Breaking the Wall

Ran with Ted early in the morning on the Provo River Trail. 10 miles in 1:14:23. Still felt good in spite of the lack of sleep associated with preparing for the move.

Ran with the kids in the evening.

Had some boxes to take to the new house, and decided to kill two birds with one stone. Met Ted at the new house, and had him help me unload the boxes. Ted is a great guy. He can be easily talked into going longer and faster, and he helps you unload the boxes. What greater friend can you ask for?

Then we ran from the new house to the end of the trail and back. An interesting coincidence that may be interpreted as a sign from God that we are in the right house - it is exactly 5.00 miles from the house to the end of the trail. We stayed ahead of the 7:00 guy and finished in 1:09:14.

Came back home, and Sarah told me about her dream. She dreamt that she went to the new house and found both Ted and me asleep. We collapsed from getting up early and running day after day. Her dream was not that far away from reality.

Came home, did some computer work to prepare for the move. Had to figure out how not to firewall myself out of access to my the systems of my clients without letting the whole world in. Hit a few glitches then found a clever solution (Sasha's Hack TM).

Ran with the kids. Then it was time to get the moving van. Ran with Benjamin 2.53 miles to get it. The move happened very fast with the help of the Elders Quorum from our local LDS congregation.

We unloaded at the new house, and then it was time to take the moving van back. It refused to go. Talk about an ox in the mire. Called U-Haul, they send the towing truck. Then went to the old house to get the computers. By the time I was done it was 3 am. Long day.

Ran early in the morning from our new house. Was supposed to meet Ted on the way but missed him. Eventually found him and we ran a couple of miles together. Not enough sleep, so was not very motivated for most of the run. At 5 miles noticed I was 1:20 behind the 7:00 guy. Decided to chase him. Surprisingly, shifting gears to 6:30-6:40 pace came rather naturally, without too much concentration. Finished the run in 55:57.

Ran with the kids in the evening.

Ran with Ted in the morning on the Provo River Trail from my house, dropped him off, then ran a 1.5 mile tempo in 8:39, total time for 10 miles - 1:07:45. Ran with the kids in the evening.

Slept in this morning and missed Ted. Ran on the Provo River Trail in the afternoon. It got warmer, so I decided to do a health/fitness test - standard 5 mile tempo from Geneva Road to the Utah Lake and back. Got 28:18. Splits - 5:38 - 11:12 (5:34) - 14:01 (2:49) 16:57 (2:56, 5:45) - 22:39 (5:42) - 28:18 (14:17, 5:39). HR took 2 miles to work its way up to 161. Then after the turnaround my legs quit. The upper quads were feeling overworked. HR dropped to 153. I regrouped and brought it back up to 158. Then I figured out a trick that allowed me to get back up to 5:40 pace. Hamstrings and quads are antagonistic muscles. So if you contract one, the other will relax. I tried lifing my feet up higher to make the hamstrings work more. This should have given the quad more of a break, and it did. I figure the trick was worth about 5 seconds per mile in that situation.

Came home, ran with the kids.

10 miles with Ted in the morning from my house to the end of the Provo River Trail and back in 1:11:55. Picked up to 6:00 pace on the last 0.5. In the afternoon took our station wagon (Zhu) to CompuTune to fix the broken water pump. Ran back on the trail with the kids. Benjamin ran all the way (2.2 miles), Jenny and Julia took turns riding in the stroller.

Ran 2.25 in the morning to pick up the station wagon (Zhu) from Computune. Then ran 10.04 miles in the afternoon in 1:03:19 with 2x2.5 tempos in the middle on the standard 5 mile tempo parts. First one was 14:34, HR stabilized at 151 with occasional bursts to 155. On the second, got 14:31. HR stabilized at 153, then drifted up to 159 on the last mile, which is uphill at 0.5 grade, and then I cheated on the last 200 (40 seconds) to get a negative split, and it maxed out at 163. Last mile in the tempo was 5:46.

Kept a good pace before, in between, and after the tempos, which helped give a decent time for the entire run. Ran with the kids later in the afternoon.

Yesterday Benjamin solved 3 math problems from the SAT test. This is a good sign. He should be able to handle the whole thing by the time he is 10. We need to work on his geometry skills.

Tempo run on the Provo River Trail. 10 miles, double the standard 5 mile tempo run. Total time 58:27. Splits by 2.5 - 14:51, 14:44, 14:28, 14:24. Last mile in 5:46 ( 0.5 % grade up). HR did not get up to 150 for the first two miles, but the pace felt the fastest I wanted to go. Then it hovered around 152 up to 5 miles. Then I sped up and it climbed to 155, and I was also feeling better. On the last mile it was around 159, and maxed out at 163 on the last 200 (41 seconds). Total of 12.7 for the run with the warm-up and cooldown.

Ran with the kids in the late afternoon.

I believe I've observed this HR laziness phenomenom before. This happens when you are training hard day after day. I see this as an indication of proper response to training. The body is trying to pace itself and will not work unless you give it a really good reason to.

Somehow managed a 75 mile week. Did not really intend to do it, but I'll take it if it comes naturally.

My cell phone "seranaded" me out of bed at 4:45 am to run with Ted. He was coming from BYU, and this time I missed him again - there are two ways to get to my house from the trail, I took one, he took the other. I found him eventually. Could not break 8:00 for the first two miles. Could not get HR to go above 111 either. When I found Ted, he was going at a super-sonic speed for me at that time - 6:50. I reluctantly sped up. We eventually wound it up to 6:30 or so. At that point, I decided the only way for me to survive is to pick it up to sub-6:00. Then my mind would go into race mode, and I'd be able to handle the pace. So I did. That made things better in a way.

Dropped Ted off at BYU and trotted back to the trail. Noticed I was right on pace with the 7:30 guy. But I did not feel like staying with him. So I let him go. Then on the last mile I decided to catch him, and finished 10 miles in 1:14:37. Even with all of the accelerations to catch all kinds of guys the average HR was 119. Probably the sleepiest run in the last 3 months.

Ran with the kids in the afternoon.

Ran with Ted in the morning. 10.04 in 1:09:14. Chatted the first half, then turned around and got down to business.

Ran with the kids in the afternoon.

The power supply on my desktop caught on fire. Fortnately, I was able to unplug it fast enough to avoid a real fire in the house. Time for a new system. Fortunately, I did not lose the hard drive.

Ran with the kids. Then with Ted. Did not have much time. We ran 10.04 in 1:03:02 with a pickup of 2.5 in 14:41 on the trail going towards the lake. On the way back, decided to go brisk and steady, ran 5 miles in 31:00. HR was 142 at 6:10 pace, 146 at 6:00 pace, 149 at 5:50.

Got a new motherboard, case, CPU, and RAM. Took a while to put everything together, my hands are clumsy.

Easy run with Ted at 5:30 in the morning. Did 10.04 in 1:15:00. First 4 miles in hybernation mode - the pace progressed from 9:00 to 7:30, but HR did not once go over 120. Talk about being asleep. Then woke up a bit, and started chasing the 7:30 guy. Had to pick up to marathon race pace on the last 0.5 to catch him.

Ran with the kids in the evening.

Spent a good portion of the day overcoming the challenges of setting up a new computer. My on-board video on the new motherboard does not work with X.org 7.1, and it would not cleanly or at all take any other card that I have (no AGP slot does not help). So my choices are return the motherboard and get a different one, or help the development of the driver. I think I'll do the latter, it is more rewarding in a number of ways. I've always wanted to learn how to write drivers.

Ran with Ted and ROTC Army cadet Shahay at 5:30 AM. Met them on the trail. Did not miss them this time. Had the hybernation issue again for the first 4 miles. When I met them, their pace (7:20) felt fast, although my HR stayed around 114. That is probably why it felt fast - in order for me to feel good at 7:20 I need the HR to be at least 122-124. Once I was out of hybernation, HR was 125 at 7:00-7:10 pace, and it felt very comfortable.

Ended up with 10.08 in 1:13:19 with the average HR of 118. Ran with the kids in the evening.

Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way! Oh, what fun it is to run through the snow ten miles today!

Ran with Ted 10.04 miles through the snow in 1:12:51. It was not as bad as snow can get. We estimated based on my HR readings that we lost only 30 seconds per mile. Provo City normally plows the trail, but not on a weekend. And we lucked out with the snow storm hitting Saturday morning.

Ran with the kids in the evening. It was hard for them as the roads became slick.

The Logan version of Jingle Bells should say "..through the snow ten mile A DAY!" And yet I remember seeing a picture of Logan during the winter while I was still in Moscow, and I wished to be in Logan. The picture had a plowed street with no snow cover and it looked like you could actually get decent traction.

Repetition of my new version of Jingle Bells - oh, what fun it is to run through the snow 10 miles today. There was more snow on the ground. Ran with Ted at 5:30 am. 10.04 in 1:15:40. Did a fartlek on the way back. 5:30 effort gave us 6:30 pace. Same for slower speeds - losing about a minute per mile. Ran with the kids in the evening. Moved the site to another server. Steve Hooper kindly offerred to share his co-located space. Fixed a couple of bugs - when you changed your web name, it used to lose your picture. There was also an issue with uploading new pictures that I've also fixed. Of course, when you move a site, new unexpected issues may appear. If you notice anything wrong with the site let me know.

Ran with Steve Ashbaker and Ted this morning at 5:30 AM. The roads were good. Ran 10.04 in 1:15:19, mostly at a leisurely pace, but picked up on the last half mile. Very cold and slippery. Steve fell down, and then on top of that ran into a gate a few miles later. That reminded me of running into a chain-link fence at about 6:40 pace one foggy morning in Russia. I was lucky to end up only with a broken lip. Another time, again in Russia, I slipped while trying to take a turn on a wet snow-covered trail at 6:20 pace and rammed into a sled, the kind that has sharp metal rods sticking out. I was also wearing shorts. I ended up slicing my shin, but aside from the bloody visuals it did not hurt at all until I was done with the run and got into a shower. Another time, I fell down 4 times in one 12.5 mile run. Lots of things have happened in now over 22 years of continuous running.

Ran with the kids in the afternoon. Went Christmas shopping with Jenny later.

Ran with Ted at 6:30 AM. That's sleeping in! 10.04 in 1:09:00. The road conditions were better, but still slick in a number of places. Cold, 12 F. The HRM of The Toy does not work well in the cold - bogus readings all the way through the run. Ted said a special cream would help.

Ran with the kids in the evening. They are starting to get used to the cold.

Again, 10.04 with Ted at 6:30 AM. Sleeping in again. Ran faster this time - 1:08:10. It got colder - 10 F. Icicles on the eyelids. The roads are slick in some places, but clear in others, that's very nice.

Ran with the kids in the afternoon.

Ran with Ted in the morning. Some variation today - did a 2.5 mile tempo on the way back in 14:40, then came back to Ted. Total 10.24 in 1:09:17. Enough snow and ice on the road to make it annoying, but not enough to make it really slow.

Ran with the kids in the evening. Lots of snow by then.

Went to see Dr. Jex. My lower back curve in the neutral position standing up was 27 degrees. This almost withing the normal range, which is 35-45 degrees. However, no noticable improvements in running. Two possibilities - either the postural improvements do not carry (at least right away) from static position to dynamic (running), or the shape of the lower back is not a significant factor in the running economy. I sure hope it is the former, otherwise I'm back to square one on the whole running ecomony improvement project.

It does make sense to me that having a proper curve in the lower back should give you some extra spring on take-off. Then you can run like a kangooroo, effortlessly bouncing like a ball.

Next step is to figure out some exercises to develop a proper dynamic curve in the spine as opposed to static. That is something the Pettibon method does not have, or at least I have not seen it in the instructions and excerises.

Ran 10.04 in the morning with Ted in 1:09:51. The roads were completely covered with snow and ice. Ted suggested the 7:00 mile guy felt safe and was laughing at us. But he laughed too soon. We sped up to 6:30 - 6:40 pace, which was probably worth 6:10-6:20 on dry ground, and got him. Ran with the kids in the afternoon.

I am writing this entry on Christmas morning, as I am thinking about what Christmas means to me. Christmas without presents is still Christmas. However, Christmas without service is not. What is the big deal about the birth of Christ? Why do we celebrate his birth? Why do we count years from the time of his birth? He has done something for us that we could not. It is not possible for us to come back into God's presence without first being cleansed from the physical and spiritual damage we experience while living on earth. And Christ makes that cleansing possible.

I was 17 when I first heard of this. I had many questions that were not answered. I believed the Biblical account of Christ's life was mostly correct, but could not quite understand its sigfinicance, or what it meant for me in practical terms. Later, the answers that made sense came to me as I read the Book of Mormon. I do not think I would have believed in Christ was it not for the Book of Mormon.

My friend related an experience that happened while he was serving an LDS mission. One lady had a hard time with the idea of faith, and was asking for historical evidence. After a long discussion, my friend finally received an inspiration. "Suppose we could go back in time with a video camera, and tape Christ's suffering on the cross. Watching the footage, you would know that he had suffered and died. But how would you know he had died for your sins?"

That knowledge comes through the Holy Ghost, by which power we may know the truth of all things. And the Holy Ghost comes when we obey God's commandments, humble ourselves, remove the spiritual static from our lives, and quitely listen. Then Christ can come into our lives, and we will know him.

Ran with Ted in the Provo Canyon. Trail is almost compileted covered with snow and ice. First standard 3 mile tempo down in 17:14, probably a 16:15 effort. Then 2 miles up in 13:20, probably worth 12:20. Then 2 miles down starting at Nunns Park in 11:56. Came home and ran with the kids. Then we went to see Sarah's family in Salt Lake.

Ran with Ted in the morning on the Provo River trail. Usual 10.04. Took it nice and slow most of the way, although a bit faster on the second half - 1:13:24. Roads almost completely covered with snow and ice. Ran with the kids in the evening.

Got a key-chain camera for the Fast Running Mommy for Christmas. Hosed up her computer trying to get it to work in a way that is easy for her to use. The problem was that she needed udev/usbmount, which I never use myself because I do not mind mounting devices manually (this is Linux, BTW). But her system was so old that it required nearly a complete upgrade to get it to work. I just barely finished fixing up the mess.

First ran with Julia. Then ran with the kids to the bank and back. They ran part of the way, and rode in the stroller part. Then dropped them off (5.71 into the run) and ran alone the rest of the way. Was about 4 minutes behind the 8:00 guy. The stroller with Benjamin and Jenny is pretty heavy. You can go 7:00 pace on a good road with it, but as soon as it gets slick or starts going uphill, you are in trouble. They are close to 100 lb combined.

Afterwards, chased 8:00 mile guy. Did some short accelerations in the middle. Had to pick it up on the last 0.5 miles. Total time for 11.18 was 1:28:45.

Ran the usual 10.04 course. Added some tempo work in the middle for fun. There was a fairly dry 1.5 mile stretch with only a little bit of slush. So I ran it at a threshold effort in both directions. Got the same time on both occasions - 8:19. On the first one, HR eventually climbed up to 158. On the second one, it got up to 160 with a quarter to go. Then I saw I was off-schedule, and decided to correct it with a kick. Ran 1:19 on the last quarter, with the HR getting up to 165.

Both runs felt hard, like I could not go any faster. However, once I decided to kick on the last one, I felt it was sustainable for more than just a quarter.

Finally fixed the "You are a hacker" error that happened if you clicked on add/delete/edit entry after your session timed out. Also, we got some donations to the Fast Running Blog Fund. If you would like to be acknowledged on the donor's page, send me a message via the contact form. Being acknowledged as a donor is a good thing even if you do not want the recognition as it encourages others to donate.

Speedwork with Steve on the trail. Tried a new workout. The idea is to max out the HR for as long as possible. I realized that a VO2 Max workout does not work very well, at least for me. It take me 4 minutes of running to get my HR to the max regardless of how fast I run after a certain threshold is crossed. If I had been running at my 5 K race pace, I am too tired at that point to sustain the max heart rate any longer. So Ii figured if I run at about 5:30 pace for the first 4 minutes, my HR will be 160. Then pick up the pace to 5 K race pace, and it almost immediately climbs to 170, but I am not too tired to hold it for a while.

So with that philosophy, we did 2x1.5 with full rest starting out at a tempo pace, and then accelerating to a VO2 Max pace once HR climbed up to be withing a shooting range.

First one - splits by quarter - 1:22 - 1:21 - 1:20 - 1:14 - 1:17 - 1:19, total time 7:53. HR reached 170. 1:14 was too hard, and we paid for it. I felt lead in my legs.

On the second one, we decided to be more conservative and fullfil the purpose of the workout, which is to maximize aerobic output and hold it for as long as possible. We ran the second interval in the opposite direction. The trail looks flat, but the river flows towards the lake, so there must be a tiny bit of a grade. The first one would have been a bit net downhill, while the second a bit up. Splits - 1:23 - 1:21 - 1:21 - 1:21 - 1:17 - 1:16. Total time 7:59, caught the 5:20 guy. HR hit 173, and I did not feel as much lead in the legs.

With the warm up and cool down the total distance was 11 miles.

Ran with the kids in the evening.

Big difference having Steve around. Yesterday I could not get myself to go any faster than 8:19 on the exact same stretch, and putting in quite a bit of an effort.

Ran 10.04 in the morning. Started out at about 7:20 pace, then sped up to 7:10, but did not feel like going faster up until the turnaround. After that, decided to chase the 7:00 mile guy. Sped up to 6:35-6:40 pace. It felt hard, but HR was correct - 131-133. The hardness was mostly mental. I had a hard time getting my mind to engage when running alone.

Ran with the kids in the afternoon.

After talking with Dr. Jex about how the spine works I believe I have a better clue about my running economy and low sprint speed issues. I think the problem is in the disks of the lower back - they lack the resilience. This would explain low vertical lift when running (not bad thing in an of itself, but bad when even that little has to come with a strained effort), low vertical jump, overdeveloped quads, unusual difficulty in walking up the stairs for my level of fitness, relatively poor uphill performance, and the feeling of constantly running on cotton. When the spine is not resilient, the muscles have to pick up the slack to get you off the ground.

According to Dr. Jex, once the muscles learn to hold a curve in the spine, the disks have an opportunity to regain their resilience. The curve is already beginning to form. So we'll have to wait and see what happens.