| 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
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| | Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Total Distance | | 68.74 | 9.32 | 1.60 | 0.80 | 80.46 |
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| Brooks T4 Racing Flat Miles: 50.50 | Saucony Type A Miles: 12.80 |
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| Night Sleep Time: 18.50 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 18.50 | |
| | 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. Ear infection still there. Attacking it with garlic in the ear. This seems to relieve the pain enough to be able to function. The pressure is also gradually reducing.
Went to church. Taught a lesson on adversity in the Elder's Quorum. No, it was not planned that way by the leadership - the lesson schedule was prepared a long time in advance.
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| Night Sleep Time: 0.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 0.00 |
| | Comments(3) |
| | Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Total Distance | | 10.60 | 0.00 | 0.60 | 0.00 | 11.20 |
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A.M. Ran with Jeff, Matt, and Mary Ann. Still have the ear infection, although it is slowly improving. At least I can run through it. 10.1 miles in 1:14:13. Did some post-VPB tempos. A quarter in 82, and another quarter in 86. Those felt hard. The body produced a lot of mucus during the run. When I finished, my last words were: "7 tomorrow, Jeff, Hello world" and I went off to cough. In full sentences, "We'll meet again at 7:00 AM tomorrow, and Jeff, remember your programming assignment to write the Hello World in several different languages." P.M. 1 mile with Benjamin, Jenny, and Julia in 9:41. Actually Benjamin, Jenny, and I turned around a bit later and then caught Julia, so we went about 1.1 in that amount of time.
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| Brooks T4 Racing Flat Miles: 10.10 |
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| Night Sleep Time: 4.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 4.00 |
| | Comments(4) |
| | Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Total Distance | | 12.70 | 0.00 | 0.30 | 0.10 | 13.10 |
| A.M. Ran with Jeff, Daniel, and Mary Ann. 10.1 in 1:12:57. Daniel turned around at 4. Still have the ear infection, but felt better. Ran 1:43 for 500 during the post VPB tempo. Did explosions for the first time since getting sick. P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 16:50. 1 with Jenny and Julia in 9:52.
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| Brooks T4 Racing Flat Miles: 10.10 |
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| Night Sleep Time: 0.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 0.00 |
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| | Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Total Distance | | 13.40 | 0.00 | 0.30 | 0.10 | 13.80 |
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A.M. Ran with Jeff, Daniel, and Mary Ann. Daniel turned around at 4. Did a post-VPB tempo - 500 in 1:43. That is an improvement. Did explosive sprints. 10.1 in 1:17:16.
P.M-1. About 0.5 from parking the car. P.M-2. 2 with Benjamin in 15:32. 1 with Jenny and Julia in 9:42. 0.2 with Joseph.
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| Brooks T4 Racing Flat Miles: 10.10 |
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| Night Sleep Time: 7.50 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.50 |
| | Comments(3) |
| | Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Total Distance | | 12.70 | 0.00 | 0.30 | 0.10 | 13.10 |
| A.M. Same run as yesterday, same partners. Again, could not do it without a VPB. Ran 500 in 1:38 (5:13 pace) to catch up. Felt better, although still not 100%. Did explosions. 10.1 miles in 1:16:47. |
| Brooks T4 Racing Flat Miles: 10.10 |
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| Night Sleep Time: 0.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 0.00 |
| | Comments(2) |
| | Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Total Distance | | 12.60 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.50 | 13.10 |
| A.M. Ran with Jeff, Mary Ann and Susan. 10.1 miles in 1:21:47. Post-VPB tempo - 600 meters in 1:57, 5:12 pace. Felt better than yesterday. I've been getting stronger every day. However, I am still not that certain what is going to happen in the 15 K. There is a big difference between feeling good at 5:12 pace for 600 meters and feeling good at 5:25 pace for 9 miles. I guess we'll see. Did explosions. P.M. Had a funny indicent. This lady with odd colored hair in running apparel shows up by our house right when Benjamin and I are getting ready for a run. She acts like I am supposed to know her. I am thinking she is in our ward, but I cannot think of anybody in our ward that looks like that. Then she asks me if she could use our bathroom, and this finally helps me connect the dots and figure out that this is Michelle. I have forgotten that she dyed her hair.
She ran a bit less than a mile with us and then turned off to her car. Benjamin and I finished 2 miles in 14:45. Then I ran another mile with Jenny and Julia in 9:15.
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| Brooks T4 Racing Flat Miles: 10.10 |
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| Night Sleep Time: 0.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 0.00 |
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| | Race: |
SLC Track Club 15 K (9.321 Miles) 00:54:39, Place overall: 6 | | Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Total Distance | | 6.74 | 9.32 | 0.10 | 0.00 | 16.16 |
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A.M. Ran the SLC Track Club 15 K in 54:39. Did not realize how much the ear infection had knocked me out. Was also surprised by the pattern of slowdown.Life is full of surprises, I suppose. Warmed up with Jeff and Steve for about 3.4. Did one stride for 0.1, and then the race started. We had a nice group in the first mile - in addition to myself Jeff, James Moore (Fiddy), Seth, Steve, Fritz, and Bryce. First mile was 5:35 and it interesting. Definitely sustainable, but with a twist. Perhaps the twist was what made it unsustainable. The breathing made my ear feel like it was being hosed down with water. This is not necessarily an unpleasant feeling, but it is distracting when you are trying to run hard. I managed to run the next mile in 5:33. By that time the pack split and Bryce and I got dropped. I got behind Bryce and felt good. I thought I'd be able to stay behind him for a while, and then pull away. We made it to 3 miles in 16:52. Now that was interesting - 5:44 mile and it did not feel any slower than the second mile. I had started to feel the legs caving a bit. 17:29 at the 5 K. Pretty soon even that slow pace was not sustainable. I slowed down to 6:00 mile for mile 4, 22:52 at 4 miles. At this point I began to have second thoughts about entering the race and the effect of running so hard on my health. But by that point I was almost exactly half way out and the only way to get back was to run. I considered slowing down and waiting for Mary Ann to catch up, but then I was not sure with the way the things were going if I'd even be able to keep up. 26:53 at the turnaround, 28:56 at 5 miles, 6:04. My fears of the worst started to leave. I knew that my health was good enough to keep running, and I began to feel the strength in the body telling me that if I kept running to the finish my health would not be damaged. Next mile in 5:55, 36:07 at the 10 K. My spirits cheered up a bit. 5 K in 18:38 at a fairly even pace. I knew I could run around 6:00 pace to the finish. Normally this would be little consolation. But after experiencing the fear that I might not make it to the finish at all, I was thankful for this measure of strength. I was happy about hitting a 10 K in 36:07 en route in this condition. With that, however, I realized that had the race been only 10 K I would not have run it much faster. For some odd reason I was stuck in 6:00 gear and could not go any faster. I could not understand why, either. Nothing really hurt. I was not breathing very hard anymore. Perhaps the body decided to control the breathing to avoid the ear discomfort. So I coasted at that pace to the finish. Last 5 K in 18:32. Jeff met me with about a quarter to go, and I actually was conversational enough to ask him who had won. My last quarter was 1:29. I tried to kick but could not. Yet I felt I could have gone further. Odd. Do not know how to explain it. Maybe some governor in the ear. Could a minor irritation or compression of the vestibular nerve act as this kind of governor? Is it possible to have vestibular nerve irritation with no obvious balance function disruptions?
So this race was definitely a learning experience.
Seth won with 49:04, then Jeff 49:12, Fritz a high 51, great performance, then Steve 52:10, James 52:26. Bryce was not officially in the race. His time was 53:00. Mary Ann ran 55:42 well ahead of the competition. P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 17:40, 1 with Jenny and Julia in 10:16, 0.34 with Joseph in 3:48.
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| Saucony Type A Miles: 12.80 |
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| Night Sleep Time: 7.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 7.00 |
| | Comments(5) |
| | Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Total Distance | | 68.74 | 9.32 | 1.60 | 0.80 | 80.46 |
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| Brooks T4 Racing Flat Miles: 50.50 | Saucony Type A Miles: 12.80 |
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| Night Sleep Time: 18.50 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 18.50 | |
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