Breaking the Wall

10.04 in 1:06:38 in the morning with 2x2.5 in the middle, first in 14:33, second in 14:30. HR stablized at 154 on the first, and at 157 on the second towards the end. The last mile of the second (first mile of the first) was 0.5% net uphill grade.

Ran with the kids in the evening.

Updated the donor list on the Fund page. Please report errors/omissions if you find any.

Ran 10.04 in 1:05:50 in the morning at a steady pace. HR fluctated between 133 and 139 once I got going, while the pace fluctated between 6:40 and 6:20.

Saw Dr. Jex. He had my the X-Ray of my lower back in a sitting neutral position. The L1-L5 angle has changed from -5 to 5 degrees over the period of 4 months. However, the ideal angle, according to the Pettibon system is 35-45 degrees. Interestingly enough, I get fairly close when standing up, but something is out of whack when sitting down. I suspect running falls somewhere in between. I tried feeling my lower back with my hand when running, and it felt closer to the sitting position than to running.

Ran with the kids in the afternoon. Added a little bit of a run from the car to Home Depot on the way to Dr. Jex's.

Ran with Ted in the morning. Usual 10.04. Chatted for the first 4 miles, then got serious about the 7:00 mile guy. Sped up to 6:30-6:40 pace. HR at 6:30 was 132 when I arched my back the right way, otherwise 137. Arching the back made a noticable difference. I noticed Ted was starting to suffer when I did that while I did not increase the effort, and HR dropped. On the rough parts of the trail, I could not concentrate enough to think about arching the back, Ted was putting in the same effort, while I had to work harder to keep up. Total time was 1:09:02.

Ran with the kids in the afternoon. Jenny wanted to get a special prize - a treat from Good Earth. I told her she had to run 1.5 miles at sub-9:00 pace. She cruised at 8:48 pace for the first 1.25, then kicked in 1:55 on the last quarter.

Ran with Ted in the morning. 10.04 in 1:09:42 with a light fartlek in the middle - alternating a quarter in under 1:30 with a quarter in 1:50 8 times to catch the 7:00 mile guy.

Ran with the kids in the afternoon. I told Benjamin I'd get him a Palm Pilot if he breaks 7:00 mile. His scriptures got ripped up quite a bit and are reaching the point of being unusable, so I figured a Palm Pilot would be a nice replacement with some extra features as a bonus.

Benjamin has a hard time running fast in the cold, so we waited. Finally it got warm enough, we thought, so we decided to try it. The Provo High track was covered with snow. As soon as we got to the Orem High track it started snowing pretty hard, but the track was still clear. Benjamin still wanted to give it a shot. He ran 7:13.9, not bad at all for the conditions. We'll have to wait for another warm day, though.

Ran with Ted in the morning. Usual 10.04. Lots of snow today, we had to slow down. On the way back, we ran into a guy named Tyler, and he joined us. Turns out he is dating the oldest daughter of Doug Padilla. Well, it was very fitting for him to be out for an 18 mile run on this cold and snowy morning. If you want to have the honors of dating a daughter of a great runner, you must show some character!

Ran with the kids in the afternoon.

Ran 13.5 with Ted in the morning. Warmed up 2 miles. Then did the standard 10 mile tempo on the 2.5 stretch between Geneva Road and the Utah Lake parking lot. The roads were mostly covered with snow with occasional dry patches. It was also cold - probably 15 degrees at the start. Ran with Ted the first 7 miles. He was tired. We did the first 2.5 in 16:09, then 16:04 coming back. Then at 7 miles I decided to go ahead and push it a bit to measure the conditions of the road more accunrately. Hit the next 2.5 split in 16:03. On the way back, decided to chase down the 6:20 guy, but it was difficult - had to slow down on ice for safety reasons. Made up only 8 seconds on the next mile. A song I heard a few times on a BBC English learning program back in 1990 in Russia came to my mind - "have to catch an early train, got to be at work by 9, but even if I had an airplane I still would not make it on time". The dry strethes were not long enough to get going, and then you have to ease off early enough before an ice patch. Pushed it on the last mile, managed 5:55, half of it was solid snow, put in a valiant effort, but ended up a second behind - 1:03:21.

I like to re-write popular songs sometimes when I am working hard, usually when things are going well. One of my favorites when drafting behind a tough competitor in a race - "and I swear, like a shadow that's by your side, I'll be there. For better or worse, till kick do us part, I'll hang on with every beat of my heart..."

Cooled down 1.5 to the house. Ran with the kids in the evening.

Tested my vertical jump. It was 18 inches. An improvement from 1.5 years ago when Ian Hunter tested it on the force plates (he says it gives you a very accurate estimate), and it was only 13 inches back then. The reason I decided to test it was that the whole body was feeling jumpy. I attribute this to the improvements in the lower back. Today I felt more like a pouncy cat than I can ever remember.

Ran with Ted in the morning at 4:45. It was a cold and early morning. My bed felt good, and I missed it. Ted started from BYU and I met him on the trail. We ran to his turnaround, and then back to BYU. There we did a strength test for a mini-experiment - max leg extension on a weight machine with one leg. Ted was my guinea-pig to establish a comparison base. The test measures your raw quad strength. My expectation was that I would outperform Ted by a lot more than you would expect from our running difference. My expectation turned out to be correct. I was able to lift 200 lb and failed at 220 lb, while Ted lifted 140 lb, and failed at 160 lb.

Then we did a vertical jump. We did not have any way to measure it, so we just did a basic visual evaluation by the number of blocks on the wall. Our vertical jump was essentially the same.

I think the preliminary results confirm my suspicion that I have very much below average spinal resilience. And also, that the spinal resilience is critical in the running economy, and just as important as the raw leg strength for sprinting. That is why you can see a guy with skinny legs run 100 in sub-12 quite often, while somebody with bigger legs may not be as fast. The skinny legged guy has to be very well coordinated and has the back of a cat.

However, I would like to do more of those tests. Ideally, it would be nice to find a graduate or P.H.D. student who wants to do a study for his paper/dissertation and do it with him. But at least doing some informal measurements is a good start. If anybody wants to participate, let me know. The catch is that the leg extension test needs to be done on the same machine and with the same starting angle, so you'd have to come down to Provo for it.

On the way back caught the 7:00 mile guy. Ran a bit of a tempo on the last 0.5 at sub-6:00 pace. Total of 11 miles in the morning.

Ran with the kids in the afternoon. 13 miles for the day.

Ran with Ted at 4:45 AM again. Was thinking about my warm bed the entire run. We did a fartlek, 6x400, then 4x800, all at around 5:45-5:50 pace. The recoveries at 7:00-7:20 pace. HR readings were normal once I worked up enough sweat. 10.04 in 1:07:48.

Ran with the kids in the afternoon.

My cellphone woke me up with the "Serenade" at 4:30 AM to run with Ted at 4:45. It says on the menu - Seranade, 4:30 AM, Daily. A most lovely melody that would get a corpse to arise. Sarah asked me if I could put it on something less lively. I explained it had to be lively enough to get me out of bed. I also get dressed faster while that tune is still vividly playing in my mind.
Met Ted on the trail - he ran from BYU. Saw a runner from afar in the dark and wondered if it was Ted. Should not have wondered. The probability of it being somebody else was extremely low. In fact, I believe the last time I saw anybody other than Ted running before 5 AM was in the Wasatch Back Relay. We were both asleep and ran at 7:20 pace or so most of the time. I proposed a 6:00 mile to wake up, but Ted's legs were tired from yesterday. Followed Ted part of the way to BYU until it was time to turn around. Then I had 1.5 left to the house, which I decided to do at marathon pace. Turned out it was 1.58 because I miscalulated the turnaround. No problem. Ran 1.5 in 8:41 at a steady pace, HR eventually climbed to 150, total time for 10.08 was 1:11:49. Ran with the kids in the evening.

Ran with Ted in the morning. Did a tempo 2.5 in 14:23. The rest was at a very relaxed pace. Total of 10.13.

Ran with the kids in the evening.

Worked all night figuring out little and  not so little bugs in the new text editor. It is still buggy, but at least functional. Please report bugs as you find them. One thing I really need tested is try entering some text, then wait about 5-10 minutes to submit it. If you can reproduce it posting the numbers, but not the comments, please report. 

Easy run with Ted in the morning at 4:45 AM. 10 miles through some serious snow. Ran very relaxed at about 7:40-7:50 pace in chat mode. Then ran with the kids. Went to Sarah's youngest brother's wedding afterwards. He and his wife were sealed in the Jordan River Temple.

Today was a big sleep-in day. I slept until as late as 6:30 AM. Ted had a hard time getting out of the snow, so we did not get going until 7:30. It was cold at the start (12F) and lightly snowing. When the temperatures are around 10F and below the snow becomes brittle and starts cracking under your feet. This provides decent traction, almost as good as asphalt. So we had good traction at the start. I decided to do mile pickups. Ran the first one with decent traction in 5:45 with HR at 152. Started slipping more as it got warmer on the second - 5:52, HR hit 154 and went back down to 150 probably as I lost motivation from slipping. And then one more in 6:00, slipping even more with HR at 152. Towards the end we were struggling to keep 8:00 pace conversationally, while at the start we were cruising at 7:10 pace. Ended up with 1:12:59 for 10.24 - a little longer because I kept coming back to Ted after the pickups.

Ran with the kids in the afternoon. 

Easy run with Ted in the morning. Did 10.04 in 1:11:43. The temperature varied from -8F to -4F during the run. Wore anywhere from two to three layers of clothing, including gloves and socks. That was perfect - very comfortable, but not too much. Special emphasis on on the extremities and the crotch. Years of running through Russian winters have helped.

The entire time we discussed Ryan Hall's 59:43 in the half. I want him to run 2:03 marathon to prove the pundits wrong. I love proving the pundits wrong or see them proving wrong. One of my favorite scriptus is 2 Nephi:9:28-29 :

O that cunning plan of the evil one! O the vainness, and the frailties, and the foolishness of men! When they are learned they think they are wise, and they hearken not unto the counsel of God, for they set it aside, supposing they know of themselves, wherefore, their wisdom is foolishness and it profiteth them not. And they shall perish.

But to be learned is good if they hearken unto the counsels of God.

I think the "pundits" start making wrong predictions when they are out of tune with the Spirit of God and start placing their own wisdom above it. I think the prediction of 2:04 limit for the marahton world record fundamentally underestimates our potential, and I am looking forward to watching it proven wrong by somebody who has the talent and obeys the laws of breaking 2:04.

Another cold day. 0F at the start, -2F at the finish. Ran with Ted at 4:45 AM. Usual 10.04. Did a tempo 2.5 in 14:59. Hard to run fast with 2.5 layers of clothes, on snow, in the cold, and that early. Not sure how much it slows you down, we'll find out when the roads clear up.

Afterwards, read Lesson 2 Tragedy or Destiny out of the church lesson manual. After the challenges of the run, my mind was very open to these words of President Kimball:

Being human, we would expel from our lives physical pain and mental anguish and assure ourselves of continual ease and comfort, but if we were to close the doors upon sorrow and distress, we might be excluding our greatest friends and benefactors. Suffering can make saints of people as they learn patience, long-suffering, and self-mastery.

Ran with the kids in the afternoon. All three set a record for the coldest they've run it - 7F.

10.03 miles in the morning at 4:45 with Ted in 1:09:58. Met him on the trail - he started from BYU. Another cold day - 0F temperature.

Ran with the kids in the afternoon.

Got a K-TEC blender in the mail today. Sarah made soup in in for dinner, as well as some apple sauce and salsa.

Ran with Ted. Today was our sleep-in day  - we ran at 5:30 AM instead of the regular 4:45. Did a tempo. Ran 14:37 on our standard 2.5 mile stretch from Geneva Road to the trail entrance partking lot by the Utah Lake. The road conditions were a lot better, although the first mile still covered with snow for a good part. Still cold, 0F, wore the standard 2.5 layers of clothes.

Ted was feeling tired. I encouraged him to run 7:40 pace the rest of the way. This also gave me a nice mental break after the tempo. Although I am not putting in a lot of physical effort into those tempos, mentally they are very hard. It is dark and cold, the road traction is not the best, it is early in the morning, and the clothes weigh enough and block the movement enough to cause some serious mental resistance. That's why I keep them down to only 2.5 miles and run them at 5:45-6:00 pace. 

Ran with the kids in the afternoon. 

No sleeping in this morning. Met Ted on the trail. Did not feel like I had a good attitude the entire run. Missed my warm bed all the way long. The inversion dampened my spirits. I can feel the quality of the air that is going in when I pick up the pace. And when I feel the quality is not good, I do not want to pick up the pace. And I feel depressed, a bit of a panic from the realization that something I depend upon for life is does not have very good quality.

Finally decided to do an attitude improvement tempo pick up. Ran the uphill mile (the last one of the standard tempo course, 0.5% grade) in 5:55. That made me feel better. My mind has a natural tendency to notice or recall connections or associations. So I remembered Pushkin's cure for dampened sprits that I had to memorize in the Russian equivalent of grade school or some time early in junior high: 

which in my translation, is:

Let us drink from sorrow, where is the mug?
The heart will be merrier.

Combine that with the fact that your average Russian literature teacher approaches Pushkin
the same way a devout Christian would approach the Bible. No wonder Russia has serious alcohol
problems.  While Pushkin wrote beautiful poetry, I think the teachers should emphasize that had he chosen not to drink, it would have been even better. And he probably would also have had a less explosive temper which would have given him the wisdom not to duel.

Ran with the kids in the afternoon.

Found a story that just cracked me up about how a bug in a cake printer produced a very
interesting birthday greeting message for an 80-year old Italian lady. I could not stop laughing for about 5 minutes. Good exercise for the abdominal muscles.

Tempo run with Ted in the morning. Sleep in day - we ran at 7:15 AM. Warmed up to Geneva Road, and did the standard 10 mile tempo. I had too goals - stay with Ted as much as possible, and catch the 6:00 mile guy eventually. The trail was partially covered with snow, but a good part of it was dry. However, you did have to swerve from side to side to catch the good parts. Also, it was around 1F, so I had my standard 2.5 layers.

We ran together for the first 1.5 miles at 6:15 pace. Then stopped for a bio break, while Ted kept going. I started chasing him, and sped up to 5:45. It felt easier than I expected, and I felt some extra bounce in my stride. There are a couple of things I did different last week. Ted brought me some Synflex to try. It is a glucosamine-based supplement that is supposed to promote the growth of cartrilage. My hope is that it will improve the quality of my spinal disks and thus increase the resilience of the spine. I also changed my Pettibon exercise routine to walk around carrying a medicine ball above my head while wearing the headweights.

Hit 2.5 in 15:08, then caught Ted 0.5 miles later, along with the 6:00 guy. Decided to stay with Ted until we were 30 seconds behind the 6:00 guy. Ted was not feeling good - a bit sick, and a bit overtrained. We ran at 6:20 - 6:25 pace, and then slowed down to a 1:38 quarter. We were 28 seconds behind the 6:00 guy, and I decided it was time to take off. The road was covered with snow, so I fell behind even further - 30:32 (15:14) at 5 miles. That was bad news. So I pressed it a bit harder, and managed to not fall behind any further on the way back through the snowy section. Then with the same effort, I started closing the gap when the road was dry. 45:17 at the turnaround, 14:45 for 2.5. Now I was fully aware of the conditions of the trail and the difficulty of running 5:50 pace on it with all the clothes on, so I got down to business. Still 7 seconds to close with a mile to go, and it is uphill and covered with snow. Barely made it - 59:59.7, 14:42 on the last 2.5. 

Ran back to Ted, finished with him, then we ran to my house. 13.7 for the run. Ran with the kids a short while later, and then went cross-country skiing with Benjamin at Sundance. This was his first time cross-country skiing, and my first time in 20 years. I did a few tempo stretches, all I could do was 9:00 mile pace putting in 6:00 mile running effort. However, I believe, cross-country skiing is exactly what I need for my back. It bends it and stretches it in a way that feels just right when I lean forward and push off with both arms. I remember that in the past I felt cross-country skiing made me run with better form. I need to find a time and cost-effective way to do it as often as possible. If anybody knows of a good place to buy a pair of boots and skis, please post a comment or send me an e-mail. 

Sleep in day today. Ran at 7:30 AM with Ted. Met him on the trail. He started from BYU. Then Ted headed back to BYU, and I stayed on the trail. Found a runner named Cameron. He was going pretty fast - about 6:40 pace through the snow. Ran with him a bit. His marathon PR is 3:07. Suggested to him he needed to increase his mileage - based on how well he was handling 6:40 he should be able to hold it for the marathon with proper training. Invited him to join the blog crowd.

Afterwards, running alone and focusing on the form (nothing else to think about), noticed it was better than normal. The push off felt more effective. The hamstrings were working. The pace also showed - according to The Toy I was going 6:20-6:30 pace, and it did not feel that fast in spite of the 2.5 layers of clothes. The questions are: Is this for real? Will it continue? If yes, is it from Synflex?  Carrying the medicine ball above my head with headweights? Stretching the the muscles in the upper back? Cross-country skiing? Or possibly all of the above. Or maybe none, just another fluke, I've had many days when I felt great at 6:20 pace, but terrible at 5:40 immediately afterwards,  

Ran with the kids in the afternoon. After dinner they wanted carob cookies. Each sufficiently mature child had to earn it by solving a math problem.  Julia had to do 6+1, solved with no hints. Jennifer had to do 6x7, needed a hint (6x5+6x2).  Benjamin had to calculate the cosine of 60 degrees. Solved after he had drawn the picture of a circle on a coordinate plane.

Tempo 2.5 in the middle of a 10 mile run with Ted at 4:45 in the morning. Still cold. It snowed some more, the trail is almost entirely covered with snow. Still cold. Felt sleepy, missed my bed. 15:01 was all I could do. The form did not feel good - the spring in my stride I felt yesterday was gone. But yesterday it did not come through until later on in the run either.

Ran with the kids in the afternoon. Did a quarter with Julia on my shoulders in 2:05. It felt like 6:20 pace. Julia is 4, and weighs about 30+ pounds.

Easy run with Ted early in the morning. The form was not good. The quads were being overutilized. I wonder if it has to do with the degree of wakefulness, perhaps some critical point at which my nervous system kicks it, adjusts something a little bit which puts it past the critical point.

Ran with the kids in the afternoon. 

Ran with Ted this morning. It was our sleep-in day - we started at 5:30 am. With the extra sleep I felt livelier in the tempo run, and so did Ted. We ran our standard 2.5 tempo. Most of the trail was covered with snow, but there were a bit more dry spots than on Tuesday. First mile in 5:59, trying to wake up. Next time I had a chance for a reliable split was at 1.5 + 1/16, which was 9:14, 8 seconds ahead of the 6:00 mile guy. Then around the 2 mile mark I really needed to take a bio-break. This gave Ted a chance to pass me. However, I was quick enough to put Ted within reach. I knew I had to work, because I could tell that he was having a good day, and he usually runs much better the further he goes this time of day. At first I had a hard time getting going (The Toy reported 1:26 quarter), but then my tiger chasing a pray instinct turned on. The Toy reported a quarter in 1:18, and I managed to catch Ted. My total time was 14:24, which gives me 5:10 for the last 15/16 of a mile, this is 5:31 pace average. However, I did not start going fast until the last 0.5, so that 1:18 quarter was probably really 1:18. Ted ended up with 14:48, a record for him for the comparable conditions.

This goes to show that perhaps the biggest factor that makes me struggle to break 6:00 pace on those tempo runs is not the extra clothes, the cold, and the snow, but rather the lack of excitement at this early hour. Once I had a reason to run sub-5:20 pace, it came without a superhuman effort that I would expect from the difficulty of running 5:50 on those runs.

The economy felt average. Quads worked more than I wanted them too, but not terribly out of the ordinary. The spring from the back felt average, maybe even slightly better than average.

Afterwards, my adrenal glands did not want to work, I think. We ran 8:00 pace the rest of the way, and it felt fast. If 7:00 felt fast, I could have blamed it on lactic acid buildup, maybe. But in this case, I think it was just running out of mental energy to push.

Ran with the kids in the afternoon.

Easy run with Ted at 4:45 AM. Met him on the trail. He started from BYU. After my lips got used to the cold, I could finally carry a conversation. That made the run less tedious for me. Ted told me about the red necks in Alabama that drive as if they were trying to hit you, see how close they can get, and then swerve at the last moment.

Saw another runner on the trail later, I believe it is the second one I've seen on those runs. This was after my turnaround, so Ted missed her, but he had a good chance of spotting the rare creatures near BYU.

Weighed myself with clothes I've been running in - 155lb. Then changed to summer running clothes - 151lb. So 4lb difference. According to the Daniels Running Formula Vdot tables, this should translate to about 5-7 seconds per mile loss just from the weight. There is probably also a movement restriction factor involved. With the cold temperatures, and the snow on the ground you lose some more. Plus being asleep at the early hour. So struggling with 6:00 pace over 2.5 miles perhaps is not that bad in those conditions.

Curt Catmul came by and brought me a pulley contraption to simulate the cross-country skiing movement of the back, and do other stretching and strengthening exercises. I tried it and liked it so far. I am still doing Pettibon exercises and treatment, but I am starting to suspect I've reached the limit of the method for my problem. The last X-ray showed no improvement compared to the previous test - 20 degree angle (decrease from 23, ideal 45), and the unchanged head forward tilt of 8mm (ideal 0). So I improved very fast from the start, but have now plateaued. This is not to say that eventually it could not work, but something needs to be done differently.

Ran with the kids in the afternoon. They are starting to get used to the inversion.

Major sleep-in day. Tempo run with Ted at 7:15 AM.  10 miles on the standard course between Geneva Road and the Utah Lake. Ted was not feeling well in the morning, so to make things interesting we decided to give him a head start of one minute. The conditions of the trail for the first 2.5 miles were better than Thursday but worse than last Saturday. Later on, they became significantly worse as the snow became wet and lost its crispiness. As it was warmer (14F), I decided to wear 1.5 layers on my legs (shorts over tights).

First mile in 5:56 on snow, felt good. The snow was still crisp, decent traction. Stopped for bio break at 1.75.  First 2.5 in 14:45. Ted was about 1:40 ahead already. Turned out he actually opened up 10 seconds on me on top of the head start and the bio break. 23:37 at 4 miles, still decent pace. Then I hit a solid mile of wet snow - 6:10, 15:03 for the 2.5, 29:48 for 5. Ted is a minute ahead, and the 6:00 mile guy is gaining on me, not good. I thought with me wearing only one pair of pants  he would never be gaining on me.

Next mile in 6:09 on wet snow, hanging on trying to hold off the charging 6:00 mile guy. He runs like a moose on wet snow, he does not care. Next 1.5 miles have frequent dry ground patches, time for revenge. However, the patches of snow are killing the pace. 44:50 at 7.5, 15:02 for 2.5, Ted is now only 30 seconds ahead.

On the way back working hard to build a nice cushion before the last mile. Who knows, it might get even worse than 6:10 for that mile. Passed Ted with 1.5 to go. 1:03:44 at 9 miles. Let's hope 16 second lead is enough. Figured out a trick from desperation - surge hard on every smallest dry patch, then coast on the snow - it does not pay to push there. Exponential increase in effort results only in marginal increase in speed. Finished in 59:50, 10 seconds ahead of the 6:00 mile snow-plowing hard charging moose. Last mile in 6:06, last 2.5 in 15:00.

Jogged with Ted back to my house, put on ankle weights, jogged some more to make it 14. Worked out on Curt's contraption, liked the feeling afterwards. Ran with the kids in the afternoon.

As got back home and we knelt down for a family prayer, I saw a flock of moose trophies on the shelf that I've collected from 8 Top of Utah "in the moose" finishes to remind me of today's run.  

Easy run with Ted at our standard 4:45 AM time. The pace was not fast enough for long enough to test the form/spine spring. However, I did hit a quarter in 1:38 at the end that felt easy.

Ran with the kids in the afternoon. Warmer weather and less inversion. Benjamin and Jenny ran faster. Benjamin ran the last 0.5 in 3:45 rather comfortably. I think he is ready for another sub-7:00 mile attempt. We will probably try on Thursday if the weather is good.

The Fast Running Blog is overdue for a number of improvements.  We have added a few more runners to the point where even I find the current blog navigational system inadequate, and that is bad - I can use a very rudimentary user interface and be happy. I have had plans to do a predictor with GPX course uploads, or even better - a plotter like gmaps-pedometer.com. Also, need to find a way to place the Google ads better - in a way that is not annoying, but effective for generating click-throughs. The click through rate on the Fast Running Blog pages has not been very good - I hope mostly because the pages have been too interesting to read to leave them. Just need to find the time to code it all up.

Early morning tempo with Ted. Standard 4:45 AM. Short warm-up, then 2.5 in 14:11. Ted and I started at a good pace. I had to do a bio-break at around 0.75. After that kicked into gear to try to catch Ted. Hit the mile in 5:47. Caught up sooner than I expected - Ted had to take a bio-break at 1.5, I think I am infecting him with the decease. Went passed him, did not wait. Stayed in gear except for getting out of rhythm on short snow patches. The trail was in good condition except for the first 0.5 miles. Ted finished in 14:13. I think were it not for the bio breaks we probably would have pushed each other into the sub-14:00 range.  Not bad for the cold, early, and lots of clothes.

On the way back tried to trick Ted into running another 2.5. He went about a quarter, then did not feel good. I coasted putting in a marathon pace effort. Total time was 14:44, but the last 0.5 was 3:02, and I was slipping a lot more than in the first repetition.

The stride was far perfect, but better. I felt like I was using the full length of my legs, that is the best way I can describe it. What would be nice is to come up with some measurement devices/techniques and record the measurements along with the feelings. Then after some calibration I'd be able to tell what is going on, just like I can tell the pace and the heart rate correctly by feel right now.

Did back exercises on Curt's contraption. Ran with the kids in the afternoon. 

Easy run with Ted at 4:45 AM. It was snowing.  The roads were quite slippery. Both of us almost fell a couple of times.

Ran with the kids in the afternoon. It warmed up, and it looked like the inversion had cleared a bit. Benjamin wanted to do a mile time trial. So all of us went to the Orem High track. However, the cold wind was too much for the kids. All Benjamin could do was 7:37. Jenny was supposed to race the Fast Running Mommy, but being still little she had some breathing problems and did some sort of a stop and go. She did run about 8:00 pace during the go. Not having Daddy around did not help either (I was pacing Benjamin). The Fast Running Mommy set a post-Jacob record for the mile in 8:19. Afterwards, Julia wanted to run a special lap with Daddy. Jenny joined us and surged ahead. Half way through Julia changed her mind. That was OK, since she had already run her daily quarter. By that time Jenny had gotten quite far ahead. I wanted to be there at the finish to time her, so I sped up. With 100 meters to go, I realized I really needed to speed up. Ran 15 seconds for the last 100, which I was pleased with. I was in street clothes, it was cold, I had not done any speed work recently, and it did not feel like an all out sprint. My best 100 m ever is 13.9.

Worked out on on Curt's contraption. It is basically a bucket with weights attached to a rope on one end, the rope goes over a suspended pulley, and comes out attached to a handle on the other end. So you pull holding the handle, and the bucket comes up. Then you can hold on to it at any angle or height you want, and it can stretch the spine or the muscle group of interest as the weight of the bucket pulls on the rope. Simple, clumsy looking, but very effective. I feel like I am getting a quality workout on it.

Added a long-overdue fix to the race entries - now they show not only on the race entries page, but also during the regular blog viewing.

Sleep-in day. Ran at 5:30 AM. Tempo run with Ted. Took care of the potential bio-break problems in advance. The road conditions were better than on Tuesday - enough dry spots on the first mile to make much faster than normal. After that, only occasional snow patches. However, you did have to swerve around quite a bit to hit the dry spots on the first mile.

Splits by 0.5 - 2:53, 2:56 (5:49), 2:50 (8:38), next quarter in 1:26. After that, I saw we were behind the 5:40 guy by 9 seconds and went after him. Next quarter in 1:20 (2:46, 5:36, 11:24), then 1:22, 1:22, last 0.5 in 2:44, last mile in 5:30, total time 14:08, new inversion/cold/clothes/early morning season record. Ted finished at a steady 5:44 pace in 14:22. The pace felt relaxed for the first 1.75, after that it felt like a slow 10 K/fast half-marathon, which I am happy about.

On the way back I knew better than try to persuade Ted to run another tempo with me. Inversion has been hitting him harder than me, and he has developed a cough. So I ran it solo. Decided to cruise at a marathon pace. Ran 5:50 pace for the first 1.5 fairly relaxed, then picked up a bit to compensate for the uphill and the upcoming snow. Overcompensated a bit and ran the last mile in 5:44. Total time 14:29. First 1.5 felt like a true marathon pace just hanging out with the guys getting to know them. 5:44 on the last mile felt like a move try to break somebody. This is good news - this is how those speeds felt in shorts, 50 degree weather, and no inversion leading up to Ogden last year.

I felt some bounce in my legs, more efficient stride. I hope it is the Curt's contraption exercises kicking in, not just a fluke. We'll have to wait and see where that goes.

Ran with the kids in the afternoon. Lots of inversion. Did some more exercises on Curt's contraption, and then tug-of-war with the kids.

Easy run with Ted at our standard time - 4:45 AM. Met him on his way from BYU. A few miles into the run we saw a couple of dogs. Ted told me about being chased by an angry pit bull in Australia at around mile 15 of a long run. 

Ran with the kids in the afternoon. Worked out on Curt's contraption. 

Woke up from a dream. I was running in the Top of Utah Marathon. We had a good pack. Suddenly around mile 9 everybody took too long to consume their drinks. I gulped down two Powerades in an instance and broke away. My form felt terrible, but I was in the lead. I went through my competition one by one trying to estimate how many of them would be able to cover the move and not pay for it by 23. It was too many, but I figured I still had a fighting chance for top 3. Suddenly around mile 10 my cell phone alarm woke me up to reality. To make the dream come true you need to train!

Standard Saturday 10 mile tempo run. The trail was clear except for the first mile. It was manageable at the start, but subsequently became worse. 5F temperature, standard 2.5 layers of clothes. Ted helped me on the first 2.5, hit the split in 14:37. After that, he needed to back off to an easy pace to avoid overtraining. 14:56 on the way back, the snow mile did not help (5:59), 29:33 at 5 miles. Coming back the snow mile was 6:04, with the first 0.5 in 3:06. This is as bad as it gets on this run - 180 turn knocks you out of rhythm, and then you have some wet snow to battle. Finally recovered, 14:55 for the next 2.5. Now getting the 59:00 guy becomes a possibility - I need to run only 14:32. 14:32 in shorts, 50-60 degrees, no inversion, and completely dry ground is a nice and relaxed rhythmic marathon pace. Under the conditions of today, 14:32 would require some serious effort. I decided to put in good effort, but not try to run at 10 K pace to get it. If it happens, it happens, otherwise, I'll take what my body and the road will give me.

With a mile to go I needed to run 5:42 to catch the invisible runner. If the road had been in its Thursday's condition, this would have been doable. But it was way too slippery. I ended up running it in 6:04 with the last 0.5 in 3:04. 14:54 for the last 2.5, 59:22 for the whole run, course record for the 2.5 clothes layers/inversion/below 20F conditions.

Got home, put on ankle weights, ran another 1.7 to make the total of 15 for the run.

Benjamin got sick with a fever. Not too bad, but not good to run with. Just ran with Jenny, and then Julia.

Got my Nada Chair in the mail to help me maintain proper posture while I sit. Unfortunately I do have to sit to make a living. We'll see if it makes any difference in running. I like it so far.

Easy run with Ted at our usual time - 4:45 AM. Met him on the trail.  We ran at about 7:10-7:20 pace most of the way. We split at 8.5. On the way back not being in chat mode any more I sped up to 6:30 pace without trying to run harder. The form felt very good. However, when it gets better I start to remember what it is supposed to feel like, and it drives me nuts. I wish I could do some measurements to see if what my intuition tells me is right. I feel my center of gravity tends to fall closer to the heel, too far back. So my choices are to either bring the foot unnaturally back to avoid landing in front of the center of gravity which does not give me full power on the push, or to land ahead of the center of gravity (overstride), which makes the quad do extra pulling forward - also inefficient. The ultimate solution is to fix the spine.

Ran with the kids in the afternoon. 

Ran with Ted at 4:45 AM.  The weather was warmer. In preparation for the upcoming Striders 5 K we modified our usual workout. The trail was mostly clear. A mile in 5:20, then 0.5 jog, then another mile in 5:19. Then some more easy running, and 2.5 on the way back at marathon pace effort in 14:31. The form felt better. 5:20 pace felt too slow for 5 K, but too fast for 10 K. Not bad for the dark, 20 F, and 1.5 layers of clothes + inversion.

Ran with the kids in the evening. 

Easy run with Ted at our usual time. In preparation for the Striders 5 K did some strides (very appropriate). Hit a few 200 meter stretches between 36 and 38 seconds, and a few unmeasured stretches on the trail. All in the dark. 1.5 layers of clothes, inversion. The form felt very good on the accelerations. I would say normally I need a couple of months of 400 meter repetitions to get it to feel that good. I wonder if all those 400s are for me is a fancy way of stretching and strengthening the back. There have been days when I felt I could run a better tempo after 12x400 than before.

Saw the profile of the course. Not fast at all, good hill workout, though. 6% grade up for 0.5 mile is going to be fun. Anything sub-17 will be good.

Ran with the kids in the afternoon. Managed to sneak in some coding and work on a feature to notify people posting comments of a reply if they have a Fast Running Blog and identified it in the URL field. Almost done, need to test it before I make it live, but it will probably have to wait until tomorrow. After that, long awaited GPX course upload and time prediction.

Tune up for the upcoming Striders 5 K. Ran with Ted. Sleep-in day - ran at 5:30 AM. First time in the last two months, I believe, that we had a morning run with temperatures above freezing. Weather report said 36F right before we left. No inversion I could notice. Only 1 layer of clothes - tights and long-sleeved T-Shirt. 

After a 2.34 mile warm-up ran 1.5 at a conservative 5 K effort. The goal was to break 8:00 without cheating by taking advantage of a shorter distance and accumulating extra oxygen debt. Ran even pace , splits by 0.5 - 2:39 - 2:38 (5:17) - 2:39 (7:56). Felt strong, but also felt that the limits were not too far away. It felt like I was running a 10 K sticking my nose in the midst of things. Ted was not feeling good, so I ran this part alone. The form felt good, or I should say on the better side. It is never good in the sense of being where it ought to be.

I felt that by working the abdominal muscles I could push the air out more vigorously. That is a good sign. The need to push it out more vigorously at that pace  is perhaps not that good of a sign, and points to poor running economy. Nevertheless, you do what you can to push your VO2 up. Then when the
proper economy is restored, that extra VO2 capability will have a chance to shine.

Ran with the kids in the afternoon. Ran an errand to our bishop's house later in the evening. Total of  13 miles for the day. 

Easy run with Ted this morning at our usual time. Ted ran only 6 - a small, possibly a non-running  foot injury. After dropping him off, did 4x400 on the trail at a more aggressive 5 K pace - all between 77 and 78. Caught the 7:30 guy at the end. Wore the heart rate monitor. It showed that I was asleep - average HR of 118.

Ran with the kids in the afternoon.

Went to see Dr. Jex. My progress had stalled earlier as indicated by the measurements - 20 degree neck curvature and 9 mm forward head tilt - no improvement in over two months after a quick improvement in the first four. I did point out to him that we were going nowhere if we continued to do the same thing. So he came up with a couple of tests to troubleshoot the problem. Turned out that if I wore the shoulder weights on the right shoulder with 8 pounds on the front side and 2 pounds on the back side + Pettibon shoulder strap + the head weights, my neck curvature improves to 35 degrees - the highest we have ever seen it under any conditions by far. In other words, somehow the muscles in the shoulder region restrict the neck. And, according to the Pettibon teachings, whatever improvement you can get on a stress test can be eventually achieved without external means if you can train the muscles to hold that position.

To fix that I will be wearing the shoulder weights along with my head weights now. I did this today - it was quite a sight. The kids really enjoyed it. I've got to take a picture of that - I look like an English knight ready for the battle.

I am excited about this discovery. 35 degrees is within the range of normal. This means, if Pettibon is right, I have a good shot at developing an athletic neck, which is the key to developing an athletic spine everywhere else. Now I feel, after 6 months of somewhat of a windmill fight, we are getting somewhere.

Striders 5K tomorrow. 

Striders 5 K. Drove up to Ogden with Ted. Checked out the first mile of the course in the warmup. Paul's profile was correct. Did some strides. Felt good.

The starting line was full of trouble: Corbin Talley, Bob Thompson, Joe Wilson, Leon (Lion) Gallegos, Steve Ashbaker, Paul Petersen, and a few others. I told Ted earlier this race for me was more of an experimental nature. The goals were:

• To see how well I could run a 5 K with my current training - mild mileage, mild sporadic tempos, and overall focus on keeping it hard enough not to lose fitness, but mild enough to let the spinal improvements happen.
• Measure my max heart rate.
• See how well I do on hills of different grades at VO2 Max effort
  
• Be there to grab good circuit points and prize money in case nobody showed up or I had an exceptional race.
• Grab one circuit point for participation in case I got pushed down low enough to end up dropping this race from the circuit.
• Be able to add this race to the predictor.
• Learn enough about the course to evaluate the performance of other runners and offer them meaningful advice.
  
• Have fun racing the competition.

The pack was thick going out. Usual contenders. By the mile, Bob, Joe, Corbin, and Leon were in the lead, Paul a bit behind them, then Steve and another runner (need to look up his name) that used to run for Weber State a bit ahead of me. First mile in 5:27, HR at 170. Not bad for the grade. Leon started fading, passed him. 2 K in 7:03. The Weber State runner took it easy on the up, I did not want to take it that easy, passed him. Caught Steve on the down, but then could not stay with him on the immediate up. The Weber State runner passed me. Towards the end of the 0.5 uphill at 6.7% grade near 1.5 I averaged HR of 173 for the quarter, and maxed out at 175. I am thankful for having The Toy to record it. At that point I would not have been able to read it due to fuzzy vision from the effort.

2 miles in 11:18 (5:51). 4 K in 13:54. Finished in 17:05.9 in 7th place. Ahead of me - Corbin won with 16:25, then Bob 16:34, Paul 16:36 (nice breakthrough/comeback), Joe 16:50,Steve 16:53 (good performance, PR equivalent), Weber State graduate 17:00. 5 Fast Running Blogger in the top 10, I am happy about that - Chad finished 10th in 17:55. Three more between 10 and 20 - Ted (ArmyRunner), Scott Browning (NGU Siren), and Cody.

Afterwards, Bill Cobler took us for a cooldown on the 10 K course. It is going to be even hillier than the 5 K one.

Ran with Benjamin in the afternoon.

Easy run with Ted. Standard time, standard place. Legs still sore from Saturdays race - quads and gluts. Not too bad, probably a bit better than after Alta Peruvian last year. About the same as after the St. George Marathon. I am happy that the gluts are sore. It is a challenge for me to get them to work.

Ran in the afternoon with Benjamin. Total of 11.6 for the day.

Checked the news today and found this.  A body was discovered near the course we ran this morning in the river. I think this is the closest I've been to a murder scene running or otherwise. Nevertheless, I feel at peace that comes through faith in Christ. I have not always felt that peace, so I know the difference.

Tempo run with Ted. Legs still a bit sore from the race. Could tell kneeling down for the prayer in the morning, but could not tell walking down the stairs.. On the first 2.5 my plan was to run with Ted until it was about time to catch some guy. I was not sure what guy it was going to be. I wanted to beat my 4 K split in the 5 K race (13:54), but would have been happy just breaking 14:00.

The conditions were good. 30F, dry roads. Ted set a good pace and we hit 0.75 in 4:11. Then he faded a bit, and I decided it was time to catch the guy. From that point, I did every quarter in 1:22 with the exception of the one between 1.25 and 1.5, which was 1:21. Finished in 13:44, caught the 5:30 guy. HR eventually worked its way up to 160.

During the recovery jog I wanted to run slow, and we did.  On the way back I wanted to relax at my marathon race pace, and I sure did. First quarter in 1:29, HR still at 135. Then I took out a whip and hit myself to go faster. Next three quarters in 1:28, 5:53 for the mile, HR not even at 150. More whip. Next mile in 5:46, HR at 152, 154 on the uphill section. More whip. Now the pace is 5:40, and the HR is 157-158. Now we are talking marathon pace business. Finished in 14:29.

The whip was needed for two reasons - one, you need it at 4:45 AM, Ted served as one on the first tempo, but not on the second. And the legs were tired from the race at the very start. They were fresh enough on the first repetition, but tired on the second. They were working way too hard for the HR of only 150.

Ran with the kids in the afternoon. Benjamin is fully recovered from the cold. Jennifer ran for the first time since being hit by the fever on Saturday. 

Easy run with Ted in the morning. Was not feeling well. Stomach bloated. After a couple of bio breaks started feeling better. We had some profound conversations and were going about 7:30-7:40 pace, good for recovery. Profound conversations are important, recovery does not happen without them as silence makes you feel bored and you start to push the pace.

Did not follow Ted into town in anticipation of another bio break. Once left on my own, sped up to 6:30 pace, which felt just as good as 7:30. HR was a bit high, though, probably from subtle dehydration - 138-140 at 6:30 pace.

We decided to celebrate the Valentine's day with a mile time trial for Benjamin and  Fast Running Mommy.  Benjamin is sensitive to cold air at high speeds, so we decided to do it indoors at the BYU indoor track. To allow me to pace both, we did it separately. First, Sarah ran a huge post-Jacob PR of 7:33, which is not too far away from her life-time PR of 6:52. It is nice to be married to a woman that is in better shape 6 months after giving birth to her fifth child than she was in high school.

Afterwards, Benjamin ran a PR of 7:09.

Feel like I am catching a cold, a large doze of onions, garlic, and EmergenC. Nice present for Fast Running Mommy for Valentine's day, I am sure glad she is a good sport about it.

My original plan was to run a 5 mile tempo. However, due to feeling a little sick I decided to do whatever Ted would. He wanted to do some shorter repeats. We first thought we were going to do 5x1000 in 3:20. On the first one, we missed the mark on the trail. So we went to 0.75 getting 4:04.9 for the split. Then we did another 0.75 in 4:11.5. Ted was not feeling good. We decided today was not a good day for him to do a hard speed workout. He felt his form had problems. I suggested several 100 meter sprints. We did the first three in 17.7, 16.3, 15.8. On the last one I suggested we should get a bit competitive to see what we can do, but not so competitive that we get injured. I can be up to a whole second faster in 100 meter sprint if I have somebody racing me by my side.

I did the last one in 14.7, Ted felt his quads getting tight and backed off a bit to 15.0. I am very pleased with this time as it was done in less than ideal conditions for sprinting. The trail was wet, it was dark, I had to watch the road not to miss the mark, too early for the nervous system to be ready to sprint (6:30 AM), chilly (32F), the trail did curve some on that stretch, and I was wearing tights and a jacket. I suspect I would have have broken my PR of 13.9 today in ideal conditions. This gives me some food for thought - my speed work since St. George was limited to a couple of races, a few strides, tempo runs, and very infrequent 1.5 mile repetitions. However, I have been working on my core strength, and doing Pettibon treatment. Back when I set my 100 PR I did 10x60 up a 3% grade once a week for a couple of months. This provides an argument for my hypothesis that for a distance runner, top speed comes more from proper spinal structure than from explosive strength. And if that is true, then for a true distance runner (slow-twitch dominant) an all out 100 meter sprint is a reliable test of biomechanical efficiency.

Ran with the kids in the afternoon.

Easy run with Ted in the morning at our usual time. The form felt good. Had a discussion about how effective running doubles is for marathon training. I think the consensus was you need to go at least 10 in one run consistently, and do frequent tempo runs of 10 - 12 miles at marathon pace. However, Ted is more in favor of longer runs than I.

Ran with the kids in the afternoon. Benjamin ran with Sarah and her new training partner Adrianne this morning, so it was just Jenny and Julia.

Have been doing 1 minute sit-up sessions in the last few days. Managed 40 in one minute today, that's a a record. In November, I could only do 37 in two minutes, but I was sick that day. 

The throat was still scratchy. Figured I was one really hard workout away from coming down with a cold that will seriously impair me, but could handle a lighter workout. Decided to cruise along through the standard Saturday 10 mile tempo. Warmed up and cooled down with Ted, but we ran the tempos separately.

Road conditions were great. Temperature a little cold, 27F, but not too bad. Went at a steady pace on the standard course. 2.5 out in 14:38, 180 turn and back in 14:40, out again in 14:37. HR was 150 for the first 4 miles, then drifted up to 155 on the 0.5% grade mile, then backed down to 152. On the last one, saw that I was only 9 seconds behind the 5:50 guy. Decided to catch him. Hit 5:46 mile. HR went up to 155. Kept 5:50 pace on the rise, HR up to 157. 0.5 to go, and he is still ahead. Shifted gears to 5:40. Legs are tired, do not want to do it. HR up to 158. Quarter to go, he is still ahead. I really need to get going. Sped up to 5:20, HR at 164. Caught him with 100 to go, then being tired and feeling the job was done eased off and finished with him. Last mile in 5:42, total time 58:20, last 2.5 in 14:26.

Ted set a course PR with a low 1:01. We cooled down for another 4+ miles to make the total 16.

Ran with the kids in the afternoon. Benjamin turned 8 today. He will be getting baptized in 2 weeks.

Worked on the GPX course analyzer. As of this writing, it can read,parse,store,update, delete, and compute the total distance. Probably another 2 hours of work from first release.

I am in the catch 22 with the Fast Running Blog - to be able to make it better, I need to work on it full-time. To work full-time it needs to generate revenue to replace my other full-time work. To generate that much revenue, it need to become better. But, hopefully, one step at a time, we can get into a better cycle. The volume of data , the number of active bloggers, and the amount of search engine traffic (three variables that drive the revenue) has doubled in the last three months. Hopefully the trend will continue.

On the positive side, Marathon And Beyond accepted my proposal to write an article about the progress of runners on Fast Running Blog. 

Easy run with Ted. We had another guy named Ricardo from our church join us for a little bit. Ricardo is just starting to run, so he ran 1.5 out with us. 

Contemplated doing 5 mile tempo, but the throat was still sore. No cough or fever, but uncomfortable. Figured a hard run could very well do me in. Additionally, there was a lot of snow on the trail. So we ran easy.

Shortly after dropping off Ricardo, we saw a runner ahead of us going at a good pace. We went for a chase to find out who it was. Sped up to 6:00 pace for a short while. Turned out it was Katy Bowen, a BYU steeplechaser.  Ran with her a bit, then it was time for her to turn around.

Ran with the kids in the afternoon. Still doing core strength work - sit-ups and Curt's contraption.

The throat still scratchy. Decided to take it easy. Ted was also feeling tired. So we jogged and chatted for 10 miles. The roads have cleared up.

Ran with the kids in the afternoon. Did a 100 meter time trial for Benjamin on the trail. He ran 20.0, 20.2 up a slight grade, and then 19.6 down. I ran those with him. I told him he would be ready to run 2 miles a day when he break 7:00 on the mile, and 19.0 on 100.

Ran with Ted at 4:45 AM. Met him on the trail - he started from BYU. My throat got better, but still did not want to take chances with it. After some discussion we decided to do a mile at Ted's 10 K pace effort, followed by 4x400 a bit faster, but not too hard.

We ran the mile in 5:44. The quarters were 1:23, 1:21, 1:20, 1:18. Each of them felt easier. I felt my form was getting better as we went along.

Ran with the kids in the afternoon. 

Ran with Ted at 5:30 AM. Standard sleep-in day. The throat finally felt almost 100% healthy, good enough to try something fast. Ran the standard tune up 1.5 miles in 7:54.9, quarter splits 1:19 - 1:19 - 1:20 - 1:18 - 1:19 - 1:19. HR peaked at 165 on the fourth quarter, then fluctuated between 162 and 165 for the remainder of the interval. 1:20 quarter was caused by the caution of trying not to hit the gate in the dark. This  gave me enough of a break from the pace to start feeling very good. Then I sped up to a 1:18 quarter, and that felt a bit too fast after a while. 1:19 quarters felt just right. Overall, I think the right 10 K pace for a flat course in 1:20 quarters.

Ran with the kids in the afternoon. 

Slept in this morning, this time not on purpose. Ted woke  me up at 4:59 AM. It was snowing hard, but still fairly warm. Ran about 3 miles with him. Then he headed to BYU, and I continued on the trail. Did 2x100, one untimed, the other in 19.2. Then 2x400 76.0 - 75.5. Felt good.

Ran with the kids in the evening.

Exciting moment in the history of Fast Running Blog. I just barely gotten the course magic tool to the point of the first release. UI is still rather rudimentary, but at least on my Slate Canyon Loop, which I used for testing, it rocks. I tuned the algorithm until it correctly predicted every quarter split for an evenly paced hard run. If you want to give it a try, login to your account, then go to Course Tool. Add New Course, then you need a GPX file. You can make  one at gmap-pedometer.com.

When I get around to it, I'll add a map similar to gmap-pedometer so you can it everything in one shot here. Also, add the ability to share courses with the public, display elevation profile graphically, add comments and notes to the course, and maybe a few other things. But now it is time to get ready for bed. Running the Strider's 10 K tomorrow.

Striders 10 K - 36:07.9, 7th place. Cold day - about 26F at the start. Tough course. It highlighted my weaknesses. I do not do well on a long hill, or immediately afterwards. I have tried to work on it in the past and discovered that training on a long hill only makes things worse for me. The root of the problem is probably neurological or biomechanical. That in combination with racing at a higher than normal percentage of HR and VO2. I remember being able to drop the competition on a hill when I was slower, had lower VO2 Max, higher HR, and raced at a lower percentage of HR.

We had the same field as last week, with the addition of Dennis Simonaitis. We started out slow, then gradually warmed into a harder effort as we started the climb. There was a bit of a slight downhill to give us a break. I maintained a steady effort, and it resulted in pulling ahead a little bit. I figured I could use a bit of a buffer before the serious uphill. Then we started the climb for real. 5:59 on the first mile (going by the mile marks). The lead pack pulled away from me at first, then I gradually reeled them in right as we approached the end of the hill. Then it was immediate down. I had a hard time shifting gears, and dealing with the slippage and they got away. Did fine for a while - had them in view, probably within 10 seconds for another mile or so. Missed 2 mile split.

Then the nasty climb on the third mile that gains 300 feet. That is 6% grade for a mile. My Garmin 305 (The Toy) showed quarters at 7:00 pace, HR finally started reading normally as I had worked up some sweat. Steady 166. The leaders kept moving away further and further. 18:27 at mile 3, 12:28 for the last 2 miles. I was running with Steve Ashbaker for a while, but then he started to drop back. The leaders have lost Kenneth Richardson, and I hoped to catch him. However, the long uphill mile put me out of commission. Even though we were now going downhill, I could not get into a good rhythm for a while. My HR dropped to 155. Next mile in 5:27, 23:54 at 4 miles, finally caught the 6:00 mile guy.

Around the 4th mile mark I finally started getting into a good rhythm. Did the next downhill mile in 5:09. Closed a bit on Kenneth. Dennis Simonaitis went by - he was doing a win-the-masters paid tempo run of sorts. Had he been racing he would have gone out with the leaders. I thought of latching on him, but did not feel strong enough to do it.

Another little bit of downhill, and how we are climbing the final hill. Closed a bit on Kenneth at the start of the hill. The Toy reported a 1:38 quarter. Steve is not too far behind. I figured I focus on catching Kenneth, I'll be safe from Steve's kick.

Got to the end of the hill. Kenneth put on a move to make me not want to catch him, and opened a wider gap. We stayed in that order to the finish. 34:59 at mile 6 (5:56).

Bob won in 34:28, then Corbin 34:30, Joe 34:42, Paul 34:47, Dennis 35:47, Kenneth 35:56, me 36:07.9, Steve 36:28, Chad 37:15. Ted finished 18th in 39:13.

Splits by the GPS (distance 6.30): 5:48 - 5:40 - 6:37 - 5:31 - 5:17 - 5:40). Interestingly enough, other GPS's reported similar discrepancies both in distance and in splits. I wonder why. The course was certified.

Ran with the kids in the afternoon. Later we went to the dinner/talent show at our church. We did our famous Cat In The Hat skit, with Julia and Joseph starring as Thing 1 and Thing 2, Benjamin and Jenny as the boy and the girl, Sarah being the mom and speaking the part of the fish, Jacob being the actual fish, and me acting as the Cat. My favorite part is when Thing 1 and Thing 2 come out of the box, and start running around making a mess.

Sarah's Carob Chip Cookies won the first prize in the chocolate chip cookie bake off. I asked our Elder's Quorum President earlier if carob chips were allowed. He said that it would be OK, but suggested our chances of winning would be greatly reduced. He and his family ended up taking second.

Ted called the night before and said he would be doing a fitness test with his cadets. I figured I join them. As usual, it took me a bit longer to get ready in the morning than I anticipated due to misplaced clothing items. So I got to the start of the test late. Due to the slippery road conditions, they were running their 2 mile time trial indoors. I took off the jacket and gloves, but still had my tights and T-shirt. Too hot for indoors.

Knowing that decided to run at a good tempo pace that would not overheat me. Was planning on about 11:00 - 11:05. Figured I would slow down on the second mile due to overheating. To my surprise, I managed a steady pace at a fairly comfortable effort. Most of the 0.2 laps in 1:05, occasionally 1:04, and there were a couple in 1:06 when I could not pass slower runners in time before hitting a congestion. On the last lap, I sped up a bit and ran 1:01, this would be 5:05 pace. Total time 10:45, with the splits of 5:23.5 and 5:21.5. HR was 163 at the mile, but then crept up to 168 before the last lap, and maxed out at 172 when I picked it up. 168 HR feels a lot more miserable outdoors. Ted ran 11:01, also a surprise considering his race, overall fatigue, and doing 101 sit-ups in 2 minutes + 83 push-ups in 2 minute prior to the run. I suppose Sunday rest did him some good.

Afterwards he and I ran a few more miles to make it 10 for me for the day.

Ran with the kids in the afternoon.

An easy run with Ted in the morning on the Provo River Trail towards the Utah Lake. Towards the end, did some accelerations, all at about 5:05-5:10 pace. First 6x100. Then I felt 100 was too short, I did 200 in 39. Then 400 in 76. Decided to do another 400 for a round number of speed - 75.5.

Ran with the kids in the afternoon. Benjamin earned his Bobcat badge in Cub scouts. This is the first time any of my children earned a scouting award. I got to hold him upside down while the award was being attached to his uniform according to the custom.

Made some improvements to the course tool. You can now add course description, and share courses with others. Feel free it give it a try. You can map out any course in the world as long as you can follow it on a GMap. Right now you have to go to GMap Pedometer to do it. I plan to fix it in the next couple of weeks so you can do your courses right here on the Fast Running Blog, depending on when I can find a coding time window.

Tempo run on the standard 5 mile course on the Provo River Trail at 4:45 AM. Warmed up with Ted - he started from BYU. He was feeling tired, so I ran the tempo alone. Due to the early hour and the lack of sleep I had a hard time warming into pace and pushing myself. It is a strange feeling when it happens. Subjectively, you feel like you are working and cannot go any faster. But HR readings are low, and the pace matches it. With that in mind, I adjusted my expectations. My goal was to hit somewhere between 28:20 and 29:00 minutes.

First quarter was 1:28, and I felt lazy. Then sped up to 1:27, still sleepy and lazy. Then did 1:25, and settled into a steady 1:25 per quarter pace. Mile in 5:43, next mile in 5:41, 14:15 at the turnaround(2:51). I felt like I was working hard, but HR was around 148-149. For a while, I thought The Toy was wrong, but it was too consistent to be wrong. Plus the early hour effect should have been contributing something.

A bit of a struggle with the rhythm after the 180 turn, then recovered. To test the measurements, I decided to pick up the pace to see what happens. 17:05 at 2 miles (5:41,2:50). I settled into a steady 1:23 per quarter pace. HR got up to 157. Unfortunately, as soon as I did, I had an urgent need for a bio-break. Trying not to break the rhythm I did it as quick as I could, HR dropped to 143. When I got going again, I had a hard time finding that magic rhythm. 22:42 at 4 miles, 5:37. Uphill quarter in 1:26, the next one in 1:25. Now it is time to get down to business and catch the 5:40 guy. But I am too sleepy to deal with as much pain as it takes, next quarter in 1:25 again. Now it is really time to get serious. Ran the last quarter in 1:20, had to dodge a construction cone at the end - they are building a new bridge around Geneva road and things are quite a mess right now. HR went up to 162.  Last mile in 5:37, total time 28:18, last 2.5 in 14:03, good negative split.

Ran with the kids in the afternoon.

Easy run with Ted on the Provo River Trail. Yesterday Julia wanted to skip after her run, so I did it with her. Then I thought I'd show her some other plyometrics.  I tried a bum kick and it felt really good for the form. So today I decided to try some bum kick and high knee in the middle of the run. Ted remembered doing those with Bill Dellinger , his coach at Oregon State who took bronze in the 1964 Olympics in 5000, where Bob Schul won the gold. With some instruction from Ted I finally got the hang of the bum kick more or less to where it was effective. My goal was to learn how to lean forward without bending at the waist. Ted remembered a secret - if you think lean forward, you will bend at the waist. If you think run tall, you will still lean, but you will not bend at the waist. We ran 10 miles at an easy pace.

Ran with the kids in the afternoon. 

Another run with Ted in the morning. He started at BYU, I met him on the trail. He wanted to go a bit longer than normal. We went faster than usual, the pace was under 6:40 once we got going. On the way back, we kept picking up the pace. I suggested we run a tempo on the standard 2.5 stretch and try to beat the 6:00 mile guy since we were almost going that pace already, and then run easy. Ted said he'd try. 

We hit the first half of the tempo in 3:04. Ted did not seem to want to go any faster, but the scent of the 6:00 guy ahead was too tempting for me to resist. I went after him. Next two miles in 5:53 and 5:52. HR stayed between 150 and 152 once it stabilized. Finished the tempo in 14:49. Ted ran it in 15:24.

Did bum kick plyometrics after the run. Also started working on the back in addition to my standard Pettibon routine and abdominal strength work.

Saw Dr. Jex. He had me stand on a vibration machine with the head weights, shoulder weights, shoulder harness, and hip weights on. Afterwards he took a couple of X-rays. He'll have the results next week.  

Ran with the kids in the afternoon. Planning to run early with Clyde tomorrow. Need to be back early - Benjamin is getting baptized.

Ran in the Provo Canyon with Clyde  . It was 10F and 7 mph wind blowing out of the canyon. Did a short warm-up, then ran the standard 12 mile tempo (4 stretches of the standard Mouth to Nuns Park 3 mile tempo). There was some snow on the ground, not too much, but enough to knock you out of rhytm when going up.  Kept  6:25 pace on the good parts of the up, slowed down to 7:00 on the bad parts, on the way down went a bit sub-6:00 once we got going. HR was low, probably because of the cold conditions - hovered between 135 and 145 depending on the effort. Ran the last mile in 5:35 to catch the 6:15 guy. Total time 1:14:41. I told Clyde he were to race today he was ready to run about 2:40 in Boston, maybe faster. The cold seemed to affect his nervous system - he would push the pace at times, and then all of a sudden lose the momentum, then repeat. Cooled down, total of 14.8 miles for the run.

Came home, and as they say in Russian, from the ship to the ball. Benjamin was getting baptized. I have performed many baptisms before, but this is the first time I got to baptize my own child. I have waited for this for a long time. When a person is baptized, he makes a promise to God to be faithful for the rest of his life. In our church we often talk about enduring to the end. Baptism is the starting line. Then it is all about enduring to the end. Very much like distance running.

Ran with the kids in the afternoon. Afterwards, Sarah and I went to the temple for our date. When I came home, there was still work left to do. Got it done. Now is the end of a long busy day, I am looking forward to hitting the sack.
 

Another early morning run. Met Ted on the trail - he started from Smith's Field House at BYU. Figured since I was rested I'd better do a tempo. Ran 5 miles on the standard Provo River Trail course. Ted ran 2.5. We hit the first mile in 5:40. Then he had to stop for a bio-break at 1.75. I continued. Next mile in 5:40, and 14:10 at the turnaround. My heart rate monitor was not working. I think the battery is dead. But that is fine. I can tell my heart rate by feel most of the time, and use the heart rate monitor mostly for entertainment.

Next quarter in 1:27.7 - the turnaround always knocks me out of rhythm. Quickly sped back up to 5:40 pace. 17:03 at 3 miles (5:43). The next mile in 5:39. I kept hitting the lap split button, mostly to be able to see the time at the quarter instead of using the auto-split feature. I do get annoyed when The Toy gets the splits in wrong places even if it is only a couple of seconds off. If it was not dark, I would not even have bothered with lap splits, but it is a good way to turn the light on. I wish that Garmin had a feature to turn the light on for N seconds every M seconds. I also wish it would show your split with 0.1 second precision, or at least round it off to the nearest whole number rather than truncating the fractions. Seeing the splits of mostly 1:24 and only one of 1:25 misled me into thinking I was headed for a 5:37 mile. But those 1:24s were high 1:24s, and 1:25 was also a high one. So the mile ended up being 5:39, and I was a whole 2 seconds behind the 5:40 guy. And now I had to run the last mile uphill, and my quads were feeling tired.

I did the next quarter in a high 1:26 followed by a high 1:25. Now I was 4 seconds behind the 5:40 guy. On the next quarter I just about said, forget it, I do not want to chase him, I am too tired, it is too early in the morning, 5:41 is as good as 5:40 when I should really be in bed. While I was having those attitude problems, I ran it in 1:26.8. This gave me enough of a break to improve my attitude. I decided to give it an earnest try and put in a solid kick. I decided I'd start right with a quarter to go, and take 60 hard steps, then ease off. This was a mental trick. Two things were going to happen in that time - I would get good momentum, and I would be close enough to the finish to where I could take a few easy steps, and then push all the way through. It worked. I managed 1:17.8 on the last quarter, and 28:18.7 for the whole run beating the 5:40 guy to the tape.

Overall I felt I was not exerting myself cardiovascularly, but my quads were starting to quit when I tried to go sub 5:40. This is usually what I feel limits me most of the time. I suspect I run in such a way that overworks my quads and underworks other muscle groups. Fast 400 meter repeats in the past have helped me to some extent. I think I'll do them on Wednesday. 

Ran with the kids in the evening.

Ran the usual route with Ted this morning. He uploaded our route to the Course Tool, as well as the tempo course. It is amazing what a military helicopter pilot can do with  a GMap. Ted has the eye of an eagle and amazing attention to landscape detail. Too bad the elevation profile supplied by the US Geo Survey does not have the right resolution. I think it put up the start of the 5 mile tempo at the right elevation, but it averaged in the drop to the adjacent Provo River for the rest of it. It says there is a 17% grade drop in the first 0.01 mile. The only way that is possible is if you jump down to the river.

I did some bum kick drills and short strides on the way out. On the way back we did 8x100. My splits were - 17.3, 16.9, 16.3, 14.9, 14.5, 15.1, 15.2, 15.3. The last two were up a slight grade. We did a fairly brisk 300 meter jog in between. The form felt better. I could feel some power on acceleration. I think I would have PRed in 100 on the track - it was dark, and early, I had to watch out for the mark, and those 100s are actually 1/16 of a mile which is about 0.5 meters longer that 100 meters. I am going to run 100 on the track on Thursday so I'll stop wondering if I would have PRed.

Ran with the kids in the afternoon. Julia surprised me - she ran half a mile in 4:55. That is the fastest a child has done it in our family prior to turning 4.5. Jenny did not like it - she likes to start out at 11:00 mile pace. It is nice to have a younger child to motivate the older. I do not think Benjamin would have been running as well had it not been for some positive pressure from Jenny.

Was originally planning on 12x400. However, I caught the same scratchy throat type of cold again. Decided not to push the body too hard, but I still needed some anaerobic speed. Figured 6x400 would be the right type of workout. Did them with Ted, he ran them a bit slower, but not too far behind.

Warm up, then we started on the flattest portion of the trail. First 5 very consistently between 70.2 and 70.9. The recovery was usually a very slow 200 meter jog except one time we did 300 to get to a better place, one time we stopped for my bio break,  and another time (before the last one) we stopped for Ted's. But that is OK, this workout is more about speed for me than recovery, I just keep the recoveries fairly short to get it done in a reasonable amount of time, and I can get away with a very slow 200 meter jog.

On the last one pushed a bit on the last 200 meters. Got 68.5. In all repetitions the anaerobic bear started to climb on me at 200, and was comfortably (for him, not for me) sitting on my back by 300. However, as the last repetition shows, I could run through it for a while with a little bit of willpower application. Probably all of the repetitions were about 0.5 to a full second slower from having to ease off before the mark so as not to miss it. It was still dark.

Did a fairly long cool down. Ran to the library and back with the kids in the afternoon. Benjamin did well on the way back - hit a mile in 7:39 fairly relaxed, and in spite of a side ache.

Treating the cold with large doses of onion mixed with agave to make it somewhat edible.

The 100 meter sprints on Tuesday have stirred my curiosity as to what I could do on the track in an all out 100. Today was not quite the best day to do it, but there will never be a best day. So I decided to give it a shot. Ted and I warmed up to the Provo High track. Then I did a few accelerations to get ready. Then Ted timed me from a standing start. In two attempts I managed 14.8 and 14.6. Nothing unusual - just about what I used to get in the past, although I had never tried them in the dark before, or at least never ran that fast in the dark and that early in the morning. It felt awkward to run from a standing start.

I can think of a few reasons why the sprinting felt a lot better on Tuesday. One, is I had not done it on Tuesday yet. Two, I had not done the 400s the day before. Three, they were not from a standing start, which I think for me makes a lot of difference - having to accelerate that fast tenses me up for 60 meters or so before I can finally get into the groove.

Ran with the kids in the afternoon. My cold got a bit worse during the day, and I've even considered skipping the 10 miler, but then I attacked it with large doses of garlic and fluids with electrolytes (EmerenC) and it got quite a bit better. 

Now what is the big deal about 100 meters? I believe regardless of what distance you train for, if you are a runner you need to know how to run. 100 meter sprint is a good home test of your running form. Let us think of a bike for an analogy. Let us say we have untrued wheels. Riding a slow speed will take more energy, but you can still do it. However, riding at a high speed will be impossible even if we try to do it for a very short period of time. If your distance performance suffers, there is an equal probability that the problem is endurance or biomechanics. However, if your sprint performance suffers, the endurance factor is eliminated. The element of natural or trained explosiveness comes into play, but I believe it is not as important as the endurance for a long distance event. It is not unusual to find men that do not do squat for exercise of any kind, and can still run a 12.0 100 meters or faster. That is only 20% slower than the world record. 20% slower than the world record in a marathon is 2:30. How many guys can run a 2:30 marathon with no training?

Thus, training in a marathon can obscure or compensate for the effects of bad biomechanics. But it is much more difficult to do it in a sprint. And it is nearly impossible to do it for somebody with dominant slow twitch fibers. On top of the untrued wheels bike effect, he has another problem. If you train him to sprint, he has very little he can train. Therefore, it is reasonable to suppose that if a slow twitch dominant runner can do a decent 100 meter sprint, he is doing it mostly off good form. And, if the sprint is slower than a certain threshold, the problem is biomechanical.

So I would roughly put people into the following groups (some adjustment might be needed, it would be nice if somebody did a research on this):

Group	Identifying Qualities
Sprinters	With proper biomechanics, 100 meters under 11.0 for men, under 12.5 for women. Trained for distance, slow down way more in longer distances than what McMillan calculator estimates.
Middle-distance runners	With proper biomechanics, 100 meters under 12.0 for men, and 13.6 for women. Trained for distance, slow down according to the McMillan calculator from 100 to the mile, then a bit more towards 5000 meters, then much more after that.
Regular distance runners	With proper biomechanics, 100 meters under 12.7 for men and 14.4 for women. Trained for distance, slow down a little bit less than the McMillan calculator curve from 100 meters all the way to the marathon.
Distance runners with unusually high proportions of slow twitch fibers	With proper biomechanics, 100 meters under 14.0 for men, and 15.8 for women. Trained for distance, hardly any slow down from 100 meters to 800 meters - can almost run 800 in 8 times their 100 meter PR. However, the slow down from 800 to the marathon matches that of the Regular distance runners.

I would be a regular distance runner with bad biomechanics. Sometimes we explain away the poor performance in 100 meters of a regular distance runner by saying he just does not have a lot of fast twitch muscles. I think it is a mistake. First, if he does not run 100 under 14.0, he either has biomechanical issues, or some form of mild muscular dystrophy or some other health issue otherwise. Second, if he indeed is so slow twitch, when properly trained, he will very closely approach his 8x100 PR time in 800 meter race.

The above is an expression of my intuition I've gained from  22 years of running experience. I would really, really like to see some research on this, though. If anybody has any feedback on this, feel free to comment. I am very much open to correction/clarification of my ideas. 

I was originally planning on doing my regular distance today. However, the cold has changed my plans. I figured even if I did not have to race tomorrow, going 10 miles in the morning still would not have been as beneficial as 6. I met Ted on the trail and we ran at an easy pace.

Ran with the kids in the afternoon.

Went to see Dr. Jex. He said the hip weights would do me no good, at least the kind that he tried on me. X-rays showed that if I put them on, my hips become even more imbalanced that in neutral position.  So we scheduled a long session Monday to try all kinds of things, take X-rays, look at them, and then decide what to do next. I think he has a lot at stake now. First, professional honor. I know that if I am working on a programming project for somebody, and it does not quite work, I really do not like to say, well, too bad, I've tried my best. I'll try my very thorough best before I say it, especially when it is something critical to the business of the client. I think he is the same way - if it does not work right away, he will not just quit. 

Another aspect is that I have already maxed out my potential with what training and diet can do. I suppose there is some room for improvement if I could run 120 miles a week and sleep 10 hours a day, but that is not happening, not at least until I find a way to make money without being there doing it all the time. Which is still at least a few years away. My current regimen has produced very consistent results for the last three years. To the point where I go to a race knowing exactly the time I am going to run. It is good my times are not getting worse, but they are not getting better.  If I improve even only 5 minutes in the marathon due to his treatment this will serve as a loud indicator that he has some magic in his hands.

Started working on integrating a Google Map into the Course Tool, so you would not have to go to GMap Pedometer to make maps. 

Winter Series Striders 10 miler, 59:01.8, 6th place. To to a mistake by the race director in laying out the course the morning of the race, we ended up cutting off a certain distance that was 0.14 according to my Garmin 305. But in the end it does not matter, as we all ran the same race, and the course was so hilly that the time is meaningful only in comparison with other people in the race.

My cold started getting better the day before. However, I was still not quite healthy. As Ted and I drove up to the race, I decided I would pace Chad for the first three miles, if I felt healthy enough. Then take off if I felt good, or just hang on and finish the race if not. When I got to the race I remembered that Chad was not running. I convinced Steve Ashbaker to hang around with me for the first three miles. He agreed, figuring a slower start could do him some good.

We went through the first uphill mile in 5:54. It felt easy. Too easy. Ted caught us and told us to speed up. Joe Wilson was way out front, followed by Paul Petersen and Bob Thompson a distance behind. I was in a group with Steve, Ken Richardson, Ted, and Albert Wint.

Second mile was downhill. We pushed a bit harder, and got a good split - 5:11. Only 10 seconds behind Paul and Bob. The pace felt good. I even thought of making a move to catch them, but decided it would not be a good idea for a couple of reasons. I was not fully healthy, and I know that in that condition the early miles for me feel a lot easier. And the hills were coming up.

The wrong turn happened some place during the third mile. For the record, the split at mile marker three was 17:05, which was long. The race director guessed that one, it was not at the certified location. By that time I was with Ken and Steve. Shortly after, the climb started, and I fell behind. Running up the hills I decided to pay attention to two things - first the feeling, and second the heart rate to catch possible errors of perception, and also for the purpose of gaining experience and understanding. I figured as long as those hills were, I needed to stay right at my anaerobic threshold for best results. If the competition is pulling away, do not worry about it. They are stronger on the hill, and there is not much I can do about it now. The time to worry about it was before the race. All I can do by pretending I am as strong as them on the hill is lose it half way through the hill, not be able to go fast on the downhill, and end up further behind. Otherwise, with proper pacing, I might even be able to catch them on the downhill.

Official mile 4 (3.86 on the GPS), 21:44. Steve and Ken are within sight, Bob and Paul are out of sight. Hills are getting nastier and there seems to be no end of them. 28:07 at the official mile 5, 6:23 mile. Now the official mile markers are actually separated by exactly one mile since we are back on the certified course. The next mile has a nasty climb, I saw one quarter in 1:57 on the GPS, and otherwise were comparably slow. However, there was a downhill stretch towards the end which saved the mile split somewhat - 34:58 at "mile 6", 6:51. I closed a bit of a gap on Ken on that stretch. I wished it were longer.

Now the infamous 10 K hill. Paul called it the stairway to the place for those who sin and do not repent for a good reason. I am hitting 1:50-1:55 quarters, and Ken is not gaining much distance on me, and I can still see Steve, and he is not separating from us either, at least not by very much. Interestingly enough, as I kept the effort at my perception of anaerobic threshold my heart rate dropped from 162 in the early sections of the hill to 158 later on. I have seen this before running up Squaw Peak. The heart rate starts to drop towards the end of the hill. The hill has to be fairly long, though, so that you cannot get through it with a surge of effort. And it needs to be steep, about 6-7%. The way I feel the threshold is by the feedback from the quad. Right around there it starts feeling a bit sour, that is the best I can describe that feeling. On a flat or slightly downhill sections I get that feeling at around the heart rate of 161-163 if I am well rested and having a good day. On a bad day, I might get it at 157. It is that feeling that keeps me from going faster in a tempo run or a 15 K/10 mile/ half-marathon.

What is interesting is that in the past, I used to go by breathing to determine the correct pace for the half-marathon. Now it is not the breathing that limits me any more, it is that feeling of muscular fatigue in the quad. I suppose going up a steep hill for a while overworks the quad, and it starts quitting, which drives the heart rate down.

The hill keeps going up and up. I am starting to believe there is no end to it. Finally, we reach a point where I see no roads above us. That is a good sign, the hill is over. A short downhill stretch at the top give a bit of a saving grace for the mile split. 42:07 at the 7 mile marker, 7:09 for the mile.

Now the downhill. Here the mind is playing tricks on me, I knew it would. My heart rate goes down to 155 for a second. I push it a bit, now 157. Starting to get into a good rhythm. Now 160. Next mile in 5:24, starting to close a bit on Ken. Headwind is not helping. Next mile, less steep down in 5:32. Ken now is only 3 seconds ahead. I decided I'd do my best to pass him. But I think he decided he'd do his best to not get passed.

Nasty climb on the last mile. He pulls ahead, then comes back a bit. The climb is over. Now he shifts gears faster than me and is gone for good. I am pressing as hard as I can, but I just cannot shift my gears that fast. Right as I am approaching the finish chute my heart rate is only 161. And I am thinking kick, kick, get him! 59:01.8, last mile in 5:59, Ken is 13 seconds ahead, Steve  37 seconds ahead.

Short cool down to not make the cold worse, then the Zmei Gorynovich treatment after that (a clove of garlic). Zmei Gorynovich is a three headed flying fire-breathing serpent in  Russian fairy tales. My mom calls me Zmei Gorynovich whenever I eat a lot of garlic.

Overall, I thinking although the cold was a factor, mostly it was the hills that killed me. Nothing new. The hips and the spine need to be fixed. I am happy I was able to run somewhat decent under the circumstances. I am looking forward to the half-marathon, which is mostly downhill. 

Ran some more with the kids in the afternoon.

Easy run on the Provo River Trail with Ted in the morning. Averaged 7:27 pace, Garmin 305 reported the average heart rate of 119 in spite of going crazy at some point and hitting a max of 151. I never ran fast enough to get that heart rate, so I assume it was off for a small segment of the run. Felt sleepy. Getting over the cold. Apparently it is only at the respiratory level, otherwise the heart rate would have been higher.

Ran with the kids in the afternoon. Figured out a new way to motivate Benjamin - let Jenny out of the stroller at the end of his fast 0.5 segment with 0.1 to go. Today this resulted in a fit which kept him from catching her, but he ran the last quarter in 1:47 nevertheless. Afterwards we had a talk and he did some attitude improvement core strength exercises. He needs to do them anyway, and he gets in trouble enough during the day to get his fair share. I also made him write about the experience in his blog, which he did, although rather reluctantly.

Went to see Dr. Jex. He took lots of X-rays. The good news is that my neck curve has made the most significant improvement since we started the treatment. The curvature angle is now 27 degrees with the forward head tilt of 5 mm. An improvement from 16 degrees/18 mm in the beginning, and 20 degrees/9 mm about a month ago. The ideal measurement is 35-45 degrees and 0 mm tilt. So we are on the right track in the way of neck correction. The shoulder weights we added have helped a lot.

However, the lower back is still acting odd (which is the reason he decided to spend some extra time with the X-rays), and right now we have the following issues:

• The lumbar curve is almost normal while standing up, but I lose entirely (down to 0) when I sit down.
• The lower spine has a lateral curve towards the right. In theory, hip weights should correct it. However, with the hip weights on it becomes worse (always bending towards the right) regardless of the direction of the torque the hip weights are positioned to create.

Dr. Jex was rather perplexed by this. Indeed my lower back is both literally and figuratively is throwing him a curve. He decided to take a more thorough look at it. We are going to have even a longer research session on Thursday. I am excited about this. Finally we are getting somewhere. For a while I felt like we were trotting in place. I have always felt that a thorough research is what this problem needed. But I could never find a specialist that would recognize the need and be willing to do what it takes.

I think I have a clue as to where the whole problem came from. Between the ages of 12 and 13 I ran 4 hard track workouts a week at the Znamenskiye indoor track in Moscow (Maria would know that one very well). They were all high volume and high intensity. Here is an example of a three day segment from one week that I recall: Monday, 6000 m in 21:42 (5:45/mile pace). Tuesday, 1000 in 3:09, 800 in 2:30, 600 in 1:48. Wednesday - 600 m in 1:47, 400 m in 67, and 200 in 32. My coach loved to give us tempo runs on the indoor track which I would do usually at a pace faster that 6:00 per mile. I can only imagine what that could have done to the developing  bones and muscles - you hit a sharply sloped curve that is about 25-30 meters long that gives you a 180 degree turnaround 16 times a mile and at a high speed times and again.

So, yes, Dr. Jex is dealing with a very unusual case. Very few people get this sort of damage. And the few that do rarely even think about it, much less care to get it fixed, just happy to run where they are at if they continue to run at all. Not me. I am persistent. I will not let this be in my way. I will not give up hope, I will not quit. I'll find a way to get it fixed and run at my true potential.

Easy run with Ted in the morning. Very slow and relaxed. Ran with the kids in the afternoon.

In the evening started feeling chills and very fatigued. Sinus infection, this time a bit stronger than normal. Went to bed early. Taking it easy for the next couple of days. 

Slept in this morning to allow myself to get over the cold. Took the whole day easy. Did not run until late afternoon. First ran with the kids. We had an adventure with Benjamin being chased by a dog. It was a small dog, but he got really scared and swerved in panic. But he still managed a good last 0.5 in 3:38 with the quarter splits of 1:49 and 1:49. The dog quarter would probably have been 1:46 or maybe even faster if he had not panicked. 

Afterwards, I went for a 5 mile run and Benjamin rode his bike with me. We started out at 7:30 pace, then gradually warmed into 6:35-6:40. The construction around Geneva road slowed us down. My heart rate was hovering around 140 at 6:35 pace, which is about 6 beats per minute higher than normal.  That is to be expected with the sinus infection.

On the last 0.4 Benjamin decided to test my limits. Sick or not, I still have some competitive spirit, so I responded to the challenge. Then with 0.1 to go I decided to show him class and picked up the pace. He held up fine for as long as we were going 5:20 pace, but his little bike could not go any faster. The turn with 60 meters to go did not help either. The last quarter was 1:19. At first, I thought it was only 1:29 and figured I must be really sick if I had to work that hard to run that slow. The good news is that it felt easy enough for me to consider it could have been 1:29.

Worked some on the GMap for the Course Tool. I got it to the point where you can go to a location of your choice, zoom in and out, toggle between satellite, hybrid, and regular map, and plot course. I still need to figure out a way to save the course data, and obtain the elevations. Hopefully will have it ready in a few days.

Felt better this morning, although still not 100% over the sinus infection. Ran with Ted early in the morning. 8.3 miles, easy pace. Ted told me about Weldon Johnson's training method that he credits for the improvement from 29:30 to 28:17 10 K. First, all speed work and tempo runs must be done by feel - do not look at the watch until you are done with the workout. Second, easy runs must be as easy as the body wants them. For Weldon, this often went going 7:30 per mile. He often ran 140 miles per week with the page averaging 7:00 mile including his speed work.

First day of Benjamin's Team Provo practice. Ran some with him. He ran some extra afterwards.  

Feeling better, but still not 100%. Ran easy with Ted, 8.6 miles. Pretty much the entire run we debated the issue of the correlation between 100 meter sprint and marathon potential in the same runner. His point of view - there are way too many factors that could either make a good marathoner sprint slow, or a fast sprinter run  a poor marathon for the correlation to exist. My point of view - while a fast sprint does not guarantee a fast marathon, and a slow sprinter has some hope in the marathon, a slow sprint puts a cap on your marathon performance. Being able to sprint not too terribly slow is a necessary but not sufficient condition for a good marathon performance. We agree with each other to a point, the disagreement is in the numbers.

My contention that Ted disagrees with - unless you have an extreme proportion of slow-twitch fibers ( Alberto Salazar style) which is found probably in no more than 3% of all distance runners, 100 meter time of 15.0 means you will not run much faster than 2:30 in the marathon. This actually makes a nice rule - take your 100 meter time in seconds, do it times ten. That is your limit in the marathon in minutes.

We also had a disagreement on how fast a slower runner (that runs a marathon in over 3:00 even with some decent training) could run 100 meters. So I thought it would be helpful to gather some data for our future discussions, and perhaps also for inspiring some more serious exercise physiology research. If you would like to contribute, please submit the following data in the comments - does not have to be current, but needs to come from the same time period: your marathon performance, the training you did to achieve it, your 100 meter performance from the same time period, and the specific 100 meter training you did to achieve it (for most of us it will be nothing more than some strides and short speed work intervals at best).

Ran with the kids in the afternoon. Feeling a bit better towards the evening, good sign, sinus infection pain is going away.

Felt better than the day before, but still not 100%. Still yellow stuff coming out of my nose, some sinus pain, cough, and a bit of overall weakness. Ted wanted to do 15 miles. I was not quite up to the distance. However, I figured a few miles at marathon pace would be helpful as a health test. We went up the Provo Canyon. Almost hit a gate over by Bridal Veil Falls, good thing it was white and Ted has good eyes, we stopped soon enough. Then we hit a few patches of ice. Then we turned around and ran back to the start of the standard 3 mile tempo at Nunn's park.

For a change, I decided to try Weldon Johnson's idea of not looking at the watch during the run. We ran 3 miles down, immediate 180 turn, and then 1 mile back up. My splits were 5:42 (HR 142), 5:42 (HR 151), 5:29 (HR 154) and 6:20 (HR 155). The effort felt harder than the HR feedback, but the breathing was appropriate for the level of HR. I think the respiratory congestion created a false perception of difficulty. I think I really like the idea of looking at the watch afterwards. Total of 11 miles of for the run.

Ran with the kids in the afternoon. 

Easy run with Ted. I've done so many of those that my blog now ranks number 2 on Google for the search term "easy run with Ted". Feeling better. Ran the last mile in 5:48, felt strong, but did not like my form.

Ran with the kids in the afternoon. Jenny impressed me with an 8:02 mile after 0.5 warm-up. It's been a while since she's run this fast. Benjamin was playing rather crazy in the back yard and fell on a rock. He could run, but his form did not look good. I told him to take a day of rest.

We went swimming in the evening. I timed myself over 50 yards - 55 seconds. That is the fastest I've swam 50 yards since 1994 when I took Intermediate Swimming at BYU from Tim Powers, the BYU swim team coach. He tried hard to teach me good form, and made enough progress to where I improved from 60 seconds to 51 seconds in the 50 yard distance. But even with the improvement I was still significantly slower than everybody else in the class including all of the girls. Since then, whenever I would occasionally time myself I was consistently between 58 and 60 seconds. I think this improvement shows that the recent addition of shoulder weights in my Pettibon routine has been effective. I also felt more power in the right arm in the water.

I am very excited about this development. This is the first time something changed measurably in my athletic performance since the start of Pettibon if you do not count my informal vertical jump test earlier. This one is a lot more significant - with the vertical jump it could have easily been a measurement fluke, and I am thinking it was. I did not have standard measurement procedures, and the improvement was not recorded on the same type of test. A small thing, but I am excited. For the first time something improved. This small development strengthens my faith that running can also improve. 

First day of feeling almost normal. Only a little bit of runny nose and sinus pain. Ran a light tempo with Ted. We went on the standard 5 mile tempo course on the Provo River Trail by Geneva Road. Again, used the Weldon Johnson hit the split but do not look method. It produced interesting results this early in the morning (the tempo started at 5:00 AM). Splits by 0.5 - 3:10 - 3:10 - 3:06 - 3:06 - 3:07 - 3:04 - 3:00 - 2:58 - 2:55 - 2:49. Total time 30:25, first half in 15:39, second half in 14:46, last mile in 5:44. The first two miles felt way too easy cardiovascularly, but there was enough of a neurological stress for me to believe we were going a decent pace. Ted did not push it, so I did not either. Then I began to suspect that we were probably going way too slow, and started pushing it a bit. Then I started breathing.

Ran with the kids in the afternoon. Then went to see Dr. Jex. He showed an exercise with it he wanted me to do.  I am supposed to lay in a very strange position 6 minutes a day that produces the correct reverse twist for my hips. We'll see what it does.

Easy run with Ted in the morning. Started to feel recovered from the sinus infection. The naps have been helping. Ran 1.5 at marathon pace effort at the end, timed the last 0.75 of it - 4:17. Heart rate of 148 at the end.

Ran with the kids in the afternoon. 

Woke up from an interesting running dream. My dreams have become very close to reality when it comes to running. When I run in a dream, I feel the pain, my splits and times are very realistic. In the dream I was running against Paul Petersen in a 5 mile road race. The race started out flat, then had a downhill section, then flattened out again. It was a fairly fast course. In the beginning Paul pulled away. Then gathering all of my strength I closed the gap on the downhill right before we got to the final flat section. We had a mile to go.  Paul put in a surge to get rid of me. I first thought of letting him go, but then decided no way, I worked way too hard to catch him, and I have nothing to lose. There was another short runner with us I did not quite recognize. I tucked in behind Paul and tried to hang on. It felt very painful. The short runner dropped back a few seconds but was still within striking distance. Then we approached the finish and the kick started. I moved out into the passing position, and tried to turn on top speed. My legs felt like I was at the end of a mile race, they felt like lead, I could not pick it up any more. Neither could Paul, but he managed to stay ahead no matter how hard I tried. We ended up finishing with 25:03.1 for him, and 25:03.3 for me.

Now reality that followed the dream. Tempo run with Steve on the standard 10 mile tempo run course. We did it using Weldon Johnson's method of hit the split do not look at it until you are done. Went through the first 2.5 in 14:42. Heart rate eventually climbed to 150. Then as we turned around Steve started pushing it. I started feeling uncomfortable and asked him to back off. Next 2.5 in 14:24 with the pace fluctuating between 5:40 and 5:55. I would get the heart rate of 155 at 5:40 and 153 at 5:50. Not a big difference in numbers, but 5:40 required a lot more effort. It was probably mental - I was expecting to coast through the run at my marathon pace effort and did not want to push it. I should not be hurting that bad with the heart rate of only 155.

We turned around and in the same pattern continued to another 2.5 in 14:28. Then another turnaround. I decided this time I would not hold Steve back, let him run whatever he feels like, and just grind my teeth and hang in there. But I did tell him I wanted it closer to marathon pace than threshold. The pace eventually became 5:40, the heart rate this time climbed to 158, and this time it felt more comfortable. Perhaps now my mind came to terms with the idea that it was going to be hard. Then on the last mile Steve picked it up. I tucked in behind him hanging on for dear life. Without a watch and the split times to look at to soothe the pain, I began counting 100s - 1500 to go - still alive, 1400 to go, still alive ... 300 to go, can't believe I am still alive. Finish, I made it! 57:43 for 10 miles, 14:09 on the last 2.5, 5:30 on the last mile, probably about 5:23 flat mile equivalent. We even split the last mile. The heart rate climbed to 163 in the first half, and then to 165 in the second for split average, maxing out at 166.

Ran with the kids in the evening. 

Easy run with Ted in the morning. Dropped him off at 6.5, then went on for more. Decided to do a short tempo to feel the waters. Ran 1.25 in 6:42 from the DI bridge to the railroad bridge on the trail. It is a slight down, about 0.5 %, but it does roll. Heart rate eventually climbed to 159. Legs felt strong, I felt I was getting a lot of power in my stride.

Ran with the kids in the evening. Got the GMap plotting feature in the course tool to the point where I could make it public. Check it out. Lots of little and not so little things are still lacking, but at least you do not have to go to GMap Pedometer and do the GPX dance to upload your course. One step at a time we'll get there.

The new feature helped me discover an interesting problem in Google Maps. There appears to be a shift or a small discrepancy between what you see, and the coordinates Google Maps API gives you. Here is my evidence for it - I clicked around the parking lot where the Provo River Trail intersects the Geneva road to get an idea of what the actual elevation of it is. I figured, I am getting averages of 30 meter squares from the US Geo service. Well, the parking lot is big enough, and it is nearly perfectly flat, you should not be getting any variation more than 1 foot or so. Well, the elevation data I am getting shows there is a 10 foot deep hollow right in the middle of the parking lot, which matches the width of the adjacent Provo River. When you click on the Provo River, there is no drop in the elevation, and it actually happens to be above the hollow of the parking lot. I am still not quite sure what to do about it. Paul, any ideas?

I do have a friend who is a runner who works for Provo City, and does survey measurements. Maybe I should have him stop by and get the actual coordinates of some easily identifiable point in that parking lot, then file a bug reports to Google Maps.

Tempo run on the Provo River Trail. Warmed up. Then ran 2.5 out in 13:46. Did not look at the watch until I was done. I was anticipating 13:55 and thought I had slowed down on the last 0.5. It turned out that quite the opposite happened - my splits by 0.5 were 2:49 - 2:44 - 2:44 - 2:44   - 2:43. The heart rate eventually made its way up to 162. On the way back, which is always slower due being a slight uphill, I had quite the opposite experience. I thought I was running 13:52. It turned out to be 14:04. The splits were 2:52 - 2:50 - 2:46 - 2:50 - 2:46. The heart rate was much higher - it climbed to 165 on the last 0.5 for average, and maxed out at 167. Nevertheless, I did feel strong and in control through the run.

Ran with the kids in the afternoon. 

Need to do more of those runs to get used to the pain of running at threshold. I wonder about the whole physiological model of threshold, how accurate it is. There have been some recent studies that showed the concept of threshold is rather artificial. I define it as the pace you can sustain for an hour in a race situation. Physiologically, it is defined as the point where you break down lactic acid at the same rate you are producing it. When I reach the threshold pace, my quads start feeling funny. It feels like I am eating a lemon, but the feeling is coming from the muscles. It is as if I could actually taste the acid that is building up. When I was a teenager, I never felt it in the muscle, my breathing would just become uncomfortable to the point of feeing like I was about to vomit. Now I still breathe pretty hard, but I could breathe harder if my muscles would let me. Although I can hold that effort for an hour in a race, when I am in good shape it becomes very uncomfortable and requires a lot of concentration. When I get out of shape or if I am just having a bad day, I feel like I am not working very hard, but just cannot go any faster. 
So I have a strong suspicion that the threshold for me is not so much about the lactate level in the blood or muscle, as it is in the ability of the nervous system to deal with it, and still keep firing at the muscle even if the muscle is fussing and trying to inhibit it. I have had quite a bit of experience where an anaerobic workout once a week in combination with tempo runs would raise my threshold pace past the level that I was reaching with tempo runs alone.

Ran with Ted in the dark today at 4:50 AM. He told me about his adventure race. On the way back I ran a 2 mile tempo in 11:15.7. Splits by 0.5 - 2:49 - 2:46 - 2:49 - 2:50. Heart rate averaged 155 for the last 0.5, and maxed out somewhere at 158. I went to bed late last night, so I was sleepy. I felt that I was reaching threshold way too early, again using the threshold definition to be the quads feel like I am eating a lemon. I think this is a neurological limit. When I have had enough sleep, my heart rate can get up to 163 and sometimes even higher before I start feeling that the quad lemon is holding me back, and I am running faster too.

Took VanGoGo (our GMC Safari van) to Computune to get checked out. We do not want any car problems during the relay. On the way back ran with the kids. 

Ran with Ted in the morning. He ran easy and did my warm-up/cool-down. I did 4x400 with 200 rest, then a tempo run 2.5 miles coming back to Geneva road (slight up), and then 4x400 to follow up. Did not look at the watch during the interval session, only after. In the first session, did 75s in the first 3, then 74 on the last one. Got sprayed by a skunk for the first time in my life. However did not notice the problem for a while.

Then the tempo run in 14:04. Interestingly enough, I started at 5:30 pace, but then kept slowing down doing the last mile in   5:43. It was not that bad, though, as that one mile is a rolling uphill, and probably about 7 seconds slower than flat. The heart rate peaked at 162, but was steady at 160 at the end of the run.

Then on the 400s after the tempo I was quite a bit slower than  on the first - 77 - 75 - 78 -78. It probably had to do with having only 400 meter jog to recover from the tempo. And I had only 400 meters to recover from the 400s before the tempo. So the fatigue built up, but I think it was more of a neurological nature (not surprising, I did the fast running between 5 and 6 AM), and not having a watch to look at allowed me to get as lazy as I wanted.

Ran to Computune to get Vangogo with the kids. Then in the evening took Sarah out for her tempo run. Determined her max heart rate, or I should probably say the lower bound for her max heart rate - 190. She ran 2 miles in 16:15 on the first mile of my standard 2.5 tempo run stretch, out and back.

Ran with Ted early in the morning. It was snowing and unpleasantly cold. A little bit of wind. But we've had it worse. I was planning to do a 2 mile tempo. I want to experiment with 4 fast workouts a week with on of them being a 2 mile tempo instead of my usual three. This morning I was sleepy, Ted was dragging me along. The first 4 miles my legs refused to go faster than 7:20, and my heart refused to above 120. Finally I woke up, the cold wind helped. Got the pace to sub-7:00 and the heart rate to 126. Finally, after 6.5 miles of this weather I made it to the tempo run spot. 2 miles coming back, so slight uphill. Did it without looking at the watch. Felt very good, the legs were responding well, felt like I got into a good rhythm. I was sure it was going to be at least 11:09. I was shocked to see 11:31 on the watch. However, the mile splits were good - 5:45 - 5:46, with the last mile being a slight up, 7 seconds slower than flat. The heart rate stabilized at 155 on the last mile. I suppose when your feet get thoroughly wet, your perception of fatigue changes. I was guessing the heart rate to be 162, as hard as I was working. I think I am going to do some of the tempos the old way - splits every quarter, and others the splitless way to see how it changes things.

Ran with the kids in the afternoon. Now packing for the trip to the Ragnar Del Sol relay. 

Drive to Mesa, AZ for the Ragnar Del Sol Relay. Got in as many miles on the road as I could jogging in between stops. I probably could have done more, but I figured about 6 would be enough - a bit of a taper for the relay.

Ragnar Relay Del Sol. First Day. Went for an easy jog in the morning. Decided to try a tempo mile. Ran it in 5:13, lower elevation and good sleep made quite a bit of a difference. Took Benjamin to a track. He ran a mile in 7:02, new PR. Took Jenny and Julia for their runs.

Then picked up the team and we went to Wickenburg. From the very start, the contention for first place was between our team (MarathonGIS) and Google One. I ran legs 3, 15, and 27. The first one was a gradual roll uphill. I got the baton about a minute behind Google. The length of the leg according to Garmin 305 was 5.99 miles. I ran it in 33:22, 5:34 pace at a steady pace. It started at the junction of Highway 60 and Highway 74 and went towards New River on Highway 74. I was running against Chris Estwanik. He is a 3:39 1500 meter runner, has been running for Nike, but stopped running professionally 8 months ago cutting down the mileage from 80-90 a week to only 20. He ended up opening over 3 minutes on me on that leg in spite of not being in top shape. I maintained a steady heart rate in the 162-165 range. Felt strong. Overall pleased with the effort in spite of being beat badly.

The race continues...

Ragnar Relay Del Sol continues. Midnight leg 15. 6.93 miles according to Garmin 305 down a fairly steady 1.5% grade. My specialty. Not so much because I am a great downhill runner, but more due to the form challenges I have that are mostly apparent when running uphill. A downhill reduces them and evens me out with the competition a bit. I ran it in 36:49, 5:19 pace, steady. The nervous system began to shut down, and for me this is bad. I have combination of a weak nervous system and a strong cardiovascular system. When the nervous system cooperates, I can run at 93% of my max heart (163/175) for over an hour and maintain flat 5:30 pace at 4500 feet elevation. When it does not, I can get stuck at 88 % (155/175) running 5:40-5:45 miles, which is slower than my good marathon pace. I came up with a creative way to deal with the problem. I had my team mates stop at 2 miles, get out of the van, and sing "There was a farmer, had a dog, and Bingo was his name" fast, loud, and clapping. Now imagine that, somewhere in the middle of nowhere near Scottsdale 5 guys get out of the van under a full moon, and start singing and clapping while another is running past them as fast as he can. That did help though. I had that tune in my head for the entire leg, and was able to hold my heart rate at 159. Chris opened up 2:45 on me, a little better than on the first leg. We are now 7:45 behind Google. Still pleased with the effort in spite of being beat.

Afterwards, Dan held his ground, and Paul made up 5 minutes on an uphill leg. When the other van was done, the gap was down to 20 seconds, and the Dave cut it down to 12. Clyde was running against a tough competitor, and lost a little bit on his leg. I got the baton about 30 seconds behind Chris. Now this would be an interesting test. With only 20 miles a week, I was expecting him to hit the wall on this leg at least to an extent, and hoped to be competitive. Apparently, a smooth runner with good form can go a long way on 20 miles a week for a while. I felt I was running strong, but he gradually slipped away from me outside of visibility and ended up beating me by 2:10 on this leg. Lesser gap, but still quite impressive. The leg was 5.39 miles (according to Garmin 305) on a dirt road, and featured a steady climb for the first
3.4 miles at a gradually increasing grade culminating in a stretch at 10% grade. My teammates sang me the Bingo song again to get me going. The first mile was  5:48, second in 6:17, third in  6:44, then there was a quarter in 2:15 on the steep grade.  The heart rate dropped to 154 as I was climbing. I was not hitting the wall, though, just could not find the right form and the right rhythm to push the heart. Then a steep drop. I was able to shift gears and start driving the heart at 158-160. Next two quarters in 1:18 and 1:14. Those felt fast on a dirt road.  Next mile in 6:10. Then the decent gradually flattened out, and it was uphill again. Next mile in 5:44. Last quarter in 1:35 giving it all I've got after that. 33:17 for 5.39, 6:11 pace.

Google ended up pulling away and beating us by 11 minutes in the whole race.

Interestingly enough, before the race we were talking about the importance of biomechanics in running. I made a point that pure endurance without good biomechanics does not get you very far, it is like riding a broken bike. And I did get to experience the truth of this personally on my legs running against somebody with inferior endurance but superior biomechanics. 3x6 miles in a 12 hour period was a win hands down for better biomechanics. I am reminded of Ether 12:27 in the Book Of Mormon:

And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.

I have a biomechanical weakness, but I am determined to turn it into strength. Already it has pushed me to develop a strong cardiovascular system, and strong leg muscles. Now the challenge is to fix the actual weakness. I have succeed at what originally appeared impossible in the past. I will keep trying at this problem until it is fixed. With the Lord's help, nothing is impossible.

Driving back to Provo. Threw in some random miles during breaks. Could not feel the effects of the relay, but I hardly ever feel anything. I know I am tired when I am not able to run fast.

Time to start training for real. I've been in the maintenance mode since St. George. Today was the start. Well, the relay was the start, to a certain extent, but today was the official start of training for real. Got good sleep. Went to the Provo Canyon. Warmed up, then 5x400 alternating down and up. 72.7 down - 78.8 up - 71.3 down - 75.2 up - 72.7 down. Still not used to the pain of a good 400, but that's OK, it takes about 3 weeks for it to come. Jogged up to Nunn's Park, and ran the standard 3 mile tempo in 16:01. Mile splits - 5:19 - 5:21 - 5:21. For some reason the pace started feeling a lot harder and I started losing it after 1.5. But I pushed through it. There was a quarter in 1:22, afterwards, no slower than 1:21. There was a slight head/side wind, maybe it got stronger at that point. The heart rate did what it was supposed to - stay at 163. So that means the nervous system was working fine, I was able to push the heart. However, I was not quite happy with the pace, especially with slowing down, but I am just starting the misery drill, so it is OK for the start. I am possibly underestimating the effects of the head wind. And coming back from a lower elevation is probably also a factor. So probably nothing to worry about.

The tempo run felt miserable enough to where I thought perhaps the additional 400s would be counterproductive for a moment. Then I decided to just go ahead and do my best. I did another set of 5x400. 74.0 down - 77.2 up - 73.0 down - 76.2 up - 69.3 down. Pushed it on the last one, and got a taste of a real 400. The consistent difference of only 3 seconds between up and down shows there was a head wind when running down on that stretch. In still air the difference is 5 seconds. It was also on that stretch where the pace started feeling harder in the tempo run earlier.

Got 12.7 in the workout. Then ran with the kids in the afternoon.

I am now on "the day does not end until I've run 13" diet. Ran easy 10 miles in the morning mostly alone. Ted ran a bit with me, but he cut his run short - his legs are overtrained, and he felt he could use some rest before the race on Saturday. I was exceptionally sleepy, some from yesterday's workout, and some probably from Ragnar Del Sol. So I essentially slept through my run. Did not catch 8:00 mile guy until mile 6 or so. Averaged 7:50 pace and 112 heart rate. I think this is a record low for the heart rate in my recovery run since I started using Garmin 305. I am sure I've had it lower before as I've done recovery runs with slower training partners at 9:00 pace.

Ran with the kids in the afternoon, plus some more to bring the total to the minimum quota. The glut muscles are sore. I am very excited about that. It is very difficult for me to be sore there, and it always coincides with running well. 

Ran early in the morning with Ted. For a tune-up ran a 2 mile tempo on the Provo River Trail coming back from the lake. The first mile was 5:29 and it felt easy. However, the second mile was 5:40 and it felt hard. The second mile is a slight uphill, but the same effort should have given me about 5:35, not 5:40. A harder effort should have given me 5:30. The heart rate maxed at 162, but then dropped to 159. I interpret this as the nervous system being tired and not being willing to work. It is a very strange feeling. It is very easy to confuse it with just starting out too fast and/or being out of shape. Here is my take on what happens:

When you are starting out, the acidity of the muscle is low. So your regular threshold pace feels easy. Then the acidity of the muscle goes up as you keep going. About a mile or a mile and a half it reaches a critical level. When the nervous system is in top shape, it is able to fire the muscles in spite of the negative feedback it is receiving from the increased muscle acidity. But if the nervous system is tired for some reason, it cannot override the negative feedback. So the cardiovascular system could potentially deliver more oxygen and maintain the acidity in check at a steady, although higher level, but the nervous system says, no that is too much for me to deal with. So the heart is cruising along at a lower rate, the pace is slow, but it feels hard. I've had this happen to me so many times, but I think am just beginning to get a clue at what is actually going on. There are two things that I have found effective in the past - get more sleep, and do brutal quarters.

Ran with the kids in the evening, and added some more to make it 13 for the day.

Mini-taper before the Ogden Half-Marathon tomorrow. Ran 3.11 miles with Stuart. Then went for some more. Decided to do a 1.25 tempo for a tune-up/nervous system check. Ran it from the DI bridge to the Union Pacific bridge. Union Pacific, and the fact that it is going to Utah, has a special significance in my life. Back in 1991 I was learning English. My goal was to learn it so well that I could score very high on the verbal section of the SAT test. America for me was a land of opportunity and I wanted to make a statement that I belonged there. I read every book in English that I could get my hands on, which at that time was quite easy - there were not many English books around within my reach. It happened that I got my hands on a book that detailed the history of the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad. I read it start to finish. It was a very tedious reading. But the text contained many uncommon words which were likely to appear on the SAT test. I looked up every one of them along with their synonyms and antonyms, and thoroughly studied usage examples to make sure I knew those words as well as regular common speech English words as if it were my native tongue. 

The railroad construction progressed through the United States, and eventually  Utah was mentioned. Along with that, the book mentioned a religious group that lived in Utah - the Mormons. I felt a desire to learn more about that group. That interested eventually led to my conversion and joining the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, of which I have now been a faithful member for almost 15 years.

And along with that, reading the railroad book along with my other efforts of similar nature to acquire proficiency in English also paid off. I scored 720 out of 800 on the verbal section of the SAT, which put me in the 99th percentile among mostly native speakers. This was a miracle of hard word magnified by the inspiration and the light of God. Three years earlier I had  no knowledge of English and started by looking up the word "WE" in a dictionary.

So I ran the tempo to the historic bridge, historic for me in 6:47 at a steady pace. The course rolled downward. I wanted to know exactly how much the downhill helped. So shortly after I finished I turned around and ran a quarter backwards putting in the same effort. Got 1:25. Going out it was 1:22. Applying the 2:1 rule for uphill downhill, we take the 3 second difference and split it at the ratio of 2:1. This gives us a 2 second slowdown for the uphill, and a 1 second speedup for the downhill. Thus the flat equivalent of this tempo run is 1:23 quarter, or 5:32 pace on that stretch.

Did some more easy running. Ran with the kids in the afternoon. Total of 10 miles.

Ogden Striders Half-Marathon. 1:14:29, 6th place. Knowing from the tempo runs earlier in the week that the nervous system was not functioning well, I made a plan to hang on with the leaders while it was still working, and then do my best after that. I thought I'd be able to make it to mile 5. The first mile felt comfortable (5:23). I'll give my splits from Garmin 305 - race mile markers were not reliable.

Towards the end of the second mile I had a frivolous feeling that I did not want to run with the pace. I tried to dismiss it, but I think I am beginning to understand what it means - neural fatigue. I have experienced it before - the breathing is OK, legs feel fine, then at first you feel you do not want to run with the pack, you fight it, and then you cannot - it is almost like you are under a spell that you can do nothing about. Second mile had more downhill, and we did it in 5:10. When we reached 2.5 I began to experience the spell. Breathing is fine. Heart rate is hovering around 163-165, a little high, but nothing I could not normally hold for at least 5 miles. But for some reason I just cannot go. I backed off, but still hit the mile in 5:19. Paul, Bob, Steve Ashbaker, Joe Wilson, and Neal Gassmann went ahead. 15:51 at 3 miles.

Ken Richardson passed me shortly, and he was gone moving away from me quickly. I considering latching on, and trying to hang in there, but I do not think I could have done it even if they told me the race ended at 4 miles. Next mile in 5:40. Heart rate goes down to 158-160.  Next mile in 5:37, HR at 158, followed by a 5:38 (HR 157). 27:08 at 5 miles.

Sarah and the kids sang me the  BINGO song to get me going, it helped  bit. Now the downhill is over, next mile in 5:44, HR 158, followed by 5:48, HR dropping to 156.  More BINGO singing, and now I am able to push it a bit,  5:49 mile with some rolling  hills, HR going up to 160, and I am starting to close on Ken.  Another mile in 5:49, HR at 160.  Next mile in 5:56, with a bathroom stop, number two. I figured I lost about 5 seconds on it. 56:03 at 10 miles. HR dropped to 157. Now a new excitement develops. Ken is coming to me. He beat me in all other races by a few seconds, and I am determined to not let it happen again. Heart rate goes up to 160, next mile in 5:54, and it did have some uphill. I passed Ken, now need to make him not want to follow me because he has a better kick.  Another mile in 5:56, uphill, HR dropping to 157.  And one more in 5:56 with HR going up to 159. Kick, a slight downhill, Garmin says I did 5:35 pace, HR going down to 158. Not much of a kick, but I just could not shift gears. 1:14:29  at the finish.

Paul, Bob, and Steve ran incredibly well beating Joe and Neal who also ran well but with no breakthroughs.

Cooled down with Ted. Ran with the kids in the afternoon.

Post-race analysis - the problem appears to be of neurological nature. I need to get more sleep. It will take some time to bring it back to order. Also, tempo runs and 400 meter repeats will train it to respond properly at fast pace so it will not quit.

Easy run with Ted, and then with Stuart early in the morning. Ran with the kids in the afternoon. 

Speed workout in the Provo Canyon. Same as last week. Warm up, then 5x400 alternating up and down. 72.0 down - 76.7 up - 72.3 down - 74.4 up - 73.3 down. Cross wind the entire time, became more of a headwind for going down on the last two. Then jogged up to Nunn's Park and started the standard 3 mile tempo down to the mouth of the Canyon. Head/cross wind almost all the way. First mile 5:26, HR jumps up to 158 quickly. That is a good sign. If HR is slow to respond, you are running anaerobically for too long. Next mile in 5:23, HR makes it to 161. It is interesting that gusts of wind make it drop to 158, and one strong gust managed to drop it to 156. You would think the extra resistance should raise it, but I think what happens is that a gust knocks you out of rhythm, you lose concentration and stop pushing as hard.

Finally a clear spot on the first quarter on the last mile. No headwind for the whole quarter for the first time. Hit it in 1:18. Heart rate goes up to 163! I feel like I am getting into good rhythm, setting my sights on showing the 5:20 guy who's the boss.  However, more headwind followed, I barely manged 5:20 for the last mile. Total time 16:09. Although it was 8 seconds slower than last week, there was quite a bit more headwind this time. I felt more in control, though, and was consistently speeding up in spite of having the gusts of headwind periodically knock me out of rhythm. The effort also felt easier.

Then jogged back and did 5x400 one more time. Unlike last week when I seriously considered not doing the last set, I did not have such thoughts. 73.3 down - 77.4 up - 73.7 down - 76.0 up - 66.9 down. Pushed the last one.

Running at 4:50 pace or faster feels like I am riding a bike with a bent wheel. I do not feel it as much at slower speeds, but at faster speeds there is a wheel feeling, and you get to feel the quality of your wheel more acutely. For me that wheel is not as bad as it is for some people, probably average for a 2:40 marathoner, which is much better than what it is for the average runner, but the deformities make a difference between being a good local runner and being able to run professionally. This needs to be fixed.

13.5 for the workout with the cool down. Ran some more with the kids in the evening. 

Easy recovery run with Ted in the morning. Was feeling sleepy. 7:37 pace for 10 miles, average heart rate 116.

Ran with the kids in the evening. Took Benjamin and Jenny to the Team Provo Practice. Benjamin ran all the way, Jenny ran the first mile. On the way back, pushed them in the stroller. They sang BINGO, and got me to speed up to 6:40 pace at the end. 

Slept in this morning to have the nervous system ready for the tempo run. Ran later in the morning. Found Karl Jarvis on the trail. We used to train together a lot, but then his schedule change to where we could not do it any more. Turns out we live only a mile away from each other. Ran with him for a while. Got a nice 5.4 mile warm-up for the tempo. Then ran the standard 5 mile tempo from Geneva Road to the Utah Lake Park and back.

First mile 5:30, second 5:32. So far so good, feels easy, very steady pace, HR at 159. 13:49 at the turnaround (2:47). Had a glitch recovering from 180 turn, next 200 in 45, then 43, 1:28 for the quarter. Next quarter in 1:25, 5:40 for the mile, 16:42 at 3 miles. Then 1:26, followed by 1:24, and again, 1:26 and 1:24. 5:40 for the mile, 22:22 at 4 miles. HR climbed to a steady 162. The pace now feels harder, although it is slower. Next quarter uphill is 1:26 followed by a 1:24. I cannot seem to break the pattern. Leftover from the quarter repeats maybe? I push, and then I want a break. Then 200 in 40 seconds, I got excited. But then slowed down to 43, (1:23 for the quarter), followed by the last quarter in 1:25. I think it would have been 1:24, but with 100 to go I saw a dog without a leash or visible owner, it looked like a playful dog, and it looked very interested in playing with me. So I lost concentration and slowed down a bit. After I finished, the dog started playing with me, but I was not in the mood. 28:00 for the run, best time of the year so far. Last mile in 5:38, which I consider a 5:31 equivalent going the other way, or flat. HR climbed to 167 at the end. I might have been getting slightly dehydrated, or perhaps the surge to 40 seconds for 200 m after 4.5 raised the HR. What is odd is that the surge did not hurt as much as it should have, but at the same time, the last quarter was slow, and it felt the same as the surge. There were small random and rather mild bursts of wind. Maybe they were stronger than they felt. I wonder if that what caused the odd fluctuations of the pace on the second half.

Ran a cool down, 12.25 for the run. Ran with the kids in the evening.

Easy run with Ted in the morning. Did some tempo pace pick ups. Ran a quarter in 1:19, then another in 1:23, and then 0.75 up a slight grade for the last 0.3 in 4:14. Did not get enough sleep at night, but made up in the afternoon. Right now sleep is one of the most critical elements of my training. Demetrio Cabanillas Jr. once told me about a sleep study where they paid subjects to sleep. That is the kind of study I would love to participate in!

Ran with the kids in the afternoon and in the evening. Total of 13 miles for the day. 

Got very good sleep the night before. Did not get out of bed until my body told me it did not need any more sleep, which happened at 7:00 am, 8 hours of sleep total. Started the day by running with Benjamin to the Team Provo practice. Saw ROTC cadets there. They were doing a 3200 meter run. A couple of them wanted to be paced for 14:00. I led them pretty much on pace. Only one was able to keep it. With the kick it ended up being 13:44. Then Benjamin wanted to run 100 meters. He was pretty tired from everything, but still managed 19.8. On the way back, I pushed Benjamin in the stroller. By the time we got home I had 6 miles on the odometer for the day done in a one hour period.

After a two hour break which included a play practice for our Stake Conference tomorrow and calling the ward leadership to remind them of the afternoon meeting, I continued the run. Ate a banana and drank a 17oz glass of water immediately before the run. Jogged 1.9 to warm up, then ran my standard 10 mile tempo. First mile in 5:54, then 5:50, 2:52 for the next half, 14:36 at the turnaround. On the way back held a steady 5:48 pace. HR finally stabilized at 151 until mile 4. Then there was a slight uphill section, and it went up to 154. 29:08 at 5 miles, 14:32 for the 2.5, and 5:49 for the uphill mile.

Picked it up a bit on the next 2.5 stretch. Next two miles 5:42 and 5:43. HR stabilized at 157. Then 0.5 in 2:53, 14:18 for the 2.5 and 43:26 at the turnaround. Decided to push the pace hard on the last 2.5. Two bikers, a young couple on a date, passed me and made an encouraging comment. I asked them to pace me. They agreed. They wanted to chat, but I told them I'd chat in 2 miles. I started seeing 1:24 quarters, with occasional 1:25s. Steady 5:38 pace until the mile to go. With 0.75 to go I started pressing harder. I saw the heart rate climb to 166, but it felt sustainable. This could be partially due to the warmer weather, but also to an increased level of fitness. Ended up with the last mile in 5:33, last 2.5 in 14:00, last 5 miles in 28:18, and 57:26 for 10 miles, fastest time for the year.

Cooled down with the bikers. Their names are Steve and Rachael. I guess if our Steve (Ashbaker) is not available to pace me, I'll find some Steve to do it even if he has to be on a bike. Having the Steve and Rachael at the end was very helpful. I am not used to people leisurely chatting around me when I am pushing the pace, but it was very nice. It got my mind off the pain, and I ran sort of in a trance.

What is interesting is that on Thursday I ran a 5 mile tempo putting in a threshold effort in 28:00, which is only 18 seconds faster than the last 5 miles of the 10 mile tempo today, and I did not shift into threshold pain gear until the last 2.5. It is also interesting that the last 2.5 was 11 seconds faster than the last 2.5 of the tempo on Thursday in spite of the fact that this 2.5 stretch was from mile 15.5 to mile 18 for the day, and more precisely for the first 4 hours of the day. Part of it certainly is the gain in cardiovascular and muscular fitness, but I wonder if a part is biomechanical. I got up on my toes more on the last 2.5 and it came naturally. The form felt more smooth and relaxed once I started going faster. The uphill or 180 turns did not seem to knock me out of rhythm as much as they usually do. Of course, all of that could be the result of increased neurological strength gained from the sleep.

Arthur Lydiard used to say that miles makes champions. That is not quite right. Beds make champions, not miles. Miles only prepare the champions for the bed to do the job. Miles make only tired and overtrained runners without proper sleep.

Got up early in the morning, woke up Benjamin, put him in the stroller, and ran to the BYU Football Stadium. The BYU ROTC were doing a 2 mile time trial around the big parking lot. Benjamin wanted to race the cadets. Some of them are out of his reach (11 minutes), while others run 14 minutes or slower. The course turned out to be a little longer, 2.10 on my Garmin 305, Ted said it was closer to 2.05, and adjusted the times of the cadets by 15 seconds. Benjamin ended up running 14:43, 14:28 with the adjustment, and beat a few cadets, about 25% by my count. It was raining, and somewhat windy. The course also has some up and down, maybe 0.5% grade. So I was very happy with Benjamin's accomplishment. Many cadets were surprised to see an 8 year old kid running with them and holding his ground.

Pushed Benjamin back in the stroller. It started raining. Dropped him off at home, and went for some more to make a total of 10. It started raining harder, and I was soaked. Then a little bit of hail. To give me a taste of Boston, I suppose. Whenever it hails, I think of Helaman 5:12 in the Book of Mormon, which in summary says if we build on the foundation of Jesus Christ, the hailstorms of life will not bring us down.

Had an interesting dream about Craig Lawson. Some of you may remember him. He ran for BYU, with 28:35 PR in the 10,000. Then he ran some afterwards, was in the 2000 marathon Trials, finished 13th with 2:19 in very hot conditions. He, Dennis Simonaitis, Brandon Rhoads, and Larry Smithee ruled the roads in Utah races around that time. Then as it often happens, life got too busy. He disappeared from the running scene. So in the dream he decided to start running competitively again. I told him he had a 2:10 potential, and he was very happy because somehow he knew I would never say somebody has a potential when I do not clearly see it. When I woke up I agreed with my dream assessment. Craig indeed does have a 2:10 potential if he had not yet irrepairably messed up his spine from the extra weight and hours of sitting. It is rather unfortunate that we value a decent but in the big scheme of things average and replaceable accountant, programmer, or salesman much more than we value a superb, one of a kind runner. I find it rather ironic that a society that fails to invest in things of spiritual nature such as art, music, or sports, ends up chasing the material things and never finds them. Yet a nation that invests into those finer matters does a lot better materially.

Watched the Boston Marathon, or rather, followed it on the Internet. Was very impressed with how Clyde and Dave ran in terrible conditions(2:37 and 2:40). Congratulations to both of them. It did not come without some serious blood. Look at their blogs, all the training they've done. Both had to be treated for hypothermia after they've finished. We had two more bloggers that broke 3:00 - Kenny B (2:49), and Kory (2:57). Andy B had a good race too - a PR effort, missed PR by 6 seconds (3:06:06). Again not without blood, look at their blogs. So far the biggest success of the bloggers has been the 1-2-3 punch in the Ogden Half Marathon against some serious competition and with exceptional times. Now Clyde broke the top 100 in Boston for us. I hope the day will come when we can do 1-2-3 punch in Boston. Right now it is a dream. Martin Luther King had a dream, it appeared impossible but it became reality. I've had dreams that appeared impossible but became reality. I have a dream. Today Clyde, Dave, Kenny, Kory, and Andy brought it one step closer.

Added another 3.4 in the evening pushing Jacob in the stroller and with Benjamin on a bike.

Ran in the Provo Canyon. Speed work. Warmed up, then 5x400 alternating up and down with 200 recovery. Headwind when going down as usual this time of day (late morning). 71.3 down - 77.3 up - 73.3 down - 75.2 up - 72.3 down. That shows a solid headwind. Still air difference between up and down should be 5 seconds. This did not come as a surprise. I noticed during the warm up that I was running 7:12 pace downhill and the HR of 127. Usually it is around 6:50 with the same effort and HR over there.

Jogged up to Nunn's park and ran the standard 3 mile tempo down. Mile splits - 5:24 - 5:24 - 5:21, 16:09. HR gradually made its way to 162-164. I kicked the last 100 meters, it went up to 169. Solid headwind virtually with no breaks. Not a single quarter faster than 1:20 except the last one (1:18). However, not a single quarter over 1:21 either possibly with the exception of the first (there is no mark there, but it actually uphill for the first 0.15).

Jogged back to the place where I did the 400s earlier and repeated 5x400. 72.9 down - 76.4 up - 73.9 down - 75.9 up - 67.5 down. The last one shows that I am lacking anaerobic ability. When I have it in full force, I am only able to speed up by 2 seconds on the last one. I could also tell I was losing steam after the first 200.

Then cooled down to the car. It started to get warm, and I could tell I was dehydrating a bit. HR went up to 138 at about 7:20 pace uphill. Normally it should have been around 128.  Total of 14.8 for the workout.

Ran with the kids in the evening.

Easy run with Ted at 4:50 AM. 10.05 miles at 7:44 pace, average HR 113, new record. On the first quarter which we did in 2:18 it did not crack 100 - only 98, but the pace felt fast. I take it as an indicator of aerobic fitness gain, if 9:00 pace feels fast in the first few minutes of the run while the heart rate is low. The engine is taking its time to warm up, the stronger the engine, the longer it needs. Added another 3.5 in the afternoon running with the kids and some more.

Tempo run this morning. Got decent sleep, went to bed at 11, got up at 6. It was cold, around 35 degrees, but warmer than last winter. No significant wind. Ran the standard 5 mile tempo from Geneva Road to the trail entrance by the Utah Lake Park and back.

First mile, 5:32. Second 5:31 (11:03), then 2:47 for the next 0.5, 13:50 at the turnaround. The pace felt very comfortable, however I knew that any faster would be exceptionally uncomfortable. HR took forever to get going, but finally stabilized at 158 by 1.5 miles.

2:50 for the next 0.5 with the first quarter after 180 turn in 1:26. The first 100 of it was 23 seconds,  so 2 second loss. 5:37 for the mile, 16:40 at 3. Next mile in 5:35. HR climbed to 160, and now the pace is starting to feel harder, although it is still the same pace, even a bit slower, but coming back is a very slight uphill, so 3 seconds per mile is about the correct amount of difference. The breathing became harder too. The sour feeling in the quad appeared but I was able to run through it this time.

Quarters for the last mile - 1:25 (uphill), 1:24, 1:23, 1:20. HR maxed out at 169 at the end. Total time 27:47.8, best time for the season. Last mile in 5:32, last 2.5 in 13:57, I would call this a true even split, perhaps even negative if you throw in the 2 seconds lost on the 180 turn.

Did a long cool down, total of 13.1 for the run. Ted did the easy running with me, he was planning on joining me for the tempo, but got sick. Ran with the kids in the afternoon, total of 14.9. I am running the Salt Lake Half, not the full marathon. Will do it completely untapered. It is fun to race a half at the end of a 90 mile week, I've done this before. You hurt from the start, as opposed to from mile 3, so you actually get better pacing.

I was very happy with this tempo, most particularly about being able to hold the pace as the quads start feeling sour. 

I am perplexed as to why HR takes so long to get going in a tempo run. It took a good 4 mile stretch before it got to where it was supposed to be. My average HR for the run was actually 153! This has been a pattern regardless of the weather. So here is what I am wondering about. If I am running 5:32 pace, and the HR eventually stabilizes at 162 then if it is let's say 153, and assuming I do not severely dehydrate in 4 miles of tempo running in 35 degrees (reasonable assumption), and the stroke volume does not drop as the tempo run progresses (reasonable assumption?), and the biomechanical efficiency does not change that much (reasonable assumption?), then at 153 HR my cardiac output is significantly lower than what is necessary for a steady state that happens at 162. But the energy for the pace has to come from somewhere, so that in essence means I am running anaerobically for the first 4 miles of this run. Could it be that HR response to lactic acid build up, and unless you have a certain lactic acid concentration, it will not increase?

Easy run with Ted in the morning. A little faster today, supersonic speeds compared to Wednesday, 7:18 pace. Ran with the kids in the afternoon, and a little more in Salt Lake to the expo and back. I will probably have 74 miles on the odometer for the week when I start the half-marathon tomorrow. Added a mile with Sarah late at night.

A very long day. It started with racing the Salt Lake Half-Marathon. Ran it in 1:13:25. Got beat by Mbarak Hussein (1:05:17), Simon Sawe(1:05:33), and BJ Christensen (1:10:59). Not quite sure what to think of it. I am inclined to believe this is a better performance than two weeks ago in Ogden. I held by heart rate in the higher ranges for longer, although it still was not what I wanted it to be. Went out with the leaders from the gun. The marathon and the half started at the same time. At first it was more like the jail break in the Russian movie Gentlemen of Fortune. The police put in an infiltrator and organize a break for the three inmates of interest. The fourth one joins them. They ask him why he ran. He answers: "Everybody ran, so I did run too". Then I began to think about the reasons to continue to run fast. Enjoy the company of great runners while I can. Some TV time for the Wasatch Running Center. So I figured I'd hang in there for a while. We did the first mile in 5:03, probably 1-2 % down. I was in a pack with Mbarak Hussein, Simon Sawe, BJ Christensen, and Dave Danley who was running the marathon. I told Dave we were going 5:00 pace several times, but he kept going. We backed off a bit from the Kenyans and BJ. Second mile in 5:23, some down and some up. Next mile uphill in 5:47. My heart rate was hovering around 164, and I felt the pace was very aggressive. But I wanted to push it for as long as we were with the marathoners to make things a bit nicer for Steve Ashbaker. The more people are out front, the faster the marathon lead pack will go. And the faster it goes, the more casualties for him to devours in the last miles. I knew I could relax for a mile, clean up the lactic acid, and then pick it back up and still run a decent, even if less than perfect race.

Pushed hard on the downhill down 21st south, hit the mile in 5:05. After that, we split from the marathoners and the mile markers were fuzzy. I had an idea of how fast I was going from the Garmin. But I was not so much concerned about the pace reading as I was about the heart rate reading. Garmin may be off on the length of splits, and there could be subtle factors such as a slight grade or slight but steady head or tail wind. But I know that if I can sustain my heart rate above 160, I'll be running well. I went in spurts. Sometimes I would get into good rhythm, Garmin would start giving consistent splits of 1:22 per quarter, and HR would be at 161. Other times, I would see it drop to 157 and the splits go down to slower than 1:25. Interestingly enough, running at HR of 161 was a lot more pleasant than at 157.

This observation, as well as a number of others in training led me to formulate a theory that Steve Ashbaker suggested I post in the blog. When running 15 K -  half marathon type of race, what we would call anaerobic threshold pace, the traditional exercise physiology states that you reach a steady state when you are breaking down lactic acid at the same rate you are producing it. But I suspect in reality things are a lot more complicated. The lactic acid levels are in a state of constant flux. They go up and down. When they go up, two things can happen. If the muscles and the nervous system are not conditioned for the lactic acid tolerance, they will shut down before the heart and the lungs can respond by delivering extra oxygen to clean up the lactic acid. If the muscles and the nervous system are properly conditioned, though, the muscles will work through it for a while, and in time the heart and the lungs will start working at a higher capacity making the faster pace sustainable. This explains why doing brutally fast 400s with 200 meter recovery on top of regular aerobic training make a difference of 10-15 seconds per mile in my half-marathon pace, and 5-7 seconds per mile in my marathon pace. The 200 recovery is a great form of aerobic training - you learn to clean up anaerobic byproducts very well.

I got to 10 miles in 53:30. Kept on going, ran the last 5 K in 17:55. They were a couple of guys from Westminister college on my tail. I knew they were somewhere there and could be dangerously close. So I pressed hard enough to make them not want to catch me.

Ate a banana, and ran back to find Steve. Followed the course and got to the start of the 5K. Figured I needed to seriously refuel to be prepared for the pacing job. Was very pleased to see Hobie Call in second place. He was two minutes behind Lemo, and pressing hard. Hobbie ended up finishing second, and missed the qualifier again by a minute. I think he can get it at Grandma's. Then there was another Kenyan, then Nick McCoombs, Dave Danley, Steve Tanui, and now here comes our Steve. A little later than I expected him, but very strong. I drank 4 cups of Gatorade to have the energy for pacing him, and I needed every ounce of it. He was going faster than me in the half. He got my HR to 161, and it hurt. A grimace started showing on my face. We flew past Steve Tanui. Steve (Ashbaker) was very excited about passing a Kenyan. He has never had the experience. He asked me if the Kenyan was just messing around. I told him no, he is just done. Now he needed to pass just one more guy to be in the money. Dave Danley was the next victim. I know the feeling, I've been on both sides of the deal. For some reason, I like to compare it to Abraham finding a ram in the thicket to offer a sacrifice. All of a sudden, there comes a dead runner out of nowhere, and you know he will not fight you. You also know you are in the money once you pass him. You begin to rejoice. I also know what it feels like to be the ram.

Steve had about a mile left. I told him since he was in the money, he should now do it by himself to avoid possible, although very unlikely complaints about receiving assistance from a pacer. I slowed down and ran with Dave to the end.

Congratulations to Steve on a new PR (2:36:31), great last 5 K (17:45), and 5th place in a tough company.

Ran with the kids in the afternoon. Also for our date Sarah and I did her long run, which was 6 miles. So that gave me 29 miles for the day, and 101 miles for the week. 

Easy run with Ted in the morning. Supersonic speeds of 7:12. Daylight makes it faster. Felt energized, tried to talk Ted into picking it up on the last mile, managed to convince him to go fast on the last 0.5. Timed the last quarter, it was 1:26. I was pleased with the fact that HR went up to 151 very quickly, I started breathing right away, but the pace did not feel hard.

Ran with the kids in the afternoon, and some more with Benjamin and Jenny in the stroller. Talked to a guy named Jason on the trail for about a mile. He is training for a marathon in Rexburg, ID in July. With Benamin and Jenny in the stroller it was about 100lb + the weight of the stroller.  On the last quarter they sang me the BINGO song and got me going. I hit it in 1:34. Not sure what it translates into stroller-less, I would guess around 1:24. The inflation of the tires makes a big difference.

Saw Dr. Jex. He took an X-ray of my lower back in the running position with the knee lifted up. I wanted him to check if I lose the lumbar curve when I lift up my knee. Sure enough, I do, it goes down from 35 degrees to 13. This explains why I do not lift up my knees very much. However, it is not yet clear what the root cause of this would be, or how we should go about fixing it. He also gave me a special cylinder for mid-back exercises.

Then went to the Provo Canyon for some serious painful work. Started with a warm-up followed by a prayer asking for the courage and humility to accept the pain. Then 5x400 alternating down and up. 70.6 down - 76.7 up - 70.1 down - 75.8 up - 69.1 down. I think that was close to still air.

Then a jog up to Nunn's Park, and the standard 3 mile tempo down in 15:53. Splits - 5:21 - 5:16 - 5:16. The head wind has picked up, but it was not as bad as last week, I think. Regardless, this is the fastest time of the year. It was quite painful, but I was holding the pace. The last two miles felt like a very long quarter. I think taking the headwind into account, this is probably worth 2:26:30 in St. George.

Then a jog back to the place of quarters. The place of pain that leads to success. Again, the same 5x400. The head wind now got stronger and it showed in the splits. 72.2 down - 75.0 up - 71.9 down - 74.8 up - 66.3 down. Pushed hard on the last one, but I think if there was somebody to push me it could have been faster.

2.7 mile cool down. Total of 15.2 for the workout. Came home, the weight was down to 141lb, this means I need to eat and drink a lot.

Then I thought about all the things I had to do. I remembered a comment made by one Russian coach who coached high school runners. "Those teachers, they just do not get it. The guy has just finished a 20 K run, and they expect something from him. He cannot do it, he is as if had just  had 100 grams of vodka!"  The fatigue of a workout has an interesting effect on you. I think it is very good. It helps you lay aside the matters that are not important and pay more attention to the things that really matter. In the New Testament there is a story of Mary and Martha. Mary is listening to Christ, while Martha is busy serving guests. Martha gets upset because Mary is not helping her, yet Christ says that Mary has chosen the better part. Sometimes we fill up our lives with stuff, mostly not that important in the eternal scheme of things, and forget to take the time to choose the better part. I think the fatigue of a workout, combined with the experience of overcoming pain prior, has a tendency to take us from the Martha territory into Mary's territory and take the time to choose the better part.

Ran with the kids in the evening. Total of 17.1 miles for the day.
 

Ted was out of town, but I still had to run early to make it to the temple. Had a little bit of an upset stomach, but not too bad compared to the rest of the family.  Set two records this morning. Average HR was 105. And I made 5 bathroom stop. So the records were related. However, HR was still low, around 110-112 most of the way. I ran 1:17:37 for 10.05. Aside from the stomach issues, felt good.

Ran to Team Provo practice and pushed the stroller most of the way. Total of 14.2 miles. 

Ran the standard 5 mile tempo this morning. Did not realize I would feel the consequences of the stomach problems yesterday. I was able to eat simple foods and drink liquids, but I was not nearly as hungry as I should have been. It did show in the tempo run. First mile in 5:30, things are going well. Next 0.5 in 2:44, now I am a second ahead of the 5:30 guy. HR gets up to 160 like it should. Then the next quarter in 1:23 followed by 1:24, HR dropping. Maybe just lost the focus. Pressed harder, HR stuck at 158, next two quarters 1:24 and 1:26, 13:51 at the turn-around. Now something is definitely wrong, but I can still hang in there and run a bit under 28:00, I thought. Next quarter in 1:27, that is actually not too bad for the 180 turn recovery, but then the next two are trouble - 1:25 with HR dropping down to 156 in spite of the increased mental effort (5:42 for the mile), followed by 1:27. OK, odd problem, this usually happens around mile 15 in the marathon except it does not feel the same way because the muscles are feeling tired and the joints start to hurt, but this time the muscles and joints are just fine, but there is still very little glycogen in the legs. I've had this experience a couple of times before. Last year, shortly before DesNews marathon after three weeks of no less than 15 miles a day with at least 6 at sub-6:00 pace this happened in a 10 mile tempo run. And in October of 2004 I tried a tempo run after getting a similar ingestion bug and not eating very much for a day.

Next two quarters in 1:30, HR goes down to 152. But it feels hard, I am putting out my top tempo muscular effort. If I did not look at the watch, I would have said I was still running at 5:30 pace! Then 1:28, 4th mile in 5:55. Next quarter uphill in 1:31 followed by 1:30. With 600 to go I started feeling stronger and was I able to pick it up to 5:30 pace again. HR got up to 160, and I ran the last 600 in 2:03 at a steady pace. 28:27 for the whole run, 5:49 for the last mile. The weirdest tempo run I've had in a while. I thought of cutting it short a few times, but decided to finish it for scientific as well as mental purposes.

The cool down was also unusual. A tempo run would normally put my HR even at the cooldown pace (8:00 mile) to at least 127. Today HR stayed at 118. I considered cutting the mileage today given the upcoming 30 K on Saturday and the glycogen depletion caused by the stomach problems on top of high mileage, but decided to stick with the program. Cooled down until I was at 13 miles for the run. Came home, and still was not hungry, bad sign. Drank some raspberry tea, that got things going. Was able to eat three normal size meals afterwards, and now feeling hungry as I am typing this.

I did much better than Sarah in the stomach area, though. She was throwing up last night. So were Joseph and Jacob. Benjamin did not throw up, but was not able to eat much.

Ran with the kids in the afternoon. Then went to the USATF meeting after dinner with Benjamin and Jenny. Benjamin gave me our mile splits as we drove, a new way to entertain an 8 year old (as well as a 34 year old) while driving.

I have always been curious about the negative feedback mechanisms that kick in once the muscular glycogen is low. I know that some people have them more developed than others. I remember in the Top of Utah Marathon 2005 at mile 17 I was running low on fuel. The pack made a surge, and Demetrio Cabanillas Jr not only went with them but he actually was a very active participant in that surge. Had they told me the race ended at 18 I would not have been able to stay with them. Then he came back to me at 21 even though I had already slowed down to a 7:00 mile premature cool down. He obviously had a lot less glycogen left at 17, but he did not have my negative feedback mechanisms to stop him in the surge. I often start my marathons aggressively, and hardly ever run an even or negative split. It is not uncommon for me to hit a half in a time that would be under a minute slower than I would have raced it all out. However, I do not recall running slower than 7:10 pace at the end of a marathon in the last 6 years. I think my negative feedback when glycogen is low is very strong, perhaps maybe even so strong that it inhibits my shorter races. But it saves my rear end when I make bad pacing decisions in the marathon.

Easy run with Ted in the morning. Started out at 8:00, then gradually progressed to 7:00. HR was consistently 124 at 7:00 pace, that is about 4 beats per minute low for me. Ran with the kids in the evening, and added some more, still with the kids, but the non-running ones this time, and they were in the stroller. In fact all of the evening running was done with a double stroller. 30 K race tomorrow, it is going to be very interesting.

Added a new feature to the blog. You can now change the logging template. There are some limitations - it has to be already there among the pre-existing ones (I still have to create them manually), and you can only change to the one that has compatible set of fields with what you currently have. And of course, being in beta it may give you a surprise. Send me an e-mail if it does.

Striders 30 K in Ogden, 3rd place. Actual finish time was 1:50:38, but I took the wrong turn on the last mile and ended up adding an extra 0.24 that also added a downhill followed by a steeper uphill than the original course to make up. Fortunately, my Course Tool helped estimate the difference. It said at 5:50 flat pace equivalent, the wrong way would have taken 1:38 longer. The race directors apparently overheard me talking about the wrong turn and adjusted my time. At least, I had 1:50:38 on watch, and my official finish time was 1:48:37. This is actually a very good guess at what I would have run without the wrong turn. The detour alone cost me 1:38 physically. Half way through it I realized I was off the course, and I was not sure how much I was adding. I saw a big hill to make things worse. I lost the focus because the goals I've set for myself earlier now had to be readjusted. The natural tendency in that situation is to ease off to a comfortable pace at least for a while. Had I been on the normal course, I would have seen my split at 18 miles and would have shifted gears to get a solid sub-1:49:00. Nevertheless, the mishap did not change the placing - Paul and Steve were too far ahead, and Ken Richardson was too far behind.

Coming into the race, I was just planning on a long tempo on tired legs. Stomach flu on Wednesday while doing high mileage did not help with glycogen stores. Or maybe it did, after all. I did not back off on the miles on Friday, but I was panic-carboloading Thursday night and all day Friday. Ted brought me some Hornet Juice, which makes you burn more fat during the run. I think that definitely helped.

Paul and Bob took off, Steve and I followed them, and quickly caught them about 0.5 into the race. Then we ran like friend on a long run for a while, very conversational, telling stories, etc. I was not much of a conversation partner, but I did chip in when I could. I was amazed at how conversational the other three were at sub-5:50 pace on rolling hills at 5000 feet. I felt sluggish in the first three miles, then started feeling better, and after 5 I started feeling really good, although not as good as Bob, Paul, and Steve. Mile splits were (going by the markers) 5:50 - 5:54 - 5:46 - 5:42 - 5:43. We were rolling a bit down, but still we were rolling. 28:55 at 5 miles. At 6 miles I missed the Gatorade from the hand of the volunteer, and stopped to get it being very concerned about bonking later on. Then I was able to close the gap. During the early miles, HR was around 154. When closing the gap, HR hit 163, and it felt sustainable for a while, although not the whole race.

Then we started a gradual ascent at about 1% grade. There was a 5:50 mile at HR of 158, and then on the mile from 8 to 9 the effort picked up. Were still on the climb, and the split was 5:41. My HR hit 161, and I started to hurt. I started feeling more confident in my glycogen stores and decided to skip the next water stop, just to try to hang on at fast pace longer, then maybe they will end the surge, and I might have company for another couple of miles. But they were running very strong not letting up at all. I got dropped at 9.25, and eased off to a nice marathon pace effort. HR was at 155. 57:52 at 10 miles. Now we are on the Ogden Marathon course and going in right direction. Next mile in 5:40, downhill, but into a bit of a headwind. Another mile in 5:43. This is good, I am almost going the same pace I did in the half-marathon, and I am further along into the race than I was back then. And it hurts a lot less in spite of the mileage.

The downhill quickly ended, now the nasty rolling hills, and this time we are rolling up. Still doing slightly sub-6:00 miles, that is very good this late on those hills. 13 mile split was 1:15:14, that makes 1:15:53 half. I was very happy about that half. Three weeks earlier I raced a half that dropped quite a bit  of elevation (I think about 600 ft) in 1:14:29. This one maybe dropped 50-100 feet net, but the rolling and climbing was much more serious than in the half earlier. And this is en-route in a 30 K!

1:27:08 at 15 miles. Very encouraging, still going sub-6:00. Next mile in 5:55, followed by 6:07 on a more steady uphill. Nothing to complain about. And then somehow I ended up following the Ogden Marathon course instead of going straight to the Red Moose Lodge. Then I see a downhill. I do not remember that downhill being at the end of the half. Bad sign. Then I see the road ahead of me that I know leads to Ogden. Downtown Ogden is 12.5 miles a way. I was planning on a 30 K tempo today, not a 30 mile tempo! Fortunately, I saw a turn-off to the Red Moose Lodge, and now I new where I was. So I ran to the finish the best way I knew. Backed off just in case.

At the finish, I found out that Bob's calf decided to give me $50. He cramped up and was forced to stop at 16 miles. So I ended up 3rd, and that also gave me 3rd in the whole series. Paul and Steve ran amazingly well, especially Steve coming back from running a marathon a week earlier. 1:45:18 for Paul, and 1:45:33 for Steve. Just think about it - 3x10 K back to back each in a bit over 35:00 on average at 5000 feet on rolling hills and no elevation drop a week after a marathon!

Ran with the kids in the evening. Another high mileage week. 

Easy run with Ted in the morning. Standard 10.05. Started out slow, then gradually sped up. Did a pick-up for 0.5 mile in 2:44 in the middle. Ran with the kids in the evening. HR a little higher today probably due to warmer weather. Saw it above 130 at 7:00 pace a few times at the end.

Ted joined me for my speed workout this morning. This workout was meant to be unpleasant. I do not understand the physiology behind it, but I know from experience that it brings great results. Something happens to the mind and body, and I start running better on every distance from 5 K to the marathon. I think running fast enough to make it properly unpleasant is the key.

Due to the lack of time we did not go to the Provo Canyon today, and did it near my house on the Provo River Trail instead. So it was all flat compared to the Provo Canyon, only occasional mild grade. Warm-up, then 5x400 with 200 rest, very nice slow jog, alternating directions. 71.5 - 71.8 - 70.5 - 71.5 - 69.8. HR hit 160 at the end of the interval and was back down to 100 at the end of the recovery at first, then it became 110 on the later intervals. I thought this stretch was a slight downhill the other way, but apparently not - steady 0.5 - 1.0 difference both for me and for Ted as we changed the direction. There was no noticeable wind going either way.

Then a jog to the start of the tempo run. We did not have an official 3 mile mark, and did not feel like doing a 180 at 2.5, so we just went by the GPS for the last 0.5. First mile in 5:25, next 0.5 in 2:42. HR got up to 160. Then started losing it a bit - 2:45, 5:27 for the mile. Next 0.5 in 2:46, 13:38 at 2.5. I would have been slower, but I noticed HR dropped to 158, and pressed harder to bring it back up to 160. I was happy that I could run 5:32 pace keeping HR under 160, but not happy about struggling to hold it. However, there was a positive development. As I put in more effort, the quads tensed up. This usually means I am about to start running slower than 5:40. But this time I was able to just keep running with tense quads and hold the pace. I even sped up on the last 0.5 hitting it in 2:42. 16:20 for the 3 miles.

Some more jogging, and now the final part of the workout. Another 5x400 session. We were running out of time, so we just did it coming back to Geneva Road, which is a subtle uphill most of the way, and there is one quarter where it is not so subtle. 72.3 - 73.8 (through the parking lot) - 72.1 - 73.4 (non-subtle uphill) - 69.0. It felt good to be done.

Did a long cool-down. Total of 14.15 miles for the workout. Ran with the kids in the evening.

Easy run with Ted in the early morning. Both of us were tired and were happy to plod along through the first 4 miles at about 8:15 average. My HR sat below 110, but the pace felt fast. Then as usual, I finally woke up. HR started hitting 120, and the pace got up to 7:30. I started feeling strong, and felt like running fast, but I knew better since this was a recovery run. We sped up a bit and finished our 10.04 miles in 1:17:34. The moral of the story - if the run feels hard, do not call it quits until you get to the 4 mile mark, your body may just be taking its time to get going.

Ran with Julia, then took Benjamin and Jenny to the Team Provo track practice. This gave me some more mileage, most of it pushing them in the stroller.

It was raining this morning and it was fairly cold. Did my regular 5 mile tempo. Ted helped me with the pace on the first and on the last mile. First mile - 5:32, then 5:35 on the next. Next quarter in 1:23, but then hit some headwind plus caution before the 180 turn to not trip. The caution was needed, I slid pretty well trying to stop. The quarter was 1:26, so I got 13:56 at the time I started sliding. When I finally transitioned and changed direction, it was 13:58. Tried to pick it up to get back on pace. 16:47 at 3 miles, 5:40 for the mile with all the adventures. However, then I started getting cold apparently. Next quarter in 1:26. Tried to push it, was only able to get back up to 1:25. HR got to 155 and refused to go any higher.

Hit the next mile in 5:41, 22:28 at 4 miles. Now I need 5:32 to get 28:00, but as cold and wet as I am, it does not look like it is going to happen. But Ted knew how to get me going. He started a bit ahead of me. Now my hunting dog reflex kicked in, I think if I were a dog I would make a good hunting dog. Next quarter uphill in 1:25, then 1:24, and 1:23. HR got up to 157. I kept closing on Ted but he would strategically speed up. With a quarter to go I saw that if I ran 1:20 I would get the "impossible" 28:00. I pushed harder. There was one hunting dog reflex inhibitor. I knew that Ted was running only a mile and with some energy to spare, and that I did not have a chance to outrun him in the kick. I think with that knowledge removed I would have pushed harder. But I did manage 1:20, 28:00 for the run, and 5:32 for the last mile.

Jogged down to make the total of 13 miles for the run. Got home soaking wet and cold. My right knee refused to bend for about 10 minutes, something odd with the circulation from the sudden change of temperature. The shower felt good.

In the evening went the Benjamin's track meet at Timpangos High School. Ran with Jenny and Julia. Then watched Benjamin race. He first ran 100 meters in 18.7 taking second place in his age group (8 and under). I think the guy that beat him was about 18.2, and the other two were a couple of seconds behind. Not bad speed for a natural distance runner, I was very happy. I told him he could start running 2 miles a day regularly once he broke 19.0 in 100 meters and 7:00 in the mile. My philosophy - measure the biological age by performance in a short distance and a longer distance, and train at the volume appropriate for the biological age. So I said, 2 miles day after you are 8, and you are not 8 until you've run those times.  So this fulfilled the first requirement.

Then he ran 1600. It was an odd race. A bunch of boys and girls of all ages, not a big group, and all significantly older than Benjamin. All kinds of age divisions. Benjamin was running in the 12 and younger. He started out last, then passed a guy, then another. First lap in 1:40. Next lap in 1:48. Passed another guy, I think. Then on the third lap he caught up to an older boy that would not let him pass. First it was in a good way - he would speed up. I've taught Benjamin what to do in that situation. Pull along side, breathe as hard as you can to make your presence very noticeable, pretend you are passing, get him worked up, then draft behind through his surge. When his surge end, do that again. Repeat until he stops doing surges at a good pace, then pass him for good. It works on kids, but it surprisingly works almost as well on some exceptionally competitive adults. So Benjamin did just that. However half way through the lap, his competitor was over his ability to surge, and started blocking Benjamin's way as he was trying to pass. They went like a couple of drunks for the next 200 meters. Finally, Benjamin managed a good surge and took off for good. Next lap in 1:47. Not bad for all the "drunk" maneuvers. He also started closing in on the leaders. Passed another runner on the kick with 25 meters to go and finished 4th overall with 6:55, last lap in 1:40. Won his age group, though. Only 13 seconds behind the overall winner, who happened to be an older girl. This made him officially 8, a sub-7:00 miler, and earned him his own personal Palm Pilot.

Easy run with Ted in the morning. Ran out standard 10.04 mile course very relaxed. Then I went for some additional miles. First wanted to do 2 more. Then decided to make it half marathon. Felt good, picked up the pace a bit to sub-6:40. Right before the turnaround saw a runner going in the opposite direction. Turned around, and the same hunting dog instinct kicked in. I started chasing him at about 5:40-5:50 pace. He soon came into view, but then disappeared, probably took another route. However, I was already running at a good pace, and did not feel like slowing down. So I ran at that pace all the way home. Finished the 13.11 miles in 1:35:59.

Ran with the kids in the afternoon. This puts me at 15.46 for the day. 10 mile tempo run tomorrow, hopefully with Steve if he can make it.

Tempo run with Ted in the morning. Cold and windy. 6 years ago I liked it colder than warmer. Now I have been running better in the temperatures on the warm side. Lots of bathroom trips. No upset stomach, really, at least nothing felt wrong other than the need to go. Maybe I have been eating more than I could digest efficiently.

Standard 10 mile tempo on the Provo River Trail. After a short warmup, I let Ted go with a 2 minute head start. Felt sluggish and unmotivated, but at the same time strong inside. First mile in 5:56, then 5:53, 14:47 at 2.5 (2:58). Gusts of headwind are not helping. HR at 145 finally. This is really odd. The breathing is almost like in an easy run, but the muscles do not want to go. I decided I was not going to make them until the second half. Coasted along through the next 2 miles. Started feeling better around 4.5, got HR up to 150, hit the uphill mile in 5:49, 29:31 at 5 miles (14:44). Another 180 turn, more gusts of wind. Was on pace for 14:30 for a while for 2.5, but the headwind brought me back down to barely sub-6:00 pace. Passed Ted right before the turnaround. 44:10 at 7.5, 14:39 for 2.5.

Decided to do whatever it takes to keep HR above 155 on the last 2.5. With the cold and the wind it was not easy, had to dig in and push it mentally quite a bit. Next 0.5 in 2:49, tailwind was helpful in getting going. Then it stopped and became cross/head. Battled through the next mile in 5:46, HR did get up to 155. Pressed harder on the last mile, managed it in 5:37, last 0.5 in 2:45, last 0.25 in 1:21. HR hit 163 on the kick. Total time 58:22.8, last 2.5 in 14:12, last 5 in 28:51.

Turned around, met Ted, finished with him. Jogged back to the house, woke up Benjamin, we ran to his Team Provo practice. Ran around the track there with a guy named Steve whose daughter also trains with Team Provo and won the 1600 meter race that Benjamin was in. Then pushed Benjamin back in the stroller after the practice. Total of 20.15 miles for the run.

Ran with Jenny and Julia in the afternoon. Taper time for Ogden, next week will be a bit lighter, but still probably over 80.

Easy run with Ted in the morning. Ran 10.04 in 1:09:50 - chased down the 7:00 mile guy. Picked it up on the last 0.5, last quarter in 1:28. HR was normal - in the first half hovered between 122 and 126 at 7:00 pace, on the second half hovered around 130 at 6:45 pace. Got up to 148 at 5:50 pace at the end. Ran with the kids in the evening.

Tempo run with Ted in the morning. Short warm up. Good weather, ideal conditions. Little cold maybe, 55 degrees or so, no noticeable wind. Tapering this week. My standard routine is to run short aggressive marathon pace tempo runs at this stage. Ran the standard 5 mile tempo except at a lighter effort. Was lazy out of the blocks, first 200 in 45, first quarter in 1:28. Then started winding it up. 5:42 at the mile, next mile in 5:38. HR hovered around 145 up to 1.5, then gradually made its way to 150 by 2 miles. 14:09 at the turnaround (2:49), next quarter in 1:28, then 1:25, 17:02 at 3 miles (5:42). HR hit 154.Up to this point the pace felt rather relaxed, but now I started feeling some sourness in the legs. In the past this would result in having to apply a greater mental effort to hold the pace, and often even the top mental effort would not be enough - HR would stagnate or even drop, and so would the pace.

So I applied a greater mental effort. Next 0.5 in 2:49, followed by 2:47, 5:36 for the mile. HR gradually progressed to 159. The legs were still feeling sour, but I felt in control. Now I was 2 second ahead of the 5:40 guy, and decided to relax a bit. Not much relaxation on the uphill quarter - 1:26, HR at 160. Next quarter in 1:25, HR dropped to 158, but this was not a forced drop, I just relaxed to make it a more honest marathon pace. This was followed by 1:26. Now the 5:40 guy caught me, time to show him who's the boss. Sped to to 1:23 on the last quarter, HR hit 162. 28:18.6 for the whole run, last mile in 5:38, last 2.5 in 14:09, even split time wise, but really negative 7 seconds in terms of effort.

I was happy that my body responded to the sour legs condition with an increased HR instead of just quitting. I wonder if my cardiovascular training has been lacking somewhat due to the refusal of the nervous system to push harder past the 5:40 barrier. I am going to do a few more of those aggressive marathon pace tempo runs to deal a few more crushing blows to the sour legs syndrome.

Ran with the kids in the afternoon. Jenny ran a mile time trial. She is 6 years old. At the age of 5 one day (shortly before turning 6) she decided to show off her running ability to her babysitter and run him into the ground. He had to hang on for dear life on that run, and so did Benjamin. She ran a 7:41 mile. Since then she had not broken 8:00 until today.  We've tried several times, but she kept having confidence issues not believing that she could hold the pace. Yet once in a while she would do maneuvers during her runs that clearly indicated that she was not any less fit that she was before. We had a talk about faith and confidence, and taking a step in the dark before the light comes. Then I took her to the Provo River Trail. We did the run on an out and back course, first half about 0.5% grade up, then the same grade down on the way back. Not a fast course. I gave her a goal to break 8:00.  She ran 7:40 breaking her record by 1 second. Her splits were 1:56 - 1:59 - 1:55 - 1:50.

I just realized that Ogden Marathon does not do day of race packet pickup. That means I have to find a place to stay. All I need is some floor space at somebody's house. Ideally for three people - Ted, and possibly Steve Ashbaker in addition to myself. The host gets lots of free running advice, personalized training plan, a Russian lesson, a chance to visit with a real military helicopter pilot, and whatever else  we have to offer.

Easy run with Ted early in the morning. Ran 8 miles at about 7:30 average. It seems that our pace depends on whether we can find a good conversational topic. If we do, it is 7:30, otherwise it is 7:00. We found one today - discussed high school training, the importance of base mileage before doing speed work, how most high schoolers have it backwards, what would happen if fast black kids of West African (as opposed to East African) decent trained for distances, etc. Then we saw a skunk. Stopped to let him disappear. His tail was up and he was ready to strike. Finally the skunk was gone. We discussed the skunk for a little while, after that there was nothing to talk about.

To create a conversation topic we did a half mile pick-up. We ran the first quarter in 1;25, then Ted decided to get me going, and we ran the last quarter in 1:15. Legs felt strong. This gave us something to talk about for the rest of the run.

Ran with the kids in the evening. Took Benjamin to his Team Provo Practice. On the way back stopped at the grocery store (Maceys) to get some food. I figured the last 1.8 miles I was carrying about 150lb of weight in the stroller. Fortunately most of the way home was either flat or 0.5% grade down. Was able to go about 7:10 pace on the way down comfortably. Scared an oversized lady under a bridge - got going, could not stop, and there was not a lot of room to pass her.

Aggressive marathon pace tempo run again. Trying to attack the sour legs syndrome and also keep up the intensity while tapering. Ted joined me in the warm up and cool down. He was feeling sore from building a tree house yesterday and decided to keep things safe.

Short warmup, then the tempo starts. Standard 5 miles on the Provo River Trail starting at Geneva road. First mile in 5:41, followed by 5:37. HR was 146 at the mile, and 152 at 2 miles. 14:08 at the turnaround (2:50), then 16:57 at 3 miles (2:49, 5:39). HR at 154. Moving along at a steady effort trying to keep the 5:40 guy at bay, and getting ready for the last mile. Next mile in 5:39, 22:36. HR at 158, the effort feels hard but not miserable, like if I had a pack with somebody doing the work up front in the marathon, I'd run in it, at least for the first half. Good news - no sour legs! And the effort feels easier than Tuesday.

Now the last mile, the moment of truth. Was I just tricking myself into thinking the pace was not hard, or am I really more fit. To test, I decided to put myself mentally into threshold gear and see what happens. The first two quarters are 1:22 each. That is very good, as the first one is steady uphill, and the second rolls. HR hit 164, the mind gets a little fuzzy, but that is normal for me when I am in shape. When I run my best halves/10 milers/15 Ks I am able to go into a trance to where it hurts like a 10 K, maybe even a 5 K when I am not ready for a good 5 K, but I can tolerate it for an hour with proper mental focus. Again, no sour legs! The heart just picks up the work and pumps the oxygen like it should instead of quitting like it used to.

Feeling that I've proved my point I eased off a bit and hit the next quarter in 1:24, that's too much, I want to be sub-5:30 on the last mile. Picked it up on the last and finished it in 1:20. HR hit 167, it felt hard but sustainable with proper mental focus. 28:04.8, last mile in 5:28.

Cooled down with Ted, 8.7 for the run. Ran with the kids in the evening, total of 10 for the day. Now this is starting to look like a taper. 

Ran with Ted in the morning. Tapering, so did only 8. Ran one mile fast. First quarter in 1:26, the rest in 1:22, total time 5:32. Ted was driving, I was following. Felt very good at 1:22 pace, so I could I first thought I had made a mistake in calculating the split.

Ran with the kids in the afternoon.  

Bridal Veil 10 K. 35:35, first place. This was one of Curt's races. Which means I am in charge of the timing system, so I'd better get to the finish line first. Last night I decided to write some code to automate the timing system setup before a race. Of course, I started too late and was not done by bed time. So I had to get up at 5:10 AM to finish the job. Hopefully the effort will pay for itself later on in other races - now I can do in 5 minutes what used to take me an hour manually.

Took the lead from the start. Had company for the first quarter. Tried to run a threshold effort. The course goes from Timpanogos Park in the Provo Canyon uphill past Nunn's, under the bridge, up the old highway, over the bridge, past Bridal Veil Falls on the trail, then over the bridge back to the old highway further up, then turn around and come back, expect this time just straight, no bridges. Finish a bit further back from the start in the park, a slight uphill.

Splits by the GPS, which worked very well today. First mile was decent, not a lot of headwind - 5:43. On the second mile the headwind picked up and the grade increased. Caught up to some bikers, asked them to speed up and pull me, they did, that helped. Next mile in 5:58.  HR was 162 until the bikers, then with them 166 and we hit a quarter in 1:26. Third mile had more uphill grade, and even more headwind - 6:23. However HR dropped to 158, not surprising. With all the timing system stress the nervous system was not in top shape. Plus not having the competition did not help either.

Checked the lead after the turn around - it was more than I thought - about 2:00. Had a hard time shifting gears - saw HR stuck at 155 for a while, then it eventually progressed to 158. Next mile in 5:30, followed by 5:26. Started getting into the rhythm on the last mile. The pace started feeling easier, HR got up to 162, ran the mile in 5:24 although the grade became less steep. Got to the finish, 1:11 for the last 0.21 uphill, and went straight to the timing system. Won the race by 4:50. Estimate ran an equivalent of about 34:10-34:20 flat 10 K.

Ted paced his son James to a very good time for this course - 46:52, 10th place overall out of 125 people. Benjamin came in shortly thereafter in 50:36 in 24th place. Not bad for a eight year old kid in his first 10 K. I was amazed at how well he had kept the pace, and how strong he finished off only 12 miles a week. And this course was a beast, not quite as bad as the Strider's but not too far away. It does climb 250 feet in the first half. Sarah's training partner Adrianne ran a PR of 51:10. Sarah ran about a PR equivalent (adjusting for the course difficulty) of 55:28.

Curt somehow managed to drop the bib tags, and that lost the finishing order. So we have the finishing times records, but matching them up with runners is going to be a challenge. Oh, well, life is not without adventures.

Ran a long cooldown with Ted while James, his brother Jared, and Benjamin played. I was surprised to see Benjamin running without difficulty when we got back, but still suggested we walk back to the car from the playground. Benjamin wanted to run, so we did. He ran so fast that Jared and James could not keep up. Afterwards at home I checked his muscle condition by having him walk up and down the stairs. He did it with no problems. Wow!

Ran with Jenny and Julia in the afternoon.

Easy run with Ted in the morning. Tapering, so only 8 miles. Ran one tempo mile. Ted set the pace. He did not look at the watch, and I did not tell him the splits. I was surprised at how hard he pushed it. Then after we finished I asked him how fast he thought it was. He said it was slow, about 5:38. I enjoyed watching his amazement as I announced that our actual time was 5:17. This is his record since he returned from Iraq. Our quarter splits were 1:19, 1:18.5, 1:19.5, 1:20. I could feel a big difference between 1:19 and 1:20. 1:20 was a lot easier. This is a very good sign. It means my threshold is very close to 5:20. If a certain pace is way faster than your threshold, slowing down by 5 seconds per mile still keeps it in the zone of pain. If it is way slower than your threshold, slowing down by 5 seconds per mile still keeps it the zone of comfort. But when you get right to it, within no more than 5 seconds per mile, that is when slowing down by very little makes a huge difference in perceived effort. HR got up to 160 at the end of the mile. Another good sign - after 0.5 of brisk jogging it went back down to 121. This is another indicator that the effort was to a large extent aerobic. When it is more severely anaerobic, HR hovers at 130 for a few miles unless I slow down to 9:00 pace.

I noticed that we were 30 seconds behind the 7:00 mile guy with 0.5 to go, and initiated the chase. We got him. Clocked the last 0.25 - 1:26. The first one by the GPS was 1:23, but I am not 100% sure it was accurate. I did feel that we eased off a bit on the second one, though, so it could have been right after all. Total time was 55:48.

Ran with the kids in the evening. Benjamin surprised me with a powerful surge on the last quarter. I looked at him and thought that if  his legs were a bit longer I'd be in serious trouble, especially pushing a double stroller. He hit the last quarter in 1:39.

Last Saturday the Fast Running Bloggers had quite a sweep in various road races. Steve Ashbaker, Ruth, Cody, Bill Cobler, Breanna, Dave Holt, and myself won. John Kissane, Cheston, and James Barnes took second. Bill Campbell (the Wild Bull) and Chris Rogers took third. So that is 7 first  places, 3 seconds, and 2 thirds - 12 top three finishes overall in just one day. Add to that Ryan Woods who ran 1500 meters taking 10th in a very competitive meet with the time of 3:47 - something that would have won with a large gap in almost any other race. We are starting to show some muscle. Keep up the good work, guys!

Final speed workout before Ogden. 3 mile tempo run from Geneva Road on the way to the Utah Lake, then 180 at 1.5 and back. Slight down the first mile, mildly almost invisibly rolling (I think you'd see it better if it were not for the trees) everywhere, slight up on the last mile. Ted ran the first mile with me, we started out slow - first 600 in 2:06 even paced, but then picked it up to a steady 5:20 pace. Hit the first mile in 5:26, HR at 152. The pace felt comfortable.

Without Ted the second mile felt harder. I could tell I slowed down a bit, but at the same time, it felt harder. Next two quarters 1:21, 1:21, 8:08 at the turnaround. Recovered from 180 turn in 1:24 (43,41), then got back into the groove, next quarter in 1:22, 10:54 at 2 miles, HR at 159. Ted gave himself a bit of a head start, but nothing I could not close quickly with a surge. I saw 100 in 19 seconds, and knew he was going to stir some trouble. So I tucked in behind him and hung on for dear life.

The head started getting a little fuzzy, but the pace still felt sustainable, HR hit 165. Checked the split at the quarter, wow, 1:17 uphill. The bad news was that it hurt. The good news was that it was fast. Ted eased off a bit on the next quarter, 1:20. Next one in 1:21, and then the last one in 1:20. 16:12.2 for the run, 5:18 last mile. Actually it was probably 5:17.6, because Ted got 5:18.7, and he started a bit ahead, and finished a bit behind. Not bad, equivalent of 5:07 perfectly flat. HR got up to 168. The last mile was very painful. Ted said he's never heard me breathe that hard. This is a good sign, it means I am getting into shape. I ran this tempo run alone in 16:22 a couple of weeks before Richmond in 2003. As far as I remember, I went out at 5:20 pace, but then could not hold it in that tempo, and was down to 5:35 on the last mile. In Richmond, I was doing qualify or bust. So I hit the first half in 1:12:09, maintained 5:30 pace to 15, then it was bust, but not too bad - finished in 2:31:45.

Good sign - HR was down to 124 after a mile of jogging, and then stayed there at sub-8:00 pace. This is an indication that although that tempo hurt, it was primarily an aerobic effort.

Ran with the kids in the evening. Let Benjamin take off on the last quarter and watched him from a distance. He was running 7:30 pace, he told me afterwards it felt comfortably hard, but his form looked like he was jogging. This is a very good development, to feel the pain of the hard pace, but still look relaxed.

Really tapering today. Ran easy 4.5 with Ted in the morning. Did a tempo mile. Was trying to do a very honest marathon pace. Did 1:25 - 1:24 - 1:23 - 1:22, 5:34 for the first mile of the standard 5 mile tempo. HR maxed out at 146. The pace felt very relaxed, like if I were racing today and was running alone, that is how fast I would have been starting out.

Ran with the kids in the afternoon. 

Same run as yesterday with Ted in the morning. Ran the same tempo mile. A bit more cautious today, did it in 5:40 with the quarters of 1:25, 1:25, 1:24, and 1:26. HR maxed out at 146, but got there a lot faster. The effort felt harder in a way, but that does not worry me. 

Ran with the kids in the evening. Benjamin ran in the Hershey Track Meet. There was a strong headwind that made his 100 m slow - 20.82. Then about a couple of minutes later he demolished his almost year old 400 meter PR running 1:32.44. He also threw a softball 46.8 feet, or about 14 meters. This does not tell me much, though. Can anybody tell me how throwing a softball compares to throwing a tennis ball?

Ted's son James ran 800 in 2:39, and then 400 in 72 winning both events. Danielle Menlove was there, and thoroughly embarrassed the boys in both 800 (2:29) and 1600 (5:23). Interestingly enough, her 1600 meter PR is 4:54, she's run 1500 in 4:34 and won the Nationals in her age division. She is 13 years old. I remember how two years ago she won the Salt Lake Classic 5 K overall passing Michelle Simonaitis on the last mile. We do not need to go to Kenya to find some running talent.
 

Easy run with Ted in the morning. Ran a tempo mile in 5:36.7. HR got up to 147. 

Ran with the kids to pick up VanGoGo from Computune. We had to replace the fuel injection system computer and things that go with it. Drove to Ogden with Ted in the evening. We stayed with my friend Nate and his family in Farmington. 

Brief report on the Ogden Marathon, more to follow later. 2:32:00, 6th place. Ahead of me: Paul Petersen (2:26:24), Steve Ashbaker (2:29:31), Joe Wilson (2:29:33), Neal Gassman (2:30:05), and Mike Dudley (2:30:51). What a race, especially considering the hot conditions on the second half! First half 1:14:36, second half 1:17:24. Last 10 K in 37:16, pleased with that considering the weather. Special congratulations to Paul and Steve on running PR's in spite of the course and weather challenges.

Now incremental full report, will do it in parts as I have time. Steve and I had a plan to run together for the first 15 and then make it race from there. It worked out quite well. After the first two warm-up miles in 5:42 and 5:40 we settled into a nice 5:30-5:35 pace and it felt just right. Paul went ahead as we anticipated, while Neal ,Joe, and Mike Dudley hung back. For those who do not know, Mike Dudley is a 2:14 marathoner that is currently somewhat out of shape. I am not sure why he decided to run Ogden, but he was there. At first I did not know who he was, but then the suspect revealed his identity upon questioning around mile 17.

We went through 5 miles in 27:56 (I am giving splits by the official mile markers, they were where they were supposed to me). Maintained good pace through 8, then slowed down on the rolling hills. 10 miles in 56:14. Next mile in 5:59. That was probably too much, but I wanted to make sure the pace felt relaxed. It was probably getting a bit warmer too, so the same effort now was not giving the same results. Mike Dudley caught us, and all three of us started working together. We sped up to 5:48, and then ran the steady uphill mile in 5:58. Hit the half in 1:14:36.

Steve started feeling a bit edgy, like he wanted to make a move. I told him to hold back until we were over the hill. I now started thinking race the second half, forget about the first. The first mile of the second half was 5:44. Missed the second one. We were moving along at about 5:50 pace after the hill. At the dam (17 miles), Steve made a move. Mike responded but fell back. I passed Mike, then he passed me back. I started feeling the effects of heat, and was not feeling energized. From that point I was just trying to keep my head above water (sub-6:00 pace).

Joe and Neal went by at around 19 miles. They were going strong. I got to 20 miles in 1:54:44. From that point I was trying to maintain a positive attitude. I was not unhappy about being on pace for 2:32 realizing that the heat was taking its toll. However, seeing the prize money run past me and not feeling the strength to chase it was discouraging. I decided to plod along and be ready to pick up roadkill if there was going to be any. It did not look like there was going to be, and there was not. I managed to stay sub-6 until mile 25, which is flat, even a bit rolling, and has a lot of tunnels on the trail. I did it in 6:08. When I got out on the home stretch, I decided it was finally safe to just go for it and give it all I had. I started seeing the quarter splits of 1:30. Saw 2:30:45 at 26 miles. Did the math, figured I needed 1:15 for 385 yards to get 2:32:00. Sprinted as hard as I could and pulled it off. This is incidentally a PR for the last 385 yards of a marathon as far as I recall, or at least one of the fastest times.

I promised myself that I would go and find Dan on the course afterwards if I were feeling half-decent. I knew that out of everybody in the blog group Dan would be struggling the most in the last miles. I jogged a bit, the back was stiff. Stopped and talked with Scott Browning (The Siren) and Bob Hintze. Saw Ted finish, then started jogging again. Felt better this time. After a while felt confident in my ability to pace others in the 2:50 - 3:00 and change bracket. Saw Cody, he looked like he could use some help. He was doing better than I thought, he told me to run faster. He made me run a quarter in 1:34, I count that as marathon race pace in the miles. Sent him off to finish the kick, and went back to find Dan. Found him sooner than the worst I was expecting, actually closer to the upper range.  He should have been sub-3 or close based on his training and racing, but it was hot and it kept getting hotter. He ended up doing great for the conditions - 3:05:03, 7 minute PR, and  Boston Qualifier.

Ran with Julia in the afternoon. Benjamin and Jenny ran with Sarah and Adrianne tonight. The recovery is going well so far - legs are not sore, although a bit cramped from the heat. The biggest damage was in the big left toe, same as after 30 K.

Ran 5 miles with Ted in the morning. We caught the 8:00 mile guy and showed him who's the boss. We also found a live runner, but he stayed with us unlike the imaginary 8:00 mile guy. His name is Dave Bell. He has just run 2:43 in Boston, and owns a running store in American Fork (26.2 miles). He will be running with us tomorrow. For the single ladies (do we have any on the blog?), he is not yet married, hot material.

When Ted was done, I asked him to help me figure out the battery contact problem in Zhu (our other car, Ford Escort Wagon 93). He wiggled the cable around and Zhu was happy, it started. Ted is a good guy to know, always prepared, and a quick thinker, knows how to solve problems.

Ran another 1.84 miles. Then Sarah and Adrianne went for their run before it got too hot. Our kids were still asleep, but Adrianne's baby was awake and in the stroller already. So I took the stroller and circled around the block to make it 10 miles. Felt very good, smooth stride. Caught the 7:30 guy for the whole run.

The hamstrings became sore over the weekend. That is very good. My hamstrings are the primary sore muscles only after my best marathons. The only other times it happened that I recall were Top of Utah 2003 (2:27:46), St. George 2003 (2:24:47), and Ogden 2006 (2:30:03). Nevertheless, they feel fine after jogging a mile. There is a little bit of soreness in the shin muscles that flex the ankle (dorsiflexors), that is also a good spot for me to be sore. I recall being sore there a while ago when I would increase my mileage from 30 miles a week to 60. However, this has not happened in over 15 years as I have never been at 30 during that time.

Ran with the kids in the afternoon and evening, and added a little more. Total of 13 for the day.

My recovery from a marathon makes me wonder if perhaps I got to the point where my cardio and muscular fitness exceeds my neural capabilities. Try as I might, I cannot run myself into the ground. If this is right, then I should focus on neural training. I believe a good portion of it actually happens when you run. But at the same time, a good portion happens when you do not run. Beds make champions! I know some things about it, but there is a lot more to learn.

Recovery tempo run in the morning. Ted joined me for the warm-up and the cooldown. I suppose the term "recovery tempo" may sound contradictory, but I find this type of run very useful. It gets the blood going through the legs and gives you an overall pleasant feeling. It also measures how well you are recovering. And it helps maintain aerobic fitness through recovery.

I did the standard 5 miles on the Provo River Trail. My initial goal was to keep the 6:00 mile guy at bay. That was fairly easy, I decided at 0.5 to keep the 5:48 guy at bay instead and get sub-29:00. First mile in 5:47. Next mile in 5:42. They say the appetite comes while you are eating. Decided to keep 5:44 guy at bay. 14:21 at the turnaround (2:52), 17:14 at 3 miles (2:53,5:45). Next mile in 5:43. Got to close one more second on him. HR finally reached 155. Ran the next uphill quarter in 1:26 followed by 1:25.5. Saw Ted ahead of me and subconsciously sped up. Ran the next quarter in 1:23.5, followed by 1:20. Got 28:32.8 for the run, last mile in 5:35.

Hamstrings were not as sore as yesterday, but still sore. I could feel it during the tempo, but not much more than when running easy. I could really feel it at Dr. Jex's office during the massage. He also had my X-ray results. Since March my neck curve has improved from 27 degrees to 30 (ideal 35-45), forward head tilt from 5 mm to 2 mm (ideal 0), lower spine curve in sitting position from 5 degrees to 16 (ideal 35-45),  and lateral lower spine deviation from 8 degrees to 6 degrees (again sitting position), ideal 0.

Ran with the kids in the afternoon. 

Easy run with Ted in the morning. Dragged my feet along through 10 miles in 1:16:24, felt sleepy, avg. HR 113. We did run really early - 5:00 AM. Ran with the kids in the afternoon plus some more. The hamstrings felt a lot better.

Now some pictures from the Ogden Marathon with comments. First, this one:

Steve Ashbaker is finishing ahead of Joe Wilson. I have known Steve for 8 years. We've had many conversations. Steve has had a lot of struggles. I believe aside from Steve himself there is not anybody there who can truly appreciate better than me the significance of the event that this photo captures. Thus I feel responsible to provide a bit of background to help other appreciate it as Steve is too modest to do it himself.

Steve always wanted badly to be in the Joe-class, doubted that he could, and agonized over his inability to be there for years. Now here it comes! The seemingly impossible happened, and there was even a photographer to capture it. Joe runs the best marathon he's ever run in Utah in my opinion. Not timewise, but quality wise. Ogden course it not fast, and it was hot. I believe the only other time he ran a better race was his 2:21 in Austin in 2003. Joe ran for Weber State and rocked the boat. Steve was as far away from running at college age as one could be. And now as Steve turns 36 thinking a few months ago that he does not have much of a running future we fastforward through a few months of thorough training to see the dream come true: Joe gives it all, runs one of his best races, and yet Steve pulls away from him.

Now another picture that Ted pointed out to me - some food for thought:

You see myself next to Steve Ashbaker and Mike Dudley. The interesting part here is the size of my quads next to two runners that eventually beat me in that race. As Ted said, this definitely explains why I get no soreness in the quads. I cannot complain about that, but the mystery is how in the world they got so big. The obvious answer is this is a peculiarity of my running form. I do not do any weight lifting or special strength work with my legs other than running. I do not even run uphill very much. But I guess that is enough. I do not have to run uphill. I take uphill with me wherever I go. I suppose my form makes me work as if I were running uphill even when it is flat. Can I fix it? Yes I can. I do not quite see the end or exactly how, but I have faith that eventually I will. Faith is to believe in things which are not seen but are true. We have seen some things already that were not seen at first and were very easy to question, but proved to be true. I need to be patient and wait for my time. I've had one breakthrough already a few years ago which happened just like that - through faith. There is another one coming.