Breaking the Wall

Week starting Feb 03, 2013

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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: 133.01 Year: 776.88
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
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
63.250.004.250.0067.50
Green Crocs 5 Miles: 67.50
Night Sleep Time: 25.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 25.00
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
0.000.000.000.000.00

Day of rest. Went to church. It was a Fast Sunday. I recall the kids asking when they were younger why it was called Fast Sunday since we did not run on Sunday at all. We had a good lesson on the translation of the Book of Mormon in Sunday school.  I find my life to be quite more simple if I accept the origin of the Book of Mormon to be what Joseph Smith said it was. It solves so many problems that you have to deal with otherwise trying to explain how it got to us. Of course, that has certain issues as well - you have to believe that God is real, that you will have to be accountable for your life when you meet Him, you have to do some things in this life that you may not feel like doing at the time, e.g get 8 kids to church by 9 AM and be there for 3 hours every week, but you find that even those things turn our to be for your benefit long-term in a way that you possibly could not have thought of or imagined. And there are many things that are required that I would do anyway. I find that simplicity inspired, and it witnesses to be of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and everything that follows from that.

Night Sleep Time: 8.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 8.00
Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
11.000.002.000.0013.00

A.M. Ran with Rob - 4 miles. Jacob was the only non-Benjamin kid that was somewhat healthy enough to try running and he did a mile with difficulty. Everybody else was afflicted with a cough. I did 8 with Benjamin afterwards including a short tempo run, which went better than on Saturday. I still did not feel 100% fit, but I was able to do 5:28-5:29 to get 10:57 for 2 miles down the canyon. Benjamin ran the first mile with me. When I got home I ran a mile with Sarah. Total of 13 miles. 

Green Crocs 5 Miles: 13.00
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00
Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
12.000.000.000.0012.00

A.M. Total of 12. Even Benjamin started getting sick, so I had him cut the run down to 4 miles. Jenny did a mile. Everybody else rested. I ended up with a total of 12 miles.

Worked on the Fast Running Friend trying to come up with a good GPS correction algorithm. I tried several variants of bad point elimination using a simulator and plotting the resulting corrected path on the map. Naive approach of "if the angle is too big get rid of the point" kind of worked, but failed to eliminate a detour. This was a good educational experience as I learned a lot about what kind of data you get from a GPS.  Most of the time your position is wrong, but most of the time it is close enough to your route that it will not affect the total distance computed over an interval as short as 0.05 mile. However, there are minority nasty outlier points that take you on abrupt detours, and that is the main source of the annoying GPS watch distance inaccuracy. So my next approach is going to be this - break the route into samples, for each sample compute the mean and the standard deviation of the route bend angles, adjust the outlier points so their angle is within the standard deviation, and recompute the distance and pace. I have hopes for this algorithm. If not, I'll think of something else.

Once I figure out how to correct it, things are going to be very good, I might consider Fast Running Friend to be a true friend indeed when doing speed workouts or racing.

Green Crocs 5 Miles: 12.00
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00
Comments(1)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
11.250.000.750.0012.00

A.M. Everybody still sick. Had to cut the mileage for some, and others had to rest. Benjamin did 3, Jenny, Julia, Joseph, and Jacob did 0.5, William 0.3. I ran total of 12. Did a pickup for 0.75 in 4:08 (5:30 pace) and could feel the effects of the cough I had picked up as well. Rob ran 5 miles. Sarah did 1.

Green Crocs 5 Miles: 12.00
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00
Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
10.000.000.000.0010.00

A.M. A hard day. Matthew got a cough and did not sleep. I got a cough too. So I decided to cut the mileage a bit to survive. Ran total of 10. Benjamin did just 1 mile. William 0.3. Jacob, Joseph, Jenny, and Julia did 0.5. Worked on refining the Fast Running Friend GPS algorithm.

Green Crocs 5 Miles: 10.00
Night Sleep Time: 5.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 5.00
Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
10.000.000.000.0010.00

A.M. Another rough day. In survival mode. Ran 10 miles. Benjamin did 2, Jenny and Julia 1, Joseph and Jacob 1 as well. William 0.5.

Green Crocs 5 Miles: 10.00
Night Sleep Time: 5.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 5.00
Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
9.000.001.500.0010.50

A.M. Plowed snow. Then ran with Chad and the kids. We are still not 100%. So Jacob ran 1, Joseph 2, Benjamin 2, Jenny 2, and Julia 1. Chad and I did a pickup for 1.5 on a surface that started out being good enough for 5:40 pace, but then deteriorated to make 6:40 the best we could do. At first I felt like I was going to choke, but then my throat cleared out and I felt better. Our time for 1.5 was 9:19. 

P.M. 0.5 with Benjamin.

Green Crocs 5 Miles: 10.50
Night Sleep Time: 7.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 7.00
Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
63.250.004.250.0067.50
Green Crocs 5 Miles: 67.50
Night Sleep Time: 25.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 25.00
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