Breaking the Wall

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.