A.M. Felt a lot better yesterday morning, the chest constriction was gone. However, still did not feel 100%, but good enough to go to church and stay there for all meetings. Came home, then remembered that I had forgotten to make an announcement in the Spanish branch Sunday school, so ran back (about 200 meters) to make it there before they would start. Turned out I really did not need to hurry, because being Latinos they really took their time getting out of the Sacrament meeting. However, during the brief run I got pain feedback from a paired organ right under the the lungs, I am not that good with the 3-D human anatomy, but I think the most likely organ would be the kidneys. That would make sense, because I was doing transmission fluid flush (repeated drink-leak cycle every 30 minutes) pretty much non-stop since Saturday morning. Otherwise, felt a lot stronger than the day before, but still not 100% there. I was not too worried about it because with it being Sunday I did not need to run anyway, and I made a very rapid improvement in 24 hours. This morning things were a lot better. The resting heart rate in the sitting position dropped down to 50 from 63 yesterday. 50 is about normal for me. Ran with Ted at 6:30 AM. Well, we planned to leave at 6:30, but then I could not find my shorts. So we ended up leaving around 6:45, and Adam missed us thinking we had already left. I had a dream the night before that Ted and I ran the first quarter of our run in 1:58. The reality turned out better than the dream - 1:51. My legs were really rested from not doing much in the last two days. I was getting feedback from the kidneys (I think) at first, and then that I went away and turned into a pain from mostly likely a nerve in the middle of the chest. However, aside from a minor annoyance, this did not inhibit me, and did not get worse as the pace increased. We eventually progressed to a 7:02 pace, which felt like a nice easy conversational pace, then turned around at 4 miles (28:46), and headed back. Caught up to a stray runner, his named turned out to be Justin, he agreed to join us, we backed off a bit. Then we started on the strides. Did 6 100 meter strides with 200 meter jog. The strides for me started at 19 then gradually progressed all the way to 16 on the last. Felt very strong in the strides. I actually started feeling less chest pain with each stride, which is a good sign. Finished 8 miles in 59:47. Two things worth mentioning. The bishop said in the blessing: "all of the symptoms of the illness will be gone within 2-3 days according to your faith". Interestingly enough, it had been 43 hours since the blessing at the time of the run, and the symptoms were pretty much on their way out. Also, Friday night I took Julia on a birthday present shopping trip (it was her birthday). As I was walking through a parking lot, there was a party going on, a band playing, and it was dark. It naturally reminded me of the start of the St. George Marathon. My legs were giving me very very positive feedback, and I know very well from many experience in the past that if they are talking to me like that I am going to run great. They do not have to, I've been able to run very well on occasion without that feeling, but I've never run below my expectations with that kind of leg feedback. This time is was perhaps the strongest ever signal in my entire life. I started feeling confident, like I had the Trial's Qualifier in the bag. I tried to caution myself, and remind myself to remain humble. That night in my prayer I thanked the Lord for blessing me with the fitness and the confidence in my fitness, and then asked Him to help me be humble. The moment I said it, I realized what I had just done. That was quite a slip of the spiritual tongue, it was done in faith, I knew I had done it in faith, I knew the Lord's way of humbling people, and I also knew that of all the prayers the Lord answers this kind the quickest. He is quick to give us what we really need especially when we ask for it. Well, my prayer was answered in 4 hours - Saturday morning at 2 AM I woke up feeling sick. P.M. Ran 1.65 with Benjamin and Jenny to the body shop to pick up VanGoGo in 15:51. Also ran 1 mile with Julia in 10:28. Felt almost 100%, little pain in the nerves around the chest migrating from place to place, only a very very minor annoyance. However, had an odd incident tonight. I had been playing chess on the floor looking at a very small board with Benjamin and Jenny for around 40 minutes in a rather odd position. Then I needed to go the bathroom, and when I do it is usually urgent fairly quick. So I got up really fast, did my business, and then started feeling like I was going to pass out. I breathed in deeply a few times, then laid down for a couple of minute, then everything was normal, HR at 54.
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