Breaking the Wall

Day of rest. We had  a Stake Conference. Elder Costa from the Presidency of the Seventy came and spoke. Among many other things he told us about the sacrifices that the members of the Church in Brazil make to go to the temple. They have to work and save for a year or more, and then will sell some of their property as well to pay for the trip. The Provo mission president and his wife spoke as well. They are from Rochester, NY and are serving here for three years. They are converts and joined the Church shortly after they had gotten married. When the sister missionaries came to the door, he asked them to explain to him in one sentence why he should listen to them. One of the sisters was able to condense it to one word - authority.

Interestingly enough, later that evening I was participating in the ward missionary visits, and we met a couple that moved to our neighborhood from California not too long ago. While I was explaining the concept of authority I ran into an interesting obstacle. The man believed that Joseph Smith indeed saw God the Father and Jesus Christ, was ministered to by angels, and in truth translated the Book of Mormon by divine means, but even after a thorough  (or at least I thought so) explanation still could not see how it would follow from that that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saint would in that case become the only one with the authority to baptize. I suppose I can understand the emotions behind it. When somebody says he has seen an angel, you do not want to question his experience at first, hey, why not? When you realize this means you have to make significant changes in your life that involve work and sacrifice, there are three different paths you could take. a) Verify for yourself if his experience was authentic, and if it turns out to be so make those changes, otherwise do not worry about it b) Enter the perpetual question mode - what about this, what about that? - so you do not have to accept the authenticity of the experience while at the same time excusing yourself from the work to find out if it was true, and c) Enter the logical disconnect mode accepting the authenticity of the experience while denying that you have to do something about it.  Back 50 years ago the missionaries mostly saw either a) or b), but lately with the arrival of political correctness and other garbage related to it, c) is becoming a more common response.

What I am wondering about is how much of what 50 years ago would have been a big positive a) has now become a lame c) due to the general reduction in the willingness to make commitments and sacrifices.

A.M. 3 with Benjamin, 2 with Jenny and Julia, 1 with Joseph, 0.5 with Jacob, then 6 alone with the last 3 at tempo pace. It was very wet, the trail was slippery, so the first two miles were slow, barely managed 11:43 because I had to slow down on wet parts. Then the last mile was better, and I gave it a push managing 5:36. The time for 3 miles was 17:19.

P.M. We did a 100 meter time trial for family home evening. Jacob did 26.5, Joseph 22.5, Julia's time got messed up, but was around 20, Jenny got 17.6, Benjamin's time got messed up but was around 15.0. He beat me - with street clothes and at the end of the day all I had was 15.6, which is not bad for me in those circumstances, but it was not good enough to beat him. On the second try we tied running 15.6 - I was coming from behind and had to lean at the end to avoid being beat again.  I was very excited that Benjamin could run 15.0 at the age of 12 at the end of a rather cold day.. So I am estimating that he will end up with about 12.0 as an adult, and Jenny will probably be around 14.5. If those estimations hold, both will be world-class distance runners if they train right for long enough.

A.M. Did 6.5 with the kids - Benjamin 3, Jenny and Julia 2, Joseph 1, Jacob 0.5. Then another 8.9 with a a workout in the middle. 1.25 with the first mile in 5:23 and the closing quarter in 77 - 6:40. Max HR was 163. I will attribute that to cayenne pepper, but will not complain as I am happy to run 5:08 pace at with the HR being only 163. I am just not happy that 5:08 was as fast as I could go. I think the cayenne pepper, which is known for its ability to increase stroke volume, highlighted the problem of (relatively) weak muscles. Then I jogged a bit and ran a 2.5 tempo in 14:34. Last 0.5 was 2:46.

A.M. 6.5 with the kids (Benjamin 3, Jenny and Julia 2, Joseph 1, and Jacob 0.5), then 6 more with the last 3 being a tempo on the usual course - last three of the Bridal Veil 20 miler course from a magic spot between the Country Club and the Wyview to the house. The left knee was fussing from the fall last week, so I was holding back some in the first two miles (11:30), then it stopped fussing and I ran the last mile in 5:35, total time was 17:05.

A.M. Mike came today. It was a nice birthday present to have him back. We ran with the kids - 6.5 total, 3 with Benjamin, 2 with Jenny and Julia, 1 with Joseph, and 0.5 with Jacob. Then he ran with me to the start of the usual tempo, and I did the tempo alone as Mike was running out of fuel. Ended up with 16:58 with the last mile in 5:34. It has now been over 3 weeks since I've been doing those daily tempos and I am still alive. That is a new development. I wonder where it will take me.

A.M. Started with the kids runs. Benjamin did 3 in 21:03 with the last mile in 5:43. That is his new PR. His splits were 89, 87, 87, 80. Half way through Benjamin's run we met Mike and he joined us. Then we ran 2 with Jenny and Julia - Jenny and Mike ran ahead and finished in 15:15 while I stayed with Julia, and our time was 17:30. Then 1 with Joseph, and 0.5 with Jacob. Then 3 more easy, and the last 3 in 16:47 with the last mile in 5:31 and the last quarter in 79. I had to beat Benjamin's last quarter, so I sandbagged a bit earlier to have some juice. With the "sandbagging" I still averaged 5:38 for the first two "steeplechasy" miles. Felt the legs were stronger, the stride was wider and more relaxed. Mike ran the tempo at 6;12 pace.

A.M. Did my usual long run. Mike joined me for a part of it. Did a 10 mile tempo in the middle. The splits were: 5:45, 5:48, 5:52, 5:53, 5:58, 5:57, 5:49, 5:54,5:54,5:54 - total time 58:44. Felt like I would be able to hold the pace easily at the start, but then all of a sudden slowed down to 5:54 or so and just could not get out of the rut. There is a reason for feeling this - I have been doing 3 mile tempo runs almost daily at around 5:40 pace average. What confuses me is that I have felt quite snappy in most of the 3 mile tempos, but have felt quite stale in all of the 10 mile tempos. If it was just the fatigue, I would have felt stale in the 3 mile tempos as well. I have noticed in the 1.25 pickups that once my HR goes above 160 I start feeling uncomfortable. Possibly in the 10 mile tempo HR has to get into the trouble range eventually, and I do not know how to handle it, while 3 miles is short enough that I can bluff my way through it.

Finished the run with the kids - 3 with Benjamin, 2 with Jenny and Julia, 1 with Joseph and 0.5 with Jacob. Total of 21. During the run with Benjamin we did a few pickups that totaled a mile at around 6:00 pace.