Breaking the Wall

Day of rest. Went to church. With this being the Easter Sunday we had a lesson on the Atonement. It was a very good lesson. The Sacrament meetings talks were on faith. One of the speakers mentioned a story of healing in Matthew 17 that is one of my favorite stories because it teaches some precious gems about how faith works. The apostles try to cast out an evil spirit, and fail. Then Christ does it. They ask Christ why they could not. He tells them this is a difficult one, and you need to have more faith. Those were the apostles who have succeeded in performing remarkable miracles before, but now they ran into a difficulty because they were not quite as strong as they needed to be. This gives me encouragement. I have had many of my prayers answered. In fact, most of the time I ask the Lord something I eventually get it so I need to be very careful about what I ask. Sometimes it takes a minute, sometimes a  year, sometimes five years. But there are a couple of things that are just too stubborn and too "impossible" that I've been asking that just do not want to come, it seems. Even though it is just a couple of things, at times I feel frustrated, I wonder if the Lord really wants me to persist, and then I remember Matthew 17. "This kind goes out not, but by much prayer and fasting...".

A.M. Total of 12.5. Benjamin did 8, Jenny 4, Joseph and Jacob 2, Julia 2, William 0.5.

A.M. Total of 13.5. Benjamin did 8. I did a workout with him. We ran 2 miles down the Provo Canyon on our usual course. The target was 10:40 - 5:20 pace. I pulled him for the first 1.5, then he took over for the final push. The splits were 79, 80, 79, 80 (5:18), 79, 81 and then 2:34 for the final 0.5 miles, 5:14 last mile - total time 10:32.9.This is Benjamin's fastest time for the course, and I was very pleased with his performance. He also commented that this was not as miserable as when he ran 10:37 last year. The road was wet from the rain. When we got home our backs were covered with dirt. Jenny asked us if we had had a mud fight. This was partially true - we did what we could to run each other into the ground.

I felt much stronger that a couple of weeks ago. 5:18 felt very comfortable, when it became 5:08 at the end it felt manageable. If Jeff was there, I think I would have had another mile in 5:10 behind him today. So far I am seeing the most remarkable results from any form of weight training that I ever tried throughout the years. In the past I tried leg extensions and curls. Those did help a little bit, but apparently not as much as a one-legged vertical leg press. My guess as to why is that it works out several muscle groups in sequence that is very similar to running. My intuition also tells me that in order for weights to be effective, you need to hit the magic sync between aerobic training and resistance training. I think I've hit it somewhat on accident in the last two weeks.

Jenny did 3, Julia 2, Joseph 2, Jacob 1, William 0.5.

A.M. 12 total. Benjamin did 8, Jenny 4, Julia 2, Joseph and Jacob 2, William 0.5.

A.M. 13 total. Benjamin did 8. I did a workout with him. 4x400. First 3 down the canyon with 400 recovery, the last one after a long recovery up the hill by our house. Used this as a chance to test the new split function in the Fast Running Friend. I got the splits, so the test was good. There was a distance recording glitch, which I fixed later. The splits were 71.7, 72.2, then Benjamin ran around 63.8 and I did 64.5 on the last one in the canyon. The very last one up the hill was 70.7 for me and about 70.3 for Benjamin. I think this is my fastest time on that segment, if not the fastest, then one of the fastest. I do know that I never cracked 70, and I am too lazy to look up if I ever cracked 71.

Jenny did 3, Joseph 2, Jacob 1, Julia 2.

P.M. 0.5 (800 meters) with William on the track. His time was 4:50.

A.M. Total of 13. Benjamin did 8, Jenny was sick - 0.5, Julia 2, Jacob and Joseph 2, William 0.5.

A.M. For the first time in a long time I did a 20 miler with a 10 mile tempo at the end. I ran the warm-up 10 uphill in 1:16:14. On the way back I ran 58:01. Benjamin ran with me for the last 4. He dropped me in the last 200 meters. His time for the last 4 was 23:17, I got 23:20. Felt strong, but for the life of me could not consistently stay under 5:50, kept slipping. Perhaps a subconscious fear of the distance. Nevertheless I am happy that even though I did not feel super speedy at the start, I was able to maintain the pace throughout the tempo and never really felt too miserable.

Benjamin did 10,  Jenny 3, Julia 2, Jacob 1, Joseph 2. When I got home Sarah had not yet done her run, so I went with her for another 2. So I ended up with 22 miles.

Listened to General Conference. Had a bit of trouble staying awake, but it was not too bad. Was able to understand the talks.

P.M. Took William and Stephen to the track with Benjamin to help me. Asked Benjamin which one of us was more out of commission. He thought it was I. So he ran 0.5 with William while I followed Stephen around.

Listened to General Conference again. Then went to the Priesthood Session with Benjamin in the evening.

Some General Conference highlights. Elder Uchtdorf explaining our relationship with God. He does not set up commandments just so we would fail to keep them and then just sits there and anxiously waits for us to trip up. Rather, He sets them up to show us the way out of trouble. He rejoices at our successes, and when we fail, He helps us recover, just like any good parent would.

Elder Scott - if the young generation reviewed a scripture for every text message they send, they would become great scholars of scripture.

Elder Callister - the idea that young men should accelerate their spiritual development and arrive in the mission field more mature. A few weeks ago in Sunday School we talked about Joseph Smith's vision, and in particular what it was like for his father to have a 14-year old son come to him and announce a vision. Most members of the class found it rather remarkable that the father believed the son right away. The reason given was that a 14-year-old is so immature that anything he says that is unusual would hard to believe. I did not say anything at the time, but I thought about what it would be like if Benjamin came to me and told me he had had a vision. I realized I would not have a problem with that. Yes, just like many young men his age he occasionally experiences a lapse in judgement. But overall he is on top of things. He is spiritually in tune, he knows what the voice of the Lord sounds like, frequently he is able to correctly point out my errors in a mature way. If he told me the Lord had spoken to him, I would not doubt for a second because I know he would not speak of such things lightly.