Breaking the Wall

December 21, 2024

15% off for Fast Running Blog members at St. George Running Center!

Location:

Orem,UT,United States

Member Since:

Jan 27, 1986

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Olympic Trials Qualifier

Running Accomplishments:

Best marathon: 2:23:57 (2007, St. George). Won the Top of Utah Marathon twice (2003,2004). Won the USATF LDR circuit in Utah in 2006.

Draper Days 5 K 15:37 (2004)

Did not know this until June 2012, but it turned out that I've been running with spina bifida occulta in L-4 vertebra my entire life, which explains the odd looking form, struggles with the top end speed, and the poor running economy (cannot break 16:00 in 5 K without pushing the VO2 max past 75).

Short-Term Running Goals:

Qualify for the US Olympic Trials. With the standard of 2:19 on courses with the elevation drop not exceeding 450 feet this is impossible unless I find an uncanny way to compensate for the L-4 defect with my muscles. But I believe in miracles.

Long-Term Running Goals:

2:08 in the marathon. Become a world-class marathoner. This is impossible unless I find a way to fill the hole in L-4 and make it act healthy either by growing the bone or by inserting something artificial that is as good as the bone without breaking anything important around it. Science does not know how to do that yet, so it will take a miracle. But I believe in miracles.

Personal:

I was born in 1973. Grew up in Moscow, Russia. Started running in 1984 and so far have never missed more than 3 consecutive days. Joined the LDS Church in 1992, and came to Provo, Utah in 1993 to attend BYU. Served an LDS mission from 1994-96 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Got married soon after I got back. My wife Sarah and I are parents of eleven children: Benjamin, Jenny, Julia, Joseph, Jacob, William, Stephen, Matthew, Mary, Bella. and Leigha. We home school our children.

I am a software engineer/computer programmer/hacker whatever you want to call it, and I am currently working for RedX. Aside from the Fast Running Blog, I have another project to create a device that is a good friend for a fast runner. I called it Fast Running Friend.

Favorite Quote:

...if we are to have faith like Enoch and Elijah we must believe what they believed, know what they knew, and live as they lived.

Elder Bruce R. McConkie

Favorite Blogs:

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Miles:	This week:	0.00	Month:	0.00	Year:	3010.45
Saucony Type A Lifetime Miles:						640.15
Bare Feet Lifetime Miles:						450.37
Nike Double Stroller Lifetime Miles:						124.59
Brown Crocs 4 Lifetime Miles:						1334.06
Amoji 1 Lifetime Miles:						732.60
Amoji 2 Lifetime Miles:						436.69
Amoji 3 Lifetime Miles:						380.67
Lopsie Sports Sandals Lifetime Miles:						818.02
Lopsie Sports Sandals 2 Lifetime Miles:						637.27
Iprome Garden Clogs Lifetime Miles:						346.18
Beslip Garden Clogs Lifetime Miles:						488.26
Joybees 1 Lifetime Miles:						1035.60
Madctoc Clogs Lifetime Miles:						698.29
Blue Crocs Lifetime Miles:						1164.32
Kimisant Black Clogs Lifetime Miles:						720.62
Black Crocs 2023 Lifetime Miles:						1743.12
White Slip Resistant Crocs Lifetime Miles:						759.93

Mon, Jul 07, 2008

Easy Miles	Marathon Pace Miles	Threshold Miles	VO2 Max Miles	Total Distance
16.40	0.00	0.60	0.00	17.00

A.M. Decided it was time to cut back the mileage and add some intensity. This is going to be more experimental. The purposes are to test a) how it will affect the performance in shorter distances now that I've run 8 months of very solid base and b) how much of that speed will be retained once I go back to base mileage. My recent HRM data suggests that while I've received significant cardio gains from base building, I am running more and more into the 5 K speed limit. In other words, I cannot go any faster in the half because I am almost at my 5 K pace already. My hope is that the 5 K speed limit will budge more than it has in the past now that there is a huge aerobic base breathing down its neck.

Ran with Jeff and Daniel. Dropped Daniel off, finished the run with Jeff. Did one post VPB pick-up and we also tried to chase down a guy to recruit him for FRB, but he turned around early. Thus 0.6 of tempo running. Total of 13 miles in 1:41:50.

P.M. 1 with Julia in 9:52, 2 with Benjamin in 16:58 with Jenny running 1.5 in 13:11. One more without running kids in 7:28. Pushed Jacob in the single stroller the entire time. Played freeze tag in a park with Benjamin and two other kids. Lots of places to climb and hide at that park, so it was tough. Finally wore all of them down and froze them all. With reduced mileage felt energetic.

Five Fingers - 647.84 miles.

Night Sleep Time: 7.50	Nap Time: 0.00	Total Sleep Time: 7.50

Comments

From Adam RW on Mon, Jul 07, 2008 at 15:28:14

I look forward to the test. My prediction is that you will see some great gains in speed. I hope I'm right.

From Jon on Mon, Jul 07, 2008 at 16:06:56

Glad to see you trying something new. Your huge base, complimented with some speed work will produce amazing results!

From Sasha Pachev on Mon, Jul 07, 2008 at 16:17:02

Jon - "amazing" is an unrealistic expectation. I've done lots of speedwork before with hardly any improvement as a result. Truly amazing results are much slower to come than the word "amazing" flies out the mouth of the average American. Marginally better if I am lucky would be more accurate. But marginally better is better than the same.

From Adam RW on Mon, Jul 07, 2008 at 16:36:26

So does that mean "great" is more realistic?

From Jon on Mon, Jul 07, 2008 at 17:08:25

Sasha- when the men's marathon world record improved by 29 seconds recently, I thought it was amazing. Granted, 29 seconds was less than 0.4% improvement from the old time, so the number itself is not overly impressive. But there is such a group of fast times right up to that point, that actually breaking it is impressive.

Likewise, you have a huge body of miles and race times in your running background. A 0.4% improvement in your 5k would be less than 4 seconds. But once you have established a firm history and then break through, it is amazing. Call it marginal if you want, but it is a breakthrough. And that is what I am predicting will happen with you. I seem to remember you commenting recently how you tried 120 mpw previously but with poor results compared to what you are accomplishing now. We shall see if the added intensity running has likewise more-successful results this year.

By the way, a simple "Thanks for the compliment" will suffice, rather than arguing with an intended compliment.

From Sasha Pachev on Mon, Jul 07, 2008 at 17:48:01

Jon - was that meant to be a compliment? If you call a 0.4% improvement for me "amazing", this implies, "15:33 on the old Draper Days course in cool weather with no headwind is all you've got". Or "a low 2:23 in St. George on a good day is all you've got, you'll never do better".

From Jon on Mon, Jul 07, 2008 at 19:33:44

It was meant to be encouraging/complimentary as you are trying something different. And I am not implying that .4% improvement is all that you will see. I meant that improvements can be small but still be amazing (like taking 29 seconds off the marathon world record). For you, I expect much better improvements than 4 seconds on a 5k or 30 seconds on the marathon. Something on the order of 2-3+ minutes at St. George.

From Paul Petersen on Tue, Jul 08, 2008 at 00:11:14

I'd love to have a 4-second PR in a legitimate 5K. Those are hard to come by. I haven't had one in almost 10 years.

From sarah on Wed, Jul 09, 2008 at 22:39:55

Hey Jon...I'll give a word of encouragement...you did right but just beware...Russians are really weird about compliments and smiling for cameras.

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