Breaking the Wall

Day of rest. Went to church. Read an interesting article in the Ensign about a woman that prayed to have a pioneer experience. Her prayer was answered. Her car broke down and she had to bike everywhere. This reminded me that I need to be thankful for everyday life conveniences.

A.M. 10.1 with Jeff in 1:15:31. Did explosions. Discussed the importance of big O in computer algorithms. Ran two fat miles. First in 5:56, second in 5:50. Interesting feeling in the second mile. In the second quarter felt very smooth, and ran 86 uphill, but it did not feel that fast. In the third quarter I thought we were going to get 85 for the effort, but it was only 87.  Possibly because of the turns. Then in the last quarter felt smooth again and ran 84.

2 more with Benjamin in 17:33.

P.M. Ran barefoot. 0.5 with Joseph in 5:45. 1.5 with Jenny and Julia in 14:59. They both were not feeling well, so we ran slower and cut Jenny's run short.

A.M. Jeff and I were planning on a 10 mile tempo run. However, Jeff ate something bad and was having serious stomach issues. But we decided to give it a try anyway. Jeff threw up before the start of the tempo, first time in 14 years. Jeff is quite a scientist. Most people would just get away from the vomit as fast as they could, but he studied it in detail and then reported one item at a time what came out.

Then we started with a tentative goal to run 6:00 pace until we had to call 911 for Jeff. We started out sluggishly. 6:06 for the first mile. During the second mile Jeff stopped to throw up again. Then we could not get back to pace, and then we stopped for Jeff's VPB, so we ended up with 6:09.  Not much faster in the third - 6:02. An old lady, about 70 years old or so, was riding a bike in front of us. She was a nimble old lady. Her bike looked pretty heavy, yet she was maintaining sub-6:00 pace. She must have been Ben Crozier's grandma. Back when we trained together whenever I told Ben I ran a good time, he always said his grandma ran that same race on that same course 5 seconds faster.

With the grandma ahead of us to chase the pace quickened. We ran the next mile in 5:53. But the grandma was not coming to us. I thought for sure we'd catch her on the uphill. But we did not. Then finally Jeff decided he wanted to catch the grandma even if it meant more vomit. So we sped up to an 84 quarter, followed by an 81. The grandma did not have that gear, we caught up, and she admitted that she tried hard to stay ahead of us. I was surprised that Jeff was able to go that fast without losing anything on either end of the pipe. Once we passed the grandma, the competitive urge was over and we coasted the last quarter in 85 to finish 5 miles in 29:50, last mile in 5:40. Jeff felt that was good enough, and I did not want to run 5 more alone bad enough to actually do it. So I stopped with him and we jogged in to get 10 miles total.

Then I picked up Benjamin and ran 2 miles with him in 15:45. We did  6:00 pace to failure after the warm-up mile in 9:00. He made it to about 0.6 this time, the longest so far. I think he could have gone 0.75, but was not mentally ready. To help him prepare I challenged him to run a hard quarter from 1.75 to the finish, which he did in 1:37. His last mile was 6:45 which included a jog from 0.6 to 0.75.

P.M. 0.5 with Joseph in 5:48. 2 with Jenny in 19:34. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 14:52.

A.M. 10.1 with Jeff in 1:10:31.  We started a bit late because I had a hard time finding my magic socks for Five Fingers (actually regular socks with the front cut out) so we had to hurry a bit. Did explosive sprints. Then we ran fat miles. The first one in 5:52, second in 5:42. HR was 156 at the end, and that quarter was 85. 

Then 2 more with Benjamin in 17:36.

P.M. 0.5 with Joseph in 5:29. 2 with Jenny, Julia ran 1.5. We were a bit sub-10:00 pace.

A.M. Ran with Jeff. We did 6x400 in the middle of our regular 10.1. 5 on the way out with 200 recovery, 1 on the way back after longer recovery. The times were 74.6, 70.4, 69.7, 70.2, 70.6, and 69.3. The recoveries were fairly quick, 1:12 so around 9:30 pace. We ran faster in the recoveries for no particular reason other than to finish the whole run in time for Jeff to get to work. Felt smooth.

Afterwards 2 with Benjamin in 17:36, and 2 with Jenny in 19:13. Julia ran the first 1.5 in 14:30.

P.M. 2 with Joseph in 5:28.

A.M. 10.1 with Jeff in 1:14:13. Did explosions, and also two fat miles. First in 5:43, second in 5:52. We did speed up to 84-83 quarters at the end of both miles and those felt good - very smooth.

Later 2 miles with Benjamin in 15:33 with a 0.75 in 4:32 in the middle.

P.M. 0.5 with Joseph in 5:56. 2 with Jenny in 18:24. Julia ran the first 1.5 in 14:24.

A.M. Long run with Jeff. 20 miles in 2:11:21. First 10 easy pace from my house to Bridal Veil Falls, then back hard. About 800 or so feet of gain going out, so net downhill on the way back, but not exceptionally fast due to uneven drop and turns/bridges in the last 3 miles. 1:14:24 on the way out. Came back in 56:57. First mile of the tempo was 6:00, then we got down to business and started running sub-5:40. With two miles to go, I was struggling on the turns (we were around mile 15 of the Utah Valley Marathon) as well as with warmer temperatures, and I could tell Jeff's horses were neighing, so I told him to go. He ran the last two miles in 10:29, average of 5:14.5. I slowed down a bit to 5:48 pace, but then was able to pick it back up to 5:40 at the end, so I did that stretch in 11:31, average of 5:45.5. The average pace for the last 10 was 5:41.7.

Jenny and Julia ran 2 miles with Sarah in the morning. Joseph ran 0.5 as well.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 16:58.