.

A.M. Ran with Ted and Colby. 6 miles in 45:27. Jeff slept in. After 6 miles ran 4 with Sarah in 41:38. Then 2 with Benjamin in 16:59, and 2 with Jenny in 20:07. Julia ran the last 1.5 with us in 15:02.

Steve sent me a Timex HRM and a new pair of Five Fingers. Tried them out today.

A.M. Ran with Jeff, Daniel, and Tyler Cannon. Jeff and I thought we felt good enough for a tempo run. So we attempted one after a warm up. First mile was supposed to be a good rhythm mile, then 5:20, then fast. From the get go it felt hard. The first mile was 5:46 and I felt like I did not want to go any faster. Then we sped up reluctantly to an 81 quarter, followed by 78, then I backed off and let Jeff go, 80, 81 for a 5:20 mile. HR was 162-163 at 5:20 pace, but I felt like I could not push it any higher or go any faster. Assumed adrenal failure, decided it would be counterproductive to try to run through it in training since I already do that in races. So at that point I eased off. Jeff ran 5:19 - 5:08 for the last two miles. At 5:04 pace Jeff's HR was 184. Then we jogged back. Did a fat mile in 5:58. Measured the respiratory rate of 17 breaths per 100 meters. 

Then I proposed that perhaps there is a pattern (for me) of 15 breaths per 100 meters on a good day, and 17 on a bad day. Jeff suggested that there is too much room for error in this test. I wanted to know how much, so we decided to run half a mile at around 6:00 pace counting breaths in the second quarter with the goal of breathing as little as possible. Our half mile time was 3:01 with the last quarter in 1:29. Jeff took 20 breaths over the last quarter. I took 49.  10 in the first 100 meters. It was really odd to breathe this way, and I think eventually I would have had to revert to the natural breathing pattern if we were to continue.

From that I developed a working theory. There is a certain optimal air volume per breath, and it is fairly consistent on any given day. It is possible to breathe in more than that, but the faster the pace, and the longer you go at it the harder it is to do it. That optimal air volume, however, on a good day will be higher than on a bad day. It is not related to the heart performance. In fact, for the same runner, it is possible to have a lower HR at the same pace with that optimal volume reduced at the same time, so he is breathing harder even though HR is lower! Another illustration of how unrelated this is to HR is comparing me and Jeff - Jeff's optimal respiratory rate at 6:00 pace is 13 breaths per 100 meters. Mine on a good day is 15, and 17 on a bad day. Good day and bad day HR for me would be about the same. Yet his HR at any pace is 15 bpm higher than mine.

So in short, for me: good day - can sustain HR at 165, natural respiratory rate 15 times for 100 meters at 6:00 pace; bad day - HR cannot be sustained above 162 for signficant periods of time, natural respiratory rate 17 times per 100 meters at 6:00 pace. The HR has been tested for a while already, so I am quite sure about that. Respiratory rate needs more testing. But what I like about it is that if it proves reliable, 0.5 miles of 6:00 pace could tell me what's up, and that is a very non-invasive test.

P.M. Decided to try the new shoe. Well, I had that shoe ever since I was born, but had not used it much. It is completely free and available to all, and is called Bare Feet. Sarah said being a city boy I would not be able to handle it on asphalt. I ran 2 miles with Jenny in 18:44 (Julia ran the last 1.5 in 14:10), and 2 more with Benjamin in 16:29. It hurt a little bit, but once the run was over, the only negative result was minor blisters on the tips of the big toes. Noticed that even compared to Five Fingers, Bare Feet form was different, noticed my right hip flexor working harder. Will probably need another 3 months before I can do all of my easy miles barefoot.

A.M. Ran 6 with Jeff, Ted, Colby, and Tyler. Matt Knold joined us for a few miles mid-run as well. Did a fat mile in 5:51. Respiratory rate was 17 breaths per 100 meters. Then ran 4 more with Jeff, Tyler joined us for a mile then turned around. Jeff and I ran another fat mile in 5:58. Total time for 10 miles was 1:13:07. Then 2 more with Benjamin in 17:16, and 2 more with Jenny in 18:45. Julia ran the first 1.5 with us in 14:42.

A.M. Ran with Jeff, Daniel, and Tyler. We warmed up 3.87 miles together with a fat mile in 5:58. Respiratory rate was 14 per 100 meters. Passed an odd looking/acting guy that would prove to be a source of entertainment/annoyance during the tempo.

Then Jeff and I did the Good Rhythm Tempo, while Daniel and Tyler finished their uneventful 8. We started at the turnaround of the Fast Running Blog 5 Miler and ran the course in the opposite direction.

Mile splits: 5:43 - 5:42 - 5:44 (with 180 half way) - 5:27 - 5:25. Total time 28:01.1. Half splits were 14:19 - 13:42.

First mile was uneventful. I felt a slight difficulty breathing and a bit of sluggishness. The Nutty Clown greeted us at the start of the second mile and pretended to attack us. We had to swerve to get around him. HR was at 150 at the end of the first mile, then progressed to 156 and stayed there. On the uphill quarter of the second mile HR dropped to 154, and we slowed down to 87 from 85. Thus 5:42 instead of 5:40. The pre-180 quarter in the third mile was also slow - 88, thus a slow mile split.

Then towards the end of the third mile The Nutty Clown was waiting for us in the bushes, and jumped out to spook us. We had to swerve again. I was spooked, and felt it. Decided to try to use the adrenaline and pushed the pace a bit. It worked somewhat. From that point to the end the quarters were 83, 80, 82, 82, 84, 82, 81, 78. HR got up to 163 for 82, dropped to 161 on 84, climbed to 166 on 81, and to 168 on 78. For the first 10 seconds after finishing felt a bit puky. Jeff's HR maxed out at 183.

On the way back we realized we had to pick it up to get home in time. So we started going around 6:40 pace with 3 miles to go. My HR was hovering around 135, Jeff's at 160. So we reasoned that perhaps Jeff was more dehydrated than me. Normally our difference is no more than 20 beats a minute. Then I wondered what would happen if I got my HR up to 150. Jeff thought his would be 170, and he was dead on. It took about 5:55 pace and a long time too, about 2 minutes, I felt I really had to focus, and once HR got up to 150 it would not go above it, and kept slipping to 149.

 So to revisit the low respiratory rate theory. Today was an interesting data point. It predicted strong neural drive. In reality, the neural drive was not bad, but not exceptional either, and it took some playing around to activate it. Need more data points to refine the theory.

P.M. Wore my oldest shoes (Bare Feet). 2 miles with Benjamin, Jenny, Alan and Lars in 16:32. Jenny was not feeling good and jogged in the last .25 to finish in 17:02. Then 1.5 with Julia in 13:50. Getting used to my new/old shoes.

A.M. Ran with Ted, Jeff, Tyler, Colby, and Vern. Did explosions. After 6 miles it was just Jeff and I. We ran a fat mile in 6:00. Total time for 10 was 1:15:40. Then put on my Bare Feet shoes and ran 2 with Benjamin in 17:23, and 2 with Jenny in 19:42. Julia joined us for the first 1.5 in 14:43.

A.M. Ran a recovery 20 miler with Jeff if there is such a thing. I ran pretty hard long runs for the last several weeks, and Jeff was going to drive to Mesa afterwards, so we decided to take it easy. I decided to stop being a chicken and finally wear Five Fingers on a long run. I figured if I only run easy in them I keep learning barefoot form only at slow paces. If my fast miles happen in shoes, I will just keep unlearning what I learned in Five Fingers.

The warm-up was uneventful - 10 miles uphill from my house to Bridal Veil Falls in 1:14:41.On the way back we ran a mild 5 mile tempo down the Provo Canyon (first 3.2 miles) and then following the trail along the University Avenue for the remainder. We followed the magic triangle marks for distance. The mile splits were 6:01 - 5:52 - 5:43 - 5:40 - 5:26.  Total time 28:42, 5:44 average. HR was 137 at 5:50 pace, 147 at 5:40 pace, and 153 at 5:25 pace. Early on we had more downhill and tailwind. This goes to show how much downhill and tailwind help on the economy end. Jeff was consistently 15 or so beats higher than me. What is interesting is that the last mile felt quick, like I was working.

Shortly after we finished the tempo we saw a group of bikers. Jeff reported there were 21 of them. Of all things somebody could be thinking in the 16th mile of a 20 mile run counting people was not something I would have expected. He told me counting people in a group was his hobby. I was very impressed with this talent. Later I asked him how many people attended his Elder's Quorum in church last Sunday. He knew the exact number, he said it varied from 19 to 21 as people kept coming and going. With this talent he is going to make a great ward clerk, and he actually has been one. Also, when he and Kimia have 10 children he will never accidentally leave one of them at a gas station on a trip.

Around mile 16 we were done with the post-tempo jogging and picked up the pace to get the run over with to around 6:40. My feet started to burn a bit. With a mile to go Jeff asked me if I wanted to run the fat mile. I did not feel like it at first, but then the thought of finishing the run 40 seconds sooner was more temptation than I could handle, so I agreed. So we ran our last mile in 5:58. Towards the end my HR was 155 at 5:50 pace and it was also warmer than 8 miles ago. Total time for 20 was 2:17:09, 6:51 average, last 10 in 1:02:28, 6:14 average.

The feet did OK, there are minor blisters on the balls of both feet that will hopefully turn into nice callouses.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin and Jenny. Timed only the last 1.5 in 13:06. 1.5 with Julia in 14:30. Happy to be able to run barefoot at the end of a long day.

Day of rest. Went to church. Taught a lesson in the Elder's Quorum on temples.

A.M. Ran with Ted, Colby, and Tyler. Did about 0.5 of post-VPB tempo, had a double. Dropped Ted and Colby off at 6, Tyler turned around at 7, then I caught up to Sarah, ran 0.5 with her, and then she turned around. I ran another 0.5 out and turned around. Ran a fat mile in 5:48 with some steeple chase stuff under the bridge.

P.M. Went to Cove Fort in the afternoon. My thoughts coming back were that Brigham Young would have loved to go from Cove Fort to Provo in 2 hours. And then it occured to me that he knew by revelation a day would come when such trips would be possible. With that perspective I felt very thankful to drive our Fast Running Van.

Ran with the kids barefoot when we got back. 2 with Benjamin and Jenny in 18:02, 1.5 with Julia in 14:31.

A.M. Ran with Tyler and Daniel. Did explosions. Dropped them off at 8, ran another 2, most of it fast. First a fat mile in 6:00, then turned around, jogged a quarter, and ran another 0.75 in 4:15. Got into very good rhythm in the last quarter, felt very smooth. Ran in in 83. HR got up to 156, but I did not feel strained. That is perhaps a good sign. I do, however, reserve my optimism until I can run that pace for 4 miles equally smooth, then get HR to 165 and run a 5:10 mile at the end.

Then 2 miles barefoot with Benjamin in 17:02.

P.M. 2 miles with Jenny barefoot in 19:28. Julia ran the first 1.5 in 14:41.

A.M. 6 miles with Ted and Colby, then 4 more alone. Did two miles that were supposed to be fat. But for one reason or another I was feeling feisty, so they ended up too aggressive for that. I realized that half way through the first and decided instead of backing off, which would by now be futile as I had by now woken up the carb burning beast, just cruise along at the same effort and see what happens. The first mile was from the Riverside Park to the DI bridge, a slight up with 800 N bridge to dip under. Still difficult in Five Fingers. I can handle 2-3% grade OK, but anything steeper I still cannot do at full speed. The uphill mile was 5:42 with the quarters of 86,86 (under the bridge) ,84,84. HR got up to 157. I felt an interesting feeling in my quads. The blood was flowing, something was different about the way it was flowing, and I cannot quite tell what that means, if it is a good thing or a bad thing. Another mile or two at the same effort would have told me, but for a number of reasons it did not fit into my plans, probably reason number one being the nature of the trail ahead with all the bridges and turns which would make it difficult to understand the splits.

Then I jogged another mile and did the same mile backwards. The total time was 5:32 with the splits of 85, 83, 84 (under the bridge), and 80. HR got up to 158. The form felt smooth.

Total time for 10 miles was 1:12:39.

Then it was time to run with the kids barefoot. First quarter is always very hard, then I get used to the asphalt. 1.5 with Julia in 14:39, then 2 with Benjamin and Jenny in 18:14.

When I run barefoot I think of a story that I once heard in church. An Indian boy comes to a wise man and asks him for advice. The wise man says there are two wolves fighting in you, the good one and the bad one. The boy asks which one is going to win. The old man answers whichever one you feed.

So I feel there are two wolves fighting in me, the Good Form Wolf and the Bad Form Wolf. The Good Form Wolf gets fed the best when I run barefoot on asphalt, and reasonably close with Five Fingers. The Bad Form Wolf gets fed in regular shoes. I decided to stop feeding the Bad Form Wolf even if it means having to run slower, and feeling some discomfort from the process of developing calloused feet.  Five running days so far, last Thursday was the last time I fed the Bad Form Wolf.

A.M. Ran with Jeff and Daniel. Forgot to reset the alarm, so it woke me up earlier than usual. Did The Interval tempo.  Started with 5:42 mile, had Jeff and Daniel with me. Then they stopped, Jeff did not go further because he was tired from driving yesterday. The next mile was 5:20, and I started struggling towards the end of it. I tried to relax, but my legs were feeling fatigued. So I ran the next three quarters in 81, 82, and 83. I was not happy with it. HR was 161. In the last quarter I pushed harder, in the first 200 in 40 seconds HR was 164, then the last 200 was 38 for 78 quarter, and HR hit 167. This gave me 5:25 for the last mile, and 16:27.7 for 3.

Then finished the run with Jeff and Daniel. Daniel ran 9, Jeff and I 10.

In the afternoon I had plans to do some work on the blog - fix the bugs in the queue and rework the comments and the hot discussions. However, a client called me with a problem - his site was down. The problem was nasty and required a trip to the hosting provider. So I spent most of the day in a noisy server room recovering a server from root filesystem superblock corruption. It was a day of bad luck - my repair CD was damaged, a few ones we tried that the support team had did not have the right tools, then finally we figured out a way to get the tools, then salvage the file system, then reload the OS, re-install the web application, deal with issues, etc. The good news is that it was all paid time, so I made some money to pay the bills.

P.M. Ran barefoot. 2 with Benjamin and Jenny in 18:44, 1.5 with Julia in 13:23. Julia ran all the way barefoot, and this is her PR for 1.5. Her last mile was 8:48. She said her feet never hurt afterwards. Mine did better as well. I was handling small rocks and other forms  of roughness a whole lot better than a couple of days ago. This reminded me of the time when I was about 9 and  visited my cousins in a village near Sukhumi in Abkhazia. They were running barefoot on a rocky dirt road at full speed. I was wearing flip flops and could not run very fast. So I tried taking them off, and the surface was so rough I could not take one step.

A.M. Ran with Jeff. 10.1 in 1:14:47. Did two fat miles. First one in 5:52, second in 5:45. Felt better on those than expected in spite of the lack of sleep and a stressful day yesterday. Noticing that when running fast in Five Fingers I struggle with stability on the right foot, but I am fighting for it, and feel like I could run very smooth if I figured out how to support myself. In shoes I just give up and run clumsy. 

P.M.  Ran barefoot. 2 with Benjamin in 17:33.  2 with Jenny in 18:34. Julia ran the first 1.5 in 14:00. Julia ran barefoot. Jenny did 1.5 barefoot and then she wanted shoes. I suppose Julia's feet are tougher.

A.M. Short run today due to the chess tournament. Benjamin wanted to play in one, and I thought since I'd have to be there with him anyway I may play as well to find out what my rating is.

Ran 10.1 with Jeff in 1:13:53 with two fat miles. First one in 5:52, second in 5:59. 

The chess tournament was an interesting experience. Very different from running. They put you in a class based on your rating. Since I did not have a rating, they put me in a class of 1000-1199 plus unrated adults. Benjamin was not rated either, so they put him in 600-799 plus unrated 4th-6th graders. Benjamin won two games and lost two. I won three and lost one. I tied with three others for the division win, which gave me a cash prize of $12. I was happy to win cash in my first tournament and in something other than running.

So I suppose our official ratings now will be around 600 for Benjamin and 1100 for me. One thing that is different about chess. Mistakes are absolutely unforgiveble. You can be better than your opponent in all areas but one, and if he happens to get you on that one mistake early in the game, you are done. In running, if you are better, you can start out too fast, you can surge, you can even stop for a VPB, and you will still be ahead of a weaker opponent.

P.M. 1.5 with Julia in 14:00. 2 with Benjamin and Jenny in 19:20.

Day of rest. Went to church.