Breaking the Wall

Eric's calf was still sore this morning, so George and I went without him. I wanted to do some speed before we hit the trail.

Warmed up a bit, and did a control 0.5 to measure the threshold. Did not get good sleep last night, so my sense of pace was messed up. The first quarter was way too easy, and it showed - 1:25. I woke up on the second a bit and ran in it in 1:21 (2:46.5 for the half), but being messed up I could not tell if I was at the threshold or above it. This woke me up, though. Jogged a bit and ran 0.5 in 2:30.8 with perfectly even splits every 200. That did not feel quite like the 5 K knife was being stabbed into me yet, but another half mile, and I would probably have felt it.

Then went with George on the trail. Dropped him off, and still had half a mile to go to the house, so figured I'd do another 5 K pace pickup. However, jogging on the trail apparently put me to sleep. I hit a downhill quarter that should have been at least 70 at a 5 K pace in 73, and it felt way too comfortable. Then I tried to pick up on the uphill one, but still could not quite leave my comfort zone - 1:21 with 2:34 for the half-mile.

Then ran a mile with ankle weights in 6:58, then a run with the kids. Julia officially started her training today with a quarter in 2:55. In the evening she decided to do another, and this time ran 3:05. How about that - running in doubles at the age of 3!

Mini-taper for the 5 K tomorrow. Ran with Eric and George in the morning. Did some tune-up speed. First ran a tempo effort 0.5 in 2:43. Then 0.5 at aggressive 5 K pace in 2:30.6. Then jogged with Eric and George on the trail, and then hit the last 0.5 fast coming down the Slate Canyon road and back up on 1350 E. This time, I decided to make sure the downhill quarter would not be 73. It was 68, and I held on OK on the uphill quarter - 1:19 - 2:27 for the half.

Then ran 1.5 with Benjamin. A little later a mile with Jennifer, and then a quarter with Jennifer and Julia. Joseph always in the stroller. Jogged another 0.5 with ankle weights and Benjamin in the stroller timing me.

Salt Lake (instead of Marathon) 5 K. 16:09, 4th place. Given no prize money at the end, this made it a perfect race to intentionally die, and hopefully be resurrected in the next race. I executed the death part, and am hoping for the resurrection.

My plan was to run with Corbin until it becomes physically impossible with no regard to how it would affect the rest of the race. Afterwards, do my best to recover. Without the headwind to battle, Corbin hit the first mile, which was essentially flat, maybe a very slight down, in 4:50. I was surprised I was still alive - this is only 8 seconds slower than my mile PR! I managed to survive for another a little over 2 minutes. At around 7:05 into the race, I could not stay with him any more. Around 9 minutes into the race Nate Hornok caught me. I managed to stay with him until 2 miles, which we hit in 10:03 (5:13). Not bad - second mile was uphill. Just like this Shiz guy in Ether 15 in the Book of Mormon - head cut off, but still struggling for breath before he dies. This is exactly what happened to me - I managed to stay with Nate for another 20 seconds, and then he was gone.

The last mile had a nice downhill stretch after a short but unpleasant climb in the beginning. I'd rather have that last mile in the beginning, and the first one at the end, which is the way it is in Draper Days.

I managed to not get passed by anybody until right before the finish line. Steve Ashbaker sneaked by, and beat me by about half a second.

Steve just called me and told me the results of the race got really messed up. They put Corbin first, but gave him 16:09 - he ran probably at least 30 seconds faster. Nate is gone from the results. Steve's time is right, and he is second instead of third. He argued with the people in charge at the awards ceremony and vehimently refused to take Nate's prize, but to no avail. The timing company said they do not have a way to fix the problem. Now he will be explaining to everybody and their dog in Salt Lake City that they should not believe what they read in the paper.

According to Steve, they moved me all the way down to the 14th. I would not really have cared, except this is a big problem for the circuit. If the race timing company does not find a way to get their act together ( should really not be too hard - the footage of the finish does exist, but as big as they are they might not be that thorough), then there are two solutions - drop it from the circuit (Corbin will not be happy), or just have everybody who cares to get scored e-mail their time and place to Bill Francis. On the other hand, the race should not have been in the circuit to begin with - USATF rules say it has to have prize money, or no show, but they made an exception for this one.

In any case, this was a really good race to use for a specialty training run. I do not have a team to train with, except when I go to a race with competition. This is my chance, I'd better take it. Sure, if I had gone out with Nate from the start instead of Corbin, I would have finished in 15:55 or so. But I do not want to be running 15:55 5 Ks - I want to be sub-15 for a start. And the legs will not learn to run sub-15 by running just sub-16 all the time.

Afterwards, Steve and I ran to my car at Liberty Park. He, as always, wanted to make sure I was not mad at him for passing me so close to the finish. I keep telling him it is a race. In fact, of all the people behind me, he would have been my choice to pass me.

Got to the car, and tried to get to some place in the marathon where we could start pacing our friend Bill Cobler. In retrospect, we should have just backtracked on the marathon course. We got stuck in traffic, and then finally maneuvered our way to mile 18. I suspected we might have gotten there too late. We asked the volunteer, but she did not remember seeing Bill. We then saw Mike Evans and another runner, and asked them. They said "he had not been by". I thought this was an interesting response - I guess when you start getting passed, the world exists for you in terms of who's been by. So we thought Bill was having a bad race, and ran back. In the middle, Steve got excited and picked up the pace to about 6:00 mile. People kept telling us we were going the wrong way. Finally, we made it to 16. By that time, we realized there was no reasonable way Bill could be any further behind, and turned around. We paced a guy named Mike who was headed for about 3:40. For a while, I thought he might be able to go faster, but he did not seem to have as much juice as I hoped. We got back to 18. Afterwards, we needed to decide what to do. Steve was running late. So we decided to pick up the pace, get him to a Trax station while putting on some mileage, then I would come back to my car and drive to Provo. We sped up first to a 6:40 pace, and then we hit a mile in 5:47. Then I turned around and ran back to the car at 18. Again lots of comments about going the wrong way from the crowd.

In the evening ran with the kids. Total of 20 miles for the day. Somewhat unintentional long run - would not hurt.

Went to the Provo Canyon this morning. Regular warm-up including a mile with ankle weights and strides. Then started speedwork.

Ran a 2.5 mile fartlek down on the trail alternating quarters between sub-5 K pace to go anaerobic with quarters at tempo pace to learn to clean up. At the end, ran the whole half mile at 5 K pace. Splits: 68 - 80 - 71 - 82 - 73 - 84 - 74 - 86 - 77 - 75. Total time 12:49.9. Last half really hurt - it felt like the end of a 5 K, exactly what I wanted. I think this is the closest a man can get to labor.

Jogged 2.5 miles up, and did the down portion of Paul's ladder again going down: 1000 (3:01.8) - 800 (2:26.2) - 600 (1:48.2) - 400 (69.8) - 200 (32.8).

In the afternoon, jogged a mile with anlke weights and Joseph in the stroller. Wore ankle weights most of the day. Ran with Julia her quarter, then with Benjamin and Jennifer on the way to the swimming pool. Swam with them a bit, did 50 yards in 57 seconds, that was all I could do - not a lot of power in the arms, especially at the swimming angles. Total of 14.5 for the day.

Ran in the morning with Eric and George. We went for longer than usual - 10 miles on the foothills. Afterwards, I did a marathon pace tempo Slate Canyon Loop (2.11) in 12:23, and then ran with Benjamin and Jennifer.

Also ran with Julia. She really surprised me today - ran a quarter in 2:22 (35,38,37,32), also PRed on 100 at the end. Her pervious quarter PR was 2:48. What happened was that I gave her a challenge to catch two walking ladies, and she really got excited about it. She did catch them. Afterwards, she kept saying: "I got the two ladies, Daddy". I think she is beginning to catch the spirit of competition.

Figured out, I think, what happened with the 5 K times in the Salt Lake Classic. The gun timer started early, which would have been OK if all the chips got properly picked up as the runners crossed the starting line. But a few runners, including Corbin, Nate, myself, Carre Joyce, and a few others did not register. It probably had something to do with whether the first leg to move had a chip if you were at the front. So subtracting 1:35 from all the front runners' gun times gives correct times. This would give Corbin 15:48, Nate 15:59, then Steve and me both with 16:09.

Ran some more with ankle weights and Joseph in the stroller to get 15.5 for the day.

Had to do the run early this morning, as usual on Wednesdays to make the 8:00 am shift in the temple. Warmed up 1.6 miles, then did 4 Slate Canyon loops (2.11 each, 8.44 total) at tempo pace. Was asleep on the first one - 12:49, then started waking up - 12:36, 12:28, and picked up to half-marathon race pace on the last - 11:58. Last mile was 5:22 (0.25 down, then rolling). Total time 49:58.

Did some always on the run during the day, including 0.5 with ankle weights, and ran with the kids. Total of 14 miles for the day.

Ran with Eric and George. Did a tune-up for Heart of Holladay 5 K. First, a tempo 0.5 in 2:44, then a n aggressive 5 K pace 0.5 in 2:30.1. Jogged some more on the foothills. Then ran with the kids. During the day, did some always on the run miles, and ran 0.5 with ankle weights. The 5 K results from last week have been fixed, and are available here. I got a nice e-mail from Jon Atherton, who was in charge of timing, explaining exactly what happened. Now we just need to figure out why Mike Nielson is not in the results of the half-marathon.

Mini-taper for Heart of Holladay. Did a tune-up 0.5 in 2:43, then fast in 2:30.9. Ran with the kids later in the morning, and ran half a mile with anlke weights.

Heart of Holladay 5 K. 16:29, 11th place. Very competitive race today, and on top of that I did not run a good one.

Decided to try an experiment - go out slower. In the past, this has unfailingly resulted in slowing down even further at the end, but I wanted to see if anything has changed. It has not. First two miles - 5:06 (slight up), 5:09 (down) with Nate Hornok. Felt like a tempo, almost. Then the hill came. I made to to 12:20 into the race with Nate - about the middle of the hill. Then the muscles just refused to go. Third mile in 5:38. Adjusted for the hill, it was worth about 5:23. No kick on the last 0.1, although I tried. Got passed by Steve Ashbaker, Tim Stringfellow, and Josh Steffen.

Finished, and immediately ran back to meet Benjamin. The hill that killed me killed him too. Both of us need to work on hills. He finished in 25:11 - would have been 20 second faster without the fits. We are going to work on it.

Then went back on the course with Steve Ashbaker and did a tempo. We ran it in 18:08 at marathon pace effort, and it felt very comfortable. I am indeed suffering from the Mike Kirk syndrome - not much difference between 5 K and marathon pace. Afterwards, a long cooldown.

Ran with the kids at home, and then a mile with ankle weights at night.

So this race along with the other two 5 Ks. show that I have about a 7-10 minute anaerobic window at the start of a 5 K to run fast. If do not use then, I cannot use it later for some odd reason. Weird - would not expect that in a marathoner. The question is what to do about it.

I decided to try a new approach. The true reason I want my 5 K to be faster is so my marathon would go up with it. That means I should try to raise my aerobic capability, and not worry too much about anaerobic. So I decided to try something that Lydiard suggest, and that has actually worked for me on a couple of occasions in the past (December/January 2002, and summer of 1985) - daily tempo runs of about 6 miles at marathon pace for aerobic conditioning. I'll try it for the next two weeks to see if it does me any good.

Today was my first day of the experiment. The idea is to raise the aerobic power since I am not that good at running anaerobically in shorter races, and it is not possible in longer races anyway. Lydiard says anaerobic work interferes with aerobic development. I have always taken it with a grain of salt, but I have never really given the idea a fair try. In the past, my idea of aerobic development was jogging at 7:00 pace, occasionally picking it up to 6:30. Well, I can still jog at 7:00 pace, and even through in a mini-tempo on a recovery day in between anaerobic speed workouts. But if I removed them, I could do much more - run 6-8 miles a day at my marathon race pace. That would really push the aerobic system. We'll see how that works.

Went to the Provo Canyon. Warmed up a mile. Put on ankle weights and did 4x100 alternating up and down - up 19.6, down 18.2, up 19.0, down 17.7. Now the form started feeling good. I think the mistake I made in the past week was to only jog with ankle weights - I am now realizing they are most effective when you sprint in them.

Then ran 8 miles at marathon pace effort up and down the canyon being very careful to not feel anaerobic even when going up. The average pace up was 6:07, average pace down 5:38. However, the run involved 3 180 turns, and I had a hard time shifting gears after running uphill. So once I got going the downhill pace was 5:32-5:34. Total time 46:59.

Did some always on the run miles during the day. Ran with the kids. Jennifer made Benjamin work today by running an 8:34 mile with the last 0.5 in 3:44. Then we ran to pick cherries. It is a race against the birds. We managed to get our share.

If anybody knows a good source of locally grown fruit/vegetables here in Provo/Orem or within a 20 mile radius or so, please leave a comment or send me an e-mail through the feedback form. We eat a lot of fruit and vegetables, and are just barely learning to garden. I am aware of Strattons and Allreds, but I would really like to get to know a few farmers or just people with big gardens with stuff to sell on a regular basis.

Ran on the trail about 4 miles with Eric and Jorge to the magic mark. On the way back, did about a 6 mile tempo at about 6:00 pace. Then did 4x100 with ankle weights (19.7 - 19.0 - 18.6 - 18.2).

Aftewards ran with the kids. Took Benjamin on the Slate Canyon Loop to help him learn how not to have fits on a hill. Had Jennifer in the stroller. The presence of a little sister greatly improves the older brother's mental toughness.

We planned it so he would be very tempted. He hit a rolling 0.75 in 5:49 before the hill started. Then he slowed down to a 2:12 on the hill on the next quarter - very good pace for that grade, and had a good attitude. I told him he needed to tell himself he is stronger than the hill. He scaled that nasty hill (about 0.57 long) like an adult Kenyan - as if it were not there, and shifted gears very quickly on the down. His downhill split for 0.5 was 3:28. Last quarter was uphill, but he again tackled it like an adult Kenyan with a split of 1:57, and the total time for 2.11 of 16:44. There was a little glitch as we passed a house with two ladies that live an alternative life style and smoke like a chimney on top of it. The smoke threw Benjamin off, he started having difficulties breathing, and was about to go into panic. That is when his little sister's help came handy. She gave him some firm words of encouragement, and he quickly recovered first mentally, then physically, and sped back up. I was very impressed that he was able to hit a 1:57 quarter split uphill through all of this.

Ran some more in the evening with Joseph in the stroller. Total of 15 miles for the day.

Had to do an early run today. Tried to map out a flat 8 mile course near my house. Found a loop 4963 feet long (0.94 or 1500 meters), however after doing two of them, I realized I did not like it - too many turns, still some uphill, and I did not want to pass the alternative life style smoking house 9 times. So I went to going a mile out mile back. It still rolls, but it is the flatest mile there is near my house of all the stretches I know where the automotive traffic is sufficiently low. Although you do see some fitness traffic in the area, we could use more of that and less of the car and particularly school bus traffic. In Kenya, running 6 miles to school is a norm. Here, walking half a mile to get on the school bus is considered too much - there seems to be a school bus stop every 200 meters on 1350 E. And they wonder why Americans get beat every time a Kenyan wins. Eliminating frequent school bus stops will conserve fuel, improve air quality, reduce childhood diabetis, and take American runners to a new level. I think I am ready to run for office...

It took me a while to get going, especially with all the adventures of the course knocking me out of rhythm. However, I finally started breaking 6:00 miles in the middle, and managed a sub-6:00 average of 47:55 for 8 miles.

Did some always on the run miles during the day. Ran in the evening with the kids. George and his kids happened to be biking as we got out. The excitement of having cycling pacers led to Jennifer setting a new mile record - 8:00. She is going to be 6 at the end August. Benjamin broke 8:00 (with a 7:58.8) on the track a month before he turned 6, and the fastest he's ever run on that course before he was 6 is 8:21. So it seems like she is ahead of schedule. It looks like breaking an 8:00 mile before the 6th birthday is going to become a ritual in our family. Now if we could carry it to breaking a 4:00 mile before any birthday, it would be just super.

When Benjamin was 3, he already looked like a runner - long legs, good form. Jennifer looked like a regular 3 year old, perhaps even a bit clumsy and non-althletic. Now, however, her legs have grown out and are very strong. I tried to get her out of bed one morning, and she kicked me. I felt the power.

Total of 14 miles for the day.

Ran with George in the morning. Warmed up to the magic mark on the trail past the turn-off to the Y. After that did a tempo run of about 6 miles on the same route as Tuesday. Improved my time from 36:55 to 36:16. This does not say much, as at marathon race pace over 6 miles if you have a time goal to improve you can always cheat and do it especially if you kept track of the splits on the previous run, which I did.

Jogged some more, then did 4x100 with angle weights in 19.5, 19.2, 18.3 and 18.2. After that, a tempo mile out and back in 5:30 - tailwind out and headwind back. Felt good. Good sign - 5:30 pace still feels good at least for a mile after 4 days of consequitive tempos.

Afterwards, ran with the kids. Some always on the run miles with Joseph in the stroller during the day. Total of 15 miles.

Missed George this morning. Went to the Provo River Trail by Geneva Road. Warmed up, then ran a 6 mile tempo. Out 2.5 in 14:43, then back in 14:44, then turned around and speed up to 5:28 on the last mile. Total time 34:55. Last three quarters were actually all 1:21, but on the first one it was hard to get going after 180 turn and going 5:54 for 5 miles - it was 1:25.

For some odd reason 5:54 pace felt strained. Legs were not relaxing. However, 5:24 pace at the end almost felt easier.

Jogged some more, even did some house shopping in the area. Then came home, and did 4x100 with ankle weights 19.3 - 18.9 - 17.9 - 17.9.

Then ran with the kids, and did another mile later on with Joseph in the stroller. Total of 14 for the day. Provo Riverwoods 10 miler tomorrow.

Provo Riverwoods 10 miler. 53:05, first place. No prize money, and no competition after the first 0.5 miles. However, since I have to time the race, and need to get a run in anyway, I may just as well run it. Plus it is good for psychological reasons to win by a large margin once in a while after getting beat in more competitive races.

The course had about 900 feet of elevation drop, most of it in the first three miles. My goal was to keep the pace faster than 5:20 or at least not much slower than 5:20 on the not so steep sections, and really get going on the steep ones.

Felt good until the last two miles. Then the legs started cramping up. I suppose this is to be expected - I've been doing tempos every day since Monday.

The mile markers were rather approximate, but fortunately the course had Hawk's magic marks most of the way. This helped me keep the pace on target. Last two miles were around 5:23 - 5:25.

Afterwards, the race was not over. I had to time everybody else. Fortunately, George was there to help, and then Mike West showed up.

Then went on a 3 mile cooldown with Mike West. That, plus a two mile warmup at the start with George gave me good mileage for the day.

In the evening ran with the kids right before Sarah and I went on a date. Our babysitter Chris came early so we invited him for the run. Benjamin and Jennifer were determined to give him a run for his money. Jennifer set a new family record in the 5 and under division for the mile - 7:41. Chris survived the run, but it was not easy for him.

Ran in the Provo Canyon in the morning. A mile warm-up, then 4x100 with ankle weights. Up 19.0, down 17.4, up 18.3, down 17.2.

Then the same 8 mile up and down back and forth tempo as last week, except picked it up on the last mile. Total time 46:09, up average 6:00, down average 5:32, last mile 5:32. 2 mile cooldown, total of 12 miles in the workout.

In the evening jogged with Joseph in the stroller, and ran with the kids. Total of 15 miles for the day.

Paul Petersen has a vacancy he needed to fill for the Wasatch Back Relay. So I am doing the ultra legs 7-8, 19-20, and 31-32. If somebody is going from Midway to Provo and could give me a ride on Saturday morning at around 9:20 AM (assuming we move on schedule), let me know.

Jogged some in the morning with Eric and George. Then drove to the Provo River Trail by Geneva road to do the tempo run. First, 4x100 with ankle weights. Felt a bit of the pinched nerve problem in the back that I had a year ago, and decided to do them more relaxed. 19.3 - 18.8 - 18.5 - 19.0.

Jogged some more, then did a tempo. 2.5 out, 2.5 back, then turnaround and another 1.25. Maintained a fairly steady pace for the first 5 miles - 29:03. 5:45 felt too fast, 5:50 felt just perfect. After the turnaround, gave myself 0.25 to regain the momentum, and then accelerated to an aggressive half-marathon pace. Last mile in 5:22 very steady - 1:20 - 1:21 - 1:20 - 1:21 - they were probably all 1:20.5. Felt very good, the stride was relaxed, the legs were not cramping up. Jogged some more afterwards. Total of 13.25 miles in the workout.

Jogged a mile in the afternoon. In the evening, ran with the kids. Total of 16 miles for the day.

Regular Wednesday early morning run. Warmed up 2 miles, then did an 8 mile tempo mile out mile back trying to stay flat. Took a while to get going. Total time 47:13, average pace 5:54. However, it was a constant cycle of recoverying from a 180 turn. Once I got going the pace was around 5:45. I think the 180 practice is good, though, to learn how to deal with the changes of pace better.

Ran with the kids in the evening, and did some jogging. Total of 14 miles for the day.

Warmed up with George and Eric. Then ran about 5 miles of marathon pace tempo part of the trails and part on the roads. Cooled down to be at 10 miles when I got home. Then took Benjamin and Jennifer for a run with Julia and Joseph in the stroller. Then a short Julia run. Afterwards, Benjamin joined me for my sprints with ankle weights. He can almost keep up with me when I have ankle weights on. We did 2x100 ( me 17.8, Benjamin 20.4, me 18.0, Benjamin 20.7), and then a 200 (me 36.5, Benjamin 44.1). This is Benjamin's record on a 200.

Met with a client for the whole day. Ran 1.25 during a break.

Wasatch Back Relay tomorrow.

Ran with kids in the morning. Then in the evening drove to Logan for the Wasatch Back Relay. Ran legs 7 and 8, total of 9.4 miles uphill from Paradise to the middle of the Avon pass. Did it in 56:38 (29:23 - 27:15). It was hot, but with the team giving me plenty of water to dump on myself it was not too big of a problem. Felt strong, including the hills. Felt very good afterwards. The rest of the relay story in the Saturday entry.

My second leg of the relay (legs 19 and 20) started at 1:30 am. I think given a choice, I would start with three normal legs instead of two, or maybe even four to get in as much distance on fresh, well slept legs, and then run the remainder of the distance after having good 8 hours of sleep. The way you do it in a relay is probably harder on our body in a way than running a full marathon - you run, get shuttled to the next leg, by the time you get there, there is no time to sleep, you need to get ready to run again.

My teammate Jon Felis was faster than we anticipated, so I was still in the bathroom when he got to the exchange. He ended up having to wait two minutes for me.

Paul Peterson rode the bike with me and provided the entertainment. Leg 19 started out pretty good, I was keeping about a 5:40 pace or so, if our GPS could at all be trusted. Then we hit a climb that was steep enough for me to drop Paul while he was giving it all his got on his bike, although I felt I was barely moving. Did leg 19 in 25:41. Then we started going downhill. Did 4 highway miles in 5:33. Then we got into Henifer, and finally made it to the exchange. 1:05:02 for the 11 mile stretch, and 39:19 for leg 20. When I got the baton, the BYU team who had a 5:00pm start (we started at 4:00pm), had already passed us, and the Full Nelson team Paul wanted us to try to beat was a bit ahead. At the end of the leg, we had a 7 minute lead. It was an interesting race - Full Nelson was a gender mixed team, while we were ultra. Their male runners on average were better than what we could on average muster in the ultra sections, however, we made up quite a bit of ground when their legs were being run by a woman. My legs were sort of the revenge ones - the first regular leg was run by Anna Judd (about 3:00-3:10 female marathoner), and the second by Bob Hinzte ( a master marathoner in about 2:40-2:45 shape).

My last leg (legs 31 and 32) started in Heber and finished in Midway. By that time I had slept for a total of about 5 minutes, and had run over 20 miles of hard tempo on hills. From the last two miles of the previous leg I knew my glycogen stores were pretty low, and it was also clear than my regular meals do not replenish them very well in 6 hours like I hoped they would. So I figured I needed some quick sugar, bought some honey at Days Supermarket in Heber, and loaded as much of it into my system as I felt was healthy. However, the nervous system was quite a bit out of whack due to the lack of sleep.

I got the baton a minute ahead of Full Nelson this time, so my goal was to try to put on as much distance on them as possible. The task much harder on the third leg, and it also a lot more important in that place. Drew essentially hit the wall on the last two miles of his second leg, and he still had You gotta be kidding me followed by Ragner ahead of him (about 8 miles of steady 7.5% grade climb) while racing Taha Mahmood and Scott Browning who can run 17:15-17:30 5 K fresh. I suppose this is reverse revenge for me putting on distance on a woman, so it is all fair.

I was not super fresh, but did the best I could. Decent pace through leg 31 (4.1 miles in 23:28) on a gentle downhill. Clocked a highway mile slightly uphill on Hwy 113 in 5:59 - still good. Then the uphill started getting to me. I felt I was slowing down. Last mile was 6:52 on 3% grade up, if the mile to go mark was accurate. It did not help having no sleep and 30 miles on the tempo odometer for the last 24 hours. My total leg time was 1:02:12 for 10.2 miles, with leg 32 in 38:44. Only about extra 4 minutes on Full Nelson this time. Still managed to put about 45 second lead on Bob Hintze, so it was not all in the ladies department.

But this was not enough for us to beat Full Nelson. Drew and James were pretty tired from the ultra impact. Drew managed to hold Full Nelson off until about half-way through Ragner, but then they ran strong from then on and beat us by 7 minutes. We managed to dip a bit under 20 hours, though - 19:58 I believe, won the ultra, and were 5th overall if my current info is correct.

For a father of almost 5, the race never stops just at the finish line. Sarah came to get me at the end of my leg in Midway, and we went to Benjamin's and Jennifer's piano recital. I managed Joseph through it - unlike me, he did not want to sit still. Then we finally got home, and I was able to take a nap. Dreamt about chasing Full Nelson.

Later in the evening ran with the kids. Benjamin set a record on a half-mile - 3:32.

Ran in the Provo Canyon. After the Wasatch Back Relay, two days of rest, two nights of sleep, the leg is only 8 miles, and the steepest uphill grade is only 1.5%. Wow!

Warmed up, 4x100 with ankle weights 19.7 up - 18.2 down - 19.0 up - 17.4 down.

Then the tempo "leg". 1.5 up, 2.5 down, 2.5 up, 1.5 down. Total time 46:59, up average 6:12 (headwind), down average 5:32 (tailwind), last mile 5:13.

Ran with the kids in the evening. Two neighbor girls joined us - Angie and Cheyenne. Cheyenne did really well - ran a mile in 9:51. I think she has some talent. Afterwards I took Benjamin for his fast half-mile, but this time, I brought the double stroller with only Joseph in so we could run 0.5 out, and then I could run with both of them in the stroller. Thus it was a mile relay, sort of. Benjamin did his leg in 3:40, I did mine in 3:09, which was a tempo for me with the weight. Our "team" ran the mile in 6:49.

Warmed up a couple of miles with George, and then ran a tempo of about 6.5 on a new course on the trail. Total time 38:25. Found potential training partners on the cooldown - Jon and Steve. Ran 0.5 in 2:52 with Steve to test his GPS.

Then 4x100 with ankle weights by my house. 19.8 - 19.7 - 18.8 - 18.8.

Ran with Benjamin, Jennifer, Julia, and Joseph in the stroller. Some jogging during the day and at night. Total of 16.25.

In the morning, warmed up two miles, then an 8 mile tempo mile out and mile back in 47:09. Not my favorite workout, but life is tough - I've thought about altertnatives, and still thinking. It is either tough hills (overtraining), driving somewhere (not enough time on Wednesday morning), or out and back (the least of the three evils). Actually might not be so bad - teaches me to deal with the change of pace.

Did some jogging during the day and ran with the kids. Total of 14 miles.

Felt like I had some weird kind of a cold, but flushed it out towards the end of the day with EmergenC.

Ran with Eric and Steve Hillam today. Warm-up, then the same 6.5 tempo run on the trails as Tuesday. Amazingly, almost the same time - 38:23. I must admit I was tracking my splits and would pick it up if I was behind, and back off if I was ahead. Steve helped with the pace as much as he could doing some sections. I hope he will be able to do the whole thing once a week in a couple of months. I also hope he sticks around for a couple of months.

Afterwards, did some jogging, ran with the kids, and then did sprints with ankle weigths. Benjamin joined me. I did 200 in 38.8, then 2x100 18.0 - 17.9. Benjamin set a huge record in a 200 trying to keep up with me - 40.7. Go Benjamin! Afterwards, his 100s were not too bad - 20.4 - 21.3.

Just to think of a 7 year old running a 200 in 40.7! I remember running a 300 after some training at the age of 11 in 58, and I was one of the fastest in the training group. This was not your regular peer group slice - this was the kids who either really wanted to run, or were talented enough to have been selected. My intuition is that Benjamin will run a 400 in 50 or faster when he grows up, which, if the case, would be very helpful.

Jogged a bit at night - total of 16 miles.

Almost the exact repetition of yesterday. Same training partners, same course, same workout. Steve helped me with the pace on the tempo run, which I did in 38:22. I cheated at the end and ran the last 200 in 40 to not be slower than yesterday. The good news is that I felt like cheating this way, and could cheat without shifting into a kick gear.

4x100 with ankle weights 19.7 - 19.6 - 18.8 - 18.1. Ran with the kids. Jogged a bit more at night. Total of 14 miles.

Feeling tired, the daily tempos are stressing something either neurologically or hormonally. Muscles feel fresh, and if I warm up, I feel good. But without warming up sleep is all I want to do. To make things worse, I had to catch up on some projects in my business, and could not afford a nap. Fortunately, a telemarketer called, I told him in a hurry I was not interested, and hung up. He called again, and that really got me going. So I was able to stay awake to do the work. Blessings in disguise...