Breaking the Wall

Salt Lake Track Club 5 K

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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:	2724.68
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

Totals

Easy Miles	Marathon Pace Miles	Threshold Miles	VO2 Max Miles	Total Distance
68.92	0.00	3.00	3.71	75.63

Green Crocs 6 Miles: 53.07

Night Sleep Time: 36.50	Nap Time: 0.00	Total Sleep Time: 36.50

Sun, Jan 19, 2014

Easy Miles	Marathon Pace Miles	Threshold Miles	VO2 Max Miles	Total Distance
0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00

Day of rest. Went to church. Jenny gave a talk in Sacrament on individual worth in which she recited the poem about the touch of the master's hand. Jacob gave a talk on baptism in Primary.

Night Sleep Time: 8.00	Nap Time: 0.00	Total Sleep Time: 8.00

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Mon, Jan 20, 2014

Easy Miles	Marathon Pace Miles	Threshold Miles	VO2 Max Miles	Total Distance
13.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	13.00

Fast Running Friend Workout - 2014-01-20 08:11:25
Workout Totals
Distance	Time	Pace
13.000	1:47:42.70	8:17.13
Easy run with the kids. Benjamin did 9, Jenny 4, Julia 4, Jacob 3, Joseph 3, William 1.
Leg 1
Distance	Time	Pace	Comment
3	26:24.30.	8:48.10	With Joseph, Benjamin, and Jacob.
Split#	Distance	Time	Pace	Comment
1	3.000	26:24.30	8:48.10
Leg 2
Distance	Time	Pace	Comment
6	48:29.60.	8:04.93
Split#	Distance	Time	Pace	Comment
1	6.000	48:29.60	8:04.93	With Benjamin. Got talking about linear algebra and ended up on the wrong side of the 8:00 guy.
Leg 3
Distance	Time	Pace	Comment
4	32:48.80.	8:12.20	With Julia.
Split#	Distance	Time	Pace	Comment
1	4.000	32:48.80	8:12.20

Green Crocs 6 Miles: 13.00

Night Sleep Time: 7.00	Nap Time: 0.00	Total Sleep Time: 7.00

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Tue, Jan 21, 2014

Easy Miles	Marathon Pace Miles	Threshold Miles	VO2 Max Miles	Total Distance
9.00	0.00	3.00	0.00	12.00

Fast Running Friend Workout - 2014-01-21 07:56:45
Workout Totals
Distance	Time	Pace
12.000	1:34:15.30	7:51.27
Total of 12. Benjamin did 10, Jenny 4, Julia 3, Joseph 4, Jacob 2, William 1. Benjamin and I did a 3 mile tempo down the Provo Canyon, details below.
Leg 1
Distance	Time	Pace	Comment
4	34:53.40.	8:43.35	With Joseph. Benjamin ran 2 with Jacob in the meantime.
Split#	Distance	Time	Pace	Comment
1	4.000	34:53.40	8:43.35
Leg 2
Distance	Time	Pace	Comment
3.75	32:27.50.	8:39.33	Since both Benjamin and I would have been out of miles for the day if we ran to the start of the tempo from the house, we drove out to the 1.5 mile mark. From there we ran to Nunn's Park for a warm-up.
Split#	Distance	Time	Pace	Comment
1	3.750	32:27.50	8:39.33
Leg 3
Distance	Time	Pace	Comment
3	16:01.50.	5:20.50	Benjamin's assignment was to pace me through the 3 miles at 5:20 but if I could not do it, run whatever pace I could. This was to give him a break. I figured that if I gave him a hard target of 5:20 pace with the permission to drop me, he would run something like 15:40-15:45 and that may end up being too hard at this point. I think the choice of pacing was good - he still had to work to run 16:01, but I could tell he was edging to go faster - I had to slow him down several times because I was reaching my limit. With the cold weather and hands in gloves I did not dare use the split button. The first mile, which has more downhill was 5:15. Then Benjamin gave me a break and ran 5:25. He tried to pick it up right after 1.5, but I would not let him. I did let him hit a 78 quarter immediately after the first mile, and that thoroughly knocked me out. But I survived and managed 5:21 for the last mile. This is an improvement for me - actually quite decent for the cold weather. I am feeling a change that might be age related - in the past when I approached my limit and the pace increased it would hurt and I would have at least half a mile in the extreme pain zone before I had to slow down. Now I am running and it feels almost easy, but when the pace increases I have nothing even for 200 meters.
Split#	Distance	Time	Pace	Comment
1	3.000	16:01.50	5:20.50
Leg 4
Distance	Time	Pace	Comment
1.25	10:52.90.	8:42.32	Cool-down.
Split#	Distance	Time	Pace	Comment
1	1.250	10:52.90	8:42.32

Green Crocs 6 Miles: 12.00

Night Sleep Time: 7.00	Nap Time: 0.00	Total Sleep Time: 7.00

Comments(3)

Wed, Jan 22, 2014

Easy Miles	Marathon Pace Miles	Threshold Miles	VO2 Max Miles	Total Distance
12.04	0.00	0.00	0.00	12.04

Fast Running Friend Workout - 2014-01-22 08:09:58
Workout Totals
Distance	Time	Pace
12.040	1:33:33.80	7:46.26
Easy run. Total of 12. Benjamin did 9, Jenny 4, Julia 3, Joseph 3, Jacob 3, William 1.
Leg 1
Distance	Time	Pace	Comment
3	25:11.20.	8:23.73	With Benjamin, Joseph, and Jacob. Joseph picked it up a little at the end and finished in 25:02 - Benjamin followed him for supervision. I stayed back with Jacob. We must be an interesting group of runners - ages 40, 14, 9, and 7 running together.
Split#	Distance	Time	Pace	Comment
1	3.000	25:11.20	8:23.73
Leg 2
Distance	Time	Pace	Comment
6	45:36.40.	7:36.07	With Benjamin. He has been having problems with back tension when he sleeps. He always wakes up with a tense back. It loosens up after a run. Today it was more tense than usual. We stopped in the middle of the run and I massaged it.
Split#	Distance	Time	Pace	Comment
1	6.000	45:36.40	7:36.07
Leg 3
Distance	Time	Pace	Comment
1	6:39.20.	6:39.20	Added a mile on my own on the little boy course.
Split#	Distance	Time	Pace	Comment
1	1.000	6:39.20	6:39.20
Leg 4
Distance	Time	Pace	Comment
2.04	16:07.00.	7:54.02	With William and Julia running ahead of us.
Split#	Distance	Time	Pace	Comment
1	1.000	9:13.30	9:13.30	With William.
2	1.040	6:53.70	6:37.79	Alone.

Green Crocs 6 Miles: 12.04

Night Sleep Time: 7.00	Nap Time: 0.00	Total Sleep Time: 7.00

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Thu, Jan 23, 2014

Easy Miles	Marathon Pace Miles	Threshold Miles	VO2 Max Miles	Total Distance
11.50	0.00	0.00	0.50	12.00

Fast Running Friend Workout - 2014-01-23 08:15:24
Workout Totals
Distance	Time	Pace
12.000	1:36:58.20	8:04.85
Total of 12. A stomach bug is visiting our family. Appears to be of the one day variety involving the loss of appetite, inability to digest, vomiting, etc. First Matthew got it, then it moved to others. Stephen and I are the only one who managed to miss it - sort of. I noticed the symptoms of reduced appetite and decided to cut down food intake to the minimum needed to get by with the idea to starve the bug down before it starves me down. Benjamin did 9, Jenny did not run, Julia 2, Joseph 4, Jacob and William did not run.
Leg 1
Distance	Time	Pace	Comment
4	35:58.20.	8:59.55	With Benjamin and Joseph. Joseph struggled with the pace. When he got home he had reduced appetite and stomach pain but did not throw up.
Split#	Distance	Time	Pace	Comment
1	4.000	35:58.20	8:59.55
Leg 2
Distance	Time	Pace	Comment
0.5	4:04.10.	8:08.20	With Benjamin on the little boy course.
Split#	Distance	Time	Pace	Comment
1	0.500	4:04.10	8:08.20
Leg 3
Distance	Time	Pace	Comment
0.5	2:28.70.	4:57.40	Did a pickup with Benjamin on the little boy course. It is a slight downhill but has three turns, two of them cannot be taken wide. I suffered but did not get dropped.
Split#	Distance	Time	Pace	Comment
1	0.500	2:28.70	4:57.40
Leg 4
Distance	Time	Pace	Comment
4	32:33.90.	8:08.48	Julia ran the first mile with us. Then she was feeling tired and turned around. Benjamin and I continued. Towards the end Benjamin started to feel unusually tired. He also picked up the bug.
Split#	Distance	Time	Pace	Comment
1	4.000	32:33.90	8:08.48
Leg 5
Distance	Time	Pace	Comment
3	21:53.30.	7:17.77	Alone.
Split#	Distance	Time	Pace	Comment
1	3.000	21:53.30	7:17.77
Leg 6
Distance	Time	Pace	Comment
0	0:00.00.	0:00.00	Accidentally pressed the button. Need the split delete feature in the Fast Running Friend but everything in the due order - a good GPS driver first.
Split#	Distance	Time	Pace	Comment
1	0.000	0:00.00	0:00.00
2	0.000	0:00.00	0:00.00

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

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Fri, Jan 24, 2014

Easy Miles	Marathon Pace Miles	Threshold Miles	VO2 Max Miles	Total Distance
10.56	0.00	0.00	0.00	10.56

Fast Running Friend Workout - 2014-01-24 08:07:32
Workout Totals
Distance	Time	Pace
10.560	1:22:16.00	7:47.42
Total of 10.5. This was strategic. I still have appetite, although reduced, and have not yet thrown up, but applying the law of the partially clogged pipe - if you dump a little bit at a time it may just flow through, but if you dump a lot at once it will clog completely, I have been taking food in small portions and survived so far. Given the race tomorrow, and the possibility of not being able to eat at all before then I reduced the mileage a little to have at least some glycogen in the legs. Benjamin did 3, Joseph and Jacob 1, William 0.5, Julia and Jenny 1.
Leg 1
Distance	Time	Pace	Comment
1.02	9:08.90.	8:58.14	With Benjamin, Joseph and Jacob. Joseph and Jacob are both recovering from the stomach bug, and they were still not 100%, so we kept it short. Benjamin threw up last night so he was struggling today. Hopefully he can recover for the race tomorrow.
Split#	Distance	Time	Pace	Comment
1	1.020	9:08.90	8:58.14
Leg 2
Distance	Time	Pace	Comment
2.04	16:55.30.	8:17.70	With Benjamin. Discussed the difference between racing an immediately all out 10 K after running near all out 20 miles vs racing all out 10 K after a 24 hour fast. We agreed that the post-fast performance would be faster. Jack Daniels in The Running Formula has a story about a runner that ran a 10 K PR after a 36 hour fast forced by a stomach problem. Since that experienced he started fasting before his 10 K races and apparently had success. I would like to know who that runner was as well as his time, but I think it is safe to guess it was sub-30:00, otherwise I imagine Jack Daniels would not have considered telling about it. That is an odd outlier, though. There is a lot of evidence that the principle of the toothpaste tube applies to glycogen availability. A full tube is easier to squeeze. So if your glycogen is low, you will have a hard time getting going at 5 K intensity because even though there is more than enough glycogen for the job the body will trigger a defensive energy conservation mechanism designed to keep you from complete depletion.
Split#	Distance	Time	Pace	Comment
1	2.040	16:55.30	8:17.70
Leg 3
Distance	Time	Pace	Comment
0.5	4:40.50.	9:21.00	With William.
Split#	Distance	Time	Pace	Comment
1	0.500	4:40.50	9:21.00
Leg 4
Distance	Time	Pace	Comment
7	51:31.30.	7:21.61	Alone.
Split#	Distance	Time	Pace	Comment
1	7.000	51:31.30	7:21.61

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

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Sat, Jan 25, 2014

Race: Salt Lake Track Club 5 K (3.107 Miles) 00:17:22, Place overall: 21, Place in age division: 3

Easy Miles	Marathon Pace Miles	Threshold Miles	VO2 Max Miles	Total Distance
12.82	0.00	0.00	3.21	16.03

Fast Running Friend Workout - 2014-01-25 09:21:14
Workout Totals
Distance	Time	Pace
16.034	2:09:11.20	8:03.42
Ran in the SLC Track Club 5 K. Got 17:22, was third master. This was the most competitive 5 K I've ever run in. With my time, which was not great, but not too slow either I got 21st place. Riley won with 15:06. I think there were 8 people under 16:00. Jake was pushed down to 5th with 15:33. So 5:00 pace for a 5K at 4300 feet of altitude was good only for 5th in a local race in a city of about a million. That is good. We have more good runners and they are racing. Benjamin struggled with the consequences of the stomach bug he caught over the last week, but managed to run 16:52, good enough for 14th overall. This is quite remarkable given that yesterday morning he was so sick he could not run 8:00 pace. Details below. Benjamin did 8.5, Jenny 2, Julia 1.5, Joseph and Jacob 3, William 1, Stephen 0.5 - his first half mile. I do not think I've ever had a non-potty-trained kid run that far.
Leg 1
Distance	Time	Pace	Comment
3.207	26:39.90.	8:18.88	Warm-up with Steve Ashbaker. Benjamin joined us for part of it.
Split#	Distance	Time	Pace	Comment
1	0.900	7:34.10	8:24.56	Warm-up.
2	0.107	0:32.90	5:07.48	Stride from marker 9 of the 15 K to marker 6 of the 10 K. Thus the precise distance.
3	2.200	18:32.90	8:25.86	Warm-up continues. Colin and Josh E from the blog joined us. Right before the start I felt something in my stomach like it lacked the ability to digest and thought it was a good idea that it was relatively empty.
Leg 2
Distance	Time	Pace	Comment
3.107	17:22.90.	5:35.66	The race.
Split#	Distance	Time	Pace	Comment
1	1.000	5:23.70	5:23.70	It actually felt relatively easy. I though I might be able to dip under 17:00. I could tell that Benjamin was struggling. I knew he saw his split at 1000, which was 3:20, tried to speed up, but did not disappear into the distance and was still only a couple of seconds ahead of me at the mile.
2	1.000	5:40.20	5:40.20	I started struggling in this mile. All of a sudden the leg strength was gone. I noticed the split of 8:29 at the turnaround - Benjamin had 8:24, and 10:16 at 3 K. Benjamin had 10:52 at 2 miles, and I could tell he was suffering.
3	1.107	6:19.00	5:42.37	Did not hit the split button at mile 3, but saw that it was 16:47, so 5:43 for the mile. Got passed by Colin and Dennis Simonaitis - tried to latch on, but lacked the strength. Dennis bumped me from second to third in the masters. Walter was ahead and I was gradually coming up on him, but could not quite get him. Dennis ended up winning the masters with 17:04, Walter was second with 17:11. At this point I felt I did not have another gear so I was just coasting to the finish. Was pleased to see Benjamin open the gap and finish in 16:52.
Leg 3
Distance	Time	Pace	Comment
4.15	35:47.90.	8:37.57	Cool-down with Steve Ashbaker and Benjamin. Steve struggled today also dealing with the consequences of a recent illness, but his was different - just plain flu, not stomach. But he still managed 17:45.
Split#	Distance	Time	Pace	Comment
1	4.150	35:47.90	8:37.57
Leg 4
Distance	Time	Pace	Comment
0.5	6:23.80.	12:47.60	At home with Stephen. This was his first half mile. I think he could have gone much faster but he was wearing the pants that were falling off. Will fix that oversight next time.
Split#	Distance	Time	Pace	Comment
1	0.500	6:23.80	12:47.60
Leg 5
Distance	Time	Pace	Comment
3	26:35.90.	8:51.97	With Joseph and Jacob. They were finally healthy enough to run 3 miles.
Split#	Distance	Time	Pace	Comment
1	3.000	26:35.90	8:51.97
Leg 6
Distance	Time	Pace	Comment
1	7:10.00.	7:10.00	Alone.
Split#	Distance	Time	Pace	Comment
1	1.000	7:10.00	7:10.00
Leg 7
Distance	Time	Pace	Comment
1.07	9:10.80.	8:34.77	With William.
Split#	Distance	Time	Pace	Comment
1	1.070	9:10.80	8:34.77

Green Crocs 6 Miles: 16.03

Night Sleep Time: 7.50	Nap Time: 0.00	Total Sleep Time: 7.50

Comments(6)

Totals

Easy Miles	Marathon Pace Miles	Threshold Miles	VO2 Max Miles	Total Distance
68.92	0.00	3.00	3.71	75.63

Green Crocs 6 Miles: 53.07

Night Sleep Time: 36.50	Nap Time: 0.00	Total Sleep Time: 36.50

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