Breaking the Wall

April 24, 2024

15% off for Fast Running Blog members at St. George Running Center!

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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to Ukraine's Armed Forces

Miles:	This week:	0.00	Month:	0.00	Year:	882.94
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:						1312.70

Wed, Feb 07, 2007

Easy Miles	Marathon Pace Miles	Threshold Miles	VO2 Max Miles	Total Distance
11.10	0.00	0.00	0.80	11.90

Easy run with Ted at our usual time. In preparation for the Striders 5 K did some strides (very appropriate). Hit a few 200 meter stretches between 36 and 38 seconds, and a few unmeasured stretches on the trail. All in the dark. 1.5 layers of clothes, inversion. The form felt very good on the accelerations. I would say normally I need a couple of months of 400 meter repetitions to get it to feel that good. I wonder if all those 400s are for me is a fancy way of stretching and strengthening the back. There have been days when I felt I could run a better tempo after 12x400 than before.

Saw the profile of the course. Not fast at all, good hill workout, though. 6% grade up for 0.5 mile is going to be fun. Anything sub-17 will be good.

Ran with the kids in the afternoon. Managed to sneak in some coding and work on a feature to notify people posting comments of a reply if they have a Fast Running Blog and identified it in the URL field. Almost done, need to test it before I make it live, but it will probably have to wait until tomorrow. After that, long awaited GPX course upload and time prediction.

Night Sleep Time: 0.00	Nap Time: 0.00	Total Sleep Time: 0.00

Comments

From Dave Holt on Thu, Feb 08, 2007 at 09:42:37

Just like in class, some of my wise-guy runners made sure to point out to me today that "running accomplishments" is spelled wrong.

From Sasha Pachev on Thu, Feb 08, 2007 at 10:36:43

Thanks for reporting the problem. It is now fixed. And if my new feature is working, you should get an e-mail notification.

From Sasha Pachev on Thu, Feb 08, 2007 at 10:44:18

Never mind - you have comment notification disabled in your profile, so you should not have gotten the message. So if you did not, that is good, at least the no part is working properly.

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