Breaking the Wall

Day of rest. Went to church. The talks in the Sacrament meeting were on faith. One brother told about his grandson who is a baby. He said he never cries, just has the faith that his parents will take care of him eventually. Afterwards a member of the bishopric asked me if Stephen has that faith. I told him not yet. He said his grandson needs to work on it too. The Sunday school lesson was on the vision of the tree of life in the Book of Mormon. 

A.M. Ran with Benjamin and Jeremy, our new training partner who we met in our ward. He owns Cafe Fresh and a number of other health-food businesses. We ran 6 miles together. It was early in the morning, so inevitably I had to do a VPB then run to catch up. Ran 82 quarter into the canyon and it felt easy. When we turned around, I found out why. There was significant wind blowing into the canyon, which is rare for the early morning. Then I added 4 more, including  circular strides. I got the idea when Joseph asked me to show him cross-country skiing videos. We stumbled upon a technique training video that suggested the strength imbalance can be corrected by skating in circules in the direction that opposes the imbalance. I figured since my imbalance was developed by running on the track in the standard counter-clockwise direction, I should try doing a few strides in the clockwise direction. So I did 6 strides, the diameter of the circle was about 20-25 meters. Will call that a quarter. Then 2 more with Jenny and Julia, total of 12.

P.M. 1 with Joseph and the older Jacob, 1 with my son Jacob. The older Jacob's brother Nate ran the first and the last quarter or so with us. 

A.M. 6 with Benjamin and Jeremy. It was 7F, quite cold, but not competely miserable yet. Did a post-VPB 0.5 down the canyon with mild tailwind in 2:38. Then 4 more with circular strides in the middle, and 2 more with Jenny and Julia. Total of 12.

P.M. 1 with Jacob, 1 with Joseph. Nate ran the first 500 and the last quarter with us. 

A.M. Benjamin had a sore throat so I had him rest. Ran with Jeremy. I did a tempo run of 4 miles with the first 2 up the canyon, then turnaround and the same 2 miles back down. The wind was quite mild, and it showed in the splits:

87, 88, 86, 89 (5:50), 88, 92, 92, 90 (6:02, 11:52), 87, 84. 82. 83 (5:36, 17:28), 83, 83, 83, 79 (5:28, 22:56.5). Jeremy joined me for the last 600, but fell back with about 200 to go. But it was still very helpful to have him around for that quarter, helped me shift  the gears. 

I was happy with the way my muscles worked and the way the form felt, but was not happy with the cardiovascular performance. The heart was not quite giving what it should have, and the breathing felt labored after the first quarter. But the muscles and the form made up.  Maybe it is time for some hawthorn berry tea, garlic, and cayenne pepper.

Then added 4 more with circular strides, ran into Sarah and ran with her for a little bit, and then 2 more with Julia. Jenny's calf was hurting, so she ran only 1. 

P.M. 1 with Jacob, 1 with Joseph. 

A.M. Total of 12. 6 with Jeremy. 2 with Jenny and Julia. Did a pickup for a quarter in 79 going down the canyon. Circular strides.

P.M. 1 with Jacob, 1 with Joseph. Benjamin did both of them. He is still recovering from the cold.  

A.M. 12 total. 6 with Jeremy. Did 4x400. First one uphill in 77.9. The headwind was not bad, but I was asleep on this one. Then two more downhill - 69.9 and 68.4. Those went better, I felt the form smoothing out. Jeremy did the first 100 and the first 200 respectively.  The last one was by the house with about 130 downhill and the rest up a steep 6% or so grade. Jeremy did the downhill part with me. I felt good on this one and managed 73.7. Then ran some more, including circular strides and 2 with Benjamin, Jenny, and Julia.

P.M. Had quite a group of kids for the runs. Ran the first mile with the little Jacob, big Jacob, his little brother Ben, and Benjamin. The second mile was with Benjamin, and Joseph. Total of 2. 

A.M. 20 miles. Started with Gary and Jeremy. Had a VPB, followed by 500 uphill in 1:44. It felt so easy that I thought I would have no problems going sub-6:00 uphill in the tempo. After 4.5 mile warmup started the tempo, the same as last week. Gary and Jeremy helped me some by joining me for a quarter on every 2 mile stretch. First mile was 5:24, then I relaxed a bit trying to prepare for the uphill and did 5:33 (10:57). When I turned around, there was a surprise. The headwind picked up and it started to rain. So I struggled through the next mile in 6:08 (17:05). Then it was rather odd. I could not feel the headwind anymore, and in all honesty thought I was going around 6:00 or maybe a bit under. But the watch showed different. My next two quarters were 95 and 97. This completely puzzled me. How in the world is this possible? I began thinking all kinds of thoughts - maybe I am just out of shape, getting old, losing strength, etc. Then, all of a sudden, I regained the speed some for no apparent reason - 93, followed by 91 (6:16, 23:21, 12:24 for the two miles uphill) which would have been 90 or 89 if I did not have to break to do a 180 on a wet road. I am wondering if maybe the rain was pounding so hard that I could not feel the wind that came with it, and thus had no idea how strong the gusts were. After turning around I felt I was regaining speed better than last week. My first quarter was 88, then 84, 82, and 83, so 5:37 for the mile (28:58 at 5). I was a bit hestiant to give it a really good push because the road became quite slick from the rain. Also I started to get wet and cold, and that made things difficult. Did 4:07 in the next 0.75, and then tried to kick but could only do 80, so 5:27 for the last mile, 34:25 for 6, and 11:04 for the last 2.

So that was the first half of the run, but the worst part of it was still ahead.  Rejoined with Gary and Jeremy, we ran back to the house, and then ran with the kids. Jenny and Julia did 2, Joseph did 1, the two Jacobs 1. Took Benjamin for 4, and at that point still had 2 left. I really felt like going home away from the rain, but decided to run 2 tempo miles instead. This was quite an adventure as those were hilly wet miles. I call it 2, but it is actually more like 2.04. They are hilly, but I thought I'd be able to run 6:00 pace still. It turned out that I was too cold, too wet, and the road was too slick for that. I only managed 12:56 for that segement. When I got home, I decided to weigh my clothes. 4 lb, so about 3 lb of water.