Breaking the Wall

A.M. Ran with Tyler, Daniel, and Jeff. Tyler and Daniel ran the first 4 with us then turned around. Jeff and I ran 10.1. Did 2 fat miles - first in 5:55, second in 5:57. Total time was 1:15:45.

P.M. 1.5 with Julia in 13:51, 2 with Benjamin and Jenny in 17:57, last mile in 7:57.

A.M. Ran with Daniel and Jeff. After the warm-up Jeff joined me for a portion of The Interval Tempo, while Daniel went on at an easy pace. I was still tired from the chess tournament on Saturday, so I adjusted the target pace accordingly. The plan was to warm up in 5:45, then 5:30 in the next mile, then hard in the last. Overall the tempo went better than I expected, but not quite according to plan.

Jeff went only 2 miles to be cautious as his calfs were feeling tight. First 0.5 was 2:55, then Jeff pushed it and we hit the mile in 5:41 (84, 82 quarters). Then we ran the next mile in 5:23 (80.5, 80.5, 81,81). That was faster than planned, but it did not feel too bad. However, without Jeff I knew it would be hard to speed up or even maintain in the third mile.

Third mile was difficult. 82,83,81,79 - 5:25, total time 5:25. In the first half HR was 162, then hit 166 in the third quarter, and all the way up to 169 in the last quarter. Slightly higher than normal at all paces, probably due to warmer weather.

Cooled down with Jeff, got to 11.47 miles. Then we picked up Benjamin and ran 2 more miles in 15:28 with the last mile in 6:47. I ran that portion barefoot. Noticed that my HR was matching Jeff's when running barefoot. Normally mine is 15-20 bpm lower. Now I am remembering that Jack Daniels noticed the same things in his studies - barefoot economy is not very good. At least for runners with tender feet. In Five Fingers I hit normal HR for the pace. So my suspect is that when running barefoot you have to reduce friction forces until your feet get tough. And those friction forces are probably an important component of running economy. Again, for runners that are used to shoes. Long-time barefoot runners might not be relying on the friction as much.

Another piece on info in the friction forces department. I noticed I have a very hard time running barefoot up a steep grade (going north under the 800 North bridge), and the problem is the friction becomes more than I can handle.

Changing subjects, I found out that my performance in the chess tournament earned me a rating of 1288. Thanks to the emphasis on sports in the Russian culture there is a fairly decent way to compare performances in different sports. They have a system of rankings in each sport, including chess and running. So my chess performance is equivalent to about an 18 minute 5 K.

P.M. 2 barefoot with Jenny in 17:48. Julia ran the first 1.5 in 13:31.

A.M.  10.1 with Jeff in 1:14:33. Did two fat miles, first in 5:55, second in 6:03. Noticed that our HR gap was decreased - his HR was only 9-10 bpm higher than mine.  My HR was normal for the pace, though.

Tried a new invention today. My new Five Fingers have been rubbing my heels. So I made myself Five Finger compatible socks by cutting out the front part. It worked quite well.

P.M. Ran barefoot. 2 with Benjamin in 18:03, 2 with Jenny in 18:44, Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:57. 0.33 with Joseph in 4:05.

A.M. Ran with Jeff, Daniel, and Vern. Did a 4.7 warmup with everybody, then Jeff and I ran the 5 mile tempo. The plan was to run about 5:40-5:45 pace focusing on good form and good rhythm, and practice improving stability on the right foot. We ran the course in the normal direction starting from Geneva.

Total time: 28:13.5 (5:38.7 average)

Splits by mile: 5:46, 5:43, 5:41, 5:37, 5:26.

Splits by half: 14:22, 13:51.

HR: Around 150 in the first mile, around 154-155 in the second and third. 162 in the fourth. The last mile had the quarters of 83, 81, 81, and 81. HR made its way to 164 in the first half, and then all the way up to 170, and back down to 167 once I ran out of juice. Jeff dropped me with about 500 to go, and gapped me by 11(!) seconds while I was still running 5:24 pace. His last quarter was 71.

Jeff's HR stayed around 8 bpm above mine most of the time. Yes, the pace was easy enough for him to be able to report it frequently. Interesting observation - right after the 180 turn we surged to get back up to pace. My HR stayed steady, while Jeff's spiked then dropped back down once the effort was back to normal. And it goes without saying that in comparison to me he felt a lot more comfortable. That sheds some light on a few things, assuming this is a pattern and not just one occurrence. If you push and HR does not respond, you will have oxygen debt, so you can only push that far. That would explain why I really really do not like mid-race surges, get knocked out by hills, sharp turns, etc.

Total mileage for the run was 11.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 18:03, 2 with Jenny in 18:44, Julia ran the first 1.5 with us in 13:51.

A.M. 10.06 with Jeff in 1:16:20. Ran a couple of miles with Luz. Did two fat miles. First in 5:55, second in 6:00.

P.M. Ran barefoot. 2 with Benjamin in 19:47, 2 with Jenny in 19:20. Julia ran the first 1.5 in 14:20. 0.33 with Joseph in 3:52.

A.M. Ran with Jeff. We did 12.06 in 1:29:27. Ran into Seth, he joined us for a little bit. He is running the Utah Valley Marathon as well and was exploring the course. So it looks like it will be faster than Ogden. So far we have two Kenyans (William Tete and Ezekiel Ruto), Seth, Jeff McClellan, me, Kory, and Jeff Shadley.

Did 2.5 in 14:38 for a sort of marathon dress rehearsal and practiced trading leads.

Later took Benjamin to a track meet. He ran 6:04 in the 1500. It was windy, but still this shows we need to figure out what is going on. His splits were 1:30, 1:40, 1:39, last 300 in 1:15. So in essence he ran a good first lap and then was just stuck in 6:40 pace gear. He said he did not feel tired afterwards. That is not surprising since we do not run 6:00 pace in training very much. Maybe we should once a week or so, I do not want him to do it too much as he is still growing. He did win the Bantum division, although there were only two people in it. But he was competitive against older boys, all were in the same heat.

P.M. 2 with Jenny in 18:07. Julia ran the first 1.5 in 14:12.

Day of rest. Went to church.

A.M. Ran with Jeff. 10.06 in 1:13:04. Sarah ran the first quarter with us in 2:29. We did 2.5 to remember marathon pace better in 14:24. Felt very good.

P.M. 2 with Jenny in 17:39, Julia ran the first 1.5 in 13:53. 2 with Benjamin in 16:28.

A.M. Ran with Jeff. Easy 8 with one fast mile. Jeff wanted to do it in 5:20, and he managed to hold the pace for 100 meters. After that it was 5:00 pace. We ended up with 5:03.4. HR got up only to 165. This makes me wonder about the standard max HR testing protocol of running 0.75 at 5 K race pace, and then the last 400 all out. Better, 2.5 at 10 K race pace, then the last 800 all out. Perhaps the more you are developed aerobically, the longer you need to go before you go all out, and the longer you need to go all out for.

The mile felt good, I was happy about that. A bit of a burn in the legs, but I could deal with it. I think with some training I can learn to run through it. That's how I ran 15:37 5 K in Draper Days in 2004. What is interesting is that last August/September I could never get that burn, something else would fail before I could get to it. Which confirms my suspicion that the burn is a mere consequence of running fast, it does not stop you in and of itself. Something else stops you, and at times it can stop you before you reach the burn.

Then added 2 with Benjamin. We tried 6:00 pace to failure, but he was not feeling good and made it only to the quarter in 91. Total time for 2 miles was 18:00.

P.M. 2 with Jenny in 18:31. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 14:36.

A.M. An odd dream. Dreamed that President Obama was a chess piece, either a black knight or a bishop, positioned on c4, and protected by a pawn on d5. With the white king castled on the queen side the Obama piece  was causing a lot of trouble for the opponent controlling a lot of critical squares. The white could not chase him out with pawns. Then the white moved the pawn to  e4 attacking the Obama protector, the protector took the pawn and was not protecting anymore. Then a heavy piece, either a rook or a queen chased Obama out.  

Ran with Jeff. We were planning on going 6, but ended up adding 0.25 to go to the bathroom. We were in a critical spot and a critical situation, and too far away from virtual opportunities, so after a quick cost-to-benefit analysis we decided to take a detour. Ran a fat mile in 5:48.

2 more with Benjamin in 17:19. We practiced 6:00 again, it went better this time. I mis-paced Benjamin in the first quarter with a 94, but then we made up in the second in 88, total time for 0.5 was 3:02.

P.M. 2 with Jenny in 18:27. Julia ran the first 1.5 in 14:05. Julia was feeling not quite well at the start, or at least she claimed she did. So we told her she did not have to run, but if she was too sick to run, she was too sick to go swimming later in the evening. So she said she'd try running to see how she felt. About half a mile into it she said she did not feel good enough to keep going. I told her fine, you can stop now but then you cannot go swimming. She stopped anyway, stood for a few seconds, then changed her mind, caught up to us and finished the run without problems.

A.M. Ran with Jeff. Benjamin joined us for the first 2 miles in 16:28. Jeff and I finished the run in 47:24 with a fat 0.5 in 2:54. Julia ran 1 mile with Sarah. I think I am getting pretty good at feeling that 87 quarter pace, we'll see how well I can do it on Saturday.

P.M. 2 with Jenny in 18:27. Julia ran the first 0.5 in 4:52.

A.M. 2 with Jenny in 18:56, Julia ran the first 1.5 in 14:27. 2 with Benjamin in 17:12, last 0.3 at 6:00 pace. 2 alone in 15:42.

A.M. Utah Valley Marathon, 2:35:42, 6th place.

Quick update. Ahead of me: Seth (2:26:22), Shin (2:27:02), Peter Vail (2:30:00), William Tete (2:30:02), and Jeff McClellan (2:30:47). No Ezekiel, but Peter Vail in decent shape instead, less trouble, but still trouble.  Steve Ashbaker was with us at 10, but then fell back, and then dropped out due to a tight hamstring. Kory was 7th with 2:40:51, Jeff Shadley 8th with 2:41:41.

Ran the race in Five Fingers.  This caused some problems with the chip, hopefully they will not affect the accuracy of the timing. Sarah sewed the chip to my socks the night before, but it started to come off in the 16th mile, so to avoid problems I just ripped it off and carried it in my hand the rest of the way. Aside from the chip problem, the only other side effect was some blistering and a little bit of blood, but I've had that in regular shoes. And they were really stinky afterwards, to quote a scripture from Isaiah 3:24, "instead of a sweet smell there shall be stink".

Now run down mile by mile:

Mile 1 - 5:57. Rolling. A warm up. Seth, William, Shin, Peter, Jeff McClellan, and I all still together.

Mile 2 - 5:33 (11:30). Downhill. Seth, William, Shin and Peter picked it up and pulled away. I timed their mile as 5:04.

Miles 3 and 4 - 11:38 (23:08), 5:49 average. Rolling downward. Steve Ashbaker caught up to us and joined us. We are trading leads. The leaders are gone by by as we have expected. Mile marker 3 was in the wrong place, if we are to believe it, the splits would have been 5:18/6:20, which they were not.

Mile 5 - 6:02 (29:10), uphill, even with the 5:50 guy. Still the same group. HR in the first 5 miles hovered around 150, climbed to 154 on the hill.

Mile 6 - 5:33 (34:43), downhill. Steve was feeling a little edgy, told him to ease off.

Mile 7 - 5:25 (40:08), downhill. Jeff's mile.

Mile 8 - 5:34 (45:42), downhill, I think it was mine.

Mile 9 - 5:36 (51:18), downhill.

Mile 10 - 5:40 (57:00), flatter, but still a slight down. Saw Benjamin and Kimia. Got an update on the leaders, we were about 3:20 behind Shin. Got my cane sugar drink (0.5 liters water with 60 grams of cane sugar and 1.5 grams of sea salt), and took two Gotu Kola pills. I already knew from training that cane sugar works well, but the Gotu Kola pills were an experiment. Gotu Kola is a non-caffeinated herb that energizes the nervous system. I was not sure if I'd be able to swallow those pills at race pace but I did fine. HR hovered around 149-153 in those miles.

Mile 11 - 5:52 (1:02:52). Mild uphill, turns. Steve fell back. HR around 156. Jeff is pressing it a bit. His HR was also higher.

Mile 12 - 5:50 (1:08:42). Mild uphill. Finally finished my bottle. HR around 154-156.

Mile 13 - 5:54 (1:14:36). Mild uphill.

Mile 14 - 5:31 (1:20:07). Partially downhill, but really good downhill, many turns. Half in 1:15:04. Saw Ted at the half. He said Shin was 1:12:04, but I think it was wrong, because Shin would have put a gap on us from 10, but also Shin later told Jeff it was a low 1:11. HR hitting 157-159. Asked the Jeff to back off and bring me alive to 15, then I'd pull him for a mile, then send him off to chase the leaders.

Mile 15 - 5:42 (1:25:49). Technically a slight downhill, but you cannot tell, now on the Provo River Trail, bridges, turns. HR 157. In miles 14 and 15 I killed my race, but I did not care. I knew from the start I would be hopelessly out of money anyway, and figured it would make sense to sacrifice a minute or two, and possibly a place to slightly increase Jeff's chances of being in the money.

Mile 16 - 5:52 (1:31:41). Similar to 15. Took the lead for the last time to give Jeff a small break. There was a mishap during that mile. My chip started to fall off. It was sewed to the sock, but got loose. I stopped for a second to rip it off so I could carry it in my hand then quickly caught up and resumed the lead.

Mile 17 - 5:53 (1:37:34). Similar to 15. Stayed with Jeff in the first quarter, then grabbed the bottle from Benjamin, and eased off to drink it. Took Gotu Kola pills. Jeff pulled away fast. In hindsight, this is where we made a $250 mistake. Jeff should have stayed with me for another 2 miles. But we did not know Jeff's level of fitness with this much precision, and we also did not know that both Peter and William would blow up that bad. Live and learn.

Mile 18 - 5:59 (1:43:33). Flat, turns, went under the bridge. Drinking my bottle slowly. Saw Ted, he offered to take the bottle then give it to me later, but I needed my bottle desperately, so I said no.

Mile 19 - 5:58 (1:49:31). Mild rolling down on the trail. My tempo run course. Anticipating trouble. Finished the bottle.

Mile 20 - 6:19 (1:55:50). Flat, maybe now a slight up. With 6:19 the trouble has come. How much worse is it going to get? Saw Benjamin and Kimia. Got another bottle. Drinking it slowly and carefully to salvage the race.

Mile 21 - 6:32 (2:02:22). Slight up. Not good, still 5 miles to go. HR drops to 144-147 range.

Mile 22 - 6:07 (2:08:29). Slight up, maybe flat. HR climbs to 151-152. So the Gotu Kola is good for something maybe.

Mile 23 - 6:28 (2:14:57). Same as 22. HR drops to 148-149. Not enough Gotu Kola. I was taking two 450 mg pills. Need to try it in power form and mixing it into the drink in higher concentration next time.

Mile 24 - 6:29 (2:22:26). Same as 22. HR occasionally hits 150 but cannot stay there, keeps dropping to 147-148.

Mile 25 - 6:30 (2:28:56). Same as 22. Very similar to 24 in every way. Running off blood sugar, glad I have plenty.

Last 1.218 - that is when things get fuzzy because I am not quite sure of my finish time. I do not not remember my exact finish time. I do remember seeing 2:35:42 on the watch after I finished. I do remember throwing the chip on the mat and then seeing 2:35:47 on my watch. My official time is 2:35:45. So I probably got clocked by the time the chip hit the ground. I need to figure something out for the chip next time, maybe make a strap around the ankle that will hold it securely. I was able to squat down, pick up the chip, and hand it to the volunteer after I finished, so that is good. But if we go with a conservative estimate of 2:35:42, my last 1.218 is 7:46,   6:22 pace. Met Ted with about 0.5 to go and he got me going. Once I got going I felt I could have held it longer. So maybe if he had showed up at 23 or if a competitor showed up at 23, I would have run 30 seconds faster, but who cares anyway.

Post race damage. Some blood on the feet, stinky Five Fingers, a couple of blisters, more than normal quad soreness, but not DesNews kind.

Not sure how much I lost from Five Fingers. I definitely still do not know how to run in them as well as I do in shoes. But I need to keep running in them exclusively until I've learned a better form very very well. Then I can run in racing flats again and use their extra capacity for pounding. So from now on I will not race a race unless I feel it is safe to race it in Five Fingers. Abebe Bikila ran 2:15 in Rome in 1960 barefoot. But he grew up running barefoot. I did not. So maybe 2:35 in Five Fingers while somewhat wimpy is not that embarrassing after all, qualifies me for an African wannabe.

On another note, I failed on muscle glycogen miserably. The race would have been a complete disaster without those magic bottles, the blood sugar saved me. This could still be a leftover from the ear infection in February. Or it could be something else, all those chess tournament trips with missed long tempos. In any case, to address that I will start adding mid-week 8-10 mile tempos in addition to the regular ones on Saturday.

P.M. The children ran with Sarah, Benjamin and Jenny ahead. Benjamin ran 2 miles in 17:24, Jenny around 18:30. Julia ran 1.5 around 15:40.

Day of rest. Went to church. Quads are sore.

A.M. Was a bum, slept it in, and did nothing. Figured quads could wait until the evening.

P.M. 2 alone in 15:01, 2 with Jenny in 17:52 (Julia 1.5 in 13:46), 2 with Benjamin in 15:01. Sub-8:00 average in spite of running 2/3 of the run with the kids. And I did not have to push too hard on the solo part to make it sub-8:00. The left quad was almost 100% recovered but the right quad was very sore. This was very revealing. With Five Fingers, there was more pounding on the quads. So it exposed form weaknesses more clearly. It appears that I use the right quad for support a whole lot more than the left one. This makes sense because my right glut always feels unused, and somewhat incapable of being used. So the quad then picks up the slack. But why is the right glut being weird? That is a big question.

A.M. 6 with Jeff in 49:08. 2 with Benjamin in 17:21. Quads feel better, but still not 100%.

P.M. 2 miles with Jenny in 18:10 (Julia ran 1.5 in 14:06).

A.M. 6 miles with Jeff in 48:01. We tried to catch the 8:00 guy at the end, but were not motivated to start chasing him early enough and hard enough, so we lost the battle. However, Benjamin helped bring my average for the run to sub-8:00 by running 2 miles in 15:56 with 0.5 in the middle in 2:59 with the splits of 1:31 and 1:28.

A little later took the Fast Running Van to Computune to get the AC fixed and ran 2.25 back with Jenny and Julia in 21:38.

A.M. 6 with Jeff, then 2 more alone, 1:01:59 at 8 miles, then some time later 2.25 with Benjamin to Computune to get the Fast Running Van in 18:55.

P.M. 2 with Jenny in 18:20, Julia ran the first 1.5 in 14:11.

A.M. 8 with Jeff then 2 more alone, total for 10 was 1:13:35, did explosions and a brief pickup at 5:30 for 0.2 for fun. I saw a guy ahead of me going about 9:00 and said, there is no way I can catch him before it is time to get off the trail, he appeared to be too far away. Then I said, never say never, try 5:30 instead of 6:40, and caught him with room to spare. What I found interesting is that in one way I had to work harder, but in another way I did not. 6:40 and 5:30 are very similar in some ways, 5:30 just takes more concentration. 

then 2 with Benjamin in 17:33. We are building an addition to our house. The Lord has poured out so many blessings, there is not enough room to receive them. The builders are laying a foundation. Our kids have been watching the process, and sometimes singing How Firm A Foundation. Then they are walking around the house and still singing it. I love that hymn, it is full of the steady sustainable energy, exactly what a runner needs. It got me through many lonely runs in Russia on a cold winter morning with thoughts of an uncertain future.

P.M. 2.3 with Jenny to Jamba Juice in 20:54. Julia got picked up after 1.52 in 14:16.

A.M. 10 with Jeff in 1:09:56. Did a recovery 5 mile tempo in the middle in 29:25 progressively increasing the pace. The splits were 6:00, 5:59, 5:57, 5:56, 5:33. Last mile had the quarters of 87, 86, 85, 75. Last 200 was in 34. HR was around 146-148 in the early miles, then made its way to 150-151, and in the last mile was around 157-158. During the kick it hit 172. Last 200 was hard but manageable. It was nice to feel the speed. Jeff acted like he was struggling a bit during the run, said it felt harder than 6:00 usually does, but the 34 200 kick at the end was his initiative, so that's a good sign.

2 with Benjamin in 16:48. Jenny learned than Benjamin was being taken out to lunch for his 0.5 at sub-6:00 pace earlier this week, so she wanted to earn it as well. I told her 2 miles under 16:00. She ran 15:33. Then Julia also wanted to earn the privilege. I was not sure about her fitness level exactly, and I did not want to set a standard that was either too high or too low, so I told her follow me and respond when I pick up the pace. She did not know the word "respond". So I explained that it meant if I speed up, you speed up, do not fall behind. Now I can just imagine her coming to Primary, the teacher says: "And Samuel responded to the Lord's call to serve", then asking the children if they knew the meaning of "respond", then Julia raising her little hand and giving the running explanation.

After the instruction we ran 1.5 in 11:57 with the last mile in 7:55 which is Julia's PR and her first time under 8:00. High school runners could learn from her quarter splits: 2:03, 1:59, 1:58, 1:57, 2:02, 1:58. Whenever a child breaks a minute barrier in the mile, we give him a special prize. So Julia got a book and a couple of toys at Barnes and Noble.

Day of rest. Went to church. Taught a class in the Elder's Quorum on Wentworth Letter where Joseph Smith recounts his vision, receiving the Golden Plates and translating the Book of Mormon, the history of the Church, and then gives the Thirteen Articles of Faith.

A.M. Ran with Jeff and Daniel. Daniel went with us to 3 then turned around. We did 10.06 in 1:13:27. A little slower for Jeff due to my VPB. I did explosive sprints. Towards the end I suggested if we ran the last half mile at 6:30 pace we would be under 1:14 for the whole run. Jeff said he needed to run 6:00 pace due to my VPB. So we decided to go fast. We started with about 0.4 to go. The quarters were 85, and 77. HR got up to 164 then dropped to 162. Jeff's was steady at 174.

A few days ago I discovered that if I pressed on my pelvic bone on the right side a certain way I was able to feel more control over my right glut. I am able to find the correct angle because when I press a certain way my right pinky toe starts to twitch, so I press it until it is twitching the hardest. Then once I find the magic angle I contract and relax the glut. So I messed around with it a bit, and felt different during the run today, more stability on the right foot, more power coming off the right leg, especially at faster speeds.

2 more with Benjamin in 15:49.

P.M. About 0.4 with Benjamin to get home after helping a neighbor move in Crocs, then 2 barefoot with Jenny in 17:59. Julia ran 1.5 in 13:46. Feet are tougher, felt a whole lot better running barefoot.

A.M. Ran with Jeff. He had a job interview, so we had to run early - 5:00 AM. We also had to be done quick, so we had to hurry through the run a bit. We started out slow as usual, first 0.5 at 9:00 pace, but then feeling the urgency of being done in time picked it up a bit and eventually were going a bit over 6:40. Hit the turnaround (5.03) in 36:14 and then started the mini-tempo. We ran an odd distance - 3.67 because that was the distance from the turnaround to where we had to cross Geneva (the bridge is still flooded). Our time was 21:35 (5:52.8 average). We started out around 6:00 pace, then with 2 miles to go sped up to 5:50,  and ran the last mile in 5:43. Due to the early hour I felt sluggish. At 6:00 I felt like I was pressing against a hard wall. Then as we sped up the wall advanced 10 seconds, and was now at 5:50. And towards the end it advanced to 5:40. Total time for 10.06 was 1:08:15 which is fast for us, Jeff and I are a couple of lazy bums, we rarely break 1:10. In fact, had we not run the tempo we would not have broken 1:10 even with the mid-run briskness. Of course, we could run 1:04 every day, but then Jeff would be injured and I would be neurally fatigued.

Then 2 more with Benjamin. We did 0.5 in 2:59 (89,90) plus a little bit more, about 0.05 at that pace to help him mentally extend himself.

P.M. Ran barefoot. 1.5 with Julia in 13:16. She was conversational even though the pace was sub-9:00. 0.5 with Joseph in 5:45. Jenny had a cut on her foot, could not run.

A.M. Ran with Jeff. Had to make it relatively brisk because we started late and Jeff had to get to work. So we ran 1:11:13 for 10.1. Did explosive sprints. Jeff said I looked more relaxed. We'll see if there any substance to that tomorrow in the 6x400. 

2 more with Benjamin in 17:26.

P.M. Ran barefoot. 0.5 with Joseph in 6:05. Julia ran with us for about 0.3 then took off, the pace was too slow for her. Then 2 with Jenny in 18:31, Julia ran 1.5 in 13:53.

A.M. Ran with Jeff. I did the quarters. He did two fat miles just to be safe. I did his last fat mile, although it was not so fat for me as the quarters put me in the carb burning mode. Total mileage for the run was 10.1.

I did 5 quarters with 200 recovery, then ran out of road, and did not want to go backwards as not to delay Jeff as he needed to get to work on time. So I decided to take a longer break, about 2.5 miles or so until we got back to the trail marks. The longer break did not matter since I could not do the quarters fast enough to benefit from more than 200 recovery.

The quarters went like this: pressed the stop button too early on the first, with the adjustment the time was around 73, on the second one the watch did not start because I am still getting used to the idea of starting the timer with one button and stopping it with another. After than I finally got the hang of those buttons: 71.4, 72.0 (lost concentration looking for the marker as it was covered with fluff), 71.2, 71.5.

The feeling was interesting. In some ways I felt smooth. But in other ways I felt weak and awkward. In restrospect I said no wonder many people run this pace for a 10 K, it is not that fast, does not take a whole lot of power to sustain it if you can run smooth. But it does take a whole lot of Quality X to be sufficiently smooth to run this pace off low power. And for fairness, we need to say that a sub-28:00 sea-level track Kenyan would not break 29:00 on the Provo River trail. I raced a few of them in 2005 in Wasatch Run The Front, the winner was around 29:20, he had a sub-28:00 track 10 K to his credit, and he was racing 4 other guys his caliber. I ran 34:10, and, interestingly enough, my 10 K PR on the Provo River Trail was 34:09, so we can say the courses were comparable. So perhaps 71 quarters there are not that slow after all.

And since I remembered Wasatch Run the Front. It was a great race, but unfortunately not well appreciated by the community. We had some of the best runners the world, a good number, and I mean really the best, sub-28:00 10 K runners in men, Constantina Dita, the Beijing Olympics Marathon Champion in the women's race, and she did not win easy, there was a Kenyan lady that gave her a run for her money. The good news is that I got to watch it. The bad news is that I got to watch it from far behind. I ran a decent race and got triple (!) chicked.  We did not have to go anywhere to race them, they came to us. They were all right there, no special coral or anything. You could warm-up, cool down, and chat with a bunch of world-class runners. And guess how many people showed up? Only 300. Well, that was the end of Wasatch Run The Front.

2 with Benjamin afterwards in 17:41.

P.M. 2 with Jenny in 18:11. Julia ran the first 1.5 in 13:51. 0.5 with Joseph in 5:55.

A.M. Ran with Jeff. After the first half mile we met a guy named Tyler. He joined us for about 3.5 miles. In less than a mile we discovered he had served a Spanish speaking mission in New Jersey. Jeff and I speaking Spanish to each other is rather odd for some reason, but with another person it happens more naturally. So we spoke Spanish for almost 3 miles.

On the way back we ran a fat mile in 5:59, and then another fat 1.25 in 7:26.

We have a reason to celebrate. The tunnel under Geneva Road is finally dry. Learning to be thankful for small blessings.

Afterwards 2 more with Benjamin in 15:54. It would have been slower, but he decided to practice his race pace in the last 0.4.

P.M. 2 with Jenny in 17:47. Julia ran the first 1.5 in 13:26. Then 0.5 with Joseph, Jeff, and Kimia. Joseph and I finished in 5:21, which is Joseph's record, Jeff and Kimia pulled ahead in the second quarter and finished in 5:14.

A.M. Eventful morning. Started with a tempo run with Jeff. We warmed up 3.62, then started our 10 mile tempo. Fast Running Blog 5 Miler course twice. While I am at it, I'll put a plug for the race on July 11th. This is a great opportunity to accurately test your fitness. I know that course very very well. With the race still small I can afford to offer every blogger that comes to run it an analysis of his performance. I hope this means more to you than purchasing a shirt, some food and a chance to win an age division award, which we unlike other races do not offer. Take that back, we actually do offer the option of purchasing a shirt for $8, but it is still an option, shirt purchase is not required to enter the race.  And in case somebody still does not know, there is no charge to enter the race.

The plan was to go out at around 5:50 pace, and then speed up by feel. My splits: 5:49 - 5:48 - 5:46 - 5:43 - 5:43 - 5:40 - 5:35 -  5:32 - 5:32 - 5:38.  We tried to do quarters, but eventually the pace got fast enough to where I was not very helpful at the front. With 1.5 to go Jeff sped up to an 81 quarter, I survived it, but was done for the rest of the run and lost contact. My quarters after that were 83, 85, 85, 84, 84. The last mile is a slight uphill, so the effort was worth a flat 5:32-5:34. Total time was 56:46. Jeff finished with 56:34. Splits by 2.5: 14:33 - 14:16 - 14:03 - 13:54. By 5: 28:49 - 27:57. I was happy to break 28:00 in the second half.

First 5 miles felt sluggish, I was even wondering if I could hold that pace at all, much less speed up. Then we sped up to 5:40 and I found a good rhythm.

I felt very good during mile 7. HR was 154. I do not think I ever had it that low going 5:35 that late in a tempo or a race. I found a good rhythm during that mile. Then I lost it during a 180 and the pace felt painful, but then I found the rhythm again. However, 81 was too much for my nervous system. I still had good rhythm in the last mile, but Jeff was gone, and my neural drive was in overload. So 5:38 was all I could do.

Cooled down to make the total of 15.

The took Benjamin and Jenny to the Utah Track State Championship. They both ran 1500 meters in the Bantam division. This was Jenny's first track race, so naturally she made some mistakes. She spent a good portion of the race in the second or third lanes while there was no competitor around her. This ended up costing her the win. Her time was 6:40.00, while the Olivia Tait ran 6:39.64.  Olivia was on pace for about 6:20, but then with about 170 meters to go she started throwing up. So she stopped, then started running, stopped again, pushed as hard as she could, and ended up holding off Jenny at the end. Jenny's splits were 1:41, 1:52, 1:50, and 1:17 for the last 300. She advanced to the regionals, an since they are going to be held here at BYU she is going to run in them. Not a bad showing, though, given that she is 8 and she was racing girls 10 and under.  But we need to work on holding a steady pace all the way through, and on staying in the first lane.

If somebody had told me that Benjamin would not advance to the regionals with a 5:43 I would have said impossible. Last year he won with 6:06. But it did happen. Bantum Boys ended up being the deepest race in all age categories. Benjamin ran a 22 second PR, and still missed top 3 getting outkicked by Jakob Bates in the last 200. He would have advanced with his time in every other age division. Sometimes life pretends to be not fair. But it always is. There is no such thing as unfair. Luck is random, preparation is not.

Amadeus Peterson won with 5:21.91, then Aiden Troutner 5:25.80, Jakob 5:41.44, and Benjamin 5;43.77.

Benjamin's splits were 1:26 (quarter PR), 1:34, 1:36, and 1:07 for the last 300. I was happy with how he ran the race. He did slow down after the first lap, but he was able to maintain a respectable pace in spite of running a very aggressive first quarter. Our 6:00 pace to failure training did have some positive results. 5:46 pace in the first lap did not completely kill him, his kick was respectable, and his average pace for the whole run was 6:08.8.  We will continue to work on making 6:00 pace comfortable enough to make it to the mile.

P.M. Ran barefoot. 1.5 with Julia in 14:38, 0.5 with Joseph in 5:55.

Day of rest. Went to church. Read an interesting article in the Ensign about a woman that prayed to have a pioneer experience. Her prayer was answered. Her car broke down and she had to bike everywhere. This reminded me that I need to be thankful for everyday life conveniences.

A.M. 10.1 with Jeff in 1:15:31. Did explosions. Discussed the importance of big O in computer algorithms. Ran two fat miles. First in 5:56, second in 5:50. Interesting feeling in the second mile. In the second quarter felt very smooth, and ran 86 uphill, but it did not feel that fast. In the third quarter I thought we were going to get 85 for the effort, but it was only 87.  Possibly because of the turns. Then in the last quarter felt smooth again and ran 84.

2 more with Benjamin in 17:33.

P.M. Ran barefoot. 0.5 with Joseph in 5:45. 1.5 with Jenny and Julia in 14:59. They both were not feeling well, so we ran slower and cut Jenny's run short.

A.M. Jeff and I were planning on a 10 mile tempo run. However, Jeff ate something bad and was having serious stomach issues. But we decided to give it a try anyway. Jeff threw up before the start of the tempo, first time in 14 years. Jeff is quite a scientist. Most people would just get away from the vomit as fast as they could, but he studied it in detail and then reported one item at a time what came out.

Then we started with a tentative goal to run 6:00 pace until we had to call 911 for Jeff. We started out sluggishly. 6:06 for the first mile. During the second mile Jeff stopped to throw up again. Then we could not get back to pace, and then we stopped for Jeff's VPB, so we ended up with 6:09.  Not much faster in the third - 6:02. An old lady, about 70 years old or so, was riding a bike in front of us. She was a nimble old lady. Her bike looked pretty heavy, yet she was maintaining sub-6:00 pace. She must have been Ben Crozier's grandma. Back when we trained together whenever I told Ben I ran a good time, he always said his grandma ran that same race on that same course 5 seconds faster.

With the grandma ahead of us to chase the pace quickened. We ran the next mile in 5:53. But the grandma was not coming to us. I thought for sure we'd catch her on the uphill. But we did not. Then finally Jeff decided he wanted to catch the grandma even if it meant more vomit. So we sped up to an 84 quarter, followed by an 81. The grandma did not have that gear, we caught up, and she admitted that she tried hard to stay ahead of us. I was surprised that Jeff was able to go that fast without losing anything on either end of the pipe. Once we passed the grandma, the competitive urge was over and we coasted the last quarter in 85 to finish 5 miles in 29:50, last mile in 5:40. Jeff felt that was good enough, and I did not want to run 5 more alone bad enough to actually do it. So I stopped with him and we jogged in to get 10 miles total.

Then I picked up Benjamin and ran 2 miles with him in 15:45. We did  6:00 pace to failure after the warm-up mile in 9:00. He made it to about 0.6 this time, the longest so far. I think he could have gone 0.75, but was not mentally ready. To help him prepare I challenged him to run a hard quarter from 1.75 to the finish, which he did in 1:37. His last mile was 6:45 which included a jog from 0.6 to 0.75.

P.M. 0.5 with Joseph in 5:48. 2 with Jenny in 19:34. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 14:52.