Breaking the Wall

Day of rest.  Fast Sunday. Talked to my mother on Skype. Went to church. Took Matthew for a walk in the afternoon.

Total of 12.5. Did a workout with Benjamin down the Provo Canyon. FIrst 3.5 - I got 19:56, he got 19:30. Then some jogging and a fast mile. He got 4:54, I got 5:14.8. Then a cooldown. He ended up with 10.5 miles. I ran 2 more with Julia.

Last night we found out that Benjamin got a 4-year full-tuition scholarship to BYU on the condition of maitaning 3.6 GPA. He hopefully will not need 4 years given that he is currently a sophomore. This shows that a purely home-schooled 15-year-old student can go at least to BYU on a scholarship without ever obtaining a high school diploma. This is an important breakthrough - if not in policy, then at least in thinking. Many families that would otherwise be home schooling send their kids to public schools because they are afraid that colleges will discriminate against home schooled students with no credentials that can only come from some kind of an educational establishment. Our exprience shows this is not the case.

Day of rest. Went to church. While we were there Sarah's Mother's Day present cleaned the living room. I got her an iRobot Roomba 595 which we gave the nickname of Noo Noo. The kids sang in the Primary Mother's Day program, all that were Primary age that is, except William. He refused, saying: "I do not want people to tell me I am cute. I just want money!" Brief and up to the point. I wonder how in the world we manage to get him out on a run every day - he has never missed for reasons of attitude since he started - and in particular how we got him to run 8:00 mile. I suppose the price for getting a talented kid is that you need to figure out how to deal with his personality.

20 miles total. Benjamin did 11.5, Jenny 4, Julia and Joseph 3, Jacob 2, William 1, Stephen 0.75. Benjamin and I started the 8 mile tempo, but he felt he just did not have it in him today, so we stopped it around 0.9 into it. Instead I had him run an all quarter on the trail to measure his speed. He did better than I expected - 55.9 - I was expecting something like 58.0 even accounting for the 1% downhill grade. I was fun to watch him disappear as I ran a 67 quarter myself. I was originally planning on running full speed, but I pressed the wrong button, then got flustered by it, and could not find the motivation to sprint, so I just coasted as I watch him in awe.  55.9 even on a aided quarter at the age of early 15 is a very promising result. Barring a health disaster Benjamin will have at least 53.0 on the track as an adult, which with his fiber type - if you see him sprint you will know he does not have a whole lot of fast twitch fibers - is very very promising for longer distances.

Later today we had a medical emergency. Sarah went with the younger kids (all expect Benjamin and Jenny) to the Thanksgiving Point. Apparently William throughout the day did not drink enough water, and passed out or as the doctor described it entered the altered state of consciousness.  We are suspecting he might have a pre-disposition to seizures under some kind of distress - when he was three he had a febrile seizure. This time he was breathing but his face was pale and he was not responsive otherwise. They called the ambulance, and took him to Timpanogos Hospital. He began to come out of it on the way, and started talking once he got there. At the ER he drank some juice and was normal after that. He remembers everything and was able to describe the events. He said he saw some colors, his vision was blurry, his heart was beating very fast, and he felt too weak to talk. We are going to see a neurologist and possibly do an EEG to see if we can get to the root cause of this. What was special about the day is that it was the first time this year the temperatures were over 80F and it got there fast - the morning started at 55 F.

Day of rest. Went to church.

Day of rest. Went to church.