Breaking the Wall

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.