A.M. Took Benjamin for a time trial of sorts. I wanted to see what he could do on my 3 mile tempo course down the Provo Canyon. The target was something under 6:00 average, but we both knew that he would blow that away, the question was by how much. After a 2 mile warm-up uphill we started the run. I ran alongside for about a quarter to feel how fast he wanted to go, that quarter was 87, which had some uphill, then I moved forward and started setting the pace. We did 82, 82, 82 (5:33), then 83. I knew that those 82s would eventually end, but I figured as long as Benjamin was not complaining or falling back, I would hold it. The nice downhill ended, the next quarter was rolling. Benjamin started to struggle and hit 89. However, he regrouped and sped up to 86, followed by 87, which was not too bad. 11:18 at 2 miles, 5:45 for the second mile. I told him he was 2 seconds ahead of the 5:40 guy. He protested vehemently against the idea of working to stay ahead and insisted he had no juice. I knew that he was wrong, so I told him to be quiet. I knew he would be thankful in a mile. Sometimes you just need to throw away the things they tell you in child education/psychology classes and go with the natural father's instinct. Especially when the pace is 5:45, which I can handle, but I am definitely in no mood to talk going this fast. So I condensed my remarks to one phrase. It worked quite well. He had two quarters of rebellion in 89 and 90. Then he smelled the barn, repented, and ran 85. At this point I thought all hopes of breaking 17:00 were gone. But Benjamin thought differently. He ran the last quarter in 76, which gave him 5:40 for the last mile, and 16:58.2 for 3 miles. This was a decent time, given that my best on that course is 15:15. Day after day Benjamin is becoming a more equal workout partner, and pretty soon I am going to hear "Daddy, give me five" as he tries to make me go faster. I ran 6 more afterwards. Jenny, Julia, and Joseph did 2, Jacob ran 1. P.M. 0.5 with William.
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