Breaking the Wall

Went to the Provo Canyon this morning. Regular warm-up including a mile with ankle weights and strides. Then started speedwork.

Ran a 2.5 mile fartlek down on the trail alternating quarters between sub-5 K pace to go anaerobic with quarters at tempo pace to learn to clean up. At the end, ran the whole half mile at 5 K pace. Splits: 68 - 80 - 71 - 82 - 73 - 84 - 74 - 86 - 77 - 75. Total time 12:49.9. Last half really hurt - it felt like the end of a 5 K, exactly what I wanted. I think this is the closest a man can get to labor.

Jogged 2.5 miles up, and did the down portion of Paul's ladder again going down: 1000 (3:01.8) - 800 (2:26.2) - 600 (1:48.2) - 400 (69.8) - 200 (32.8).

In the afternoon, jogged a mile with anlke weights and Joseph in the stroller. Wore ankle weights most of the day. Ran with Julia her quarter, then with Benjamin and Jennifer on the way to the swimming pool. Swam with them a bit, did 50 yards in 57 seconds, that was all I could do - not a lot of power in the arms, especially at the swimming angles. Total of 14.5 for the day.

Ran in the morning with Eric and George. We went for longer than usual - 10 miles on the foothills. Afterwards, I did a marathon pace tempo Slate Canyon Loop (2.11) in 12:23, and then ran with Benjamin and Jennifer.

Also ran with Julia. She really surprised me today - ran a quarter in 2:22 (35,38,37,32), also PRed on 100 at the end. Her pervious quarter PR was 2:48. What happened was that I gave her a challenge to catch two walking ladies, and she really got excited about it. She did catch them. Afterwards, she kept saying: "I got the two ladies, Daddy". I think she is beginning to catch the spirit of competition.

Figured out, I think, what happened with the 5 K times in the Salt Lake Classic. The gun timer started early, which would have been OK if all the chips got properly picked up as the runners crossed the starting line. But a few runners, including Corbin, Nate, myself, Carre Joyce, and a few others did not register. It probably had something to do with whether the first leg to move had a chip if you were at the front. So subtracting 1:35 from all the front runners' gun times gives correct times. This would give Corbin 15:48, Nate 15:59, then Steve and me both with 16:09.

Ran some more with ankle weights and Joseph in the stroller to get 15.5 for the day.

Had to do the run early this morning, as usual on Wednesdays to make the 8:00 am shift in the temple. Warmed up 1.6 miles, then did 4 Slate Canyon loops (2.11 each, 8.44 total) at tempo pace. Was asleep on the first one - 12:49, then started waking up - 12:36, 12:28, and picked up to half-marathon race pace on the last - 11:58. Last mile was 5:22 (0.25 down, then rolling). Total time 49:58.

Did some always on the run during the day, including 0.5 with ankle weights, and ran with the kids. Total of 14 miles for the day.

Ran with Eric and George. Did a tune-up for Heart of Holladay 5 K. First, a tempo 0.5 in 2:44, then a n aggressive 5 K pace 0.5 in 2:30.1. Jogged some more on the foothills. Then ran with the kids. During the day, did some always on the run miles, and ran 0.5 with ankle weights. The 5 K results from last week have been fixed, and are available here. I got a nice e-mail from Jon Atherton, who was in charge of timing, explaining exactly what happened. Now we just need to figure out why Mike Nielson is not in the results of the half-marathon.

Mini-taper for Heart of Holladay. Did a tune-up 0.5 in 2:43, then fast in 2:30.9. Ran with the kids later in the morning, and ran half a mile with anlke weights.

Heart of Holladay 5 K. 16:29, 11th place. Very competitive race today, and on top of that I did not run a good one.

Decided to try an experiment - go out slower. In the past, this has unfailingly resulted in slowing down even further at the end, but I wanted to see if anything has changed. It has not. First two miles - 5:06 (slight up), 5:09 (down) with Nate Hornok. Felt like a tempo, almost. Then the hill came. I made to to 12:20 into the race with Nate - about the middle of the hill. Then the muscles just refused to go. Third mile in 5:38. Adjusted for the hill, it was worth about 5:23. No kick on the last 0.1, although I tried. Got passed by Steve Ashbaker, Tim Stringfellow, and Josh Steffen.

Finished, and immediately ran back to meet Benjamin. The hill that killed me killed him too. Both of us need to work on hills. He finished in 25:11 - would have been 20 second faster without the fits. We are going to work on it.

Then went back on the course with Steve Ashbaker and did a tempo. We ran it in 18:08 at marathon pace effort, and it felt very comfortable. I am indeed suffering from the Mike Kirk syndrome - not much difference between 5 K and marathon pace. Afterwards, a long cooldown.

Ran with the kids at home, and then a mile with ankle weights at night.

So this race along with the other two 5 Ks. show that I have about a 7-10 minute anaerobic window at the start of a 5 K to run fast. If do not use then, I cannot use it later for some odd reason. Weird - would not expect that in a marathoner. The question is what to do about it.

I decided to try a new approach. The true reason I want my 5 K to be faster is so my marathon would go up with it. That means I should try to raise my aerobic capability, and not worry too much about anaerobic. So I decided to try something that Lydiard suggest, and that has actually worked for me on a couple of occasions in the past (December/January 2002, and summer of 1985) - daily tempo runs of about 6 miles at marathon pace for aerobic conditioning. I'll try it for the next two weeks to see if it does me any good.