Breaking the Wall

Day of rest. Went to church as usual. We had a lesson on tithing in Sunday School. The lesson in the Elder's Quorum was on the law of chastity. The sacrament meeting program had to be simplified somewhat with the youth talk postponed until next week due to the four confirmations of the family that got baptized the day before. Benjamin did not mind, as he was the youth speaker. The talks were on self-reliance and living within our means.

On that subject, there are two very funny and telling ads in Orem. One is on the freeway. There is a picture of a man celebrating. He is so happy that he looks like he had just won the Olympic gold medal. The text underneath explains the reason for his joy - bankruptcy. The other is on Orem Center street and says: "Live debt free. 801-BANKRUPT"

I laugh at those ads, but I do find them rather disturbing. Orem is a predominantly LDS area. I highly doubt that the ad is directed primarily to those outside of the Church. I recognize that there are times when you have to declare bankruptcy. Maybe you do not have a job and you just got hit with a $200 K medical bill. Something crazy like that. The ad is not directed to those individuals either. How is it that we go to church, listen to a multitude of talks on self-reliance and avoiding debt, nod our heads in agreement, and then go and spend ourselves into a bankruptcy? Then those outside of the Church laugh at us - "look, Utah is leading the nation in bankruptcies - that's because they have a lot of children and pay tithing", and we get laughed at for a good reason because we deserve it. We should know better. Trying to keep one foot in the Lord's Kingdom with the other being in the world results in a serious hip adductor injury.

A.M. Ran with Tyler. First we did 5 miles with Benjamin in 39:24. During the run I gave Benjamin a math problem around mile 4 mark. Integrate x^7+x^5 from 0 to 1. It took him about a quarter mile to solve it. The answer was 7/24. Then I gave him another - find the minimum of x^2 - 6*x. He struggled some, but solved it after I reminded him to take the derivative and find the root. The answer to that one was  -9 achieved when x = 3. A less violent method of solving it is to notice that x^2-6*x = x^2 - 6*x + 9 - 9 = (x -3)^2-9 . Since the smallest (x-3)^2 can be in the real domain is 0, the smallest x^2-6*x can get is -9 and it happens when x = 3.

Then we took Jenny and Julia for 1.5. I was in the math mood, so I had them calculate 2^3. Jenny solved it right away, but to give Julia a chance to solve it showed me the answer (8) on her fingers using the traditional unary system (one finger for each count). The next problem was find the biggest number you can count to on your fingers.  Jenny correctly observed that you can count up to 15 with only 5 fingers using the binary system, but struggled to name the number that can be reached with 10. With 10 fingers you can count up to 1023. The trick is that each finger can be in two states - up or down. With N fingers you can count up to 2^N - 1. That is if you agree that all fingers down is a zero. If you want to get fancy, you can agree that all fingers down is a 1, and shift everything else one up, then you get 2^N. One more problem for Jenny - 64^(1/2). She struggled some, then figured out it was 8. Then she did 121^(1/2) - the answer to that was 11, and 27^(1/3) which is 3.

Then we ran 1.5 with Joseph and 0.5 with Jacob. Then 3 more on our own. We did a mile pickup in 5:16.2. Our splits were 79, 78, 81, 78. The 81 involved going under the bridge, which is a nasty rhythm breaker. So in essence it was a very steady run. This is incidentally a new mile PR for Tyler. I was pleasantly surprised by how good it felt. Last week I struggled to run 5:23 even though I did not feel like the race on Saturday had taken a whole lot out of me. This time I felt knocked out pretty bad by the heat on Saturday, and quite miserable for a while after the run. So I was expecting something similar to last Saturday, but it was not. I wonder if this was because I was stronger, or because I had Tyler with me. Of course, in this range of speed there is a lot of room for error and tricking yourself that you are feeling better or worse than you really do as it is still some distance away from all out race pace.

The total distance was  11.5 miles.

P.M. 2 miles with Sarah following me on a bike in 15:34.

A.M. Ran 5 with Benjamin in 37:29. We caught up to Sarah and ran a mile with her. She did 8:00. That is her fastest mile since giving birth to Stephen who turned 1 yesterday. Then 1.5 with Jenny, Julia, and Joseph, and 0.5 with Jacob. Then 5 more miles which included 10 hill sprints on the same stretch. Being alone did not help - my fastest one was only 9.9 compared to 9.4 when doing it with Tyler. Total of 12 miles.

P.M. 2 miles with Sarah on a bike, and pushing Stephen in the stroller in 15:38.

A.M. Ran with Tyler. Started with 5 miles with Benjamin. Then 0.5 with Jacob and Joseph, and 1.5 with Jenny and Julia. Then 5 more without the kids. Picked up in the last 2. Did 5:55, 5:42 - 11:37 total. This is a new 2 mile record for Tyler.

A.M. Total of 12.2. Did a warm up of about 0.5, a pickup of 0.7 at about 6:00 pace, then paced Sarah for the last 1000 meters of her fast mile which she did in 7:53. Ran another 0.5 with her, then 1.5. with Jenny and Julia, 0.5 with Jacob, Joseph, and Jenny (Jenny got 2 miles), then 1 more with Benjamin and Joseph (Joseph got 1.5 miles), then 4 more with Benjamin (Benjamin got 5 miles). Then 3 more with a mile in 5:17.5. I was happy with that because it started getting very warm, 79 degrees and I could feel it.
P.M. 2 miles with Sarah on a bike and William and Steven in the stroller in 15:36.

A.M.Ran 5 with Benjamin, 1.5 with Jenny, Julia, and Joseph, 0.5 with Jacob, and 5 more myself including 10 hill sprints on the same stretch. The fastest was 9.8. Total distance was 12 miles.

P.M. 2 miles in 14:55.

A.M. 10 miles in 1:11:47 before going to the chess tournament with Benjamin. Did a pickup in the last 0.25. Jenny and Julia did 1.5. Jacob did 0.5..

P.M. 3 miles with Benjamin after the chess tournament. Joseph ran 1.5 with us. We did a pickup in the last 0.25.  At the tournament we played 4 games. I drew one, won one, and lost two. Benjamin won two and lost two. After this tournament his rating is now 1526. I am still ahead, but not by much (1532), and likely not for long. However, I am happy that I have been able to improve alongside with Benjamin and be a decent partner for him.