Breaking the Wall

April 25, 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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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

Thu, Aug 27, 2009

Easy Miles	Marathon Pace Miles	Threshold Miles	VO2 Max Miles	Total Distance
12.88	0.00	0.00	0.00	12.88

A.M. Ran 2.04 to Grandview in shoes, then 6.3 there barefoot, part of it with Jeff, then back 2.04 in shoes. The foot liked the cold grass and was feeling progressively better. It also felt decent on the way back on pavement, best ever since the start of the week.I was able to speed up to 6:49 in the last mile, which is super-sonic speed for pavement for this week.Total time for 10.38 was 1:21:46.

Nevertheless, I decided to stay on the side of caution and ride the bike for Benjamin's run. He ran 2 miles in 17:34.

P.M. 20 minutes with Jenny on grass during Benjamin's soccer game. Julia ran the first 15 minutes with us. Will approximate this as 2 miles. The game ended in a draw - 2-2. Later 0.5 with Joseph in 5:16.

Bare Feet Miles: 8.30

Night Sleep Time: 7.50	Nap Time: 1.00	Total Sleep Time: 8.50

Comments

From seeaprilrun on Fri, Aug 28, 2009 at 15:52:54 from 68.103.250.39

Glad your foot is better. Where exactly is it having trouble? I am in a sitation now where as long as I am on grass or dirt everything is fine but if I dare venture onto asphalt, concrete, or even a rubberized track my foot starts to hurt. I can still train--just not on a hard surface. This is frustrating because it makes me afraid racing will leave me too injured to run.

From Sasha Pachev on Fri, Aug 28, 2009 at 16:20:48 from 64.81.245.109

Top of the foot in the metatarsal area hurts on impact. Josse looked at it, thought it was some ligament or tendon irritation.

I actually see the whole business as a positive. I think the entire time I have been working around the problem by putting less force into the foot strike which allowed me to run, but was limiting my speed. It is nice for this problem to finally start demanding attention.

I think the root of it is that because the right glut for some odd reason likes to be a lazy bum (does not fully activate when it should) the right foot has to twist in odd ways to deal with the lack of stability. When this flared up I discovered that after about 3 miles of running barefoot on grass my form gets very smooth, the right glut starts activating perfectly. In the past I rarely had the patience to run that long on the grass.

From seeaprilrun on Fri, Aug 28, 2009 at 16:42:35 from 68.103.250.39

Well, hopefully this leads to making you an overall faster runner which leads to an OTQ. Your PR is not far off, fitness is not an issue, so this may be the magic bullet. Happy grass running!

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