Breaking the Wall

A.M. 10.2 in 1:11:59. If you told me I'd be able to run this fast after feeling the trail with my feet but without looking at my splits I would have laughed. But somehow low 7:00 and later even 6:40, occasionally sub-6:40 started happening in spite of the slippage. Did a pickup to test if my recent attempts to massage out the scar tissue and other garbage in the right pectineus muscle did any good. The form felt smoother, the right glut was engaging better, but no miracle smoothness yet. Not surprising, easy come, easy go, it will take a lot of learning and then a lot of work to apply that learning to undo the damage that was done 23 years ago.

I spent the last ten years trying to find the culprit that makes me run funny. I think I've finally found it. At least I feel like the pieces of the puzzle are securely together, and I have an explanation I am content with for everything that happened and everything I've felt over the course of my running career. The culprit is the damaged right pectineus. Everything else is a consequence. 

Jenny ran with Sarah. 

Drove to SLC later in the morning to visit with Sarah's family. On the way there around 106th South on I-15 all of a sudden Sarah starts telling me that somebody she does not recognize is trying to say hi to us. She rolled down the window and had a brief conversation with the driver of a mini-van. I looked briefly, but then turned my eyes towards the road. I have only one working eye, so I really cannot look aside too much or I'll crash the car. The van had Colorado license plates. From that and Sarah's description of the people in the van I figured it was Nan and Aaron. This turned out to be correct. Aaron posted a comment in my blog confirming the encounter. Small world.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 17:13. Julia ran the first 1.5 in 13:38.  0.5 with Joseph in 4:40. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:56.

A.M. Ran 13.2 in 1:27:29 on the Uneventful Half course. The trail had good parts, and not so good. Still slippery almost everywhere to some extent. Did some pickups, some of them timed and measured. Of the ones timed and measured -  1.5 in 8:41, considered going 2.5, but the quads were tensing up, and I was approaching an area with more snow and ice, so I figured 1.5 was good. Then did about 0.7 hitting 1 K in 3:39 up a small grade and with some ice. Ran the last 1.5 in 8:59. Had some obstacles on that stretch. Two bridges where I had to slow down, on one I hit a 100 in 28 (7:32 pace), some snow drifts, and the last 0.14 on our street where I had to slow down to 6:40. Was pleasantly surprised when I saw with a quarter to go that I miscalculated my finish time projection, and that it was going to be a minute faster.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin and Jenny in 17:42. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:30. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:38. 0.25 with Jacob in 3:00. 

Day of rest. Went to church. This was the first Sunday of the month, so we had a Fast and Testimony meeting. We fast once a month, and then donate at least the amount we saved by not eating or possibly more as a fast offering. That money is used only for helping the poor. Tithing, which is 10% of our income, on the other hand, is used to support and expand church operations such as build and maintain chapels and temples. The clergy does not get paid.

The Elder's Quorum lesson was again on a General Conference talk. This time Elder Scott's from the October conference. He talked about how to hear the voice the Lord, and the blessings we receive when we intently listen and follow. 

A.M. 10.2 in 1:07:46. It was cold, 14 F, but I felt good and wanted to run fast. So after about 1.4 warm-up, I decided I would run fast until I was tired, hit too much snow/ice, or until I got to 2.5 miles of fast running. I was going to play it by ear on the pace, but I did want to monitor it.

I ended up doing 87-85-85-86(5:43)-84-84-86-85(5:39,11:22)-85-81 (14:08 for 2.5). All quarters 86 and slower were on the areas with more snow/ice. The road otherwise was decent, and I did not feel a whole lot of traction problems. However, when I pushed into the 84 quarter range (5:36 pace) I started feeling that the air I was breathing in was too cold. So I remembered a recent post on the blog about cold air at

http://fryrunner.fastrunningblog.com/blog-01-01-2010.html

That gave me some food for thought. I do not think it would be too inaccurate to say that for a runner to start feeling breathing problems in 14 F he needs to work as hard as I do at 5:40 pace. While that pace is sustainable for me for a while, it is very stressful. It would be a disaster for me to train at that pace all the time.

There is an adjustment that would need to be made in the comparison, though. The misery at 5:40 for me comes from the nervous system overload, and not so much from the aerobic stress. So perhaps a less aerobically developed runner would not overtrain as quickly breathing as hard as I do at that pace on his runs. But he would still overtrain unless he cuts his mileage a lot. And if he does, his aerobic development would not happen.

Jogged about half a mile to recover from the effort,  then gradually picked up the pace, and was running around 6:40 in about 2 miles without having to force it. That was a positive for me, good indication for the nervous system condition. Normally I want to run no faster than 7:30 for at least 4 miles after a similar effort. 

Was feeling energetic with 0.75 to go and decided to run it fast. Did 86-92-86 to finish the segment in 4:26. The reason for 92 was having to navigate around snow drifts on a slippery road. The last quarter also had some ice. 

Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah. 

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 17:01. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 12:51. A little dog helped us with the pace early on, and then Julia stayed excited and maintained a faster than normal pace for the rest of the run. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:35. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:45.

A.M. 10.2 with Jeff in 1:13:08. We started out slow as usual for this time of day, and dragged through the first 4 miles or so averaging slower than 8:00. Then we realized Jeff would be late for work, and picked up the pace eventually to sub-6:40. A couple of times we picked up to 6:00. First time to buy some time for my VPB, and second time at the end just because.

Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah. 

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 16:23. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:06. We picked it up in the last quarter and ran it in 1:30. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:16. He was on the move today. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:35.

A couple of weeks ago I asked the children a test question. Do fast runners run Stomp-Stomp or Woosh-Woosh? They all independently gave the correct answer without having to think (Woosh-Woosh). Then I tested their non-running cousins to see if maybe the answer was too obvious for anybody, and they struggled to understand what I was talking about.

A.M. 10.2 in 1:13:32. Ran the last 0.75 in 4:25.

P.M. Got my new Water Clogs. My Airwalk Clogs are actually in great shape after 700+ miles, except for slight wear patterns. I have been working on loosening up my right pectineus, and the recommendation in the Myofascial Release Manual was to get new shoes to facilitate the process of reprogramming the gait. So I plan to get a new pair of clogs every month or so for the next year. Fortunately you can get Water Clogs at Target online for $8.99. This time I got a smaller size so they would not fall off at higher speeds. 

 2 with Benjamin and Jenny in 17:28. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:15. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:29. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:35. 

A.M. Ran 10.25 in 1:19:49. Met Jeff on the trail. After about 8 miles we did a 0.75 pickup in 4:21 up about 0.5-1% grade along the river from the 500 N bridge to 800 N bridge. There was hardly any snow on the trail.

Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah. 

P.M. 2 with Benjamin. We took advantage of decent weather and ran a mile time trial. The goal was to try to break 6:00. We went through the quarter in 1:29, then 1:51 at 500. Then Benjamin started to fade. I kept the 6:00 pace to encourage him, and went through 0.5 in 2:59. But he was falling behind, so I stopped and waited. We hit 0.75 in 4:46. I yelled at him not to give up and do a good job in the last quarter. He regrouped some and ran a 1:34 closing quarter to finish in 6:20.

I think the barrier for him is mental. He does not yet fully believe that he can maintain 6:00 pace for the whole mile, so when it start to hurt he starts sandbagging. We discussed ways to try to break it. One idea is to open with an 85 quarter, which will make it hurt so bad that slowing down to 90 will appear like a jog. He liked the idea, so we might try it in a week if the weather permits.

1.5 with Julia in 12:57. We saw the BYU team. I told them they were fast. She asked me if they could run a one minute mile. I explained to her that one minute mile cannot currently be done on foot by a human.

0.5 with Joseph in 4:40. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:52. 

A.M. 10.2 with Jeff in 1:13:41. Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 17:17. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:14. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:38. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:25. That was a record for him.

A.M. Long(er) run with Jeff. 15.1 in in 1:48:01. Did a tempo on the Fast Running Blog 5 Miler course. Total time 29:32. Splits - 5:53 - 5:56 - half in 14:49 - 5:58 - 5:56 - 5:49 - second half in 14:43. The original plan was to tempo for 10 miles, but Jeff was still sick. The trail was decent. Some snow/ice patches, but mostly clear. However, it was rather cold - 18 F. I tried taking my hat off once we started going fast, but it did not feel good, so I put it back on.  The pace felt OK, sustainable for 10 without a heroic effort. I think I am starting to get back into shape some.

Immediately afterwards ran with the kids. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:35, 2 with Jenny and Benjamin in 16:59. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:02. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:35. 

Day of rest. Went to church.  The talks in the Sacrament meeting were on being spiritually clean. I had some thoughts following those talks. At the start of 3 Nephi 11 when Christ appears to the Nephites they hear a voice three times before they can even understand what it is saying. The voice is described as a voice a perfect mildness. That kind of voice cannot be heard or understood in noisy surroundings. Spiritually noisy that is. Feelings of anger, envy, hatred, selfishness, lust, etc are a source of that noise. For that reason I refuse to listen to certain types of music or watch certain movies. Not just because the Church says you should not. I know what it does to my ability to hear that voice of perfect mildness. It is difficult enough already to hear it, I am struggling as it is. I do not need to surround myself with things that make it more difficult.

A.M. Ran with Jeff. 10.1 total. We did another tempo on the Fast Running Blog 5 Miler course. The way I saw it was to finish the 5 miles we did not finish on Saturday. My total time was 29:06. Jeff kicked and dropped me with 200 to go and his time was 29:03. The splits were 5:56 - 5:49 - 5:52 - 5:51 - 5:38. The last five quarters 85-87-84-83-84. 

The temperature was 16 F and it was foggy. The trail conditions were similar to Saturday - mostly dry, occasional snow/ice segments.

I was happy to see that my last 4 miles of the tempo were done in 23:10, which is only 5 seconds slower than my race time for 4 miles in November, but sure with a whole lot less effort even though my quads started feeling strained a bit between 3 and 4 miles, and then caved in the last 200. 

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 16:30. Last quarter in 91. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:16. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:39. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:33. 

A.M. 10.1 alone (Jeff slept in) in 1:19:21. Did some 100 meter strides. Timed a 200 in 35.7. Felt strong, but clumsy. Legs felt like untrue wheels of a bike. Found Jenny and Sarah with about 0.4 to go. Jenny ran the last 0.4 with me. We timed a quarter in 1:46. Jenny ran a total of 2.5.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 16:53. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:07. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:38. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:35. 

A.M. 10.2 with Jeff in 1:19:58. 

P.M. 2 with Benjamin and Jenny in 17:23. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:18. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:43. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:44. 

A.M. 10.2 with Jeff in 1:19:56. Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 17:27. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:04. Jacob and Joseph did not run due to sore throat and cough. 

A.M. 10.2 with Jeff in 1:17:56. Did a quarter pickup in 71.6. It felt good, better than I expected. I was pleased with that. However, the form was still clumsy, still feeling like biking with untrue wheels. Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah.

P.M. All kids except Jenny and William had coughs. So they ran less and slower. 1 with Julia in 9:14. 1 with Benjamin in 9:17. 0.25 with Joseph in 2:35. Jacob got another day of rest. 

A.M. 15.2 with Jeff in 1:59:06. Did 5x400 with 400 recovery jog after about 2.4 warm-up. I was hoping to hit 72-73, but with Jeff's help it went a lot better. 71.0 - 70.1 - 67.8 - 68.7 - 70.5.

A thought on quarters or any intervals for that matter. The main purpose of those for a marathoner is to learn to run with good form. To accomplish that purpose we need to choose the pace carefully. The idea is to run fast enough so that anaerobic bear will ride you your back if you run with bad form, but slow enough that he will not ride on your back regardless of your form. So suppose with bad form the anaerobic bear starts feeling a whole lot heavier between 70 and 71. Or in other words if you hit that quarter in 70 with good form, you feel the comfort of 71. If you run it in 71 it is comfortable regardless of the form. If you run it in 69 it is uncomfortable regardless of the form.

So in that example - the problem with 71 is that you can keep running with bad form and you do not feel it. The problem with 69 is that it is so painful that even if you improve the form you do not notice a whole lot of difference. Another problem with 69 is that you start training anaerobic bear tolerance. Which means that the pace at which you feel the difference between a good and a bad form becomes faster without any improvement in long distance performance. This also has a side effect of faster fuel burn at any speed, which leads to a spectacular wall experience in the marathon. This is why it is so common to see a post-collegiate star that should be running no slower than 2:13 barely manage 2:30 or worse in his first marathon. Too much anaerobic tolerance from all the brutal track workouts in college (and likely post-college as well, since he is used to training that way), so the metabolism shifts, 5:00 is a jog for him, but all of a sudden he gets past 15 and he cannot do 6:00, then he gets past 20, and he cannot even do 6:30. This takes some time to overcome.

However, if you can just feel that balance of speed, you can achieve good results. The form will smooth out, and the performances in all distances from the mile to the marathon improve at the same time.

There is really no formula to calculate that speed even if you know your race performances because different people could have a different degree of anaerobic tolerance even if they have the exact same race times. You need to do it by feel. One way you would know you've done it right is that you'll notice that as the workout progresses your subsequent intervals keep getting faster and you cannot quite understand why because you are not working any harder. The form feels smoother, you start developing a greater measure of harmony and balance. You are able to enjoy the speed without paying too great of a price in terms of pain.

P.M. 2 with Jenny in 16:52. Julia and Benjamin, still sick, ran only 1 mile with us in 9:23. Then Jenny closed with a 7:29. 0.25 with Joseph in 2:36. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:35. 

Day of rest. Went to Church. In addition to our regular meetings we had the State Priesthood meeting at 7:00 AM. Very appropriately, the opening hymn was Rise Up, O Men of God.

In the Sacrament meeting we had a talk on obedience with a lot of examples from the Old Testament. Old Testament is full of examples when seemingly small acts of disobedience to God's commandments resulted in severe punishments. Lot's wife turned into a pillar of salt for looking back as they were fleeing Sodom. Achan was stoned for taking some of the riches of Jericho. The sins of Sabbath breaking and idol worship were punished by stoning as well.

I have wondered why the punishment had to be so severe. Perhaps because it was critical to the survival of Israel to learn that there is no such thing as a small rebellion against God. Failure to obey precisely has dire spiritual consequences. God has not changed. While similar sins today are not punished by being stoned, disobedience weakens our faith a lot. So we are still punished, but only by the natural consequences that come upon us as a result of our weakened faith instead. This will be worse than being stoned if we do not repent. Alma in chapter 12 talks about how when we stand before God and see our sins in plainness we would wish that the rocks could fall upon us to hide us from His presence.

On the other hand, obedience results in stronger faith, and it is something we are going to need in the last days very much. Even more after this life is over. Our faith, the strength of our spirit, is the only form of wealth we get to carry out of this world.

A.M. 10.2 with Jeff in 1:26:58. Hardly any snow on the ground, but very slippery due to ice. Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah.

P.M. 1 with Benjamin and Julia in 9:19. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:58. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:58.

A.M. Ran with Jeff. Met him on the trail. 11 miles in 1:29:19. Slippery, but with some dry stretches. Did a couple of pickups, all around 5:20 pace. 400 in 79, 700 in 2:21, another 400 in 81.

Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah. 

P.M. All kids are now back to full health. 2 with Benjamin in 16:58. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:00. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:30. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:55. 

A.M. Met Jeff on the trail. Ran 10.1 in 1:21:40. At the start the trail was OK, but then got slippery later on. 

Came to check my e-mail this morning. Oops. Last night I was making changes in the blog, and forgot to test everything before making them live. So this morning my mailbox was full of error reports. I have fixed it now, I think. Sorry about that.

At least it is nice to know that the blog is being used.

As a side effect, there is a non-working feature - graph view. You can pretend to use it. Hopefully in the next couple of days it will become a working feature. 

P.M. 2 with Benjamin and Jenny in 17:02. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 12:57. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:23. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:44. 

A.M. 10.35 in 1:19:54. Met Jeff on the trail. Ran the last 1.96 in 11:45. The speed was affected by three slippery tunnels where I had to go slower than 8:00, a rough road stretch, 5 turns, a snow-drift jump, headwind and wet road. I figure the effort was worth around 5:40-5:45 pace. About 0.37 away from the house I passed a car that was backing out of the driveway. It did not catch me for another 200 meters. It felt good to hold off a car, even if it was for only 200 meters.

P.M.  2 with Benjamin in 16:36, last quarter in 89. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:20. 0.5 with Joseph in 3:51, splits of 2:01 and 1:50. That is his new record for the distance. I asked him afterwards if it was hard. He said no. I never thought of Joseph as having a running talent when he was younger due to his shuffling stride. But running every day is fixing the problem. Jenny also shuffled a lot when she was 3 and 4, but by about the age of 6 she developed a smooth form. Ted once took her for a run and commented that she looked like a miniature elite runner.

That makes me wonder if the Kenyan "talent" comes mostly from running naturally and a lot at a young age. I believe the genes are only a rough outline of what you are going to be. That is a human and not a dog. The color of your skin, the shape of your face, etc. That type of stuff you cannot change.

But when it comes to athletic performance deep down we have all kinds of genes that could give us all kinds of talent. The question is which ones will get expressed and how much, and this is controlled to a great extent by what our mother does when she is pregnant and what we do at a young age.

Ran 0.25 with Jacob in 2:51. It was very windy, and I was concerned about how well he'd handle it, but he toughed it out.

A.M. Ran alone. 10.4 in 1:18:06. Did a couple of pickups. 200 up a small grade (0.5%) in 38, and 400 in 79. During the pickups the form felt better than I expected from the perception at easy pace.

P.M. Hailstorm/snow. 2 with Benjamin in 17:17. Julia ran the first 1.5 with us in 13:28. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:40. He liked the storm more than any of the children. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:43. Jacob wore a Russian fur hat.

The "virtual" graph feature is now somewhat functional. Buggy, but should work fine on normal templates if you have run in every one of the zones over the month. Otherwise you get the gist but looks a little funny. If you have non-running or really odd template you will see some interesting things. I'll fix the bugs over the next week.   Yes, and apparently I did not break the data entry, since I can type in this one.

A.M. Ran with Jeff. Lots of snow, but runnable. Decent traction. Ran 15.2 in 1:57:12. Just for kicks we did a hard quarter on snow. 80 seconds with about a 70 second effort.

Had a discussion on muscle spindles, and the effect of hypersensitive spindles in hip flexors on running economy. My suspicion is that a hip flexor is the worst place for a runner to have a hypersensitive spindle because it will make the hip flexor contract to resist the stretch during the later phases of the ground contact as the body moves forward and the hip is extended. Such an inopportune hip flexor contraction will then having a braking effect on the forward motion. There is really no other joint I can think of where excessive stretch reflex is so undesirable when running.

The reason we got so technical in the discussion is that I've read some research showing that a trigger point is a bundle of hypersensitive spindle tissue, I do have some nasty trigger point in my right hip flexors, and my range of motion in the right hip extension when running is noticeably worse than on the left side. To make things more interesting, stretching the hip flexors has never done anything for my running speed. I can improve the static range of motion, but the stretch reflex resistance is still there.

So I have a thought on the importance of flexibility for a runner. A number of studies demonstrated that faster runners are not that flexible. Yet it is fairly obvious that if you have zero flexibility you will not run at all. So what's up? I've wondered about it for a while and never had anything meaningful to say except the obvious "you just have to have a balance". Now I think I finally have something worth sharing.

The flexibility in and of itself is not important. What is important is to have low antagonist muscle resistance in the critical range of motion in critical motions in critical joints. The only critical joint/motion I can think of the is the hip joint and the motion of extension. You do need to have a reasonable range of motion, enough to run, but that is good enough. You do not need a gymnast's range of motion or anywhere close.  In some joints/motions the high antagonist resistance may actually be good. E.g. knee flexion and dorsi-flexion. Not so high that you get injured, but as high as you can get away with. So that means it is good for the quads and the calves to be a little tight.

But when it comes to the hip joint, things are a little different because resistance to hip extension is a braking agent. Normal running range of motion is not too difficult to achieve. But we do not want just the range of motion. Improving the range of motion does us zero good if we did not reduce the stretch reflex of the hip flexors in the normal running range of motion. And stretching in some cases (maybe more often than in "some cases") can make it worse by irritating the spindle tissue and thus increasing the stretch reflex. The fix in this case would be to work on the trigger points in the hip flexors to eliminate them and restore the muscles to their normal state.

The above, of course, is all just theory now. I'll have a chance to test it this year.

P.M.  2 with Benjamin and Jenny in 17:19. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:26. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:38. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:25.

Day of rest. Went to church. We had good talks and lessons. The talks in the Sacrament meeting were on missionary work. The lesson in Sunday School was on agency. One brother shared a funny missionary story. They visited a man who claimed affiliation with the Southern Baptist Church. The discussion turned to the doctrine of salvation by grace and the role of works. The LDS missionaries stated that faith without works was dead. The man said it was false, grace alone was sufficient with no works required. The missionaries showed him a passage in his Bible (James 1:17-20) that backed up their point. The man got angry and ripped that page out of his Bible.

Interestingly enough, the lesson in the Elder's Quorum was on anger. The teacher shared an experience he had trying to control his anger when his computer got infected with a virus when his wife clicked on a box that said the computer was infected and offered to download and run a "cleaning tool", which "cleaning tool" was in fact a virus. One brother, a black convert from New York, raised his hand and said - "That's nothing, a friend of mine had a similar problem with his computer, and he got so angry that he smashed his $1000 laptop in pieces!"

A.M. 10.2 in 1:18:33. The trail was covered with snow for the most part, but there were some clear patches. Did pickups where I could, total of about 0.75 of them at around 4:50 pace.

On the biomechanics battle front over the course of the last week was able to work out the trigger points in what I think is pectineus (I am still quite a newbie when it comes to identifying muscles by feel), and discovered a nasty trigger point in a larger and lower hip adductor.  Have been working on it. Need to have the faith and the patience.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 16:44. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:28. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:33. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:29.

A.M. Ran with Jeff. Met him on the trail. It snowed a lot, so the pace was very slow. On the way back to the house saw a runner, turned around and ran with him. His name is Kevin Ellsworth, and it turned out that he actually was a Lost Sheep. Ended up with around 15 miles in 2:07.

Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah. 

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 16:57. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 12:46. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:36, 0.25 with Jacob in 2:28.

A.M. Jeff and I were both asleep. Met him on the trail. 10.15 in 1:22:01. Did a little pickup at the end at 5:50 pace to wake up.

Found a lose bull on the trail. He broke through the fence and got out. He did not try to attack us, but we turned around early and then added on just to be safe. This is the first time in 25 years that I can remember I have ever modified my running course due to a threat from an animal.

P.M. Ran 2 in 18:37. First 0.5 with Benjamin and Jenny. Then Julia joined us but she had scraped some skin off her foot in a playing accident, and could not go very fast. So I told Benjamin and Jenny to pick it up. Benjamin took off with 0.75 to go, Jenny with 0.3 to go. Benjamin ran 17:11, Jenny 18:00. I stayed with Julia. 

A.M. Met Jeff on the trail. 10.1 in 1:18:58. We did a 0.5 pickup up about 0.5% grade in 2:43 (84,79). It felt easier than I expected. The magic right adductor (adductor brevis, adductor longus, portion of adductor magnus?) seems to be making small progress, but is still "trigger-pointy" and the form still feels ugly.  I have been scraping it and finally got some red spots to come up, which is encouraging. 

So far I've had success removing trigger points and improving the range of motion without stretching in the upper back and in the pectineus. No improvement in the form, though, still ugly. However, what is important is that I am learning how to fix muscles. One step at a time, lots of trial, lots of error, finally success.

I should know something about trial and error. Dealing with errors is the life of a computer programmer. Most of the time you test your work you get an error. Then you fix it, and run into another. A programmer without errors in his life is like fish out of water. Good programmers learn to love errors. If they do not, their job satisfaction greatly decreases, and they get "promoted" into management. I had a co-worker once that often answered the phone with "What's the error?", and would comment after a successful run of ping: "Host is alive error".

So errors are good. Lots of error, then finally success. You appreciate it more. 

Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah. 

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 16:46. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:05. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:37. Spaced out Jacob's run because he was asleep at the time when I ran with the other kids, and I forgot to go with him later. 

A.M. 10.1 in 1:17:59. Met Jeff on the trail. We moved a bit quicker today, but still pretty slow. Did a form evaluation pickup for about 0.2 at around 5:50 pace. According to Jeff the form looked stiff at first, but then better later on. We also did a 0.5 pickup up about 0.5% grade in 2:33.9 even splitting it. It felt better than I thought it would. The plan was only 5:30 pace.

Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah. 

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 16:49. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 12:58. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:15. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:15, his new record.

A.M. 15.2 with Jeff in 1:51:14. Did a ladder in the middle. 800 in 2:20.1 (68,72), 1000 jog, 600 in 1:45.5, 800 jog, 400 67.6, 600 jog, 200 30.8. The jogging was done at around 9:30 pace.

The temperature was 18 F, and I was wearing  tights, jacket, hat and gloves. Not the best conditions for this type of workout by far. I was surprised that I was able to hit those times. Given the conditions and my lack of middle-distance training in the last 8 months I optimistically hoped for 2:24 - 1:48 - 70 - 32. So when Jeff opened with a 33 200 in the 800 repeat I warned him. It took him a while to settle down (thus 2:20 split), but I handled it OK. Did not feel a huge anaerobic bear, and did not want to feel it because I still had the rest of the workout in front of me. So I was content to hit the second quarter at target pace.

I was also happy with how the rest of the work went. The times demonstrated that the 2:20 800 opener did not quite put me at my limit. This is significant. My all time 800 PR is 2:12 on the track in perfect conditions at the age of 18 after six months of focused middle-distance training. So to run 2:20 in 18 F in winter gear on the road with no middle-distance conditioning except 5x400 two weeks ago in the last 8 months and live to do the rest of the workout respectably means something good had happened.  

What is interesting is that I never felt my legs powered hard enough to merit going this fast. The form felt loosened up, there was less resistance, but I did not have more power. 

I am very encouraged by this development. I have spent the last 10 years looking for a structural improvement, and have never had a workout or a race where I could even suspect a measure of success from my structural efforts. "Structural" = "not related to leg power or endurance", e.g. improving posture, flexiblity, re-activating a deactivated muscle, etc. Improvements came mostly from the increased aerobic power and better health. I ran more miles, I ran more of them at race pace, I did brutal workouts, I cleaned up my already clean diet, I slept more. It helped me achieve a measure of success, but I was up against a wall because I had reached the limit of those methods, or at least was very close.

I knew that if I were to reach my goals, I needed to find a structural breakthrough. I had hopes that the medical profession would have the answers, but not before long it became clear to me that if it did the answer was hidden far away, each step in the search cost money and time, and I did not have either one to look for the answer using this route. So my only hope was, to quote a Primary song our children sing in church,  "search, ponder, and pray".

Finally after 10 years of discouraging struggles today I saw a dim glimmer of light from the depths of the dark and never ending tunnel that winds around being good but not that good of a runner in hopelessly perpetual circles. Finally something I did in the structural department produced the results that I consider positive, pointing at the possibility that I may be going in the right direction. It was the trigger point massage and scraping of the Magic Adductor. Medically I still do not quite know what I am doing. In fact, I cannot even tell which adductor my Magic Adductor is, Longus, Brevis, or Magnus, or if it is a combination of those. I have been going by feel asking the Lord every day to give me inspiration and then paying close attention to the body signals as I would go through the trouble area. 

It was an exciting moment for me today. It was nice to receive a small assurance that I am somewhat close to the right track. 

P.M. 2 with Benjamin and Jenny in 17:29. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:31. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:51. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:49. 

Day of rest. Went to church.  The talks in the Sacrament meeting were on prayer. In Sunday school the lesson was on creation. Because it was fifth Sunday we had a combined meeting of priesthood and relief society. The subject was prayer and fasting.

My mother has sent me some family history information, so I was studying my family tree. As I looked at it I realized that most branches have died out. Russia has had some turbulent times in the 20th century - two regular wars with major action on its territory, a civil war, Stalin's purges. The blockade of Leningrad alone had a death toll of September 11th on a daily basis in a city that had the population about 10% the size of New York. It lasted 900 days. However, what caused the most devastating effect on my family tree was not the violent calamity. The destruction came from people either not getting married at all, or marrying and having no more than two children who in turn did not feel the importance of having children.

I call that "ideological genocide". Instead of killing people with weapons you simply convince them that it is not worth the sacrifice to have children. There is no drama, no outrage, no revulsion. It happens slowly, but surely, and the damage is much more severe. I remembered a quote from the Proclamation on The Family: "we warn that the disintegration of the family will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets" 

A.M. 10.2 with Jeff in 1:18:13. Did a pickup for a mile in 5:34. Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 16:54. Julia ran 1.5 in 12:52. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:46. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:36.

A.M. 10.3 in 1:22:50. Met Jeff on the trail. After a while we found Kevin and he joined us for a bit. To our disappointment another part of the trail is under construction. They are building a bridge at Lakeshore drive (mile marker 1 of the Fast Running Blog 5 Miler). Fortunately there is a reasonable detour that goes right past Luz's house. However that does mess up our tempo runs. But I hope they will be done with it before we really get into them. On the positive side, when the Lord pours out more blessings on us than we can receive in our current house and it is time to move, that bridge will expand our options.

Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah. 

P.M. Took Benjamin for a 6:00 pace to failure workout. Cold air made him fail earlier than I hoped. He did 88, then another 100 in 22, then 23, 25, kicked in 22 - 3:00 at 0.5 but then felt too tired to go more. To not let him get off the hook I challenged him to run a fast 100 after a 200 jog. He did 20.1. Then he jogged 100, and I challenged him again to run a 200. He ran 44.3. Then I challenged him to run another 100. 20.1 again. Then we had a quarter left to make it to the mile. I added up his splits and realized he needed only a 96 quarter to have his total time for the mile be 6:00. So I challenged him again to run a quarter as fast as he could. He grumbled and said he absolutely could not do 90. I told him I did not care, I just wanted to see what his best was, even if it was 1:40. He ran 87.3. Thus we got 5:51 for the mile in fragments of 800 - 100 - 200 - 100 and 400. 

Then we got in the car and he said - "I am so exhausted I do not think I could run a 100 in 25!" I figured the opportunity to teach him to sense the limits of his body correctly was too good to pass up, so I called his bluff. We got out and he ran 100 in 19.1.  We ended up with a total of 2.25 miles.

1.5 with Julia in 12:56. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:46. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:35. 

A.M. Temple day. Ran earlier than usual. 10.15 in 1:17:55.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin and Jenny in 16:46. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 12:56. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:34. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:36. With 100 to go I challenged Jacob to beat the 2:40 guy. Then we walk into the house and he tells Sarah: "Mommy, I beat somebody. I beat a guy I do not know!" Different kids react differently to the invisible virtual nemesis. Joseph kept asking me why we could not see the 6:00 (5:30, 5:00 as he got faster in his half mile run) guy that we were trying to beat. 

A.M. Met Jeff on the trail. We did a speed workout of sorts. 1.062 mile down 0.5-1% grade but with a bridge in the middle in 5:36 (probably 5:16 at the mile). We only wanted to go a mile but we missed the mark. Then after some jogging the same mile backwards (uphill). Around 0.7 the stress of the pace created a need for a VPB, so I slowed down to avoid the disaster and told Jeff to finish the interval while I took care of the business. My split at 0.75 was 4:06, his was 4:03. Then I coasted through the last quarter in 90. I did not realize it was that slow, but I guess running in the dark alone I miscalculated the effort. Jeff finished the mile in 5:23. Total time for 10.4 was 1:19:56.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 16:41. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 12:51. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:30. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:54. 

A.M. Met Jeff on the trail. Ran 10.2 in 1:19:22. Did some pickups (100s, 200s, 400s) totaling a mile at around 5:05 pace.

P.M. Worked on breaking the 6:00 barrier with Benjamin. The plan was go 6:00 pace to failure, then kick, when the kick becomes slower than 6:24 pace stop. Benjamin made it to 1000 in 3:43 (2 seconds ahead of schedule), but then he panicked and said he could not go anymore without failing to break 6:24 pace over 100 meters first. That was revealing and helped me understand why he is struggling with a sub-6:00 mile. Fast pace produces a certain measure of emotional stress and he does not yet know how to handle this type of emotion. He is only 10 and his emotions have not yet matured, but I would imagine many adults have a hard time running fast for the exact same reason.

So the hypothesis is that interval training can be used to treat a certain type of deep emotional problems. Fast pace will very predictably cause some type of emotional blow-up if there is an underlying weakness. The individual can be prepared and know exactly where that blow-up would happen and can be prepared to make an effort to control it. Thus he will develop a skill that he can use when that blow-up rears up its ugly head in other situations.

Since it was obvious that Benjamin's failure was of emotional nature, I told him he had to finish the mile in segments.  So after jogging 600 I told him to try to run 2:17 for the remaining 600. He made it to 300 in 1:06, continued for another 50 meters, and then bailed out. I had him jog back 50 meters, and told him to bust out the gate and blast the first 100 as fast as he could and then hang on to dear life for the remaining 200. I was thinking he would end up with something like 1:03, be he surprised me and ran 59 (5:15 pace) with the splits of 18-20-21. That gave us 5:48 total for the mile in three segments of 1000 - 300 - 300. 

This is the furtherest Benjamin has run at sub-6:00 continuously, and also the fastest segmented mile he has run in a workout. The good news is that he consciously understands the problem, and with each try is more and more prepared to deal with the beast.

Our total distance  was 2 miles.

2 with Julia and Jenny. We stayed together until about 0.3 to go.  Then Jenny took off. I stayed with Julia for about 200 meters, and then went after Jenny so I would get her time. Barely caught her before the finish, our time was 16:58. Julia finished in 17:27.

0.5 with Joseph in 4:39. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:49. 

A.M. 15.5 in 1:53:56 with Jeff. Michelle joined us for 13 miles. We paced her through a 5 mile tempo run on the Provo River Trail. Had to change the course due to construction, and ended up with 3 180 turns.

The target was 31:00, 6:12 or 93 quarter pace. Michelle ran 30:56 with the following splits (by quarter): 95 - 90 - 93 - 93 (6:11) - 93 - 93 - 96 - 94 (6:16, 12:27) - 93 - 93 - 93 - 93 (6:12,18:39) - 93 - 89 - 93 - 94 (6:10, 24:49) - 92 - 94 - 93 - 88 (6:07,30:56).

Jeff and I immediately continued with the quarters of 80 - 82 - 81 - 76 (Jeff was a step or two ahead and got 75), with 5:19 for the last mile and 36:15 for 6 miles. The we jogged back to Michelle, ran some with her, dropped her off at the house, then ran some more finishing the last 0.75 in 4:25 (5:53 pace).

P.M. 2 with Benjamin and Julia in 17:28. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:37. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:28. 

Day of rest. Went to church. It was a Fast Sunday, so we had a Fast and Testimony meeting. In Sunday school the lesson was on the fall of Adam. In the Elder's Quorum the lesson was on keeping your covenants.

I have noticed a trend just in the last 10 years that the legal agreements have been getting longer and more difficult to read. The older generation seems to remember a time when many business deals were done with no written agreement at all. That is one consequence of raising people who do not feel it is important to keep their promises. The lawyers get richer while less real work gets done.

A.M. 10.3 with Jeff in 1:17:12. Did 4x200 pickups in the middle - 35.5, 33.9, 34.7, and 31.9.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 17:25. Julia ran the first 1.5 with us in 13:11. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:38. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:26. 

A.M. Met Jeff on the trail. 10.25 in 1:21:48.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin, 0.5 in 3:00. 1.5 with Julia in 12:47. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:41. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:36. 

A.M. 10 in 1:18:49. Met Jeff on the trail. We also found a new friend. His name is Brian Brockbank. He ran with us for a few miles. After dropping everybody off did a fun pickup. Decided to run for as long as I felt like at a pace that I enjoyed. It ended up being a mile in 5:37.5. I would have gone further, but it was time to get off the trail, and I did not feel like running a weird distance.

Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah. 

A.M-2. Did another attempt with Benjamin to break  6:00 in the mile. We thought of some ideas of how to help him overcome the mental block he hits around half way through. We decided if Jenny met him at 0.5 and raced him for a quarter he would certainly make it to 0.75, and then he can smell the barn and kick. So we warmed up 1.2 and started. He was doing great through 500 (1:51), then something happened and he said he had no energy. So we stopped at 600, and jogged back to try again. This time he made it to 600 in 2:14, one second ahead of pace, but then panicked and stopped without any effort to try to hold the pace any further.

Then it was clear. There was something in his brain that was programmed for self-defeat. The moment he realized the success was inevitable he could not handle it. A week ago nobody was waiting for him, and he made it to 1000 2 seconds ahead of pace, then quit without trying to hold on. Yesterday with Jenny waiting for him at 1200 (0.75) he quit at 800 (0.5) while right on pace. We bring Jenny to 800, and now he quits at 600. I asked him why, and he admitted that he realizes he would not quit while racing Jenny, and if he hits 1200 on pace he would not quit at all, and he just cannot handle it.

So to make a dent in his mental block I told him to try again and this time run (given the fatigue from the previous to tries) run as slow as he felt he would need to up to 800, then race Jenny to 1200. So he did 1:35, 1:49, 1:31 - 4:55 racing Jenny. She held on up to about 300.  

So we ended up the whole deal with a total of 3.56 miles. We will try again on Saturday. Hopefully the lessons learned would help us.

P.M. 1.5 with Julia in 13:33. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:38. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:28. 

A.M. Jeff slept in. 10.3 in 1:22:53, some of it with Brian. Turns out that I had been to Brian's house before. I served in his area (Little Cottonwood Stake in Murray) in 1995 during my mission .  Brian was 8 years old then.

Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah. 

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 16:51. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 12:44. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:35. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:31.

A.M. Dan (Dragon Vulture) joined me today at the house. We met Jeff on the trail. Then we found Brian and he joined us as well. We were being lazy today, 10.3 in 1:25:16, and that with no snow! A lot of talking in the dark. We did a short pickup to test Dan's HR - 0.5 in 2:51. His HR was 154 at the start off 8:00 pace, and got up to 184 towards the end.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin, Jenny, and Julia in 17:10.  0.5 with Joseph in 4:27. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:50. 

A.M. 16.3 with Jeff and Dan (Dan ran 15.2, we jogged back to him after pickups). The plan was 2x1.5 at 5:20 pace, and then with a mile or two to go run 5:50 pace to test fuel levels and sneak in a fuel stimulus. Thing went better than planned, in fact too good in the first repeat thanks to Jeff's eagerness.

The first 1.5 was done in the dark (we started early because I had to go to a baptism). I wore my HRM for the first time in a while. The splits were 80,80,79,79,78,77 - 7:53. HR maxed out at 165. It felt hard from the start, but did not get much harder, and I was able to hold the pace. I do not care how hard it feels if I can hold the pace as it is getting faster. Dan ran 9:53.

I warned Jeff before the second one not to speed as doing this workout at pace was challenging enough for me already, and we hit the first one 7 seconds ahead of pace.  Now we had some light, and after the first interval I had all kinds of enzymes keeping my HR a little higher. That actually made the pace feel easier. It went like this: 79,80,82,78,80,78 - 7:57. HR maxed out at 172.  I watched the HRM readings in awe wondering why I was not yet having an out-of-body experience, but it was appropriate for the pace, so I can believe it. I think higher HR made the fast pace easier. Dan ran this interval in 9:23.

We jogged back to Dan, finish the interval with him, and then jogged some more at around 7:40 pace until we had 1.5625 left. Then Jeff and I started our fuel stimulus pickup. It started at 5:50, but Jeff kept turning up the heat, and I felt good enough to respond. So we ended up running the stretch in 8:40 (5:32.8 average pace) with the last two quarters in 80 and 77 (5:14 average pace in the last 0.5 in spite of 5 turns). My HR hit 168. I did not know it could go that high at the end of long run. I usually struggle to push it over 160.

Afterwards we jogged back to Dan and finished the run with him.

I did notice that the turns made my form a whole lot uglier. It felt like some nerve was getting pinched and the knee would lock up some. I felt a whole lot better when we were on a straight and level road. I had not noticed a similar issue before. I would say in the past it felt equally awkward the entire way, while today it felt as awkward on the turns, but less awkward on a straight road.

I was very happy with how the workout went.  It gave me some evidence that I might be on the right track with my trigger point massage and scraping.  

A.M.-2 Did another attempt with Benjamin to crack 6:00. We are trying twice a week to see if he can do it before he turns 11. He did not make it, so we have one more try left on Tuesday.

This time  we brought Julia with us. Benjamin ran to 600 just with me, then Julia ran 200, Jenny joined us at 800, Julia bailed about 30 meters later (she was only supposed to go 100, everything extra was a bonus). Benjamin's splits (by 200) were 45, 45, 44, 43.5 up to that point. Around 900 (3:21, 22.5) fresh Jenny started to gap him. He hit 100 around 3:45, then gave it a push to 1100 (4:08) to close the gap, and then hit his patented panic attack about 50 meters later.

Benjamin has a little problem with error handling. When things do not go exactly like he expects it, he panics. I told him afterwards that the correct way to handle the error was to keep on pushing, reel Jenny in as she would not have continued at 6:00 pace for much longer herself,  then use the thrill of passing to hit the mile in 6:03 or so, which would have been a 4 second PR. Who knows, maybe a super-kick with 200 to go may have even recovered the damage of drifting from 1100 to 1400. But he was mentally not ready for this.

However, according to Benjamin, we made another dent in his mental block. This is the furtherest he's ever gone at 6:00 pace. If only he learned how to be rational under stress he would have it. Even though he is little, I believe learning to be rational under stress is such a vital life skill that it should be taught with particular emphasis especially in childhood. What you learn as a child, good or bad, is easy to keep and hard to unlearn. It is perhaps a blessing that this 6:00 mile is so hard for him. If it was easy to accomplish with talent and work alone, he would not have had a chance to challenge the beast of panic head on.

Jenny was rewarded with a quarter PR of 92.5. We jogged back to Julia, then ran a cool down mile in 8:55. Thus Julia ended up with 1.5 for the day, and Jenny did a total 4 as she ran 2.5 with Sarah earlier. Benjamin and I ended up with 2.5 for this run.

P.M. 0.5 with Joseph and Benjamin in 4:33. Jacob ran 0.25 with Sarah. She dropped off Jacob and went for another 1.25. I dropped Joseph off,  Chased Sarah down, and ran the rest of it with her. Her time for the mile with me was 11:04.

Day of rest. Went to church. The Sacrament meeting talks were on the meaning of being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The Sunday School lesson was on the Holy Ghost. The Elder's Quorum lesson was on the role of Christ in the Plan of Salvation, and I had the privilege of teaching it.

A.M. 10.2 with Jeff in 1:19:36. We did a max HR test. 1.5 with the first mile aiming for 5:20, then for Jeff 72 quarter followed by 100% effort in the last quarter, for me hang on with Jeff to failure, then run best pace to the finish. Part of it was I wanted to measure our max HR values, but also I wanted to see how I would handle 4:48 pace off a mile at 5:20, and how Jeff would handle it as well.

The snow started coming down, and looked like it was about to dampen our plans. But with 34 F it was melting fast and the road was still runnable. So we went ahead. 

Jeff was a bit too excited, and blasted out the first 200 in 36 even after I had warned him the pace was too fast. But after that we more or less settled into pace to the first mile. The splits were 76, 80, 79,79 (5:14). My HRM was not working for the first 0.75 but then started working and registered 168 at the end of the mile. Jeff's HR was around 172-173. Then we sped up. I lasted for 200 meters before I eased off back to 5:20 pace. My HR went up to 173, but once the legs gave out it dropped to 171. 5:20 pace seemed manageable, but for the life of me I could not go any faster at that point. I was probably still tired from Saturday. Plus, opening with a 5:14 in the snow did some damage. I ended up running 75, 80 to finish 1.5 in 7:49.  

Jeff had a similar experience, except in a higher plane. He did 72 and it was manageable, then he picked it up to 68 and felt that he was working hard, but not getting much for it. His HR hit 186, which is not very high for him. He felt limited by leg power as well. Probably fatigue from Saturday was a factor.

We dragged through most of the remainder of the run at slower than 8:00 pace, which is a sign that we both fatigued from the combination of Saturday and today.  Then we livened up a bit in the last mile and ran it in 6:59 to beat the 1:20:00 guy. 

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 17:20. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:08. Jenny ran in the AM with Sarah (2.5). 0.5 with Joseph in 3:47. That is his new record. His splits were 1:59-1:48. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:48. 

A.M. 10.1 in 1:18:59. Found Jeff on the trail. I felt like I had made some progress in the loosening up of the right hip flexors, so we did a couple of pickups at around 5:30 pace to evaluate my form. Jeff gave me a 7 on the scale of 1 to 10. In the past, he rated me between 4 and 6. For a comparison I asked him to rate other runners who he's seen enough. Tyler got 8.5, Kyle Perry 9, Josh Rohatinsky 10, Josh McAdams 9, and Jeff gave himself an 8 based on what he's seen in videos.

I ran the last 1.5 at sub-6:40 pace, and it felt nice and smooth, although still far from perfect. The left knee flexion as the foot leaves the ground and floats up on the left side feels almost poetic compared to how it feels on the right. 

A.M-2. Took Benjamin for the final chance to break 6:00 before he turns 11. Jenny and Julia helped. He was not handling the pressure well and made two false starts each time making it to the quarter (first time in 91, second in 92) before freaking out. I told him we could not end it like this and he had to finish the mile at whatever pace he had in him. He ran 6:19.9 with the splits of 92, 96, 97, and . Julia ran 300 from 600 to 900 in 1:11. Jenny ran 400 from 800 to 1200 in 1:37.  

Afterwards we ran to Julia. Jenny sat in the car, Benjamin, Julia and I ran a mile in 8:49. So Benjamin and I ended up with 4 miles, Jenny got 0.5 + 2.5 - total of 3 for the day, Julia got her usual 1.5.

P.M. 0.5 with Joseph and Benjamin in 4:32.  0.25 with Jacob in 2:52.

A.M. Ran with Dan, Brian, and Jeff. All 10.4 with Dan in 1:19:28. Found Jeff and Brian on the trail. I had a VPB, then caught up with an 80 second quarter. Jeff gave Dan 7 on form. Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 16:45.  Julia ran 1.5 with us in 12:36. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:20. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:45.

A.M. 10.2 in 1:16:35. Did a couple of pickups. 200 in 40, and 1000 in 3:19.8.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 17:50. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:20. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:00. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:50. 

A.M. 10.3 in 1:13:26. Did a 0.75 pickup in 3:58.7.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin and Jenny in 17:13. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:02. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:45. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:55.  

A.M. 20 with Jeff in 2:17:23. Did some speed in the middle. First a 6 mile tempo on the 1.5 stretch, so 3 180 degree turns. Total time for me 34:14. Splits: 5:53 - 5:45 (11:38) - 5:47 (17:25) - 5:40 (23:05) - 5:33 (28:38) - 5:36 (34:14). Jeff and I ran together for the first 4.5 miles, then he picked it up and hit a quarter in 77, which did me in. I tried to follow, but manged only 80. Then I recovered with 84, 85, 85, 85 and was able to kick in 81. It would have been 80, but there were two dogs in the way, and I lost concentration trying to get around them. Last 1.5 in 8:20. Jeff did it in 7:46.

I was happy that I ran the last 5 in 28:21, and the last 4 in 22:36. The last 4 were 29 seconds faster than my race time at Thanksgiving. A poor comparison, given that I ran that race sick and recovering from injury, and got embarrassingly chicked, but still a sign that I am recovering.  Reminds me how the Soviet propaganda like to compare everything with the year 1913, even in the late 70s and early 80s.

I was rather spent after this tempo and was not sure what kind of condition I would be towards the end of the run especially given that this was my first 20 mile run since St. George. We went for a long jog. After a couple of miles we were recovered from the tempo, and 7:00-7:10 pace started feeling natural. We stopped talking so that the pace would drift up so we could be done with the run quicker.  With 1.5 to go we did the fuel stimulus pickup. The target pace was 5:50, and I really meant 5:50 because we were going 20 miles, and we had already got our fast running in. So I hoped that Jeff's horses would not be neighing, but I was wrong. We started out at slower than 6:00, then it became 5:50, then 5:40, to make the long story short, the last mile was 5:29 with the last three quarters in 81, 81, and 82, and 8:24 (5:36 pace) for the last 1.5. I even moved out by Jeff's side in the last quarter to encourage him to go faster.

This was a surprise and a mystery. Why couldn't I do 81s at least for the last half mile of our tempo earlier some 12 miles ago? Do a couple of miles at 5:40 really do me in so bad? Does not having somebody to draft behind make such a difference? Maybe the air was too cold? Maybe the road was too slippery (it did snow some)?

In any case, I was happy that I had been able to maintain a decent fuel shape without long runs.  Maybe there is something to gluten free diet after all. I have not had any wheat (except for sacrament bread) since Top of Utah last year.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 16:46. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:00.  Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:25. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:58.

Day of rest. Went to church. It was a busy day. Sarah and I spoke in the Sacrament meeting on receiving and following council. Then I taught a lesson in Sunday school on prayer.

We discovered that Iain Hunter's wife's grandmother is in our ward. She told me she liked my talk because she could hear it. I have a loud voice and wake up sleeping babies. 

A.M. 12 with Jeff in 1:30:06. We did a 3 mile fartlek to give me a relatively light push in the 5:20 pace department alternating 80 and 90 quarters except for the penultimate when we did 80 instead of 90, and then on the last one Jeff kicked to get a workout.

My splits: 88 - 79 - 91 - 80 (5:37) - 91 - 80 - 89 - 79 (5:39) - 89 - 79 - 80 - 82. Total time 16:47.9.  Jeff kicked in 69.

I was happy with how the workout went except for the last quarter in 82. My legs were not moving. Part of the problem was losing contact after a strenuous effort. Part of it, I suppose, was fatigue from Saturday. Part of it was 21 F temperature. And I suppose a big part, bigger than any of the above, was just plain lack of fitness. 

During the warm-up we ran past an idling school bus. We could smell it very well as it prepared to take students to school to learn about global warming.

P.M.  2 with Benjamin in 16:34. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 12:54. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:30. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:46. Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah.

A.M. 10.1 in 1:18:12. Met Jeff and Brian on the trail. Did a post-VPB 500 up a small grade in 1:41.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 16:48. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 12:53.  0.5 with Joseph in 4:29. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:40.

A.M. 10.05 in 1:17:59. Met Jeff on the trail. In the last mile played a silly game. I saw that I needed to run it in 6:15 to finish in 1:18. Yes, we were dragging as usual, so I was at only slightly sub-8:00 average. So I said, no I do not feel like running 6:15, I am too lazy. But then I ran the next quarter in 1:37.  Then I said, OK, I'll run as slow as it takes to make it. I dragged it out to the last quarter, which I had to run in 91. I ran it in 90, so that gave me 0.25 of marathon pace.

That is indeed a silly game, like a cat playing with a mouse until it decides to kill it. But I suppose years of running create a feline personality. That is perhaps necessary to avoid overtraining and maximize recovery while still eliciting an adequate training stimulus. 

P.M. 2 with Benjamin and Jenny in 15:59. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 12:03. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:29. He keeps hitting the same time. I give him updates through the run which time he is headed for, and he keeps adjusting his speed. A good way to learn pacing, I suppose. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:50. 

A.M. Jeff had a Lehi's dream this morning, so I ran alone. 10.3 in 1:16:48. I dragged along at around 7:50 pace when it was dark, and then it gradually became 7:10. Then I saw tracks on the snow. Yesterday I was a feline. Today I decided to be a canine. Changing animals. I look at the stride length and pattern, as well as the direction, and made a guess the tracks belonged to Kirk, a BYU Arabic professor that runs around that time of day. I figured he could be close enough for me to be able to catch him, and picked up the pace to something around 6:20 for a mile or so. I wished I were a dog. Then I'd be able to tell how far away he was by the smell, and also I'd be running faster.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 16:51. He decided to catch the 17:00 guy with 300 to go, so I got about 0.2 of marathon pace. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:08. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:29, third time in a row, and 0.25 with Jacob in 2:47. 

A.M. 10.1 in 1:18:20. Found Jeff, and then Brian on the trail. After dropping them off ran back to the house a little quicker. I passed Sarah, Jenny and Sarah's running partner Mary (Jenny ran 2.5 with them) going towards me. I asked Sarah afterwards how fast she thought I was going. She guessed about 7:30 because I looked completely lazy. I was actually going 6:30, so that is somewhat encouraging. 

P.M. 2 in 16:00, most of it with Benjamin. He ran 16:08. I decided to return him the favor he did me yesterday by saying that 16:00 guy was catchable with a quarter to go. Except yesterday it was the 17:00 guy and we had to run only 7:00 pace to catch him. Today we had to run 5:50 pace. Benjamin said he was not interested.  With about 0.1 to go I said I was, and ran about 4:40 pace to the finish. Thus I ended up 8 seconds ahead. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 12:48. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:35. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:52.

A.M. Ran with Jeff. 20.4 in 2:04:59, 6:07.6 avg. Had some serious digestive system issues - nausea, bloated stomach, diarrhea with lots of liquid stool . I had originally planned to do a brisk 20 with the last 5 hard, but was not sure how much of it was going to happen with those problems. So I decided to just run brisk at whatever pace was happening naturally until I felt it was not healthy to run.

I felt it was not healthy to run from the very start at any pace.  However, as I increased the pace I did not feel much worse, so after a couple of miles we settled into 6:10-6:15 groove and were coasting along. I was feeling that great, but it was not getting worse, so I just kept going. It was nice to run in shorts.

We hit the first 5.1 in 32:44 (6:25 pace), then came back in 31:16 (6:08 avg), then did turned around again and ran 30:47 (6:02). Then I told Jeff I wanted to try sub-6:00 but no faster than 5:50 and see if I can make it to the end. Jeff overdid it a bit. I managed 5:45 pace with him for the next 2.3 miles, and other than the stomach it actually felt good. But the stomach was not doing well at all as the nausea increased. So I told Jeff to go, and coasted to the finish trying to maintain 6:00 pace but slipping in places where the road was not ideal. I ended up with 6:11 last mile and 30:12 for the last 5.1, which is actually decent - 5:55 average.

Jeff finished in 2:03:11 (28:24, 5:34 average). The last 1.3 at 5:20 pace really helped his cause.

I was pleased to observe that in spite of the stomach problems and the slowing pace in the last  couple of miles I never felt fuel-deficient and the form felt quite smooth.

Afterwards I was not feeling too bad at first, and followed through with the plans to go to a science/engineering activity with the family at the Thanksgiving point. But this was probably a mistake. I started feeling bad there, was counting miles on the way back almost the same way I count miles at the end of a hard run, and then threw up as soon as I got home.  

P.M. Felt a little better, good enough to run with the kids. Did 2 with Benjamin and Jenny in 16:50. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 12:45. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:58. Jacob ran 0.25 with Benjamin in 3:14.

Day of rest. Went to church. We had a ward conference. The bishop and the state president spoke on being spiritually prepared. Then we had Sunday school less on prophets, and the Elders Quorum lesson on moral discipline based on Elder Christopherson's talk in the last General Conference.

A.M. Ran with Jeff. 10.2 in 1:17:38. The stomach felt good, but I felt a little weak from Saturday's adventures. Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 16:50. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 12:44. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:00. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:47.

A.M. Found Jeff on the trail. 10.25 in 1:20:00. We did 4x200. The plan was 34, but I knew it would be closer to 32 as Jeff is an overachiever, but that was OK with me since I wanted to test the effectiveness of my massage and scraping.

The temperature was 27 degrees, and I was wearing pants and a jacket. The first one did not go so well as it was dark, my pants were falling down, my clogs felt loose, and I was not mentally ready to be going that fast. Jeff did around 30, I ended up with 32.3. 

On the second one I was physically and mentally ready to go hard. I tucked in my jacket into the pants to keep them from falling down, I focused on staying with Jeff, and I was mentally ready to move my feet in a way that would not invite the clogs to fall off. A slight dorsi-flexion  of the foot  through most of the off-the-ground phase does the job. It might even be good for the form as it allows a more explosive plantar-flexion once you hit the ground. Some world-class distance runners run like this during the kick and possibly the whole way, but it becomes more apparent during the kick.

However, on the second one we missed the mark and went too far. Jeff had me gapped by about 3 meters when we realized we had been running for 35 seconds and turned off the engines.  But even with jogging our 300 split was 57 seconds.

The third one went very well. The sun had come up. I was able to stay within 3 meters of Jeff and finished in 29.7. I was very excited about that. But then on the fourth I stayed within a meter and managed 29.5!

For me this is a very significant development. My 200 meter PR is 27.5 on the track in spikes at the age of 17 when I was doing weights, bounding, and form drills. The trail even in perfect conditions is probably at least a good second slower than the track. Pants, jacket, and below freezing temperatures slow you down some as well. I checked the blog and it appears that 29.5 is an all-time PR for the trail. Previous PR was 30.7.

So I am definitely seeing a top-end speed improvement. This is exciting. You can get into better shape by running more miles and run a better 5 K, but you cannot run a better 200 through any form of "cheating". By "cheating" I mean materializing the existing Quality X through some form of training into a better performance vs actually increasing Quality X. You can also "cheat" by sprint-specific training, but I have not done any of that recently except the occasional test efforts themselves, which would not be enough to have any training effect. So I would say this workout provided more evidence that my massage and scraping has been effective.

Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 16:44. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 12:40. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:36. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:47.

A.M. 10.3 in 1:18:43. Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 16:17. Julia ran the first 1.5 in  12:12. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:45. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:14.

A.M. 10.3 in 1:15:50. Saw Kirk on the trail and ran an 81 quarter to catch him. Ran with him a bit, and then did 0.75 in 3:59.7 to feel 5:20 pace. The right clog developed its first hole at a little over 400 miles.

P.M. 3.25 with Benjamin including 2 miles in 15:17 with the last mile in 6:48. 1.5 with Julia in 12:42. 0.5 with Joseph. 0.25 with Jacob.

A.M. 10 in 1:18:43. It was snowing. Met Jeff on the trail. 

P.M. 2 with Benjamin and Jenny in 16:51. Julia ran 1.5 in 12:44 with us. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:33. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:39.

A.M. 16.18 with Jeff in 1:44:01 (6:25.7 avg). I decided the detour was adding only 0.04 each way instead of 0.05 because we hit 1 mile + detour in 5:57 while consistently hitting 86 quarters in the measured area.

This was a recovery long run, if there is such a thing. Part of the reason was that Benjamin and I were going to the chess camp later today. Part of the reason was to avoid overtraining from the hard 20 in the last 2 weeks, with the one last week done on a sick stomach. So the plan was to maintain about 6:40 average, and then run a bit quicker in the last couple of miles.

We pretty much followed the plan, except we got a little anxious to be done and hit the gas with 3.91 to go covering the distance in 22:31 (5:45.5 average). In the way of Soviet era style 1913 comparison bragging, this was slightly faster than my average race pace in the Thanksgiving 4 miler. The quarters varied from 86 to 89 in the first 1.5 miles (8:48 at 1.5), then they became a steady 86 until we got to the bridges and the uphill afterwards in the last mile. We put in the same effort but it produced only 88 and 89. Then Jeff shifted gears (I responded) and we did 81 and 79 for the last two quarters. Last mile was 5:37.

It was a lot easier to run fast with a properly functioning stomach. 5:56 pace felt like a jog. 5:44 felt comfortable. 5:20 was bearable even with the turns, at least for half a mile. I was happy that Jeff did not drop me in the last mile.

About 7.8 into the run we caught up to Luz. I saw the opportunity to help her break the mental block and challenged her to run with us until she could not. She managed about 0.2 at 6:40 pace. Some of what I consider to be my most significant growing experiences happened when I ran with guys that are much faster than me without them slowing down for me. There is some form of communication that takes place when you do that. You learn something very valuable that is difficult to describe even if that one race ends up slower because you were not fit to run that pace yet and it broke you down.

Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 16:40. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 12:55. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:29. Jacob had a sore knee and did not run.

Day of rest. Went to church. It was a Fast Sunday. We had a Fast and Testimony meeting. Then a Sunday school class - the lesson was on scriptures, followed by the lesson in the Elder's Quorum which was on the talk by Elder Oaks on reverence while partaking of the Sacrament. 

A.M. Ran 10.18 with Jeff in 1:22:14. Did 5x200 with full rest in the middle. My splits were 30.9 - 30.0 - 30.8 - 29.6 - 29.6. I felt very tense in the first two, then loosened up, but not 100%. Felt tension in the shoulders in the 4th repeat. Had Jeff massage them out, and it did help. It was gone in the last one, which I think helped me keep the pace in spite of the fatigue in the muscles. 30.8 felt easy, but 29.6 was all I could do.

Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 17:13. Julia ran 1.5 in 13:03.  0.5 with Joseph in 4:39. He was bumming around and being lazy at the start. I told him to get on the ball. He said he did not have to if he did not want to. I explained to him about choice and consequences like this: "You do not have to do anything if you do not want to. But you cannot choose what happens later. If you do not work, you will not learn to work. You'll grow up to be a bum. You will not be able to provide for your family. Nobody will want to marry you except a girl that is a bum herself." When he heard about the eternal consequences of being married to a bum he immediately sped up and ran with an honest effort to the finish. I hope he will remember this.

0.25 with Jacob in 2:32.

A.M. 10 in 1:19:41. Met Jeff on the trail. Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 16:53. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:17.  0.5 with Joseph in 4:29. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:35.

A.M. Jeff had another Lehi's dream experience, so I ran alone. 10.28 in 1:14:58. Hamstrings still stale from the 200s on Monday. Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 16:48. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:06.  0.25 with Jacob in 2:45. Joseph asked to run the whole mile today, so we did. This was his first timed mile. He did 8:48 with the splits of 2:18, 2:16, 2:09, and 2:05, and was chatting the entire time. Joseph is an interesting kid. He often acts  lazy. But sometimes he decides to work.

A.M. Ran with Jeff. Met him on the trail. 10.1 in 1:17:44. Did a pickup to catch another guy whose name was also Jeff. Ran 300 in 58 (5:10 pace).

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 17:17. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:18. 1 with Joseph in 9:27. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:52.

A.M. 10.15 in 1:17:43. Some of it with Brian. Did a 900 pickup in 2:58 (5:17 pace) to shake out the legs. Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah.

P.M.  Retired my Water Clogs at 506 miles, and replaced them with Eva Clogs bought at Walmart for $7.   2 with Benjamin in 17:27. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:31. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:48. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:58.

A.M.20.36 with Jeff in my new Eva Clogs in 2:01:25. Yes, that's right, 5:57.8 average for the whole business. Only half-intentional. I was in a hurry to get to a baptism this morning, so I told Jeff let's go as fast as is reasonable with the idea that we would bum around at 6:20 pace for the first 5, then speed up to 6:10, then 6:00, and then 5:50 for the last 5. But 2 miles into it the pace hit 6:00 and never really got slower after that except a couple of miles at the end.

So we hit the first 5.09 in 31:18 (6:09 avg), then the next 5.09 in 30:18 (5:57). Then Jeff got really excited about breaking 2 hours for the entire run and started throwing occasional 83 quarters (5:32 pace). I would reign him in with a warning, he would slow down to 86-87 (5:44-5:48 pace). On the detour in the unmarked territory he was like a sports car driver on a freeway in the middle of Nevada with no police officers in sight. I did not have a number to scare him with, so my warnings only slowed him down there to around 5:38 average. We ended up with 29:12 for the next 5.09 stretch (5:44 avg).

This looked too good to be true. Jeff had run 10 miles the night before, and now he was being feisty in the later parts of an aggressively paced 20 miler. But I figured I did not want to hold Jeff back, so I told him to bring me to 4 miles to go mark, and then see if he could run 5:20 pace to the finish. We hit the next 1.05 in 5:58 (5:41 pace), and then Jeff went for it.

The remaining 4 miles was a lesson for both of us. Jeff learned more about fuel fatigue, while I learned more about neural fatigue. It was good to have those two types side by side so we can understand the difference better. In Jeff's case a surge to 5:20 quickly faded, all of a sudden he was struggling with 5:40 pace at first, a mile later with 6:00, then he could not do even 6:00, and the last mile was a disastrous 6:51. I almost caught him.

On my side, as soon as I lost contact I slowed down to 6:00, half a mile later it became 6:05, then 6:08, then with a couple of turns 6:15. However, because the fatigue was in the nervous system, the easing off of the pace allowed me to regroup and finish with a 5:58 last mile, which was slightly uphill, and had bridges and sharp turns. Seeing Jeff gradually come back gave me a boost. The last 5.09 was covered in 30:37 (6:01 avg).

Immediately after the run Jeff was dizzy and hungry, while I was actually too wired up to eat, and not dizzy at all.

Now here is the big question. I know what to do for fuel - just run more miles, and run as much as you can at marathon pace. But what do you do if the limiting factor is in the nervous system? More miles, more miles at marathon pace is often the wrong answer. More sleep is a better answer, but not quite the whole deal. Better form might be the answer, more particularly fixing the rhythm issues. Poor rhythm puts more stress on the nervous system. Then you can approach the issue from the aspect of raw power. Train at sub-5:00, and even hit sub-4:30 pace for short segments. But I think the main culprit is the poor rhythm, which is rooted in what I call "the structure". So we go back to targeted and intelligent massage that would hopefully fix "the structure".

Aside from the small lapse in the final miles I was happy with how this run went. I have not done too many 20 miles in my life in training on a course without a drop averaging sub-6:00.  It shows that I am in somewhat respectable shape.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin and Jenny in 17:57. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:45. 0.5 with Joseph in 5:00. Benjamin ran 0.25 with Jacob.

Day of rest. Went to church. In Sacrament the talks were on the Atonement of Christ. Good talks. Taught in Sunday School - the lesson was on the life of Christ to go along with the talks. It just happened that I was teaching in the Elder's Quorum as well (second time this year) on creation.

A.M. 10.18 in 1:19:39 with Jeff. We were both tired from the 20 miler on Saturday + daylight savings and opened with a glorious 9:12 mile. I this is the slowest start in non-adverse conditions since a long time ago. Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah. We actually caught them at the very end of the run, and I was able to time their last 100 meters. They were going around 10:40 pace.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 16:29. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 12:48. Benjamin picked it up in the last 300 to 5:50 pace. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:55. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:12. I think that is his record, if not, then only a second off.

A.M. 10.2 in 1:19:56. Met Jeff on the trail. Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 17:16. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:17. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:35. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:39.

A.M. Jeff and Kimia were blessed with a baby girl last night, so I ran alone this morning. Did 10.18 in 1:15:53 with 4x800 in the middle with essentially full rest in 2:30.7, 2:31.7, 2:31.1, and 2:30.8. It was a bit colder when I started, so I wore pants. Later I wished I had been in shorts. In the first two I was fading in the last 200. Then I came up with a plan to avoid fading. Increase the effort at 300, and increase it even more at 600. That worked. I ran a slight negative split in the last 2. However I was not happy with how hard it was to maintain such a slow pace for so short.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin including a fartlek mile in 6:26.9 alternating 100 in 21 and 29 for the first 1000, then a steady pace to the finish (last quarter in 92). Hopefully this gave him some confidence that if he can fartlek through a 6:26 mile with this much pace variation, he can run it steady in 6:00.  1.5 with Julia in 12:57. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:35. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:40.

A.M. 10.18 in 1:13:56. I was wondering what I could have done in shorts yesterday. So I decided to wear shorts today and try one test 800 to see how it would feel. It was interesting. I opened with a 77, but then was able to give myself a kick in the behind and close in 73 finishing in 2:30.8. Then I decided to do one more, and this time ran 2:30.0 with even splits. So about the same as yesterday in pants. Interesting results. Possible explanations - pants do not slow you do as much as I think, at least when the temperatures are around 35, I was tired from yesterday, or I just ran with less effort today. The less effort explanation holds some credence as evidenced by fading yesterday in the last 200, but closing strong today.

Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 16:51. Julia ran the first 1.5 with us in 13:05.  0.5 with Joseph in 4:38. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:30.

A.M. Met Jeff on the trail. Ran 16 because tomorrow is Benjamin's chess tournament, and I will only be able to run 10. Total time was 1:58:47 as we had a very sluggish start. Picked it up in the last 3.04 and ran it in 18:03, slightly sub-6:00 average. It felt harder than what it should have. Probably due to the 800s while still not fully recovered from the 20 miler on Saturday. I think the lack of soreness in the muscles makes me greatly underestimate the stress of running 5:58 average for 20 miles and how long it takes to recover from it. I should probably keep my hard running in those 20 milers to 10 miles, definitely no more than 15.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin and Jenny in 16:50. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 12:51. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:22. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:26.  

A.M. Benjamin's chess tournament (Utah Elementary State Championship) . Spent all day there. Benjamin played 6 games, won the first 4, then lost the last 2, and took 12th place out of 92 players in the 5th grade. 

P.M. I sure thought I'd be feeling terrible after a busy day, and running late at night with a full stomach. Started with 2 with Benjamin in 17:49. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:27.  Jenny ran 2 with Sarah. Joseph and Jacob ran with Sarah as well. 

After that it was already 8:30, and I needed to finish the run, take a shower, and read the scriptures with Sarah before 10:00pm. So I ran brisk. Figured 6:40 was the slowest I could go and still get 10 in, so I did just that. I was expecting not to feel well, but quite on the contrary I was feeling great. I wondered if it was the adrenaline from the chess tournament, and it would end after about 4 miles, but it did not. I just kept cruising along at around 6:30-6:35 pace. With about 3 miles to go decided to shift gears to test the waters with the idea that if 6:00 pace felt hard I would back off immediately and run the slowest it takes to get home before curfew. In spite of the dark sub-6:00 pace felt very comfortable, so I just kept going. The tunnels and turns slowed me down more than normal in the dark, and then I had an interesting incident. Two guys with skateboards were under a bridge. As I was approaching them one of them asked me if I had seen anybody. I said no, and then immediately ran into the other that I did not see. So I lost a couple of seconds on that, but was able to get back into the rhythm. In spite of the obstacles my last mile was still a decent 5:48, and the total time for the last 3.04 was 17:54. Total time for 10.18 was 1:04:37.

Day of rest. Went to church. The talks in the sacrament meeting were on missionary work. Then they asked me to substitute in the Primary for the remainder of the meetings. The lesson was on Abraham and Isaac.

A.M. Met Jeff on the trail. Ended up with a total of 12 in 1:34:05. Did a couple of pickups. A mile that was supposed to be fat, but ended up a bit quicker in 5:33 with quarters of 85,85,83, and 80. Then we were messing around with the stride rate count. I came up with a new method of counting stride rate, more accurate that what I've used in the past. You time 180 steps then divide 180 by the time in seconds and multiply the result by 60. The reason this is more accurate is if you try to count how many steps you can take in 20 seconds you start your 20 seconds half way through a step and you end it half way as well. The time for 180 steps can be measured much more accurately. So on Saturday at 6:30 pace the stride rate was 177. Today at 8:00 pace it was 166. Then I wanted to know what Jeff's was at 5:00. So we did a pickup. First 200 in 34, but Jeff lost count. Then we used my method and ran for 54 seconds at around 4:40 pace. Jeff's stride rate was 200. I messed up my count, but I really did not care that much as I already know it is around 200-205 at those speeds. However, this was a good illustration as to why Jeff cannot sustain this for a half. It is very very difficult to sustain a stride rate above 190 for the half.

Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 17:10. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:02. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:37. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:52.

A.M. 10.18 with Jeff in 1:14:41. We did a couple of pickups. First, a mile that was supposed to be "fat", but Jeff accidentally opened with a 75 and I did not stop him even though I knew we were going too fast. So he saw the split and eased off to 78, and then fell asleep to 81 with the help of some mild headwind. Then I realized that it would be nice to crack 5:10, so I told Jeff I wanted to do that. We ran the next 200 in 38, followed by 35 (quarter in 73), and finished the mile in 5:07.3. I was happy with how easy it felt given that last week I struggled with 4x800 in 2:30.

Then Jeff wanted to feel faster pace, so we ran a quarter in 65.6. To put things in perspective. This is on pace for 27:20 10 K. Fast, but Bekele would lap you in his world record run. I wonder how many runners really comprehend that you could be running 4:22 pace for 6 miles and get lapped! And neither one of us can hold this pace for even a mile.

Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah.

P.M. Sarah and I started a training group for kids. Primarily directed at the home schooled kids, but we take everybody, actually both kids and adults. We had our first run today. About 20 kids ran.  It was a little chaotic as we did not quite know how to deal with so many kids of different ages and abilities, but we managed. Nobody got lost. I ended up running 0.5 with Joseph in 4:27, then 2 in 16:58 shepherding a group that started big, but then thinned out. Benjamin ran 2 in 16:35. Julia ran 1.5 in 12:48. Jacob ran 0.25 with Sarah.

A.M. 10.48 in 1:16:54. Triggered a deer repelling device while running past a house in the detour section of the trail, and thought about deer, the sunrise, and the length of the run. My mind is very good at associating context, so I started singing "Doe, a deer, a female deer, Ray, a drop of golden sun. Me, a name I call myself, Far, a long long way to run".

P.M. 2 with Benjamin including a workout. We ran 1 mile in a 300-100 fartlek  for the first 0.75, then he gave the best he had for the last quarter. The splits were 67-28-66-30-67-26 with 4:44 at 0.75, and then the last quarter in 91. Total time 6:15.4. I think we've made some progress in overcoming his mental block against sustained 6:00 pace. Later 2 with Jenny in 16:29. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 12:31. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:37. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:28.

A.M. Met Jeff on the trail. 10.2  in 1:18:59. Did a fat mile in 5:45 with a 180 turn in the middle. Yes, the trail is ripped up at a bad place for us, so we could not do it without a 180 or bridges, and we chose 180. Two geeks as we are, we discussed the effects of a 180 turn for the rest of the run.

Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah.

P.M. Ran with the kids running group. Ran to and back from the park with William in the stroller, that gave me 0.75. Then did 0.5 with Joseph and others in 4:42, and 2 in 16:23 with Julia running 1.5 in 12:33. Benjamin did 2 miles in 15:41 with the last quarter in 89. Then he ran 100 in 17.7, two older kids did in in 15.4 and 15.7. Then I took two older kids for a world record marathon pace demonstration, and we ran 100 in 17.9 (4:46.4 pace) which is slightly slower (would give you 2:05:09), but close enough. I think our society in general would do better in a number of ways if more people knew exactly how fast the world record marathon pace is, not just looking at the numbers and saying "Wow!", but actually trying it for as long as they can hold it while thinking that somebody runs all 26 miles like that.

I ended up with 3.35 for the run.

A.M. Both Jeff and I slept in. So I ran alone. 10.18 in 1:12:39 with 1.5 in the middle in 8:42. It felt harder than it should have.

P.M. 3.2 with Benjamin, Jenny, and Julia in 27:06 to Walgreens to get them new clogs and back. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:38. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:35.

Sarah had the ultrasound today. This is going to be a boy. We decided to name him Stephen.  There were two Stephens in my family who died at the age of 3 back in the 1920s in the Soviet Union. A disciple of Christ by the same name was one of the few people in the recorded history of mankind to have seen God the Father and the Son (the story is Acts 7 in the New Testament). We also hope that our Steve will have the talent and the work ethic of three great British Steves: Steve Cram, Steve Ovett, and Steve Jones. If you run and do not know how they are, I would encourage some search-engine aided enlightenment. And of course, we are not forgetting our long time family friend Steve Ashbaker.  

Sarah went to the Pennies by the Inch dinner yesterday and heard a story about a blind man who worked menial jobs all his life, saved $1 million and donated all of it to Pennies by the Inch in his will. I found that story fascinating and did a bit of math. Suppose somebody with low income wants to do a similar feat. Let's say he is able to save $200 a month over 40 years. Let's say he does not want to play any games with the stock market and risky investments and just uses CDs and money market. With the current economy he will be lucky to get 3% interest this way. At 3% interest he will have about $185,000 when he retires. He will not be donating $1 million to any causes when he dies. At 10% interest he will have about $1.2 million.

The question I have is why we clamor for lower interest rates. What do we accomplish with that? We in essence rob the folks that have been working hard and saving their entire life to enable those who currently have a source of income to buy a house that is two times the size they need for four times its worth. Do we really understand that?

A.M. When my alarm went off this morning at 6:20 I seriously was annoyed because I thought it was Sunday. I was looking forward to a day of rest. Yet, when I woke up more fully I realized I had a 20 mile run ahead of me. I thought it was not a good sign that I felt this way, and wondered if maybe there some some lingering fatigue, but from the way the run went I have to say it was more in the area of imagination. Sometimes I feel tired for no other reason than having too many memories.

We did 20.1 in 2:19:48 with 3x3 miles in the middle on our much valued 1.5 mile stretch of the trail from the bridge construction to the end. The target was 5:40 pace. I admonished Jeff not to overachieve and he tried as hard as he could. We started after a 4 mile warm up and did 1.5 recovery jog in between at a bit slower than 8:00 pace. The first one was 16:44.0 with the splits of 5:38, 5:33, 5:33. Second, 16:41.3 (5:33, 5:35, 5:33). On the last one I told Jeff to pace perfectly at 84 per quarter, time every 100 if he had to, then after 2 miles 81, 81, 80, in the last one pace me for 78 but then with 200 to go hit the gas and try to run 30. We ended up doing 5:34, 5:36 (I did have to verbally adjust the pace a few times), then 78, 81, 80, 79 (5:18, 16:28) for me. Jeff dropped me with 500 to go and ended up running 37,30 in the last quarter with the last mile in 5:06 and total time of 16:16.

Overall I was pleased with the workout. I thought 5:40 pace would challenging enough but I was able to average 5:32.6. In spite of going faster than planned I was able to run relaxed and I proved that it was true relaxation, not an illusion of relaxation, with the last mile in 5:18. I was able to maintain the pace after losing contact with Jeff. Before the last repeat I admonished Jeff not to do a 78 quarter immediately after the 2 mile mark thinking it would ruin my last mile and I would fade to 5:25.  He did it anyway. If I had not reigned him in after the first 0.1 it would have been  74. But I did not fade, and instead was able to find a relaxed groove around 5:20 pace that I was able to maintain to the finish. And it felt good to be headed for a very low 17:00 5 K in the last repeat in the middle of a long run off a conservative start.

Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 16:41. 1.5 with Julia in 12:58. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:47. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:46.

Day of rest. Went to church. The Sacrament meeting talks were on resurrection. The lesson in Sunday school was on priesthood. The lesson in the Elder Quorum was on Elder Uchtdorf's talk in the last General Conference "Two Principles for Any Economy". Those principles are work and learn. If only everybody would listen to the Lord's prophets we would have been out of the economic crisis a long time ago. In fact, we would never have been in one in the first place.

A.M. Easy recovery run with Jeff. 10.18 in 1:17:50. Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah.

P.M.  2 with Benjamin in 17:31. Julia ran 1.5 in 13:02. 0.5 with Joseph in the direction of the library. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:56.

A.M. 10.38 in 1;14:58. Did 1.5 in the middle in 8:39.8. Felt OK. Started with a 5:51 mile while somewhat trying to run 5:48 pace. Got a little mad at the 5:48 guy because he took advantage of the wind to gap me. So decided to show him who is the boss and ran the last 2 quarters in 84 each to beat him.

P.M. Ran with our running group. Ended up with a total of  3.5 miles. Benjamin ran a total of 2.5 with 2 miles in 15:54. Jenny did a total of 2.5 with 2 miles in around 16:15. Joseph ran 0.5 in 4:38. Jacob did 0.25 with Sarah. Julia ran 0.5 fairly quick, around 4:10 or so, and then a mile in 8:50.

A.M. 10.25 in 1:18:58. Met Jeff on the trail. An interesting thing happened. Right as I walked out of my house around 6:05 AM I saw another runner and invited him to join me. His name was Dax. As I talked to him it turned out that he served his mission in Madagaskar. Then I realized something interesting. Over the last 10 years I have approached a good number of potential training partners while running. Out of those I get a near 100% return missionary rate. This is higher than what I got from talking to men ages 21 and over inside the church! Go figure. You would expect that even if Provo were 100% LDS, with the 50% inactivity rate the missionary probability of a man inside the church would be higher than the missionary probability of a random man running. How do you explain that?

Did a mile pickup in 5:30.8 starting from the DI bridge. Felt smooth, but not motivated to go any faster. Felt like 5:30 pace was a fine balance of fast and relaxed.

Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah.

P.M. 3.6 with Benjamin to chess club and back in 28:05. 1.5 with Julia in 13:19. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:38. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:36.

A.M. 10.38 in 1:14:49. Ran the last quarter in 89. Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah. Julia ran 2 with Sarah.

P.M. Ran with the kids group. Did a total of 2.5 with two quick quarters in 86 and 88. Benjamin ran 2.5 as well including 2 in 15:48 with the two fast quarters  as well. Joseph ran 0.5 in 4:17. Jacob ran 0.25 with Sarah.

A.M. 10.1 in 1:18:41. Met Jeff on the trail.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin and Jenny in 17:03. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:32. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:38. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:36.

A.M. Ran with Steve Ashbaker and Jeff. Jeff and I did 20.36 in 2:18:37. Steve ran the first 10 with us. We coasted at a little slower than 7:00 average with occasional drifts into 6:40 for most of the run, and then ran the last 3.04 in 17:35 with the last mile in 5:27 - quarters of 85, 83, 83, and 76. I was happy to survive 76 at the end of a 20 mile run.

Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah.

P.M. Sat on the backup for the General Conference translation, so Benjamin and Julia ran on their own around the block (2.1 in 18:03). Joseph and Jacob ran their usual distances with Sarah.

Day of rest. Listen to General Conference. Heard a lot of good stuff, now it is time to do it. I particularly liked Elder Christopherson's talk on scriptures. What I got out of it is that the people like William Tyndale knew enough to sacrifice their lives to make the scriptures available, I could perhaps exercise my faith and learn a portion of what they knew. Their is value and power in the scriptures that we just do not understand. 

I also liked President Uchtdorf's  talk on patience in the Priesthood session. Back in the 60s an experiment was conducted that tested the patience of four year old children. They were given a marshmallow and told if they could wait 15 minutes to eat it, they would get another. Only 30% of them made it to 15 minutes. The children were followed throughout their lives and it turned out that those who demonstrated patience at the age of four were more likely to get good grades, make more money, have more stable relationships, and avoid depression than the ones in the other group.

A.M. 10.18 with Jeff in 1:19:56. Did an experimental mile in 5:20.8 to test Jeff's sense of pace. He thought it was around 5:32. Jenny ran 2 with Sarah.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 17:20. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:21. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:08. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:46. 

A.M. 10.38 in 1:16:58.

P.M. 2 with Jenny and Julia in 17:48. Benjamin ran ahead and finished around 17:20. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:30. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:40.

A.M. 10.18 in 1:13:50. Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 16:53. Last 0.2 at around 5:20 pace.  Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:24. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:28. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:29.

A.M. 10.2 in 1:18:53. Met Jeff on the trail. We did an experiment. Without telling Jeff I ran on and off squeezing the big toe and the one next to it on the right and alternated that with normal form during short pickups. The only thing I told Jeff was "form one" and "form two".  I showed him "form one" and "form two" once to see if he would notice a difference. He did.  Then we did a sequence of four pickups with Jeff setting the pace and me randomly choosing either "form one" or "form two".  At the end of the pickups I asked Jeff to identify the form types for each pickup, and he got all four correct. So that provided some evidence that indeed there is a difference. Without being told which form was normal, he pointed out that he liked "form two" better, which was the one with the squeezed toes.

Now, before anybody gets too excited about squeezing the toes to get a better form. I suspect this works only for me and only on the right side. The reason is that it just happens to give me a cue to reduce wobbling on the right side. I hope to learn to avoid wobbling eventually without that cue.

Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah.

P.M. Ran about 2.8 with the kids running group. Benjamin did 2 in 16:55. Julia ran 1.5 with a mile in 8:35. Jacob did 0.25 in 2:45. Joseph ran 0.5 in around 4:30.

A.M. 10.28 in 1:09:50. Last 0.5 in 2:47. Practiced the toe squeeze and was trying to learn better cues.. 

P.M. 2 with Benjamin and Jenny in 17:02. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:12. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:30. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:40.

A.M. 21.1 in 2:32:17 with Steve Ashbaker. Jeff ran around 15 with us. He had an issue with his hips. We did a couple of pickups. About 6 miles into it I paced a mile in 5:24 without splits thinking it was 5:38. Steve paced a mile in 6:01 thinking it was 5:48 around 17 miles into it. His sense of pace which is usually near perfect was messed up because we were too far into the run. Then we did a wild half mile that was supposed to be at 5:40 pace, but we opened with an 84 quarter, and then Steve got feisty and made me run 77, so 2:41 for the half mile. Then we ran the last 1.25 in 7:25 to test fuel reserves.

Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah.

P.M. Benjamin was sick and did not run. 1.5 with Julia in 13:24.  0.5 with Joseph in 4:21. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:40.

Day of rest. Went to church. It was a Fast Sunday. So we had the fast and testimony meeting, and then the usual classes. The stars aligned again for the third time this year for me to teach both Sunday school and the Elders Quorum. The Sunday school lesson was on the organization of the priesthood, and the Elders Quorum lesson was on the Holy Ghost. One scripture really stood out to me: "no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost" (1 Corinthians 12:3).

A.M. Ran 10.42 with Jeff in 1:18:37. A little longer than usual because I started out in pants, but then quickly realized it was too warm, so we ran back for me to change. Did a 1.5 pickup in 8:24 with the first mile almost perfectly evenly paced in 5:44, then a quarter in 84 followed by 76. I was just following Jeff. Early on it felt like a slightly aggressive marathon pace. I would have definitely joined a pack at that effort in a race. Then the pace started getting progressively faster, and I thought "Hmm... it would be difficult to hold this in a marathon". Then I timed a 200 and realized we were going 5:12. It is a good sign, though, that at 5:12 at altitude with no downhill I was at least thinking about the marathon for a brief moment.

Jenny ran 3 with Sarah.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 16:53. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:19. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:21. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:33.

A.M. 10.38 in 1:12:45. The weather was bad but aside from being wet and frozen I felt great. I picked it up to 89 in the last quarter.

P.M. Ran with the kids running group. Ended up with 2.5 miles. Benjamin did 2.5 including 2 in 15:29 with the last mile in 6:36 with 600 in 2:10 and 500 in 1:48 in the middle. Jenny ran 2.5. 17:15 for 2 miles + 0.5 in 4:04 with Joseph. Julia ran 1.5. Jacob ran 0.25 with Sarah.

A.M. Met Jeff on the trail. 10 miles in 1:18:37.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin and Jenny. Julia ran 1.5 with us. 0.5 with Joseph. 0.25 with Jacob.

A.M. 10.18 with Jeff in 1:14:42. Did 2x1.5 in the middle. First in 8:32.4, second in 8:17.8.  Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah.

P.M. Ran with the kids group. Ended up with 2.5 miles. Benjamin did 2.5 total with 2 in 14:27. Julia ran 1.5. Joseph did 0.5 in 4:04. Jacob ran 0.25 with Sarah.

A.M. 10.48 in 1:14:52. Did a mile in 5:50 in the middle.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin and Jeff in 16:42. Julia ran 1.5. We forgot that Jenny did not run with Sarah in the morning, so she slipped through the cracks and missed her run. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:26. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:40.

A.M. 20.36 in 2:18:52. Did 4 x 1.5 in the middle. 8:37.8, 8:36.9, 8:30.2, 8:17.7. Felt good in the first 3, and decided to see what I had left in the last one. It started 16.5 miles into the run, so I was expecting fuel/nervous system fatigue at that point. Had a side ache, could not figure out if it was fuel related, then realized it was probably just some pressure on the diaphragm. The plan was to run 84 quarters in the first mile, then 80, and then maybe 78 if I could. I ended up with 84, 84, 83, 86, 80, and 80. That one in 86 was odd. The one in 83 felt good, so I thought the next one would be at least 84 with the same effort, but I guess I started going into the "zone" right around that point. I realized that and adjusted my effort to hit 80s. Was happy that I was still able to pull off two 80s after starting to go into the "zone".

With a quarter to go I wanted to measure my "zone depth" and picked up the pace. Was able to run 90 without too much effort, so I was happy about that.

Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 16:51. Jenny and Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:06. Benjamin needs to learn more respect for his dad. He made me run an 88 quarter with a stroller at the end of a 23 mile day + Elder's Quorum move + two sessions of the Stake Conference + wearing street clothes + going off a 180 turn, which is a real speed killer if you are pushing a stroller. But I survived, caught up to him, and was ready to go faster after 200 meters. 0.5 with Joseph in 4;26. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:36.

Day of rest. We had a Stake Conference. The talks were on missionary work focusing on Alma 26. This is one of my favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon. It teaches about the fruits of faith. I love to learn from Ammon how to be a great missionary.

A.M. This morning I was reading in 3 Nephi 12 where resurrected Christ repeats the Sermon on the Mount to the Nephites. Then Jeff asked me in the middle of the run to go another 3 miles. I remembered the scripture from the Sermon on the Mount "if any shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain", and decided to follow the instruction. So we ended up with the Uneventful Half instead of our regular 10.18. Except due to the construction it was a bit longer, 13.19, which we did in a glorious time of 1:43:54. Hey, at least we broke 8:00 average!

We did 1.5 in the middle. Jeff asked me how fast, I said marathon pace. Then after the first 100 I informed him we were on pace for 2:11. So he eased off to a real marathon pace, but then we picked it up again after the first mile in 5:42 and ran a quarter in 83, then 200 in 38 and the last 200 in 35 to finish the segment in 8:18.5. So we did hit marathon world record pace in the last 200.

We met Scott Hilman and he ran about 2.5 miles with us.

Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 17:23. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:22. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:54. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:38.

A.M. 10.38 in 1:18:38. Did a mile in 5:47.7. Felt tired, thought I'd be off pace in the fast mile, but I was on pace in spite of the fatigue.

P.M. 2.75 with the running group, including 2x600 in 2:12 each. Benjamin ended up with 2.5 including 2 in 15:27 with the last mile in 6:39 done in the 2x600 in 2:12 fartlek. Jenny ran 2.5. Julia ran 1.5. Joseph did 0.5 in 4:16. Jacob ran 0.25 in 2:38.

A.M. Met Jeff on the trail. 10.1 in 1:19:13. Did pickups. 1000 down a slight grade in 3:20.8, 800 flat in 2:33.6, 1000 up a slight grade in 3:16.6. Total of 1.75 of pickups.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin and Jenny in 17:07. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:19. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:36. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:38.

A.M. 10.1 in 1:15:01. Met Jeff on the trail. It rained/snowed and was quite unpleasant. So we ran a bit quicker to get it over with. I ran the last 0.7 at 6:00 pace just for fun.

P.M. 2.5 with the kids running group. Benjamin did 2.5 including 2 in 15:43. Jenny ran a total of 2.5. Julia did 1.5. Joseph ran 0.5 in 4:16. Jacob ran 0.25 with Sarah.

A.M. Met Jeff and Chris Bramwell on the trail. Ended up with 10 miles in 1:18:53. Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 16:23. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:07.  0.5 with Joseph in 4:28. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:38.

A.M. Ran 20.4 with Jeff in 2:24:42. Did the planned 4 mile time trial. Everything went pretty much as planned. Jeff paced me with near perfection with the splits of 5:29 - 5:31 - 5:29 in the first three miles. There was only one glitch. He spaced it a bit in the third mile, so we ended up running an 81 quarter to catch up right before the 180 turn at the 3 mile mark. Then the plan was 80 - 80 - then see what happens. Jeffs erred a bit and hit 79, which would have been OK without 180 and 81 preceding quarter, but with those it was a bit too much for me. So that reduced the "see what happens" in the last 0.5 to "see if I can maintain the pace". Then we did 80, 81. After that Jeff picked it up and ran 72, while I still managed 79. This gave me 5:19 for the last mile and 21:48.3 for the whole distance. I was happy about the result for several reasons:

• I was wearing pants, so maybe 3 seconds a mile loss.
• Two 180 degree turns, so maybe 7 seconds total loss.
• Even without the turns the trail for some reason (possibly more than one) naturally loses 5 seconds a mile compared to flat road races.
• My last 5 K was 16:54. Last year I've had a good number of races where I could not crack 17:00.
• My last mile was 11 seconds faster than the first three.
• I beat my Thanksgiving time by 1:16 on a slower course.

Afterwards we jogged some, then ran 2 with Benjamin in 15:38 with the last quarter in 87. Then we did 2x1 mile on the trail, first in 5:37.8 and second in 5:28.8.

Jenny and Julia ran 2.5 with Sarah.

P.M. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:38. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:38.

Day of rest. Went to church. The sacrament talks were on following the prophet. The Sunday school lesson was on covenants. The lesson in the Elder's quorum was on service.

A.M. Uneventful half course (with the detour, so 13.19) with Jeff in 1:38:54. Did a 1.5 pickup in 8:16.3. First 1.25 in 7:02 at a fairly even pace, then the last quarter in 74. Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 17:27. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:19.  0.5 with Joseph in 4:28. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:46.

A.M. 10.1 in 1:14:39. Met Jeff on the trail. We did 10x400 with random rests varying from a 200 meter jog at 8:00 pace to as long as 0.75. The reason for the randomness was being in odd places on the trail, and we did not always have a nice quarter without bridges or sharp turns. The target was 75 seconds. The purpose of the workout was to learn to run 5:00 pace relaxed. We did err a couple of times, but otherwise stayed fairly close to target. The splits were: 77.3, 73.5, 74.0, 73.8, 72.3, 69.7, 75.8, 75.6, 73.3, 72.0. During the cool down after I had dropped Jeff off I met a guy named Jason and we ran together some. In line with the Provo young man running tradition he ended up being fluent in a foreign language, which was Spanish this time. He had served a mission in Buenos Aires in Argentina. 

P.M. 2.75 with the running group. Benjamin and Jenny did 2.5, including 2 in 16:36. Julia ran 1.5. Joseph ran 0.5 in 4:22. Jacob ran 0.25 in 2:41.

A.M. Jeff did not make it this morning, but Jason was there. Ran with Jason a bit. Did 10.28 in 1:16:41. Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 17:30. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:22.  0.5 with Joseph in 4:36. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:40.

A.M. Met Jeff on the trail. 10 in 1:13:44. Did 2x1200 in 3:59.3 and 3:58.7. The first one was a slight uphill (last 0.75 of the Fast Running Blog 5 miler course). The second was from Union Pacific bridge to 820 N, which is more uphill. This was Jeff's race pace practice for this Saturday.

P.M. Ran with the kids running group. Ended up with a total of 3.25. Benjamin ran 2 including a mile in 6:12. Jenny did a total of 4 including a mile in 7:10. Julia ran 2. Joseph ran 0.5 in 3:58.

A.M. Met Jeff on the trail. Ran 10.1 in 1:19:23. We did a quarter pickup in 78. The weather was bad enough for us to discuss global warming for a few miles. Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin and Jared. Benjamin ran 16:46 with the last quarter in 90. Jared started falling back in the last 0.5, so I waited at the 1.75 mark to make sure Jared would follow the course, then chased Benjamin down and ended up with an 83 quarter. I was also carrying Jared's jacket, but it surprisingly did not seem to make a whole lot of difference. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:09. 0.5 with Joseph and Jordan. Joseph ran 4:56, Jordan fell back a bit at the end and finished in 5:01. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:40.

A.M. Long run. 20.33 in 2:10:40. Ran the last 5.05 hard - 29:33, 5:51 avg. The run was full of adventures. First it rained. Then I saw the Provo City Half in progress. Then I met Steve Cuttitta and he ran with me for a couple of miles. We saw Jeff and I knew he was headed for something faster than 1:09:30 I was optimistically expecting in a solo run. He looked smooth at 11. He ended up with 1:08:56, new course record by almost 2 minutes, read his race report for details. The we saw the whole crowd.

On the way back I ran the tempo. The rain picked up. Now I was going in the same direction as the race. This was perhaps better than going the other way. Passed Marion with about 2 miles to go, recognized her by the jacket, she was moving OK, estimated she would finish around 2:15-2:20 (she ended up with 2:21)  but unfortunately did not have enough time to say hi. The tempo felt good, the form felt actually quite smooth, no fuel issues. I was seeing 86 quarters at times when I got a stretch with fewer people, and 88-89s when I had to weave through traffic. Slower on sections with turns and bridges. I tried to shift gears, though, but they were not shifting. Perhaps a combination of being alone and the rain.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 16:55. He made me run a quarter in 86. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:11. Jenny ran 2.5 in the morning with Sarah. 0.5 with Joseph. 0.25 with Jacob.

Day of rest. Went to Jeff's daughter's blessing for the sacrament meeting, then to our ward for the other two meetings. The lessons were on the organization of the Church in Sunday School, and on diligence in the Elder's Quorum.

A.M. 10.08 with Jeff in 1:17:28. Started very slow, were trailing the 8:00 guy more than half way, then sped up some. Jeff's calves were sore from the half on Saturday. Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah.

P.M. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:48. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:51. 2 with Benjamin in 15:49. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 12:49. Benjamin made me run the last 0.5 in 3:00.

Tried rollerblading for the second time in my life. First time was 13 years ago and I went only maybe 50 meters. So this was the first time that I rollerbladed for more than that. It was an interesting experience. I did better than I expected. I thought it would take me a while just to learn to stand, but I was able to do that right a way. And I was able to move right away as well. Then I decided to time myself. My first 100 meters was in 52 seconds, a glorious 14:00 mile pace! Then with some practice I learned to go sub-12:00.  After about 1.5 I was able to speed up to 9:30.

Of course, there was a reason to the madness. I was not going to become a roller-blading bum at the age of 37 all of a sudden just because. I have noticed a pattern that I have run well in the past when I cross-country skied with skating style. So I wondered if perhaps the skating motion helps balance out my hips. I did notice two things when rollerblading. First, the imbalance is more pronounced - my right hip feels a whole lot more out of whack when rollerblading than when running. Second, riding on rough asphalt make the leg vibrate, and it feels like standing on a vibration plate. This could help loosen up deep tight muscles and stretch out the ligaments and tendons.

A.M. Met Jeff on the trail. We caught up to a runner whose name was Chris and ran with him some. After dropping Jeff off I ran an 84 quarter at the end to finish the run before it started hailing. Total time for 10 was 1:18:55.

P.M. 2.75 with the running group. Benjamin and Jenny did 2.5 including 2 in 16:15. Julia ran 1.5. Joseph did 0.5 in 4:40. Jacob ran 0.25 in 2:40.

A.M. 10.1 in 1:11:45. Last 1 K in 3:45. Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah.

P.M. 1 mile on rollerblades in 9:46. It was not easy, probably around 7:00 running effort in cardio, but I could not go any faster. Odd feeling.  2 with Benjamin in 17:01. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:04. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:37. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:35.

A.M. Met Jeff on the trail. 10 in 1:15:28. Caught up to Sarah and Jenny at the end, and Jenny ran about 0.4 with me. Timed the last quarter, it was 1:39.

P.M. 2.5 miles with the kids running group, including 2x300 with Benjamin in 59.0 and 56.5 - Benjamin ran 2 in 16:15 total time, and a total of 2.5. Julia ran 1.5, including a mile in 8:39. Joseph ran 0.5 in 4:24. Jacob ran 0.25 with Sarah. 

A.M. 10.28 in 1:08:28. Did a 1.5 pickup in 8:18. Felt good. Jeff had a calf strain, took a day off.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin and Jenny in 16:19. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 12:37. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:28. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:41.

A.M, Ran with Jeff. Because of his calf strain we had a change of plans. We went out 3 miles so we would not be too far away from the house, then turned around, and on the way back kept going and went the other way on the trail to avoid a 180. We also kept the pace slow to avoid stirring the pot - a bit sub-8:00. We went a bit too far, and ended up with 10.43 in 1:20:39. Then Jeff stopped, and I ran the standard 10.18 course in 58:39 with a slight negative split (29:22, 29:17). So that gave me 2:19:18 for 20.63. The average pace for the last 10.18 was 5:46.

I was happy that I was able to sustain the pace.  It felt not so sustainable early on, and I thought I would be slowing down in the second half, especially given that it has some uphill. Turns slow you down more when fatigued as well. But I was able to stay relaxed which allowed me to maintain power in the second half and run a negative split. I found that offering a prayer to clear your mind, and thinking about a peaceful church hymn helps a lot. I like this one:

Lord, accept our true devotion.
Let thy Spirit whisper peace.
Swell our hearts with fond emotion,
And our joy in thee increase.
Never leave us, never leave us.
Help us, Lord, to win the race.

because of "whisper peace" and "win the race".  Idle thoughts fatigue the nervous system. When peace is whispered, and the idle thoughts are gone, the neural output to the legs in the critical phase of the running stride increases and helps in the cause of winning the race.

I also noticed that I was not breathing very hard. My lungs definitely felt underworked. The limit was neuromuscular.

Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 16:13. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 12:45. 0.5 with Joseph. 0.25 with Jacob.

Day of rest. Went to church. It was Mothers' Day. The talks in the sacrament meeting were on the role of mothers. It was my turn to teach in Sunday School, and in the Elder's Quorum as well. The lesson in Sunday School was on the church of Jesus Christ in our day. The lesson in the Elder's Quorum was on prayer.

A.M. Ran with Jeff. 10.18 in 1:18:01.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 16:53. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 12:53. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:40. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:32.

A.M. 10 in 1:16:27. Met Jeff on the trail. Did 600 in 1:53.7, and a mile in 5:18.1. Had some headwind in the mile. Tried to run an honest 5 K effort that I could sustain. Jeff skipped the fast stuff due to back and calf problems. 

P.M. 3.25 with the running group. Benjamin ran 3 including a 87 quarter, and a mile in 6:14 starting out fast (83), surviving in the middle at 6:44 pace, and then finishing in 89. I wanted him to experience life after an 85 quarter, but it accidentally ended up 83. The idea is that if he can see that he can live after an 85 he will learn to believe that 90 is sustainable. Or another approach,  blast it out in 85, then there is too much pain to mull over if he can hold 90s to the end, so no opportunity to panic.   Jenny ran 2.5, Julia ran 1.5, Joseph ran 0.5, and Jacob ran 0.25.

A.M. Met Jeff on the trail. Jenny ran the first half of the run with Sarah, the last half with me, total of 2.5 including the last mile in 7:29. I ended up with 1:17:25 for 10.1.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 16:18, including a quarter in 83. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 12:51. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:40. Benjamin ran 0.25 with Jacob.

A.M. 10.38 in 1:09:46. Did a mile in 5:13.6 to feel the 5 K pace. 5:00 felt too hard. 5:16 felt OK. Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah.

P.M. Ran with the running kids group.  Ended up with 2.75 miles. Jacob ran 0.25 in 2:29. Joseph did 0.5 in 4:40. Julia did 1.5 including a mile in 8:39. Benjamin did 2.5 including 2 in 13:56 with the last 1.5 in 9:47 and last mile in 6:19.

A.M. Met Jeff on the trail. Ran 10.53 in 1:16:32. Did a couple of pickups. 600 in 1:46.3 - was supposed to be 5:00 pace (1:52, but Jeff was a bit feisty). Then that was supposed to be the end of it, but then we say a guy ahead of us and decided to chase him down. It was taking a while. At first we ran something like 6:00 pace but we were not closing the gap. Then we sped up to 5:15, and started closing it. We ran an extra quarter to ask the guy's name. He said Brad something, and even though we did not here the last name at first both of us guessed it right -  Osguthorpe. The moral of the story is if you are unusually fast and have shown it in races, never rob a bank, or if you do, do not escape on foot. You can wear a face mask, but they'll figure out who you are by your running speed and form. Not to mention that a guy than trains consistently usually has better things to do than rob banks. Although with today's economy and pathetic payback from running he might be tempted to do it.

So chasing Brad we ended up with about half a mile at 6:00 pace, and another half at 5:15. Then we turned around and he kept going. On the way back he caught up to us. When we caught him he was actually just warming up. Now he was doing a tempo run. We joined him for 1000 in 3:18 (5:17 pace) up about 1% grade.

P,M. Kids runs. Benjamin ran 2.5 in 18:56. Julia and Jenny did 2 in 17:14. Jacob did 0.25 in 2:41. Joseph ran 0.5 in 4:53. I ended up with a total of 3.25 for the evening.

A.M. Law Days 5 K. It used to be a rather non-eventful run as far as competition is concerned. Until law firms got somewhat serious about recruiting top local runners for their speed teams. Chad's law firm, Curtis, Manning, and Bradshaw put together two teams this year. Things were serious enough to where I did not make the A team and had to be sent to B. For a good reason. Our A team had Jeff, Paul, and Josh Stephen for men, Lindsey Dunkley and Emily Bates.  They were well matched by Olsen Shaner - Teren, Nate Hornok, Albert Wint, Sue Nielsen, and Devra Vierkant. 

I warmed up with Jeff and Paul. We ran the course in 22:13. The course had been changed, and looked good. The kilometer marks were present and all reasonable. The hills have been shortened, and the course appeared definitely faster than it used to be. The weather was perfect.

I set five goals at the start of the race, and am happy to report that I met all of them. They were to break 17:00 equivalent of the old course, not to get chicked (Lindsey),  not to get lawyered (Andrew Hansen) , be the first fluent Russian speaker across the finish line (in other words beat Albert), and be within reasonable distance from Josh.

I realized in my pre-race pickups that I was not ready to run a 5 K like a 5 K and decided to think of it as a 10-15 K race figuring that the excitement of the race plus knowing in the back of my mind that I was going only 5 K would fix the pace in the right direction naturally.

1 K 3:19 - Uphill, sharp turns. At the start I figured Lindsey will naturally hit the right pace for the first quarter, so I just ran right next to her. If it was a male competitor I would just draft, but I wanted to be a gentleman. Plus she is so small that unless you are 5'2 you do not get a whole lot of benefit of drafting behind her.  Then Andrew made a move, and I just got on his tail. I fell back a bit trying to relax, but then Andrew slowed down a bit and I reeled him back in,

2 K 6:49 (3:30) - Most uphill of the race. Andrew went into a gutter at around 1.3 K mark. I did not want to go there with him. That encouraged me to make the passing move. He wanted to stay in the gutter. He was apparently struggling some. He could have latched on and kept me from dropping him, but he would have had to come out of the cutter to keep meaningful contact.  Took a split at the mile. It was 5:21. Timed Albert, it was 5:14.

3 K 10:05 (3:16) - Downhill with some uphill. Surged to close the gap with Albert, then rested behind him until the start of the hill (around 2.6 K), then sensed he was losing it a bit and made a passing move.

4 K 13:20 (3:15) - Downhill, but lots of turns. Had to ask volunteers where to go a couple of times. Josh is starting to come back.

5 K 16:27 (3:07) - downhill, steeper. Decided the best way to hold off the people behind me is to focus on closing the gap with Josh. It worked.

Jeff had a great race and was still with Teren in the kick, then just lost the kick finish second. This is a breakthrough race for him.

Final times (unofficial): Teren 14:52, Jeff 14:55, Paul 15:17, Nate 15:20, Josh 16:13, me 16:27, Andrew 16:31, Albert 16:33, Lindsey 16:39.

I think our A team won.

There is a suspicion the course was a bit short. Albert's GPS showed it as 3.03. I would be willing to believe that the GPS was off but the times while right for a normal course are a bit too fast for so much uphill and turns. But I would say it is roughly comparable to something like Heart of Holladay or Murray Fun Days.

Did a long cool down with Jeff afterwards, ended up with 16 miles, and then went to the zoo with the family. Saw Paul, Stacy and their son Seth there.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 15:40. Last quarter in 87. Jenny and Julia ran 2 miles with Sarah. I rollerbladed along.

Day of rest. Went to church. The talks were on living the gospel of Jesus Christ. The lesson in Sunday School was on faith. The lesson in the Elders Quorum was on prophets.

A.M. Easy 10.18 with Jeff in 1:19:47. Chatted about the Saturday's race. Jeff has grown into a monster over the last three years.  Three years ago BYU did not want him. Now he has a very realistic shot at making the Trials without having to run the full marathon (via 1:05 half). That is what we do on Fast Running Blog. We breed monsters!   

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 16:50. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:05. Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah in the morning. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:47. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:38.

A.M. Met Jeff on the trail. Ran 10 in 1:16:27 with 3x1200 on the trail with 200 recovery. 3:57.8, 4:02.0, 3:51.2. I think this is a perfect 5 K training workout. Maybe do the 4th one once you plateau with 3. I felt HR was going into 170 range on the last one. If you just bust out a fast 1200 HR might not go up and you will be running anaerobically. This is OK for the mile, but not for the 5 K. In the 5 K you want your HR elevated for the longest extent possible (not due to the lack of aerobic fitness, though).  While in the half and longer you are playing the game of getting the most out of one heart beat, in the 5 K that is not enough. You need to get the heart to beat fast as well.

Then 3.25 more with Julia in 29:25  to Walgreens and back to get new clogs.

P.M. Ran with the kids running group. It was a special day. I have been giving Benjamin workouts to get him to believe that he could break 6:00. I carefully planned this one to make it happen right in the workout. I told him, open with an 85, then 90, then whatever you want, I do not care if it is 8:00 pace, then 90.  He was freaking out and telling me he could not do it, and that he would not even try. I gave him a talk about Laman and Lemuel, threatened him that he would have to take two piano lessons a week instead of one, and then told him to pray for humility. He finally did and was ready to go. I told him if he opened with 85, and got to half mile in under 3:00 I did not care if he jogged to the end from there, but only with one condition - he had to be able to be happy with himself.  Of course, I knew that if he opened with 85, he would get to half mile in at least 2:55, and once he is there he would not be happy with himself if he had not tried to hold the pace. He seemed to understand that as well and deep down was fighting the idea.

So from the start he busted out of the gate. After I had slowed him down, the first 100 was 18. I congratulated him for being on pace for 4:48, and he backed off to what was right. 84 at the quarter, 2:07 at 600, 2:51 (87) at the half. This was a 1 second half mile PR. Then he started freaking out and slowed down to a jog. But that was OK, it was part of my "devious" plan. I knew you could jog only that slow after running fast. His next 100 was 28, so he was still ahead of the 6:00 guy. After hearing the split he began to believe that he could break his mile record of 6:07 and sped up to a 24 quarter. He was still 2 seconds ahead of 6:00 pace, and had only 600 to go. He ran the next 200 more or less off inertia in 46 hitting 0.75 in 4:29 and then it dawned on him that he only needed a 91 to hit 6:00. So pretty much maintain the pace, and it is in the bag. He got excited and sped up. His last quarter was 84, and he finished the mile in 5:53.9 thus becoming the second member in our family sub-6:00 club!

So his progression is as follows - sub-8:00 at the age of 5, a month before his 6th birthday. Sub-7:00 at the age of 8 a couple of months after his 8th birthday. Now sub-6:00 at the age of 11 three months after his 11th birthday. Now we are hoping for sub-5:00 at 14 and sub-4:00 at 17, of course. In reality, sub-5:00 will probably happen at late 12/early 13, and sub-4:00 may never happen, but I'll be OK with that as long as he can run 4:10. You can run 2:05 marathon off as slow as 4:10 mile with proper endurance training.

Benjamin ran a total of 3. Jenny ran 2.5. Joseph ran 0.5.

A.M. 10.38 in 1:18:57. Jenny and Julia ran 2.

P.M.  2 with Benjamin in 16:00. Last 200 in 39. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:40. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:28.

A.M. 10 in 1:18:12. Met Jeff on the trail. We did a 200 stride in 40. Jenny and Julia ran 2 miles.

P.M. Ran with the kids running group. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:17. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:32.  2 with Benjamin in 15:20 including a 600 in 2:03.0 and a 200 in 39.9.  His next challenges are to beat my 11 year old records: 1000 in 3:24.6, 300 in 51.3, and 2000 in 7:57. The 2000 is weak as I ran it with only maybe a month of training fading a lot in the second kilometer. Benjamin almost got it last week without trying to break any records closing his 2 mile run in 8:03 for the last 2 K. 300 would be tough, but I figure if he can hit a 56 at the end of a fartlek, he might be able to run 51 fresh. He is pretty close to taking down the 1000 record given that he can hold the pace through 600 in a fartlek already.

A.M. 10.28 in 1:12:23. Last 1 K in 3:31. Jenny and Julia ran 2 miles.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 16:50. 0.5 with Joseph. 0.25 with Jacob.

A.M. 20 with Jeff in 2:18:04. Ran to Bridal Veil Falls and back. Did a workout in the middle. 3 miles up the Provo Canyon from the mouth to Nunns Park in 17:28 (5:53 - 5:49 - 5:46). Got a slight tail wind. Then the same stretch back, now with a slight headwind in 15:55 (5:28 - 5:19 - 5:08). We bummed it in the first quarter (88 downhill), then got down to business. Then the last 1.5 at my honest marathon pace effort more or less. At least the first mile of it (5:44), then we did 84, 80 to finish the interval in 8:28.

Felt cruising at 5:20 pace downhill, very comfortable feeling. Not quite the marathon pace, but I think slower than the half. Also felt very comfortable at 5:44 pace in the last 1.5 segment. Did not feel so good at 5:08 pace downhill. Part of it is that by that time the downhill decreases and we were running into a headwind. Part of it is that we had to dodge a group of walkers and Jeff hit the gas, which gave us 78 before the end of the second mile followed by 75 while weaving through traffic. This put some stress on my nervous system and I suppose I was still feeling it in the next three quarters at a brisk pace. And part of it is that it was 5:08 and I am not yet fit to run this for a long time.

Jenny and Julia ran 2.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 15:56. Pushed William in the stroller. Benjamin has developed a habit of making me work on a Saturday night when I am tired from my long run. He made me run 88 at the end of it this time. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:33. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:37.

Day of rest. Went to church. Good talks in sacrament on sharing the Gospel. Then a lesson on repentance in Sunday school. Applying this to marathons, while 2:40 is a good time, you can still repent of it by running 2:20. In other words repentance = improvement. Substituted in Primary during the Elders Quorum.

Hobie Call and his wife Irene  came over for dinner with their five children. We had a good visit.

A.M. Bum recovery run. Met Jeff on the trail. Did 11.4 in 1:32:17. Glorious 8:05 average. Jenny and Julia ran 2 miles.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 15:56. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:17. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:38.