| 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 | | 69.10 | 12.80 | 8.50 | 2.10 | 92.50 |
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| Green Crocs 3 Miles: 90.50 |
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| Night Sleep Time: 55.00 | Nap Time: 3.00 | Total Sleep Time: 58.00 | |
| | 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. Went to church. Had recently returned missionaries speak in the Sacrament meeting again. We get those quite often in this ward, I think recently it's been almost every other week. One talk mentioned a 9-year-old girl in Zambia who is the only member of the Church in her family that walked to church alone for an hour each Sunday. I think there is an aspect to the missionary program of the Church that does not get frequent enough attention. Those who are in the church take it for granted, those who are not are not close enough to the Church to be aware of it. There are thousands of young men and women that would not otherwise even know where countries like Zambia are that end up dedicating two years of their lives to serving in those countries learning the language and becoming intimately familiar with their culture. Their parents and grandparents would not otherwise know where those countries are. I understand that we are not unique in sending missionaries to other countries. Where we are unique is that we send them by assignment for two years and expect them to learn the language. We also expect them to do more than just preach the good word. They are expected to figure out what they need to do to convince people to make significant changes in their lifestyle. Anybody who has served a mission will know the difference between telling people to do better and seeing through to make sure they actually do better. You cannot get away with a superficial approach. If you do not immerse yourself into what the people you are working with live you will not succeed. When I lived in Russia I happened to run into an influx of foreign, mostly American, missionaries when things opened up. However, it was not until I had met the LDS missionaries that I found somebody who has some depth behind them. They were the ones that were not afraid to invest their skin into the matter, so to speak. This was definitely a plus. While the message alone was convincing enough for me, to observe the messenger living up to the message made it even easier to believe. |
| Night Sleep Time: 7.00 | Nap Time: 2.00 | Total Sleep Time: 9.00 |
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| | Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Total Distance | | 14.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 14.00 |
| A.M. Did 10 alone + 2 with Jenny and Julia. Benjamin had a sore throat, ran just 1 mile. P.M. 2 with Joseph. Jacob ran 1. |
| Green Crocs 3 Miles: 14.00 |
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| Night Sleep Time: 8.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 8.00 |
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| | Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Total Distance | | 8.70 | 0.80 | 5.00 | 0.00 | 14.50 |
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A.M. Did a tempo run. 2 miles up in 11:56, then 3 miles down in 16:14. The two mile tempo went OK, the splits were 5:56 - 6:00. Then in the 3 mile tempo I started with a 5:19, but then lost steam and dragged the next two miles in 5:27 and 5:28. Wore an HRM today for the first time in several months. On the uphill after the first mile HR was around 154, then it climbed to 159 in the second mile. On the down tempo it hit 159 after the first mile then was stuck at 156 and refused to go higher until I kicked in the last quarter in 78, then it was around 160. I had to kick in 78 to run 5:28 mile, so that shows how I was dragging in between. I think the problem was the accumulated lack of sleep. Got home, turned around, ran at about 6:00 for 0.8 to catch up to Jenny, Julia, and Sarah, then finished the run with Jenny and Julia. Total of 12.5 miles. Benjamin ran 1 mile. P.M. 2 miles with Joseph. Jacob ran 1. Benjamin did 1.
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| Green Crocs 3 Miles: 14.50 |
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| Night Sleep Time: 8.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 8.00 |
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| | Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Total Distance | | 11.00 | 0.00 | 3.00 | 0.00 | 14.00 |
| A.M. Total of 12. Benjamin did 3. Jenny and Julia 2. I did 1 uphill in 5:51, and 2 down in 10:36. It felt better than yesterday, the nap helped. P.M. 2 miles with Joseph, Jacob ran 1 with us. |
| Green Crocs 3 Miles: 14.00 |
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| Night Sleep Time: 8.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 8.00 |
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| | Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Total Distance | | 12.90 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 1.10 | 14.00 |
| A.M. Ran 2 with Jenny and Julia, then 4 with Benjamin. Then did hill sprints, 334 feet on my usual stretch. The splits were 18.6, 18.2, 17.6, 17.5, 17.2, 17.3. Then ran 5 more miles, did a pickup for 0.75 in 3:49, it felt good, felt like things were clicking together. P.M. 2 with Joseph, Jacob did 1 of them. |
| Green Crocs 3 Miles: 14.00 |
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| Night Sleep Time: 8.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 8.00 |
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| | Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Total Distance | | 12.50 | 0.00 | 0.50 | 1.00 | 14.00 |
| A.M. Started with 2 with Jenny and Julia. Then Benjamin did 4 today again, the first 2 with me. I continued into the canyon. On the way back I ran a mile down but into a headwind in 5:12. Then at the very end I did a pickup for 0.5 in 2:53. P.M. 2 with Joseph, Jacob did 1 of them. |
| Green Crocs 3 Miles: 14.00 |
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| Night Sleep Time: 8.00 | Nap Time: 0.00 | Total Sleep Time: 8.00 |
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| | Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Total Distance | | 10.00 | 12.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 22.00 |
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A.M. Total of 20. Started with Benjamin, he went to 2.5 and then turned around making it a total of 5. Jenny and Julia did 2. On the way up I ran a 2 mile tempo. Wore an HRM. It was a bit colder this morning, maybe 40F, but there was a headwind on the way up. I had an experience similar to two weeks ago, except this time I had an HRM to gather some numbers. So my splits in the 2 mile tempo were 6:06 - 6:14, total of 12:20. HR for the most of it was stuck at 146. This is a good HR for 6:10 pace uphill into a headwind. The problem is that I could not go any faster, and I felt like I was not getting enough oxygen even though there was not a whole lot of air going into the lungs. So essentially I was experiencing what I normally would when it is 10 F, even though it was much warmer than that. I am wondering if I have developed a circulation problem of some kind, need to get it checked out. On the way back I ran a 10 mile tempo. The wind turned around, and was actually quite strong. I had a weird experience again. For a long time I could not bring my HR over 140. I was still going around 6:00 down South Fork even with that low of an HR because the grade is quite steep. But for the life of me I could not speed up. Then I got out onto the Provo River Trail and was maintaining slightly sub-6:00 on average, but HR was stuck at 142. When the headwind eased off or I hit a sunny spot, I would speed up to 5:45 or even 5:40 with HR going to 146, but the headwind came back and HR would drop to 142 and so would the pace. On the positive side of things, I hit more warmer spots on the 3 mile tempo stretch and was able to beat the time from last week split by 1 second with 17:33. Total time for 10 was 59:22. So this is really odd. What's up with this HR drop into a headwind? 5:55 pace at 142 HR into a headwind down 1-2% grade is good, shows good efficiency, I am quite happy with that. What I am not happy about is that for the life of me I did not have another gear with the headwind blowing. I tried upping the turnover, still no result. The moment the headwind stopped all of a sudden I could up the HR to 146 and go faster. Two suspects I can think of. A blood circulation problem, or some weird biomechanical issue that makes me not use all of the muscles when the headwind is blowing. But that problem was not there on Tuesday when it was warmer. So I am thinking it is circulation. P.M. 2 with Joseph. Jacob did 1 with us.
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| Green Crocs 3 Miles: 20.00 |
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| Night Sleep Time: 8.00 | Nap Time: 1.00 | Total Sleep Time: 9.00 |
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| | Easy Miles | Marathon Pace Miles | Threshold Miles | VO2 Max Miles | Total Distance | | 69.10 | 12.80 | 8.50 | 2.10 | 92.50 |
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| Green Crocs 3 Miles: 90.50 |
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| Night Sleep Time: 55.00 | Nap Time: 3.00 | Total Sleep Time: 58.00 | |
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