Breaking the Wall

A.M. Long run today due to the General Conference tomorrow. It is hard to get a quality long run in without getting up too early. Also we were going to be out of town so would be doing it alone. Mike was happy to get it done today as well, so it worked out great. We did a warm-up, then a 10 mile tempo, and a cool down that included 3 miles with Benjamin.

Mike and I did 10 in 57:18 like this: 5:40 - 5:35 - 5:42 (14:06 at 2.5) - 5:44 - 5:49 (28:29 at 5, 14:23) - 5:47 - 5:44 - 5:49 (42:56 at 7.5, 14:27) -  5:48  - 5:41 (last quarter in 79, last 2.5 in 14:22, last 5 in 28:49).

5:48 pace felt cozy, 5:40 did not, 5:52 (88 quarters) felt too cozy. This was a great run for Mike. We traded quarters most of the way, except I pulled him from 7 to 9.5. A couple of months ago he could not do that pace for a little over a mile going downhill. Now he can do this on an out and back riverbank course for the whole 10 and have initiative in the last quarter.

Jenny and Julia ran 2 including 0.5 with Jacob.

P.M. Benjamin ran 0.5 with Joseph. We went to my mission reunion in Salt Lake. The highlight of the evening for me was walking into the chappel as our mission president was speaking (we got there late due a number of almost legitimate reasons). He stopped his talk and started counting our children - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 -7! I was happy I had something to show him 14 years after finishing the mission.

A.M. 6 alone, then 2 with Julia in 18:55, 2 with Jenny in 16:02, 2 with Benjamin in 14:19, 0.5 with Jacob.

General conference, great talks.

P.M. We stayed with Sarah's parents who happen to live in one of my old mission areas. Got to meet some people I knew back then before and after  the Priesthood session of the General Conference.  President Monson laid down the doctrine of Sabbath day sports and keeping the commandments 100% of the time vs 98 in the Priesthood session with a story about a collegiate basketball player.  I took Joseph for 0.5 afterwards.

Day of rest. Got to hear more General Conference. The theme seemed to be following the prophet and obedience with exactness. I think about the power of the Helaman warriors who had so much faith that they could not be killed in a battle in spite of their lack of battle experience. To me it is the synonymous with obedience with exactness, a powerful illustration.

President Packer mentioned a funny story about how an elementary school student proposed to resolve the debate of a kitten's gender by voting.

President Monson spoke about gratitude at the end. I have thought of many things I consider trivial that I should be thankful for. Gravity is one of them. Without it my muscles would be mush even if we could figure out how to solve other problems, such as the air dissipating away from the Earth.

A.M. 9 with Mike, did 0.5 in 2:41. 3 with Benjamin in 25:24. Jenny and Julia ran 2 including 0.5 with Jacob.

P.M. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:35.

A.M. 9.5 with Mike. 3 with Benjamin. Jenny and Julia ran 2 including 0.5 with Jacob.

P.M. Benjamin took Joseph for 0.5.

A.M. 9 with Mike, including a quick one in 5:10.5. I think it is my mile PR for the dark. Jenny and Julia ran 2.

P.M. 0.5 with Jacob and Joseph in 4:11. 3 with Benjamin in 24:45.

A.M. Ran with Mike. Did a total of 9, including 0.5 in 2:43. 3 with Benjamin in 25:41. Jenny and Julia ran 2 including 0.5 with Jacob.

A.M. Long run with Mike. Julia is getting baptized tomorrow, so again long run on Friday. We did a warm-up of about 2.5, then ran a 10 mile tempo. I was feeling tired, and Mike struggled last time, and we positive-split so this time the plan was to go out slower and negative split even though the total time would be slower. We succeeded in executing the plan:

5:59 - 5:52 - 5:56 -  5:52 - 5:50 (29:29) - 5:47 + 5:44 + 5:48 + 5:50 - 5:36 (28:45, 58:14). Last quarter was 79.

We traded quarters up until about 5.5, then I started feeling fatigued and Mike was feisty so I just sat back for a couple of miles. Then Mike's steam diminished, and I started helping with the pace more. At the end I was hoping that Mike would just coast it, but he pressed hard in the last quarter. I somehow survived.

3 more with Benjamin in 24:45. Jenny and Julia ran 2.

P.M. 0.5 with Joseph and Jacob in 4:11.

A.M. Ran early (at 5 am) with Mike. Needed to be done early enough to pick up Benjamin from the scout camp-out so he could make it to Julia's baptism. Total of 9 miles. Jenny and Julia ran 2. Later picked up Benjamin, then baptized Julia, and blessed Stephen. Busy day, but something to be thankful for.

P.M. 0.5 with Jacob in 4:31, 0.5 with Joseph in 4:24, 3 with Benjamin with the last 0.5 in 3:00, last quarter in 83, and last 200 in 39.

Day of rest. Went to church. We had a fast and testimony meeting. At the beginning a baby blessing.  For some reason I thought our friend was blessing the twins, so I was looking for the second baby, but there was none.

The lesson in Sunday School was on family responsibilities. The lesson in the Elder's Quorum was on the church of Jesus Christ today.

A.M. Ran with Mike, total of 9.5. Did a micro-fartlek. 1 minute fast, then 35 seconds fast, then a quarter in 66.7.  Also ran 300 in 59 catching up to a guy named Jesse. Turned out he had served a mission in Ethiopia. Ran 0.5 with Jacob, Jenny, and Julia. Jenny and Julia did a total of 2. Jacob's time was 4:22, Jenny and Julia surged ahead at the end. 3 with Benjamin in 26:41.

P.M. 2 to Dr. Brady's and back. Benjamin ran 0.5 with Joseph.

A.M. Ran with Mike, and some with Kevin and his baby in the stroller. Total of 9 miles. Did 4 pickups of about 33 seconds at an aggressive pace. 0.5 with Jacob in 4:26. 3 more with Benjamin in 26:01. Jenny and Julia ran 2.

P. M. Benjamin ran 0.5 with Joseph in 4:35.

A.M. Ran with Mike. Total of 9. 3 more with Benjamin. Jenny and Julia ran 2, including 0.5 with Jacob and Joseph.

A.M. Ran with Mike. Total of 9. Did a mile pickup in 5:18 + 0.5 pickup in 2:39.5. 3 more with Benjamin. Jenny and Julia ran 2 including 0.5 with Joseph and Jacob.

A.M. 9 with Mike. 3 with Benjamin in 22:11. Jenny and Julia ran 2 including 0.5 with Joseph and Jacob.

A.M. 20 with Mike in 2:09:56 to Bridal Veil Falls and back. First 10 in 1:11:19 to warm up, and the last 10 fast in 58:37. Sarah and Julia made a strap for me to wear around my right big toe and the toe right next to it (index toe?) as an experiment to see if it will change my form for the better. I've been wearing it this week and it felt good, but today was the real test, and I think it went well. I opened the tempo with 5:35 pace thinking I was only running maybe 5:45-5:50. Then I noticed that the split was fast, and that Mike was struggling, so we eased it off to about 5:50 - 6:00. With 4 miles to go Mike struggled more, so I moved up front and had him low-five me once every so often. With 1.5 to go he said he had zero energy left. I told him he had slightly more than zero, and just push without fear. He was able to speed up to 5:52 average for the last mile, and our last two quarters were 87, and 85. I was happy that sub-6:00 pace was easy enough that I could do some motivational pacing at it. And for Mike this was a huge breakthrough, as he had never run this fast for the whole 20, and particularly the last 10 miles of a 20.

P.M. 3 with Benjamin in 24:54.

Day of rest. Went to church. The talks in Sacrament were on prayer and faith. One story was told in the prayer talk. A boy is asked if he prays at night, he answers yes. Then his teacher asks if he prays in the morning. The boys says : "No, I ain't scared in the morning!" Of course, the point of the story is that we should pray not only when we are in trouble.

The talk on faith was interesting as well. The speaker was Caucasian, but had served a mission in Taiwan. He was talking about Christ, and was about to quote John 3:16, but half way through the verse he realized that he did not have it perfectly memorized in English. He admitted that, and the proceeded to quote it in his language of comfort - Chinese. It sounded like a bunch of forks falling on the floor to me, but I marveled that to over a billion people that noise means: "For God so loved the world that he sent His only Begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him may not perish but have everlasting life." At the same time, what most Americans would consider a noise of a tractor plowing in the field means the same thing to me and over 150 million Russians.

The lesson in Sunday school was on eternal marriage, and the Elder's Quorum lesson was on faith.

In the evening we had an adventure. We noticed a mouse in the house earlier and set up a glue trap for it. It got caught. So Jenny and I escorted it to a nearby park and released it there. Jenny loves animals and insisted that we trap the mouse without killing it and release it.

A.M. 9 with Mike. 3 with Benjamin in 24:56. Jenny and Julia ran 2 including 0.5 with Jacob and Joseph.

A.M. 9.3 with Mike, 1.5 with Jenny and Julia, then 3 with Benjamin starting the first 0.25 with Jacob and Joseph. Jenny and Julia ended up with 2 miles, Jacob and Joseph did 0.5.

A.M. Tempo run with Mike. 3 miles, out and back on the trail starting at the 5 mile course start. Something was wrong today. We opened with a 5:19 mile, and that felt OK, Then I ran into a branch in the dark during the second mile, and we did a 180, but that should not have thrown me off so bad. Second mile was 5:34. I thought that was bad, but the third was 5:47! 16:40 total time. I told Mike to take off with about 500 to go and he finished in 16:27.

The legs felt weak. Probably a combination of glycogen depletion, accumulated lack of sleep, and lack of running at 5:20 pace. Total of 9 miles. 3 more with Benjamin. Jenny and Julia ran 2 including 0.5 with Joseph and Jacob.

A.M. 9 with Mike. 3 with Benjamin. Jenny and Julia ran 2 including 0.5 with Joseph and Jacob.

A.M. 9 with Mike. 3 with Benjamin. Jenny and Julia ran 2 including 0.5 with Joseph and Jacob.

A.M. Wanted to get a better understanding of the fading on Wednesday, so did the same workout at the start of the long run after the last 3 days of more eating and somewhat better sleep. A MySQL upgrade job for a client last night did not help with sleep, but there was really no better time to do it as we had to avoid disruptions during peek hours, but it was not too bad, I still got over 7 hours of sleep.

This time the 3 mile tempo run went better, although still with problems. Splits but quarter: 79 - 80 - 80 - 81 (5:20) - 79 - 81 - 86 - 82 (5:28) - 85 - 84 - 84 - 84 (5:37) - total time 16:25. Mike pulled away from me in the last quarter and finished in 16:22.

Then we jogged for about 7 miles, during which time we caught up to Kirk and he gave us a lesson on Arabic culture. He teaches Arabic at BYU. Then we did a 5 mile tempo. The target was 6:00 pace, but we picked it up after 2 K mark, and ended up almost a minute ahead of pace with 29:09. The splits were 6:02 - 5:48 - 5:50 - 5:50 - 5:39. Last two quarters were 85 and 79.

Here is what's interesting. The last half mile of the 5 mile tempo (from 12 to 17, so you would expect lower glycogen) run over the exact same stretch as the 3 mile tempo was 5 seconds faster than the last half mile of the three mile tempo which was done from 2 to 5, so essentially primed for racing a 5 K. It also felt easier. The difference, of course, was that I had not run 1.5 miles shortly prior at 5:20 pace, but what I find surprising is that was enough to negate the difference you would expect from not being in the out-of-fuel zone.

So one thing is clear at this point. 5:20 pace temporarily puts me in a state of misery more that it should. The mechanism of that is debatable. If VO2 max tests I've done in the past are any indication, the lactic acid levels would be quite low at that effort - maybe 1.02 RER (respiratory exchange ratio), which is a good way to estimate lactic acid buildup without stopping to poke yourself, in other words not a whole lot. There is some unknown villain at work. If somebody with a lab wants to track him down, I'll be happy to participate.

The antidote to the villain, however, is to do intervals that are longer than a mile, or possibly shorter ones with very little rest at 5:20 pace. I'll give that a try.

My Crocs are over 1000 miles, and still no holes, although one is about to develop.

Day of rest. Went to church. Good talks in the Sacrament on enduring to the end. The lesson in Sunday school was on the law of chastity. The Elders'  Quorum lesson was on adversity.

A.M. 9 with Mike. 3 with Benjamin in 23:30. Jenny and Julia ran 2 including 0.5 with Joseph and Jacob.

P.M. 2 miles total to Dr. Brady's and back.

A.M. 9 with Mike. Did 0.5 in 2:39. 3 with Benjamin in 24:53. Jenny and Julia ran 2 including 0.5 with Jacob.

A.M. The trail was unusable for speed work due to construction, branches and snow. I suppose we could still have used it, but I did not feel like it. So I measured out 0.75 stretch on Independence Avenue, which rolls up going north. We did 4x0.75 on it starting up and alternating directions. 4:07 - 3:56 - 4:04 - 3:58. 2 minutes of rest except we did 2:30 before the last one. Total of 9 miles. 3 more with Benjamin. Jenny and Julia ran 2 including 0.5 with Jacob.

A.M. 9 with Mike. 3 with Benjamin. Jenny and Julia ran 2, including 0.5 with Joseph and Jacob.

A.M, 9 with Mike. 3 with Benjamin. Jenny and Julia ran 2, including 0.5 with Joseph and Jacob.

A.M. Mike had a cold, and I felt one coming, so we cut the long run short and ran only 15. Did 4x0.5 in the middle - 2:40 - 2:35 - 2:37 - 2:30 (79, 71). Jenny and Julia ran 2 including 0.5 with Joseph and Jacob.

P.M. 1 with Benjamin in 7:00.

Day of rest. Went to church. The talks in Sacrament were on tender mercies of the Lord. The lesson in Sunday School was on temples and family history. It was the fifth Sunday of the month, so we had a joint meeting of the high priests and elders which focused on home teaching.