Breaking the Wall

A.M. Total of 12, some of it with this kids. Benjamin did 5, Jenny and Julia 2, Jospeh 1, and Jacob 0.5.

P.M. 2 miles.

A.M. Early morning run before going to the temple. Sarah was awake so she ran with me patrolling the trail for the first 2.5, then I ran the last 2.5 with her. She got 20:53. I did a total of 10 miles. Kids ran on their own. Benjamin 5, Jenny and Julia 2, Joseph 1, and Jacob 0.5.

P.M. 2 miles.

A.M. Total of 12. Some with the kids. Benjamin 5, Jenny and Julia 2, Joseph 1, Jacob 0.5. Ran the last 2 miles in 11:08. Jeff Coombs was on the trail, he ran the first mile of it with me. With 0.75 to go my split was 7:11, and I decided to speed up to catch the 5:40 guy. 5:45 pace earlier felt comfortable, but no walk in the park. So I thought it would be a challenge to speed up to 5:32 pace. However, I surprised myself and ran the last 0.75 in 3:57 with the quarters of 80, 79, 78 quite comfortably.At the end of the run I weighed 141.6 lb, but unlike on Saturday, and particularly a couple of weeks ago, I was apparently not glycogen depleted at that weight. At least not enough to struggle with the pace.

P.M. 2 miles.

A.M. 12 miles, some with the kids. 5 with Benjamin, 2 with Jenny and Julia, 1 with Joseph, 0.5 with Jacob. Picked up in the last mile, ran it in 5:45. It was windy, so it felt a bit hard.

P.M. 2 miles.

A.M. Long run. Did not want to run in the Provo Canyon today as it got colder. When it first gets cold it is important to take it easy to avoid the risk of getting sick. So I took it easy the whole week more or less, and decided to take it easy in the long run as well. So I ran the first 9.75 miles with the kids. 0.5 with Jacob, 1 with Joseph, 2 with Jenny and Julia, and I talked Benjamin into going 6 with me to reduce my lonely mileage by one mile. About 4.5 miles into it he remarked that he was moving not that much slower than his official 10 K record (45:34), so I challenged him to beat it. He had to add a quarter mile (really only 0.21, but we added a full quarter anyway). Then he went fast. His last mile was 5:59, and his time for 6.25 was 45:12.

Then I went to the Fast Running Blog 5 mile course and did a mild tempo. I was not sure what goal I had in mind except run faster than 6:00 pace. The first mile was 5:55. It felt good, almost like a jog, but I did not feel like going any faster. Nevertheless I gave myself a kick in the pants and ran the next mile in 5:47. My time at the turnaround was 14:38. At this point I decided I wanted to break 29:00. At 4 miles my split was 23:13. I was not looking forward to running the last mile in under 5:47 as it is not a pleasant mile. Nevertheless I found an extra gear and ran it in 5:35, which gave me 28:48 for 5 miles. I was happy about that extra gear. It felt so good to kick into it. I like the way it felt - I was going faster, it felt hard but it did not feel miserable. It is one thing to be able to just go fast. But it is something else when you can go fast and enjoy it. Especially after having run 18 miles already.

Total distance was 20 miles.

P.M. 2 miles.

Day of rest. Went to church as usual. The lesson in Sunday school was on the spirit world. We learned about the importance of not procrastinating the day of our repentance. Once you lose your body, the spirit has a very limited capacity to improve. What a waste of time it is to live on the earth wondering if there is a God and saying you will believe when you see Him! The whole reason He placed us here is so we would learn to do His work going off the faith.

The lesson in the deacon's quorum was on the Sacrament. Then we had a Fast and Testimony meeting.

A.M. Total of 12. Some with the kids. 5 with Benjamin. 2 with Jenny and Julia. 1 with Joseph. 0.5 with Jacob. Ran the last 1.5 at a quick pace. Started out with an 87 quarter, then 83, 86 through the tunnel, and then shifted gears and did 83, 82, 82 for a total of 8:23.6. 5:30 pace felt good. I was breathing more, but I felt in control.

P.M. 2 miles.

A.M. Ran a total of 12. Paced Sarah through a 2 mile tempo at the end of her 5 in 15:53. Ran 5 with Benjamin, 2 with Jenny and Julia, 1 with Joseph, and 0.5 with Jacob.

P.M. We had a CPR class. Our friend is a certified teacher, so she did it at our house. We had a group of 8 people. 2 miles after that. Then I dreamt about doing CPR for the whole night.

A.M. Total of 14.1. Met Neal on the trail. We did my weird 2100 meter interval from the DI bridge to the Union Pacific bridge. The "dream" target was to average 5:00 pace through it. However, it was cold - 21 F at the start of the run. So that made it difficult. Also, the "dream" target assumed Neal would be able to hold it without problems, but he ended up having some problems today. So it went like this - 75, 74 for the first two quarters. The pace felt fast at first, the air was cold, and I was concerned that I might fade badly. But I got used to it as we went along and my confidence kept increasing. Our next quarter was 77, which was expected due to the tunnel under 820 N. The one after that started feeling easy, and for a good reason because we did it in 76, and it is a nice quarter. Should have been 75 with the same effort. Our mile split was 5:03. Around that point I started feeling comfortable enough to pass Neal. I hesitated some because I was not prepared for him struggling at this pace. So due to this hesitation I ended up with a 200 in 39. I was actually feeling quite good, but not good enough to shift gears from 5:10 to 5:00. So I ended up coasting for the last 300 meters in 58. It would have been a 57, but there was a girl on a skate board blocking the passageway around the barricade that I normally take, so I had to take the other one, which gave me a longer route and also resulted in a loss of badly needed concentration. The time for the "weird interval" was 6:40, which is 18 seconds faster than my previous fastest time this year, and is a 5:05 per mile average. Neal finished it in 6:46. Then we ran some more, and found Jeff Combs. He ran with us, then Neal went home, and Jeff and I went to get the kids.

We ran 0.5 with Jacob, 2 with Jenny (Julia did 1), 1 with Joseph and Benjamin, and 4 more with Benjamin, so he ended up with 5. Jeff turned around and ran home when we had 1 mile left.

A.M. 12 miles total. Some with the kids. Benjamin did 5. We did race pace pickups to tune up for the 3 K cross-country race. 300 in 1:05, a quarter in 84, then 1200 in 4:19. Jenny did 2, Julia 1.5, Joseph 1, and Jacob 0.5. 

P.M. 2 miles.

A.M. Total of 15.5. Ran some with the kids. Benjamin did 3 including 0.5 in 2:51 to practice race pace. Jenny did 2. Julia 1. Joseph 1. Jacob 0.5. Then I ran 4 more including 1 mile in 5:39. Then we went to look at a house in Orem near Orem High. We have been thinking of either building a new house or buying one. The Lord has poured out so many blessings there is not enough room to receive them. So we are house shopping. The requirements, of course, are for it to be big enough (2600 sq feet), have at least two full bathrooms, be affordable, and be properly positioned for running. At first I was not considering Orem because the only places that appeared to have easy access to the Provo River trail were  exceptionally expensive or just too far away. I needed something withing 0.5 mile I thought. But then I got an idea. If we lived close to Orem High, the little kids could run on the track, and then being a little further from the trail would be OK.  So this location is about 0.45 from Orem High, and it is a very nice mostly car free 0.45, and about 0.62 of very nice running from Carterville road access at 400 S, which is just as good as the trail, perhaps even better as you can get to the Provo Canyon with less interactive from the cars on Carterville road than you would coming straight out of the crazy expensive River Bottoms area. I ran 5.5 miles around the area to evaluate it and gave it a go. Sarah looked at the house and gave it a go too. So we made an offer on it. $125 K for 2900 sq feet. The house needs work, but nothing crazy. Short sale, so there are multiple offers and it takes time to get approved. But we can wait.

P.M. 2 miles.

A.M. Ran with Jenny and Julia - 2 miles, also with Jacob 0.5. Then did the rest of my long run. Benjamin and Joseph did not run because they were running in the Utah State Cross-Country Championship later. I did the flat 10 mile tempo on the 5 miler course. At the start of the run I weighed 141.8. This was caused to some extent by some stomach problems I experienced in the last few days. I was not feeling bad, but for some reason I kept having liquid stool, which means, likely, that the nutrients were not going in. At least two weeks ago that weight meant near depletion, I had it at the end of the 20 mile run.

So I did another 2 miles of warm-up and then started the tempo. The pace did not feel easy, but I could hold it. The splits by 2.5 were 14:26 - 14:33 - 14:28 - 14:31. All miles fell in the range of 5:46 to 5:50. Total time was 57:58. I think I lost some time on the leaves. There were a lot of leaves on the ground. Last mile was 5:48. So I did not have a whole lot of juice left, but I had enough to maintain the pace at least.

After the tempo I felt sluggish, but I still had 5.5 miles left to go. At first I did not feel like going faster than 9:00. I eventually coaxed myself into 7:20 pace after a couple of miles. In the last 0.5 I decided to measure how much fuel I had left. It turned out that I did not have a whole lot. I struggled through two 93 second quarters. They did have a lot of turns, but still I usually can crack 6:00 pace even after all the adventures. I weighed myself after the run and measured 138.6 lb. Still, 6:12 pace means I had some glycogen in the muscles. When it is completely gone, the pace becomes more like 6:30. Either that, or I learned to run 6:12 off blood sugar and fat, which would be very nice because that would mean that I would never crash beyond that in a marathon as long as my stomach can still process the sports drinks.

P.M. Went to the State Cross Country Meet. Benjamin ran 3 K in 11:35 finishing second after Aiden Troutner. He was in contact through the first half of the race, actually leading most of the time, but then Aiden made a move and Benjamin could not respond. Aiden won with 11:07. Afterwards we had a discussion on learning how to draft without feeling that you are not in control, and also how to avoid the temptation of thinking - I've made it far enough, the work is done. Benjamin had never been able to make this far with Aiden, so mentally he was not ready to race him even though I think fitness wise he could have at least made it to the kick.

Joseph ran in the Pre-Bantam 2 K and finished second in 10:21 after Ammon Blackburn whose time was 9:56.

Later in the evening ran 2 miles. Decided to test how well the fuel levels have recovered and ran the last mile in 6:00. I forgot after the turnaround to turn on the engine right away, so I ended up with the first quarter in 95. Then I did 89 ,88, and 88. Food did help. 

Day of rest. Went to church as usual. We had good talks in the Sacrament meeting on the proper use of time. One speaker quoted Alma 34:32-34 which discusses the problems that result from procrastinating the day of your repentance. I like those verses very much for their intended meaning, but I also like this somewhat humorous application of the scriptures. In verse 33 it says  "if we do not improve our time while in this life, then cometh the night of darkness wherein there can be no labor performed". I take it to mean the time it takes you to run the marathon. In that sense, I do need to hurry, as the night of darkness is approaching. I am 38 years old. I have kept myself in good health, and have been able to hold off the aging. But I will not be able to do it forever. That is when the "night of darkness" spoken of comes about as far as running is concerned. Fortunately, the real night of darkness comes only if you have willfully chosen to disobey the commandments of God. So even if I do not improve my time in the running sense, I am still OK as long as I do my best to serve the Lord. But I would like to improve my running time regardless.

A.M. Total of 12. Some with the kids. Jenny and Julia ran 3 with Sarah. I ran 3 with Benjamin, 1 with Joseph, and 0.5 with Jacob. Then some more. Did 2 pickups of 1.25, first in 7:02, second in 7:01. 

P.M. 2 miles.

A.M. 12 miles as usual. Did 4 with Benjamin. Jenny and Julia ran 3 with Sarah. Joseph did 1, Jacob 0.5. I was feeling like I should run a tempo, so I ran out 3 miles on my 20 mile course, and ran the same 3 miles back as a tempo. I knew I should be able to average 5:30 on it, but it sounded intimidating to do it alone. But I went anyway. Opened with 2:42 half, then  2:46 (5:28), then I hit an area with two sharp turns, a wooden bridge, and two tunnels, and this gave me 2:49 for the next half. I got mad about that and ran the next half in 2:44, although it still had a tunnel. So that was 11:01 for two miles. I battled the next obstacle quarter (tunnel under 820 N) with an 85, and then I was really mad and ran 81, 82, 80 to finish the tempo in 16:29.6, right on target.

P.M. 2 miles. Got motivated in the last quarter and ran it in 82.

A.M. 12 miles total. 5 with Benjamin. He is more or less back to full health after catching a minor cold earlier. Nevertheless he tried to use that cold as an excuse to not participate in his on-the-run Russian lesson. His attitude about Russian is maturing, though, as he is beginning to realise that it will likely be the language he will speak when he goes on a mission. He is at the point where he is able to hold a meaningful conversation, although he still has a lot of seriously gaping holes in his knowledge.  Of course, those holes are gaping to me because I am a native speaker.  By the way, if anybody wants a free on-the-run Russian lesson, I'll be happy to teach it to you. Thanks to our politics of not shooting for the stars, both figuratively and literally, Russian fluency is now required by NASA if you want  to be in the space program. Contact me to make the arrangements.

I did a tempo yesterday, but I found myself in a situation where I knew could catch Sarah if I ran 2 miles at sub-6:00. I could not resist the temptation and figured a nice marathon pace or so effort would be good for my training. So I ran 2 miles in 11:32. First mile in 5:52, that was an honest marathon pace effort, then 90 through the obstacle quarter, and then Sarah was within my sight and I had to show off. We've been married almost 15 years (Nov 29th is the anniversary) and had seven children together, but I still cannot help but show off in some way to impress her when I get a chance. It is subconscious. So I picked it up and ran 84, 83, 83 which gave me 5:40 for the last mile.

P.M. 2 miles. Again felt motivated in the last quarter and ran it in 80.

A.M. 12 miles. 5 with Benjamin. Joseph did 1. Jacob 0.5. Jenny and Julia ran 3 with Sarah. In the early miles I ran 0.75 in 3:59, and it felt harder than it should have.

Benjamin and I ran into Jeff Coombs. I decided to surprise Benjamin with a fast 0.5 and challenged him and Jeff to follow me at about 5:20 pace.  Benjamin's assignment was to learn to draft without feeling panicked about being dropped. I took them through a quarter in 81, then picked it up and ran the next one in 76, so 2:37 for 0.5. This time 5:04 pace felt a whole lot better, I felt like I could keep it for a while. Amazing how much having company makes the pace feel easier, even if you  are leading.

P.M. 2 miles.

A.M. 12 miles as usual. Ran a good portion of it with the kids. Came up with an idea of how to run with Jenny and Julia. 1.5 out with them, then a quarter out and quarter back, and then a tempo mile to catch up. I see them for most of their run, get to run total of 2 with them, and I get a total of 3.5 with 0.5 at 7:00 pace, and 1 mile at a tempo pace. So we did that, and I ran my tempo mile in 5:37. Also did 5 with Benjamin.

P.M. 2 miles.

A.M. 20 miles total. Did the first 10.25 with the kids. First, did my 3.5 with Jenny and Julia running 3. I did the tempo mile in 5:36. Then 0.5 with Jacob and 1 with Joseph. Then 5.25 with Benjamin. He did a couple of pickups to catch runners in front of us which gave me 0.5 of tempo. Then I weighed myself at 142.4 lb and went on to finish the rest of the run. I decided to do a mild tempo - 5 miles targeting 86 quarters, or 5:44 per mile. I started the tempo after having run about 13.4 miles total for the run, and did it of the Fast Running Blog 5 miler course. The start was very sluggish - 89 followed by 87 after I had given myself a kick in the rear. After that I was awake, found the groove, and started gradually eating away at the  4 seconds I had lost. My split at the turnaround was 14:22, 2 seconds behind pace, so I gained 2 seconds, but then I lost them on the turnaround. I got mad about that, found the rhythm again after a couple of quarters, and was within 1 second of the pace with a mile to go. The pace up to that point felt good, but to go faster required a visit into a different dimension. Even though I say the pace felt good, it is all relative. I was in another dimension already. I do not realize these things until I see a passerby on the road. When he enters the area of my peripheral vision, he disappears. Somehow I am able to concentrate to the point of turning it off. Yes, it takes that much concentration for me to run sub-6:00. 

Once I had only a mile to go, I finally found the courage to visit that other dimension. I did the last mile in 5:34, which gave me 28:31.6 for the tempo. I jogged some more, and with 0.5 left I decided to test my fuel levels. They were better than last week. I ran 90 and 87 quarters - 2:57 for 0.5, 5:54 pace average, and I felt that I had another gear yet. So it was not bad at all. After the run I weighed at 141.6 lb. So that is the difference for me - 138.6 lb resulted in 93, 93 for the last two quarters with no other gear available.

P.M. 2 miles. Did another fuel test in the last mile - got 5:42. First quarter was 89, then I kicked into gear, and did 86, 84, 83. Felt strong.

Day of rest. Went to church. We had our Stake Conference. One quote that impressed me from one of the talks. "Our father taught us - everything you see me do you can do, and everything you hear me say you can say."

A.M. 12 miles total. 5 with Benjamin. Jenny and Julia did 3. I ran part of it with them, then added extra and caught up with a tempo mile in 5:35. 1 with Joseph, 0.5 with Jacob.  

P.M. 2 miles.

A.M. 12 miles. Did a pickup for 0.5 in 2:40. Ran 5 with Benjamin. Jenny and Julia ran 3 with Sarah. Joseph did 1, Jacob 0.5.

P.M. 2 miles

A.M. Total of 12. 5 with Benjamin. Joseph did 1. Jenny and Julia ran 3 with Sarah. Jacob did not run - recovering from a fever last night. I learned some Turkish from a runner I met and ran with that is from Turkey.  I also met another runner who told me his girlfriend was getting off her mission today. I told him she needed to find her new companion without delay and shared with him the story of how I proposed to Sarah a few hours after returning from my mission. He liked it. I did two pickups. One was random and lasted 0.4 at about 5:20 pace. The other was more formal and was exactly 0.5 in 2:35. It felt good and I had hopes of doing well in the Thanksgiving race.

P.M. We had an adventure. William got a febrile seizure. We called 911. They came and gave him buterol treatment. He recovered, but we still were up with him on and off through the night. Did not get to bed until 12:00 am, and then had sleep interruptions. 

A.M. Earn Your Turkey 4 mile - 21:58.4, 3rd place. 

We had our share of adventures leading up to the race. Last night I got maybe 5 hours of sleep. Some people can run well off that. I could when I was younger, but over the last 5 years I've become sensitive to such things. Maybe it's been more than 5 years. But I figured all I had to do is not get beat my somebody between 35 and 39 who was too slow to make top 5, or just plain make top 5 to earn my turkey. This race is generous with turkeys. First place in the age division plus top 5 overall get it. Plus there are kids races for every age group, plus a prize for the largest immediate family, largest extended family, youngest participant, and oldest participant. We do well in the youngest participant and largest immediate family.

William threw a surprise last night with his seizure and the 911 visit. So we were not sure what to do. Sarah considered staying home with him, but we ended up asking a friend to help us with the little kids and particularly William at the race. It did help that she was an EMT by profession. If something bad started happening to William she would know what to do. I gave William a blessing, and after that even had the nerve to ask the Lord to make William healthy enough to run his 400 meter race. The prayer ended up partially answered. His fever was gone by the morning and he was acting more or less normal, but he refused to run. Maybe I should have been more specific in my prayer as I did not say anything about him being willing, which is very important for a 3 year old.

So we ended up all running, except William.

I warmed up almost 2 miles, then the race started. Somehow when you've had some kind of a challenge and you are not able to run at 100% sometimes your deficiencies are compensated by weak competition. As far as I am concerned, today they were overcompensated, even though I finished only 3rd. I would have preferred a pack over a higher place as long as I got the turkey of course.

I started out following Derek Moody, and we worked our way out of the crowd of early fast starters, but then I saw Brandon Hebbert move into the lead. I hesitated if I should follow Derek or Brandon. I knew from the warmup that the entire stretch on Center street had fairly strong headwind, definitely not something I would want to face from the front or alone. I decided to take a chance and go with Brandon. I paid for it later. He started speeding up. I could not even make it to the turn with him (1 mile mark) and ended up picking up a share of headwind after a couple of minutes of running at a pretty intense effort. The first mile was officially 5:15 going off the mile marker.  5:08 for Brandon.

So from about 0.8 to 3 I ran in no man's land. I was not feeling too good, but I felt good enough to maintain a slower pace. It seems that the lack of sleep in combination with the training I've been doing lately affected my ability to endure intense pain for periods of 10 minutes and longer, but if I could just reduce it a bit, I am OK, and can last a while. So I coasted in frustration. Mile 2 was 5:36 (10:51), and I am willing to believe that both mile 1 and mile 2 markers were placed correctly. However, I believe the mile marker 3 was misplaced. I timed myself at 16:31 at mile marker 1 when we passed it again, and at 16:50 at the official mile marker three. In the past, when those markers were right, or at least produced reasonable splits, mile markers 1 and 3 were within 5 seconds of running of each other. So it would be accurate to estimate my mile split for the third mile as 5:40. Around that time Derek caught up to me, and I was able to latch on, for which I am thankful, because that is what got me under 22:00. He pulled me for about three quarters of a mile. We meandered through the crowd of the runners that we lapped. I've run this race since 1997, and only in the recent years do I recall a problem with the traffic in that spot.  That would have had to be about 12:00 pace crowd that we were hitting. In the past it used to be not so thick. What is going on?

I could follow Derek when we were running straight, but I had difficulties when we encountered obstacles. Finally, I've lost concentration enough to where he dropped me. Then he started his kick, and I did not have much left. Nevertheless those three quarters that I was able to survive behind him helped me run 5:28 last mile (estimate) and finish in 21:59 by my watch and 21:58.4 officially, which gave me a turkey for making top 5. Derek finished in 21:48, Brandon won with 20:06. He really turned it on in the last 2 miles as he had only about 30 seconds on me shortly before mile 2, so he must have done around 4:55 pace in the last two miles.

I  ran back to Sarah and paced her to the finish. This gave me about 1.5 miles. Sarah was running against serious lack of sleep because she had slept maybe only 2 hours. Nevertheless, she toughed it out and pulled off a respectable time of 33:13.

Then it was time for the kids races. First Stephen - 100 meters. He is 15 months and just barely learned to walk. Those races are exciting because you never know what your kid is going to do. Benjamin was actually our worst back in the day, and a string of DNS's,  DNF's, and extremely slow times until he turned 4 when he won his first race. Even then he threw a fit mid-race when two girls dropped him. But he still won the boy's race in spite of being double-chicked. But once he turned 5 he became a tough competitor and never had issues of this kind since in races. Now he does not even have them in training anymore aside from occasional grumbling but then he remembers what he read in the Book of Mormon or General Conference lately about the traits of Laman and Lemuel and repents quickly. Stephen did quite well. Sarah and I walked by his side and held his hands. All the kids except William, who sat in the stroller, eventually joined us. So we were walking together as a family united in our mission to take Stephen to the finish. He cried for a little bit, then realized it was useless or maybe felt the warmth of our support, and calmed down. There was a special feeling of unity when we all walked like this.  He finished in 2:42 by my watch, 2:40 officially. And he was not last in spite of being the youngest participant. Being the youngest, he won the turkey prize.

Then it was William's turn, but he was in no mood to run. Perhaps it was good, as he may have been still experiencing the remnants of his fever last night. So he ended up scoring a DNS. At least he was healthy enough to come to the race and he will have a chance to do better in the coming years.

Then it was time for Jacob and Joseph's race. It presented a challenge for the pacers. Normally I would have sent Benjamin to run with Jacob and would have stayed with Joseph myself. But Benjamin's race started at almost the same time. So I had to get creative, instructed Joseph on where he should be, paced Jacob in the first 200 meters, then sped up, caught up to Joseph, and paced him to the end. The race is 800 meters combined both 5-6 and 7-8 age divisions. Figuring it would take around 3:30 to win I told Joseph to hit the first quarter in 1:43. He did it in 1:38, which was OK even though he paid for it in the second half. At that point he was sharing the overall lead with Ammon Blackburn who is 7. With 300 to go Ammon made a move which Joseph could not cover. I told Joseph to keep believing that he could catch him. Joseph did his best. Ammon finished in 3:23 by my watch, 3:27 officially. Joseph got 3:28 by my watch, 3:30 officially. Joseph ended up winning a turkey as he won the 5-6 age division.

Benjamin won the "mile" race officially in 6:10, another turkey. We strongly suspect that the course was long because it did not start in the same place as last year. Also because he beat second place by 39 seconds. Jenny and Julia have been struggling lately. Jenny has been going through a growth spurt which caused muscle soreness. Additionally she had an upset stomach this morning. Julia has had problems with anemia. We just recently found it that is what it was. So their training and fitness was less than ideal, but they still ran OK. Jenny got 7:59, Julia got 9:15.

Even though William had a DNS, they allowed us to count him in the largest immediate family contest. We won with 9 people in the race thus earning a turkey plus some extras. Additionally we won two turkeys in the random drawing. So we ended up with a total of 7 turkeys. Luckily, only one of them came in the real form. The other 6 were certificates. That is good because our fridge is small, and can barely hold the one real turkey that we got in the freezer.

Afterwards Benjamin and I ran a long cool-down. I ended up with a total of 13.5 miles. Benjamin ended up with a total of 5.

P.M. 2 miles. Did the last one in 5:56 as I was curious how fast pace would feel at the end of the day. It felt hard, harder than even 5:42 last Saturday at the end of the day. I did start out with a 93 quarter because I did not start running fast right away, but still after that it was 89, 87, 87, and  those 87s felt like 83s last Saturday. I suppose the combination of the lack of sleep and the fatigue from the race did the magic.

A.M. Total of 12. Jenny and Julia did 3, which I did 3.5 running ahead, adding distances, and then catching up. The catch-up mile was 5:30 and it felt very good. 5 with Benjamin. 1 with Joseph. Jacob had a cough, did not run.

P.M. 2.5 miles.

A.M. Total of 20.5. Started with 0.5 with Jacob. Jenny and Julia did 3 with Sarah. Benjamin had a cold, did not run. After Jacob's run I did my 20 mile course to Bridal Veil and back with some pickups throughout the run. Started with a mile at 0.5  in 5:55 up a small grade and with obstacles. Then at 3 did a mile in 5:44. This one had less adversity, but I would still consider it anti-aided. At about 6.5 did 2 up the Provo Canyon in 11:58. It felt harder than it should have. Then at 10.5 did 3 down the Provo Canyon on my standard tempo stretch. Based on how hard the earlier miles felt I thought it would be difficult to be under 17:00 (5:40 average). I wondered if I would even get that after the first quarter in 90. But then I got going and hit 5:38, 5:34, 5:30, which gave me 16:42. I wanted to run the last 4 hard and started on it. 6:00 pace was a struggle. After doing a mile in 6:15 I was concerned that I might be doing more damage than good if I kept pressing and stopped the tempo 2.5 into the interval while still 1.5 away from the house. After a quarter of jogging, however, I reconsidered and decided to give it an honest push in the last mile. I was very sluggish through the "obstacle" quarter in 96, but then was able to shift gears  and did 87, 87. Before the run I weighed 144.4 in winter clothes. After 140.4. Adjusting to my normal weighing standard I think this would convert to around 143.8 and 139.8. So there went 4 lb in the run. Not much sweating - the temperatures started in the 20s and were in the low 30s at the end of the run.

The crash was interesting. It was not really a crash after all, I think. I was just so mentally exhausted from running alone in the cold for 20 miles, working hard for a good portion of it,  and possibly also from our adventures with sick children and the race on Thursday, that I just did not have the mental energy to battle various course obstacles (tunnels, turns, bridges) on the trail. The last three quarters showed I still had something physically. But I think one thing we do not realise is how much mental energy it takes to keep accelerating back to pace after minor setbacks, and when the physical goes down, the mental goes down with it as well perhaps at a higher rate. So what would be only a minor annoyance when you are fresh becomes a 10-15 seconds per mile knockdown when fatigued.

P.M.  1 mile with Joseph.

Day of rest. Benjamin and William were too sick to go to church. So I ended up going just to the Sacrament meeting - Sarah went to the first two. The talks were on the temple and I enjoyed them. 

A.M. 12 total. Did a couple of pickups. Jenny and Julia ran 2.5 with Sarah. Benjamin ran 0.5 with Jacob, felt terrible. I did 1 with Joseph. 

P.M. 2 miles.

A.M. 12 miles. Joseph did 1, Jacob 0.5. Benjamin, Jenny and Julia were too sick to run.

P.M. Did not run. With so many people in the house already sick, I realized that I was likely next in line. So I decided to cut the training on purpose to give the body a better chance to fight the surrounding germs.

A.M. 8 miles total. Following the reduced mileage to boost the immune system plan. Timed it just right, I think, because I started developing some minor symptoms of a cold. Benjamin was healthy enough to run a mile with me and Joseph in 8:15. Jenny ran 0.5  with Jacob, felt terrible. Julia was too sick to run.

P.M. Laying low, did not run. Let's hope this minor cold will serve as a vaccination.