Breaking the Wall

Day of rest. Went to church. Benjamin and Jenny were sick, took them home after the sacrament was passed, and stayed with them to make sure they were OK for a bit over an hour. Then went back and helped Sarah with the Sunbeams class.

A.M. Day of adventures, of sorts. Benjamin and Jenny were sick, but Benjamin could run a mile, so he did. Jenny did not run. William did 0.5, Joseph 2, Julia 2, Jacob 1. Julia's run revealed she started getting sick. I ran some more, including to our car (Zhu) which broke down about half a mile away from the house. The towing truck initially picked up the wrong car. What would have been funny is if it had made it all the way to the shop, needed to have work done, and ended up getting work done, but it would not have gotten that far as the shop would have realized they did not have the right key. In any case, at the end of the mess Zhu ended up at the shop, the problem turned out to be a broken timing belt which happened due to idle pulley seizing. I ended up with 13 miles total.

A.M. 10 miles total. This was a pre-cautionary reduction in mileage in an attempt to avoid the rhinovirus or whatever it is that we've got in the house (in my dream I would have the equipment on hand to test not only for the type of virus, but to know the exact strand and report it somewhere for the benefit of science). Rhinovirus is the most common cause of common cold, Benjamin and Jenny tested negative for strep throat at the doctor's office, there is nothing wrong with their stomachs, so I think rhinovirus is a decent guess in absence of better diagnostics. Benjamin ran 1 mile, Joseph 2, Julia 0.5, Jacob 1. I did 2x1 mile pickups one up the canyon in 6:07, the other down in 5:34.

A.M. Some kids are improving while others have caught the virus. The run was adjusted based on the health of each child. Benjamin did 2, Joseph 2, Jacob 0.5, Julia 0.5, Jenny 1. I did a total of 13 with a 4 mile tempo - 2 up the canyon, then 2 immediately down. The splits were 6:03, 6:07, 5:32, 5:18 - 23:00 total. I was happy with the second half, but not happy with not being able to crack 6:00 going out.

A.M. A total of 10. Desperate attempt to avoid getting sick. I am still holding off, but the odds are against me with all seven kids now having some form of sickness. Benjamin and Jenny are recovering, however. Benjamin ran 2 miles averaging sub-8:00 for the first time since Thanksgiving. Jenny also ran 2. Everybody else was out of commission today. If I do get sick, I'll just won't go to the Rocket City Marathon or even if I make it to Huntsville and find myself unhealthy there, I will just go back without starting the race. I've done it sick once, do not need the experience again. Plus I need to set a good example for others. I keep telling people not to run marathons when not 100% healthy, but I am yet to back out of a marathon myself when the health is not there. I've won the stupidity award twice in the last 3 years - St. George 2009 and Rocket City 2011. In St. George I had an irritated heel, while in Rocket City I had a cold.

A.M. We had a restless night getting up every couple of hours and taking five temperatures in a row - Julia, Joseph, Jacob, William, and Stephen, and making sure the kids were properly hydrated. Amazingly Sarah and I are still not sick. I cut the run to 8.8 miles to give the immune system a chance to deal with all the mess. Even though some kids had fevers in the morning, I felt that I should get them out all for a very short run anyway after kicking the fevers down to let them breathe some fresh air, to maintain good spirit, and to get an idea of how much the sickness was impacting each of them and make a plan for recovery.

Joseph wins the most resilient fever sufferer award. He had periods when his fever would jump up to 103.5F, but after we kicked it down with ibuprofen and water he was the liveliest of all the sick kids and volunteered 4:52 for 0.5.  I was not expecting that - I thought he would run a quarter maybe and then we would walk back. Julia was affected the worst. We did 0.5 in 5:18, but we had to stop several times for Julia to clear out her throat. Her fever had also been knocked down, but even without it it never went about 101F. So I thought she would be much livelier that Joseph. Jacob had no problem keeping up with Julia, I do not know what pace he would have gone on his own. William did 0.25 struggling some but not too bad. Benjamin ran 3 miles, Jenny 2.

About a week ago we submitted a request to participate in a home schooling family reality show. Today was just the perfect day for them to call us. Sarah, being 8 months pregnant, having not slept well, and still taking care of five sick kids in addition to everything else that she does, answered the phone. It sounded to her like the guy was a telemarketer, so she hung up. He called back. How dare he? She told him to not call back. Then she gets an e-mail from the program director explaining that he wanted to talk with us but got hung up on twice. We resolved the matter and have a Skype interview scheduled with them this coming Thursday.   

A.M. A very cautious medium long run of 15 miles. I had to play the balance between not getting sick and not losing the fitness and felt like I was driving a car on a narrow road on the edge of a cliff. Too far to the right and you run into a mountain, too far to the left and you are flying off the cliff. In a week from this date my driving skills, so to speak, will be evaluated at the Rocket City Marathon.

So first I ran with the kids with each running according to his health. Benjamin did 3, Jenny 2, Joseph 0.5, Jacob 0.5, Julia 0.25, William 0.25.  Those distances tell a story - none of them are 100%. Then I ran 8.25 more with the last 4 fast from the middle of the Provo Canyon to the house. So some down and some up. I started out fairly quickly with 5:33 and 5:35. Then I felt that my heart was not pumping enough oxygen and slowed down to 5:46 in the next mile. The last mile was uphill, and I did it in 5:52. This gave me 22:46 for 4 miles. Afterwards I rested as well as I could to avoid getting sick taking a nap for 1.5 hours.