Breaking the Wall

December 21, 2024

15% off for Fast Running Blog members at St. George Running Center!

Location:

Orem,UT,United States

Member Since:

Jan 27, 1986

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Olympic Trials Qualifier

Running Accomplishments:

Best marathon: 2:23:57 (2007, St. George). Won the Top of Utah Marathon twice (2003,2004). Won the USATF LDR circuit in Utah in 2006.

Draper Days 5 K 15:37 (2004)

Did not know this until June 2012, but it turned out that I've been running with spina bifida occulta in L-4 vertebra my entire life, which explains the odd looking form, struggles with the top end speed, and the poor running economy (cannot break 16:00 in 5 K without pushing the VO2 max past 75).

Short-Term Running Goals:

Qualify for the US Olympic Trials. With the standard of 2:19 on courses with the elevation drop not exceeding 450 feet this is impossible unless I find an uncanny way to compensate for the L-4 defect with my muscles. But I believe in miracles.

Long-Term Running Goals:

2:08 in the marathon. Become a world-class marathoner. This is impossible unless I find a way to fill the hole in L-4 and make it act healthy either by growing the bone or by inserting something artificial that is as good as the bone without breaking anything important around it. Science does not know how to do that yet, so it will take a miracle. But I believe in miracles.

Personal:

I was born in 1973. Grew up in Moscow, Russia. Started running in 1984 and so far have never missed more than 3 consecutive days. Joined the LDS Church in 1992, and came to Provo, Utah in 1993 to attend BYU. Served an LDS mission from 1994-96 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Got married soon after I got back. My wife Sarah and I are parents of eleven children: Benjamin, Jenny, Julia, Joseph, Jacob, William, Stephen, Matthew, Mary, Bella. and Leigha. We home school our children.

I am a software engineer/computer programmer/hacker whatever you want to call it, and I am currently working for RedX. Aside from the Fast Running Blog, I have another project to create a device that is a good friend for a fast runner. I called it Fast Running Friend.

Favorite Quote:

...if we are to have faith like Enoch and Elijah we must believe what they believed, know what they knew, and live as they lived.

Elder Bruce R. McConkie

Favorite Blogs:

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Miles:	This week:	0.00	Month:	0.00	Year:	3010.45
Saucony Type A Lifetime Miles:						640.15
Bare Feet Lifetime Miles:						450.37
Nike Double Stroller Lifetime Miles:						124.59
Brown Crocs 4 Lifetime Miles:						1334.06
Amoji 1 Lifetime Miles:						732.60
Amoji 2 Lifetime Miles:						436.69
Amoji 3 Lifetime Miles:						380.67
Lopsie Sports Sandals Lifetime Miles:						818.02
Lopsie Sports Sandals 2 Lifetime Miles:						637.27
Iprome Garden Clogs Lifetime Miles:						346.18
Beslip Garden Clogs Lifetime Miles:						488.26
Joybees 1 Lifetime Miles:						1035.60
Madctoc Clogs Lifetime Miles:						698.29
Blue Crocs Lifetime Miles:						1164.32
Kimisant Black Clogs Lifetime Miles:						720.62
Black Crocs 2023 Lifetime Miles:						1743.12
White Slip Resistant Crocs Lifetime Miles:						759.93

Tue, Mar 14, 2006

Easy Miles	Marathon Pace Miles	Threshold Miles	VO2 Max Miles	Total Distance
12.90	0.60	0.00	0.00	13.50

Easy run with George and Eric in the morning. We did their fartlek - two sessions of 20 seconds fast 20 seconds slow 10 times. The idea is to shut down the slacking mechanisms by rebooting the body every 20 seconds and really push the cardiac output to the top. It seems like the workout accomplished its purpose - George and Eric were breathing pretty hard. However, after some jogging and dropping Eric off George was not done. He volunteered 1:43 quarter on a downhill, and then sustained about 7:30 pace once it flattened out. I challenged him to break 7:00 for the mile. He sped up to a 1:33 quarter and got 7:02. Afterwards, he wanted to do a couple of sprints. He is getting into a pretty good shape. We will find out how good on Thursday when we do the Slate Canyon Loop tempo time trial. I did a forced tempo pickup for my regular pitstop and clocked a 0.5 split of 2:51. The pace felt good, I enjoyed it. Did some always on the run miles during the day, and a run with Benjamin and Jennifer to total 13.5. I slightly injured my right foot on Friday. Fortunately, the pain is right in the middle on the very outside. My right leg is longer than my left, so I have to do some advanced acrobatics to compensate landing on the outside at an angle, and the aggressively rotating the foot inward to get the maximum power during the push. On Friday, my legs had a little bit more power than usual, the leg muscles fired quick and hard while the foot was still in the outward position and that caught it off guard, I suppose, and cause a minor sprain. I have been able to run at fast speeds, but it does hurt enough to annoy me and to affect the stride. So far I have tried ice with a small measure of success and B F & C with a greater. A doze of BF & C on the sore spot soothed the pain to about 50% of the original intensity and increased the range of painless motion by about 30%. I am going to try some more of that stuff. It would be nice if the pain went away before the Moab half, but I am not too worried - I can still race with it.

Night Sleep Time: 0.00	Nap Time: 0.00	Total Sleep Time: 0.00

Comments

From superfly on Wed, Mar 15, 2006 at 10:56:09

Steve its good to see that your mortal like the rest of us. Is the Moab half comming up soon? What kind of shoes do you train in?

From SuperFly on Thu, Mar 16, 2006 at 10:25:32

I ment Sasha in that last comment. Not Steve. Sorry.

From joarj on Thu, Mar 16, 2006 at 18:10:03

Sasha would run barefoot if he had some somoan or tongon in him...

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