Breaking the Wall

Week starting Aug 02, 2015

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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

 

Favorite Blogs:
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Miles:This week: 0.00 Month: 40.31 Year: 3073.12
Saucony Type A Lifetime Miles: 640.15
Bare Feet Lifetime Miles: 450.37
Nike Double Stroller Lifetime Miles: 124.59
Brown Crocs 4 Lifetime Miles: 1334.06
Amoji 1 Lifetime Miles: 732.60
Amoji 2 Lifetime Miles: 436.69
Amoji 3 Lifetime Miles: 380.67
Lopsie Sports Sandals Lifetime Miles: 818.02
Lopsie Sports Sandals 2 Lifetime Miles: 637.27
Iprome Garden Clogs Lifetime Miles: 346.18
Beslip Garden Clogs Lifetime Miles: 488.26
Joybees 1 Lifetime Miles: 1035.60
Madctoc Clogs Lifetime Miles: 698.29
Blue Crocs Lifetime Miles: 1164.32
Kimisant Black Clogs Lifetime Miles: 720.62
Black Crocs 2023 Lifetime Miles: 1743.12
White Slip Resistant Crocs Lifetime Miles: 759.93
Totals
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
60.101.5013.270.0074.87
White Crocs 2 Miles: 30.83
Night Sleep Time: 16.00Nap Time: 5.00Total Sleep Time: 21.00
Sun, Aug 02, 2015
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
0.000.000.000.000.00

Was supposed to be a day of rest, but did not start like one.  We had an emergency at work with a malfunctioning system. I fought the battle through the night and won it at 4:30 AM. Thus only 3 hours of sleep. Amazingly I woke up on my own without an alarm and stayed awake in church. But once I was home I was ready for a good nap.

Night Sleep Time: 3.00Nap Time: 3.00Total Sleep Time: 6.00
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Mon, Aug 03, 2015
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
14.040.000.000.0014.04

Fast Running Friend Workout - 2015-08-03 07:50:06
Workout Totals: Distance14.040Time1:51:59.40Pace7:58.59
Total of 14. Kids ran their usual distances.
Leg 1:Distance4.000Time31:26.20Pace7:51.55
With Joseph and Jacob. Jenny and Julia did the first 1.5.
Leg 2:Distance2.040Time17:40.90Pace8:40.05
With Benjamin and William.
Leg 3:Distance8.000Time1:02:52.30Pace7:51.54
With Benjamin.

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00
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Tue, Aug 04, 2015
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
10.501.500.000.0012.00

Fast Running Friend Workout - 2015-08-04 08:28:53
Workout Totals: Distance12.000Time1:29:57.70Pace7:29.81
Today was a significant day for Jenny. She is about to turn 15. I told her as a condition for getting her driving learner's permit she needs to break 6:00 mile. If she does on on the track, she gets an automatic qualifier. If she does it in the canyon, the qualification is provisional - that is there will be a waiting period to see if she might possibly get the automatic qualifier, she needs to do well in her studies of calculus, physics, and chemistry, and she needs to be more patient with her little brother Joseph.
The trouble is that he is only 10, about a good foot shorter than Jenny, she is old enough to have changed his diapers more than once, but he is beating her by about 20 seconds in the mile, and over 2 minutes in the 5 K, and he likes to emphasize his speed advantage in various ways that Jenny finds annoying.

So today Jenny was able to get her provisional qualifier running 5:59 down the canyon. Her splits were 85, 90, 93, 91. This helped her break a mental barrier.

William also did a 0.5 mile time trial in the canyon in 3:11.6, splits 43, 49, no marks at the 600, but last quarter in 99. Then Julia ran home with him, while the rest of us went back and paced Jenny.

Stephen ran 1 mile with Benjamin. William ended up doing 3.47.
Leg 1:Distance0.190Time1:49.00Pace9:33.68
Short warm-up with William.
Leg 2:Distance0.500Time3:11.60Pace6:23.20
William's 0.5 mile time trial down the canyon. Julia, Joseph, and Jacob helped with the pacing.
Leg 3:Distance0.500Time4:13.30Pace8:26.60
Back to the start.
Leg 4:Distance1.000Time5:59.00Pace5:59.00
Jenny's mile time trial. Joseph and Jacob helped with the pacing.
Leg 5:Distance2.280Time18:06.70Pace7:56.62
To the house with Jenny, Joseph, and Jacob. Benjamin joined us at around the 2 mile mark.
Leg 6:Distance7.530Time56:38.10Pace7:31.27
First 4.5 with Benjamin, the rest alone back to the car.

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00
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Wed, Aug 05, 2015
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
12.000.000.000.0012.00

Usual 12 miles. Kids ran their usual distances. Did not bring a watch because it was out of batery and did not get charged.

White Crocs 2 Miles: 12.00
Night Sleep Time: 7.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 7.00
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Thu, Aug 06, 2015
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
10.000.000.000.0010.00

Fast Running Friend Workout - 2015-08-06 08:23:13
Workout Totals: Distance10.000Time1:17:52.90Pace7:47.29
Only 10 total. Benjamin did 8. Other kids their usual distances. A little taper before Provo River Half.
Leg 1:Distance4.000Time30:21.90Pace7:35.48
With Joseph and Jacob. Jenny and Julia did the first 1.5 then turned around.
Leg 2:Distance6.000Time47:31.00Pace7:55.17
With Benjamin.

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00
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Fri, Aug 07, 2015
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
8.000.000.000.008.00

Fast Running Friend Workout - 2015-08-07 08:32:02
Workout Totals: Distance8.000Time1:02:45.10Pace7:50.64
8 total. Benjamin did 6. Everybody else their usual distances. Taper for Provo River Half for Benjamin and myself.
Leg 1:Distance4.000Time31:29.60Pace7:52.40
With Joseph and Jacob. Jenny and Julia did their usual first 1.5.
Leg 2:Distance4.000Time31:15.50Pace7:48.88
With Benjamin.

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00
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Sat, Aug 08, 2015
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
5.560.0013.270.0018.83

Fast Running Friend Workout - 2015-08-08 06:23:32
Workout Totals: Distance1.100Time9:19.50Pace8:28.64
Provo River Half Marathon, 1:17:24, 3rd place. The course was changed and as a result of a mistake 0.16 was added to the distance. Nate Clayson won with 1:11:01. Benjamin led most of the race, but then lost enough steam to get passed around mile 10 and finished in 1:11:36. The new course in addition to being longer, was also slower due to more uphill.

The mile markers were not reliable (I'll make sure they are next year). So the splits were rather approximate. I sampled a 5:44 mile and 17:15 3 miles off Provo City Half markers for what it was worth - that was from about mile 2 to about mile 5. The standard uphill mile was 6:33 on the way up, and around 5:50 on the way down. The 3 mile stretch from Nun's Park to the mouth of the canyon was 17:29. From those splits I knew that the time should have been around 1:16 low on the old course, so I decided to do a quick check with Google Maps, and sure enough there was about 0.16 of extra distance, worth a little less than a minute.

Joseph, Jacob, Jenny, and Julia ran to meet us at the finish. Benjamin, Jenny and Julia then ran back to the house on their own, Joseph and Jacob took a long route with me. Joseph, Jacob, and Jenny did 5, Julia a little over 3, other kids their usual distances.
Leg 1:Distance1.100Time9:19.50Pace8:28.64
Warm-up.
Fast Running Friend Workout - 2015-08-08 06:55:16
Workout Totals: Distance17.730Time1:51:05.30Pace6:15.93
 
Leg 1:Distance13.270Time1:17:25.00Pace5:50.04
The race.
Leg 2:Distance3.460Time26:03.10Pace7:31.76
With Joseph and Jacob.
Leg 3:Distance1.000Time7:37.20Pace7:37.20
With William. This was funny - I got home very tired from the race and the distance afterwards. Sarah's back was hurting, so I massaged it before I thought I was going to shower and eat breakfast. Then William tells me he still has one more mile left. And then on top of that he decides to run the last half mile in 3:28. Good thing he is only 6.

White Crocs 2 Miles: 18.83
Night Sleep Time: 6.00Nap Time: 2.00Total Sleep Time: 8.00
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Totals
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
60.101.5013.270.0074.87
White Crocs 2 Miles: 30.83
Night Sleep Time: 16.00Nap Time: 5.00Total Sleep Time: 21.00
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