Breaking the Wall

Day of rest. Two more sessions of the General Conference. The single young men of age to marry kept hearing about their problem. This time from Elder Scott. There was also a lot of discussion of the Church welfare plan. If only our government adopted it, we would never see poverty. It is based on the principle of self reliance. No man ever gets fish without taking fishing lessons first if he capable of taking them. As I heard those talks I wondered about the poor people that live righteously, keep the commandments, pay their tithing, live within their means, and are still struggling to provide for their needs. There are some of those, relatively not too many, but they do exist. For one reason or another have not been given the talent of financial prosperity. How will the promise of having enough for their needs is fulfilled for them?

I often think of the scripture in Doctrine and Covenants 117 about Oliver Granger, of whom the Lord said: "and when he falls he shall rise again for his sacrifice shall be more sacred unto me than his increase". It is a test our faith when we see Oliver Grangers around us - the Lord wants to see if we have enough of it to take care of them. That is how this promise is fulfilled.

A.M. Felt sluggish. Did the usual 12.5 including kids runs. 3 with Benjamin, 2 with Jenny and Julia, 1 with Joseph, and 0.5 with Jacob. Did a 3 mile tempo at the end in 17:26 on the last 3 miles of my Bridal Veil 20 miler course.

A.M. Did the kids runs - Benjamin 3, Jenny and Julia 2, Joseph 1, and Jacob 0.5. Then jogged another 2 miles and did the Fast Running Blog 5 miler tempo in 28:50.6 - splits: 5:48, 5:47, 5:44, 5:51, 5:41. Legs felt empty, had a hard time keeping the Android buzzer quiet. Again focused on keeping it quiet vs pushing the pace, and was rewarded by finding some zip in the legs in the last mile. Total of 15.5.

A.M. Early 8 miles before going to the temple. Towards the end of my run my normal wake-up alarm set for 6:30 AM went off. It was a beautiful hymn - The Morning Breaks. I did not want my buzzer to disrupt the hymn so I tried to run with better form.

Jenny and Julia ran 2. Jacob did 0.5. Benjamin and Joseph waited for me to get back from the temple.

P.M. Did 3 with Benjamin, and 1 with Joseph.

A.M. Did the warm-up with the kids. 3 with Benjamin, 2 with Jenny and Julia, 1 with Joseph, and 0.5 with Jacob. Then jogged 3, and ran the 3 mile tempo over the last 3 miles of the Bridal Veil 20 miler course (from my house to Bridal Veil and back). Felt strong, did 16:53.7. Last mile, which was the most normal of the 3 was 5;32. The entire course has some form of obstacles to speed along the way, mostly turns, tunnels, and bridges, but that is the best I can do with the constraints of the trail construction, running with the kids, sleeping a decent amount, and starting work at some reasonable time.

A.M. Did the warm-up with the kids. 3 with Benjamin, 2 with Jenny and Julia, 1 with Joseph, and 0.5 with Jacob. It was raining today. I recalled a Russian song that says that nature does not have bad weather and every weather is a blessing. Thus all of the joys and troubles of life should be received thankfully. I taught Benjamin the words while we ran under a mix of snow and rain and jumped of the puddles. I did not recognize the Russian word for "bad", so I took my chance to give him a bit of a teasing, and said to him in Russian: "What, you've lived to the ripe old age of 12 and do not know such a simple word?"  It is interesting that he understood this phrase perfectly in spite of not knowing a simpler word.

Then I jogged 3, and ran the 3 mile tempo over the last 3 miles of the Bridal Veil 20 miler course (from my house to Bridal Veil and back). I felt strong, but it was difficult to keep the pace due to the rain and slippage under the tunnels. I ended up with 16:57.9.

A.M. The weather today tested my belief in the Russian song I quoted to my children yesterday about nature not having such thing as a bad weather. A steady stream of snow was falling on me the entire 20.4 miles.Fortunately it was warm enough that it did not stick to the road. Also, fortunately, there was no significant wind either. Of the two adversaries I would chose wet snow over wind any day. I ran a 2 mile warm-up, and then a 10 mile tempo on my favorite course - two times the Fast Running Blog 5 miler. I organized a free race a couple of years ago on that course, thus the name. Unfortunately, the race has not shown a whole lot of interest. With the hard economic times, almost every house that is for sale is a short sale or foreclosure, people out of jobs, gas prices going through the roof, etc, you would think that there will be plenty of people that will come to run a race with no frills  just to race, but go figure - they prefer "added value" for added price - food, fancy shirt, music,  etc even when perhaps they cannot really afford it. So given the lack of interest on the part of the participants, and the lack of time on my part as well - the economy has changed my job situation to where I cannot devote as much time to the blog as I used to, I have not done that race since. But if I am wrong and there is now enough interest, I'll do it again. Send me a message with proposed dates if you would like to run it.

The tempo went like this: 5:52 - 5:50 - 5:53 - 5:49 - 5:54 (29:18) - 5:49 - 5:48 - 5:53 -5:53 - 5:41 (29:05) total time 58:23, 5:50.3 avg. I felt OK, but could not get myself to go faster. Part of it was the snow, part was not having anybody to run with, part fatigue from the week, and part just plain lack of fitness. I was happy that I was able to turn my legs over some in the last quarter, and hit 81 in spite of all the negatives.

Then I ran home, and finished the remainder of the 20.4 with the kids. Benjamin did 3, Jenny and Julia 2, Joseph 1, and Jacob 0.5.