Breaking the Wall

Day of rest. Went to church. It was a Fast Sunday. In the evening we watched a movie Stand Strong. This is not your typical entertainment movie. The plot centers around a family that borrowed more money than they could pay back and ran into trouble. Not the kind of movie that most people would want to watch, but we like it. It gives us a chance to teach our children some important principles that are key to happiness as an adult. William asked why their car was being taken away. This created an educational opportunity, the kind that it is much better to experience when you are 5 than when you are 25.

A.M. Total of 12, most with the kids. Benjamin did 8, Jenny 4, Julia 3, Joseph 3, Jacob 2, William 1. Did a pickup for 1.5 in 8:32. Struggled - probably low on fuel.

A.M. Did a tempo run with Benjamin. Well, more precisely, he dropped me after the first 0.6 and I watched him move further and further away after that. He ran 2 miles down the Provo Canyon with the splits of 2:31, 2:35 (5:06), 2:37, 2:31 (5:08) - 10:14 total. His first quarter in 73 did me in. I hung on to about 1 K mark, then started losing it. Got 5:10 at the mile, then really lost it and ran the last mile in 5:35 finishing in 10:45. The start was fast, but it should not have killed me that bad - probably still low on fuel from Saturday and fasting on Sunday.

Benjamin's performance was quite encouraging. I am figuring right now on a good day he should be able to run somewhere in the range of 15:20 for the 3 mile tempo course. I think it is reasonable to expect that he will be running it under 15:00 by June, which I think will translate into 1:08 performance in the Utah Valley Half. Using direct ratios, he ran 15:54 in the 3 mile tempo, then 1:15:21 in the actual race, so improving the tempo run to 14:54 gives him 1:10:36 assuming the same endurance, but even now he has quite a bit more endurance than he did back then. In May in all of his workouts he was good up to 3 miles and then experienced an abrupt drop. Lately he has been powering along as far as 6 and feeling like he could do more. I am expecting the endurance to improve even more in the next 7 months, so I think he can find 2 minutes over the half in the endurance department.

Assuming he can go through with this and actually run 1:08, and assuming that UVM half is equivalent in quality to an OTQ eligible course at sea-level, that will give him 3 minutes to shave off over the course of about a little less than a year and a half with the age changing from 15 years and 4 months to 16 years and about 8 months or maybe a little more depending on when the window closes. At least on paper it all looks doable, but we will have to see if we can actually pull it off. But regardless, it is worth a try.

I did total of 12, Benjamin did 8, Jenny 4, Joseph 3, Julia 3, Jacob 2, William 1.

A.M. Total of 12. Benjamin did 8, Jenny 4, Joseph 3.5, Jacob 2, Julia 3, William 1. Benjamin and I did a pickup for 1.5 in 8:32 on a slower section of the course and it felt easier than on Monday - probably the fuel supply is gradually coming back.

A.M. Did a workout with Benjamin. His workout was 4x400 in the canyon with the target of 64 with 400 recovery jog. I did what I could. In the first one he ran 64.0. I ran 300 in 49.7 as I felt needed some warmup. Then he ran 64.8 - I got 66.8, followed by 64.5 for him and 66.7 for me. In the last one he had an extra gear while I lost one - 62.6 for him, 68.1 for me. His workout went very well, exactly as planned. In the meantime I am realized that something has happened to me over the last 3 years - I've lost the little speed that I had. The question is if it is from the loss of coordination, loss of power, or spinal deterioration. Loss of coordination/loss of power can be addressed, spinal deterioration is more hopeless. In any case, what I think I need to do is switch to 200s when doing workouts with Benjamin and try to learn to run them relaxed while not getting dropped. Once I can run those relaxed I can move to longer distances.

Benjamin did 8, Jenny 4, Julia 3, Joseph 3, Jacob 2, William 1. I did another 1.5 total of pickups at around 5:40 pace. Total of 12 for me.

William announced that he wanted to do a time trial, so we did it on his "little boy" course - an out and back mile with markers every quarter that I measured with a wheel - a small grade up in the first half, and then returning on an equivalent grade down. His splits were 2:09, 2:10, 2:07, and 1:59 - total time 8:25.2, new PR by 8 seconds. Now we can say that in our family if your mile PR is slower than 8:30 you have to wear a diaper. Stephen will ruin that when he potty-trains, though, but not for long we hope.

A.M. 12 total. Benjamin did 8, Jenny 3, Julia 3, Joseph 3.5, Jacob 2, William 1. I did a total of 3 miles pickups at around 5:40-5:45 pace including 1.5 with Benjamin in 8:37. 

A.M. 20 mile run with Chad. Did a warmup 10 miles up the canyon, then ran back down at tempo pace - usual course. On the way back Chad had a goal of running with me to failure. He made it a little less than 3 miles. I ran 58:19 for 10 at a fairly even pace. The last mile which is uphill was 5:57. I was quite happy about it. Weight after the run was 143.4, so apparently I did have some glycogen, although I felt flat from the start. But I was holding the pace. Probably the reason I struggled was the cold temperatures.

It is interesting, though, that at 5:50 pace Chad had only 3 miles in him. I think the factor is the long "warmup". He probably dumps a good measure of his glycogen just running up the canyon even though we are running barely sub-8:00. But going up and into a headwind sub-8:00 does use up some carb fuel. This in a way validates the workout - yes, this is only 10 miles of tempo, but because you run 10 first you run the last 10 in the state of moderate glycogen depletion which makes it a perfect preparation of the marathon.

Benjamin did 8, Jenny 4, Julia 3, Joseph 3, Jacob 2, William 1.