Breaking the Wall

A.M. 10 total, including runs with the kids. Benjamin did 4, Jenny 3, Julia and Joseph 1.5.

A.M. It was a crazy day today. We had a baptism in our ward this morning which I was in charge of, the kids were performing in an Independence Day celebration, and we went to Ben Crozier's wedding. He finally found a young lady that saved him from being a menace to society. And yesterday was rather crazy as well as we went to a Russian missionary reunion. So anyway, I was not expecting much from today's workout, but it went quite well. I did 15 miles with a 2 mile time trial. It went like this: 80,80,80,80 (5:20),82,81,83, 77.5 (5:23 high). Total time 10:43.9, which is the fastest I've done on those time trials so far. Still not where I should be, but at least some progress.

P.M. Nap.

Day of rest. Went to church. The lesson in Sunday school was on sacrifice. Benjamin and I observed one time that chess grandmasters are quite excited to sacrifice after we had studied a number of their games. Benjamin's comment was - it seems like they are trying to find out how much material they can sacrifice without losing the game. Sacrifice moves are always marked with an exclamation mark (!), and sometimes even with two in the annotations. In contrast to that, when we are asked to sacrifice to do the Lord's work, we often do not possess the same degree of enthusiasm. At the same time, going back to the chess analogy, while it takes no special aptitude to just hang a piece, a high level of skill is required to use sacrifices effectively. So perhaps we are like a less experienced chess player that finds himself in a complicated position who has the privilege to receive advice from a grandmaster. The grandmaster gives him the move. Our friend, lacking the vision, protests in disbelief  - but this loses my queen! So maybe the reason we grumble about sacrifices is that proverbial lack of vision combined with the equally proverbial lack of faith in God.

Strange as it may sound, thinking on my past experiences, the times when I felt the most peace in my life are the ones when I took a step forward through faith not seeing more than one step ahead of me. A step out of the comfort zone brings comfort! A different kind of comfort.Not the comfort of the flesh, but the comfort of the Spirit.

A.M. Easy run with a short pickup to catch up to Tyler Parsons. Ran with him for about a mile and a quarter after that to my house to get his number/e-mail. I am planning on pacing him through a time trial of 6:00 pace "till the standard bearer fainteth" or until he makes it to 2 miles on Saturday. Ran with the kids - Benjamin did 4, Jenny, Julia and Joseph 1.5. Then we went to the Colonial Days in Orem afterward.

A.M. Attempted my 2 mile time trial, but apparently the last few days of relative craziness got to me. After two 81 quarters I did not like how I was feeling and decided to call it off.Ran total of 10 miles including the kids runs. Benjamin did 4, Jenny 3, Julia and Joseph 1.5.

A.M. Early morning run - 10 miles. Decided to see if I was feeling any better today. Started with an 82 quarter, it did not feel good at all. Then did a mile in 5:23.6, that felt a bit better, but not much. I think I am experiencing the combined effect of the disruption in the house from the water damage on Sunday. William (2 years old) decided to do a plumbing experiment and we did not catch it soon enough. So we had to call the flood company and our bedroom and a few other places have become quite unusable. So Sarah and I have been sleeping in the living room. To make things worse, the flooding company has been running a dehumidifier and the drying fans since Sunday. 

Benjamin ran 4, Jenny and Julia 2, and I ran 1.5 with Joseph.

A.M. Did 10 including kids runs. Benjamin did 4 with 3x800 in the middle. His times were 2:54.5, 2:53.6, 2:55.3. He was feeling the effects of the war zone in the house quite a bit but nevertheless survived the workout. I might have acclimated some, but it is difficult to tell because the pace was not too fast and the distance was not too long. But the pace did feel normal, at least for that short of a distance, and I was in the mood to go further and faster.

Jenny did 3, Julia 1.5, Joseph 1.

A.M. 10 miles including kids runs. Benjamin did 4, Jenny and Joseph 1, Julia 1.5. All the kids have been feeling the effects of the flood war zone. However, it seems that I am recovering some. Noticed that the legs felt different and decided to test them. Did 0.75 in 3:55 and that felt quite good.

A.M. Ran with Tyler. We did the 6:00 "till the standard bearer fainteth" test for him. It was interesting. He went through the first mile in 5:37 with the splits of 85, 85, 84, 83. I figured he was more fit than I thought and did not force him to slow down to 6:00. But then he did the next quarter in 89, and then could not hold the pace slowing down to 93, 92, 93, which gave him 6:07 for the last mile, and total time of 11:44, which was actually better than I was expecting.

Then we jogged back 2 miles, and I did my 2 mile time trial. Tyler ran the first 0.5 miles with me. The splits were 79, 81, 80, 81, 81, 81, 82, 78 - total time 10:43 ( 5:21, 5:22). It is the most even I've been able to do it so far, and also the fastest this year.

Total of 15. Did part of Benjamin's run. The kids otherwise ran on their own - Benjamin - 4, Jenny 3, Julia and Joseph 1.5.

I had Tyler do a target marathon pace pickup for the last 1.5 miles, which we did in 9:51.

Day of rest. Went to church. The missionary work is progressing in our ward. We had an investigator galore today by our standards. Two families came - a mother with her four children, and another mother with her three children. The lesson in Sunday school was on work and personal responsibility, and it just happened that the Elder's Quorum lesson was on a similar subject - family responsibility. Then in the sacrament meeting your young women told about their experiences at the camp.

Yesterday we went to see Sister Pace who taught me the Gospel back in 1992 in Russia with her husband, who passed way 10 years ago. She is still quite energetic at the age of 92. She was happy to see our family.  She gave us two books of her family history which we studied in the afternoon. Those books contain a wealth of information. I felt like Lehi when he got his hands on the brass plates and studied the genealogy of his fathers.

A.M. Did total of 10, including kids runs. Benjamin did 4, Jenny 3, Julia and Joseph 1.5. I did some pickups - 200 and 3x400.

A.M. Did a workout. Warm-up, two 100 m strides then 8x400 with 200 recoveries on the trail. I found a stretch that was as flat as it gets, but it was still a bit bumpy. Splits: 74.1, 72.9, 74.0, 73.2, 73.9, 73.6, 73.2, 71.8. Recoveries were between 1:35 and 1:45. I think I picked the intensity right because I started to feel like I was finding a good rhythm and at the same time was getting a good cardiovascular push in the last 200. Generally happy with the workout. Ran a total of 15 including the kids runs. Benjamin did 4, Jenny 3, Julia and Joseph 1.5.

A.M. 10 total including kids runs. Benjamin did 4 miles in 28:20, last two in 12:44. Jenny ran 3, Joseph and Julia did 1.5.I ran the last mile in 5:47 to test the legs and breathe some air.

A.M. Tried my 2 mile workout, but after the first mile in 5:24 I saw it was going nowhere, and decided today was the wrong day to do it. I already know how to run slow, I need to learn to run fast. So my rule is that if 5:20 is too difficult to sustain, no point it battling it out at 5:30 or slower. The same training stimulus can be reached by jogging without learning the bad habit of running tense. Ran with the kids. Benjamin did 4, Jenny 3, Julia and Joseph 1.5. I ended up with the total of 13.

A.M. Ran with the kids - 4 with Benjamin, 3 with Jenny, 1.5 of it with Joseph. Julia ran 4 with Sarah. I have been thinking about quickness of muscle contraction vs force and decided to do a test. So I ran 7:30 pace for about 1.5 miles, and then picked up to about 6:15, and then to about 5:55. It appeared to me that the difference between 7:30 and 6:15 was mostly in how quickly I was moving my legs, but the amount of force I had to put into the step was not much difference. But 5:55 compared to 6:15 required a whole lot more force. Also, in terms of breathing, I was not breathing much harder at 6:15 than 7:30, but much more at 5:55.

P.M. 0.6 doing errands on foot.

A.M. 20 mile run. Chad Robinson came to run with me. He is a recent convert to the true religion of running in Crocs. I observed the he looked much like Ed Eyestone and spent a good portion of the run trying to figure out why he cannot run 27:41 10,000 meters yet. We did a test running a mile in 5:55. I watched the splits, listened to his breathing, monitored the patterns of fatigue using the "how do I drop this guy" sense, and concluded that the main weakness was the lack of leg strength. Chad weighs only 120 lb while 6-1 tall. So my recommendations were smart hill work and appetite boosters like garlic and cayenne pepper in addition to consistent mileage.

Chad was only going 12, but I was easy to talk into going a little further out, so he ended up going to about 7.5 and then waiting for me to come back to finish the 15. I went to the 10 mile mark to make the total of 20. On the way back, starting about 10.5 into the run I did a 3 mile tempo down the Provo Canyon. The target was 5:20 pace. I did the first mile in 5:11, then got scared/tired and ran 5:27 for the second mile. After hitting a quarter in 83 right before the 2 mile mark I realized I need to get down to business and gave it a more serious push, which gave me 5:17 for the last mile, and the total time of 15:55. It felt good to do this workout, as the downhill helped me move my legs faster for longer than normal. I was pleased with the last mile, as I had serious doubts about my ability to break 5:20 after the 5:27 middle mile "goose egg". It was nice to have Chad for a little bit in the last mile.

Some thoughts on the "how do I drop this guy" sense. It is developed through racing, and its original purpose is to know when and how hard to surge so you can make your competitor suffer the most at his weakest moment. But just like nuclear energy it can be used for peaceful purposes such as pacing or evaluating fitness.  For example, you can know that the person you are pacing has two 6:20 miles in him left, or one 6:10. So if you have 2 miles to go and you are leading him at 6:10, he will slow down to 6:30 in half a mile from fatigue and the fear of having to run another 1.5 miles.

P.M. 0.6 miles doing errands on foot.

Day of rest. Went to church. It was a busy day for me. I got to teach two classes - one in Sunday school, and one in the Elder's Quorum. The lesson in Sunday school was on service. The lesson in the Elder's Quorum was on eternal marriage. I shared the idea that service is to our faith what training is to our muscles.

The Sacrament meeting talks were on pioneers. One thing to learn from the pioneers is the attitude of doing hard things that are right without hesitation or complaint. The power to do that comes from the understanding that right is more important than comfortable. One prerequisite to that, of course, is a strong sense of wrong and right. Without that sense you will inevitably drift towards what is comfortable. I have now lived long enough to be able to see the consequences of many of my decisions in the past, and to deem some of those decisions as bringing joy or regret. The only ones that have brought regret involved choosing what is comfortable or convenient above what was right. The ones where I chose the other way have brought joy.

A.M. Total of 10 including kids runs. Benjamin did 4.5 with 3x800 2:55.8, 2:44.3, 2:55.3. Jenny, Julia and Joseph ran 1.5.

A.M. Total of 10, including kids runs. Benjamin - 4, Jenny - 3, Julia and Joseph1.5. I did a pickup for 1.5 miles in 8:49.

P.M. I did an experiment. I wanted to see how fast I could run with the stride length artificially reduced and how it felt. So Julia and I did a craft project of sorts (she likes craft projects), and cut out 24 9''x9'' squares out of a 27''x72'' rubber mat I bought at Home Depot. Then with the help of a measuring wheel we laid out 14 of those rubber squares on the side walk exactly 5 feet apart creating a segment 65 feet in length with a way to force the stride length to 5 feet by landing on the squares. I was able to run this with a running start in 3.2 which is about 16.2 for 100 meters or about 4:20 mile pace. My natural stride length at that pace is probably around 5-10 inches longer. The stride rate was about 244 steps per minute. I felt that I had to lift my my knees higher to avoid stepping past the squares. I also noticed that I was using a lot more force than I expected to be able to turn over quickly. I figured that since I naturally hit 60 inch long stride length at about 5:50 pace, I would experience the strength effort similar to running at 5:50 except the legs would move quicker, but it was much different. It basically felt like a near all out sprint, except it required extra coordination to hit the squares.

A.M. Did a warm-up, then a repeat of last weeks 8x400 with 200 recovery workout. Splits: 73.7, 73.6, 72.4, 72.8, 72.0, 72.1, 73.4, 70.6, which comes out to 72.6 average. About 1 second per quarter improvement over the last week. I also counted my strides over one 100 meter stretch - it was 56 strides. So that is a turnover of about 186 steps per minute with the stride length of  1.78 m or about 70 inches. The stride felt good, like I was comfortably floating, but the comfort unfortunately did not last long. This turnover should be sustainable for at least the 5 K, if not 10. I am wondering as to the reason I cannot maintain the adequate stride length. The biggest obstacle to sustaining a fast pace is that you lack the stride length over any distance to keep the turnover from having to be over 200 to produce the speed, which is not sustainable over long distances for most runners. I thought I had that problem, but  apparently I can overcome it at least in a quarter mile repeat. Now the question is how to extend that feeling to longer distances.

The kids did a portion of their runs on their own, and a portion with me. Benjamin did 4, Jenny 3, Julia 2, and Joseph 1.5. I ended up with a total of 15.2 miles.

A.M. Total of 10 including kids' runs. Benjamin did 4, Jenny 3, Julia and Joseph 1.5. Jacob started to do short runs on Tuesday and has been doing 200 meters. His leg is gradually regaining strength and his form is starting to look more and more normal.

A.M. Had some fun this morning, maybe too much. Sarah left on her 5 mile run about 10 minutes before I did, so I decided it was a perfect opportunity to chase the Hot Chick. I warmed up for about 0.5 and then started going a bit sub-6:00. It took me about 3 miles to catch up. When I did, I found that she had met a new running partner Merylin and they were going a bit sub-9:00 pace. So I ran with them back to the house for the remaining 1.5 miles of the run. With a quarter to go I gave Sarah a challenge to break 2:00 (sub 8:00 pace). She complained at first, then I quoted Elaine Dalton's "I can do hard things", and she accepted the challenge running it in 1:57. That was a major improvement for her to be able to run sub-8:00 after running sub-9:00 for a while at the end of a 5 mile run.

Then I ran with the kids. Benjamin did 4 with the last two in 12:50. Jenny did 3, Julia and Joseph 1.5. I ended up with 12 total.

P.M. Did another stride experiment. Laid out my magic rubber squares 4 feet apart for the distance of 72 feet and tried to cover the distance as quickly as possible. It took me 7 tries starting at 4.7 before I got to 4.3. Then I did it one more time and was done. 4.3 translates to the speed of 5:15 per mile, and turnover of 251 steps per minute. All of that with a 4 foot stride length. I learned that it is possible to run like that, although not for long. The feeling was drastically different from trying to do the same thing with the 5 foot stride length. 5 foot stride length was mostly about power. 4 foot stride length required special coordination, as well as some odd type of power that made my legs feel like I've just done a nice fast downhill run. Not explicitly sore, but what I would call stale. I think I have now formulated the question I am trying to answer with these experiments - is there a drill that can be done using the artificially controlled stride length that can help me improve my speed across the board?

A.M. Benjamin followed me on a bike for my long run. From the start I was feeling some staleness in the legs, possibly the effect of my experiment last night. Ran 10.5 at about 7:10 pace to Bridal Veil Falls and back to Nuns Park, then did 3 miles down the Provo Canyon in 16:05.9. The splits were 5:19 - 5:23 - 5:22 high. I was struggling with the warm weather and the staleness in the legs. Then, I jogged 3.5 miles and ran the last 3 in 17:54. Even though it was only 76 F, I was really feeling the warmth and it was bothering me. The total time for 20 miles was 2:16:35.

Jenny and Julia ran on their own - Jenny 3, Julia 1.5. Jacob ran 200 m with Sarah.

P.M. Ran again with Benjamin and Joseph. By now it was 86 F, but the sun was going down. It was actually much nicer than 76F earlier in the morning with direct sunlight. Benjamin and I did 4, Joseph ran the first 1.5. with us.

Day of rest. Went to church. The stars aligned again and the same person taught the in the investigator/new member class in Sunday school and in the Elder's quorum, except this time it was not me. I do not know how that happened, but all three ward missionaries also teach in the Elder's Quorum. In any case, the lesson in Sunday School was on the Word of Wisdom. The Elder's Quorum lesson was on a talk by Elder Richards in General Conference on the subject of "What manner of men ought ye to be" with references to the words of Christ in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:48 and in 3 Nephi 12:48 from the same sermon which Christ repeated to the Nephites when He appeared to them after His resurrection.

I have observed in the process of doing missionary work that a likely potential convert really knows his Bible. Not just the quotes here and there from his minister, but somebody who has read it from cover to cover several times and has thought about it in its entirety rather than just the parts that fit into a particular religious doctrine. Such a person will not be going in endless loops with the common concerns and objections such as the relationship between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, polygamy, God speaking to a prophet, our ability to receive revelation including new scripture, and our ability to become like God eventually after returning to His presence. It will be so because in his study of the Bible he has discovered that the unity of the Godhead is in purpose and not in body, the twelve tribes of Israel came as a result of a plural marriage that was sanctioned by God at the time, God has a pattern of speaking to his people through prophets who receive revelation and record it - that is how we got the Bible in the first place, if we want to receive knowledge we are entitled to ask God, and Christ himself told us to be perfect like the Father in the Sermon on the Mount.

When I went on a mission in 1994 I was still a relatively new convert. I decided that I needed to read the Bible from cover to cover. I was amazed at how smoothly the "rough" parts of the Bible fit into the LDS doctrine while at the same time every other religion I encountered had to basically skip over them. There were passages here and there that required explaining and clarifying, but not too many in comparison with every other religion I encountered, and even that fit smoothly because the doctrine explains that while most of the Bible is true some of the truths were lost in translation or due to innocent or sometimes purposeful omissions or alterations  over the long course of the human history. Thus an LDS missionary who did what he was supposed to and learned the Bible is tempted to Bible-bash. He holds his own quite well while defending his religion, which is a position of disadvantage, as it is much easier to attack a religion with the Bible than defend it. There is almost always an obscure passage somewhere in the depths of the Old Testament that throws a curve into almost any religious practice or doctrine. But the reason I said "tempted" is that he is not supposed to because that is not how conversions come. They come through quiet whisperings of the Holy Ghost, and an agitated argument involving the sophistry of men even if it is about the Scriptures does not bring it. However I made an observation that those who have actually read the Bible are more likely to have the Holy Ghost with them, and do not fight the truth, but accept it and live it. So whenever somebody claimed an allegiance to a religion that accepted the Bible (more often than not to get rid of us), I would always challenge them to learn it better and practice its teachings.

A.M. Ran 10.5 including the kids runs. Benjamin did 4, Jenny, Julia, and Joseph did 1.5, Jacob ran 0.25. Did a pickup for 0.75 in 4:21. Legs felt sluggish.

A.M. Ran 10.75 including kids runs. Benjamin did 4, Jenny, Julia, and Joseph 1.5, Jacob 0.25. Did a pickup for 2 miles in 11:36 (5:53 - 5:43). Legs felt better than the day before.

A.M. I broke my phone yesterday, and could not sleep because I kept having ideas on how to fix it. So I just kept trying them. I still was not able to fix it, but I learned a lot about how the Android phones, and Samsung Intercept in particular works. What is odd is that by early morning I was not feeling sleepy at all and was ready to run. Maybe if I ever race an overnight relay I should just bring some broken but potentially fixable gadget with me to keep my mind active and I'll race just fine without sleep. Ran 10.25 total including the kids runs. Benjamin did 5, Jenny, Julia and Joseph 1.5, Jacob 0.25. Legs were actually quite snappy.

A.M. Did a warm-up, then 8x400 with 200 recovery. 75.4, 73.3, 71.9, 72.4, 72.8, 73.9, 72.2, 70.0. It took me some time to get going, but I felt strong in the last two repeats. Then ran home and ran with the kids. Benjamin did 4, Jenny, Julia, and Joseph 1.5, Jacob 0.25. I ended up with a total of 14.75.

A.M. Ran some myself, some with Sarah, and some with the kids. Did a pickup for 1.5 at 6:00 pace. Sarah did 0.5 in 4:11, and then another 0.5 in 3:56. Benjamin did 4 including 3x800 - 2:52.9, 2:45.3, 2:53.2. I did those with him. Then 1.5 with Jenny, Julia, and Joseph. 0.25 with Jacob. Some more by myself. Did the fixed length stride drills at 5 feet. Total mileage was 10.8.

A.M. Long run with Chad Robinson. He went 15, I did 20. He waited for me after we got to 7.5. We did a test pickup. He made it to the mile in 5:53. After that the markers were gone as the new ones have not been painted after the road reconstruction, but we kept going. I tried to maintain the same effort, not sure if I got it quite right, but Chad survived for about another 0.5 miles.This is quite an improvement for Chad in the last two weeks.

After that we jogged some, I dropped Chad off to wait, then ran up, and then did a 3 mile tempo back down. The legs were stale from the combination of quarters on Thursday and drills on Friday, or perhaps stale just because, so I was not quite sure what to expect hoping it would not be as bad as 16:30 or worse. Went through the first mile in 5:15, was happy about that, then Ian interesting event happened. A guy that I passed earlier all of a sudden caught up to me and passed me back. His form looked decent, so I had hopes he was some stray collegiate runner in good shape and could pull me for the rest of the tempo. So I mentally relaxed thinking I would have company. He did OK for the next quarter which I ended up doing in 77. Then he lasted another quarter, but started losing steam. After a 77 I had enough steam to draft at 80, but not enough to sense that we were running slow and to want to take the initiative. He actually did not quite make it to the 1.5 mark, so I was left alone at that point. I felt like somebody had just held a juicy watermelon in front of me, and then took it away. What was I thinking? I should not have held up my hopes. What are the chances that a random runner on the trail would be able to hold 5:20s for a couple of miles mid-run when out of 2000 or so people that came to race the Provo River Half last year only 4 could have done it under such circumstances?

After this disappointment, it took me some time to recover. I hit several goose egg quarters in a row with the worst being 85 and the second mile in 5:27. With about a half mile to go I was finally able to speed up to an 80 quarter when I zeroed in on Chad, followed by a 78 at the end which gave me 16:06.3 for the run and the last mile in 5:24. It was not so much the fatigue, but rather the anticipation of the rest of the run being easy and fast. The lesson to learn from that is you should always expect the target pace to be hard. Be thankful when it is easy, but always be prepared for it to require more effort than what you are currently exerting.

Chad and I jogged some, then sped up some. I challenged him to run the last 3 miles at 6:30 pace, and he accepted - we ended up with 19:32 and the splits of 6:21, 6:39, 6:32.

Benjamin ran 4, Joseph 1, Jenny and Julia 1.5, Jacob 0.25.

Day of rest. Went to church as usual. We had a lesson on charity in Sunday school, then a combined meeting of priesthood and Relief Society where the discussion was on self-reliance. The sacrament meeting talks focused on reverence. Benjamin was the youth speaker. It was his first talk in the sacrament meeting. He did quite well.