Breaking the Wall

Day of rest.Went to church. The talks in the Sacrament meeting were on setting goals. Then the lesson in Sunday school was on the purpose of the Book of Mormon. This year the topic is the Book of Mormon in the entire church. Last year it was New Testament, but I missed most of those classes due to serving as the ward mission leader and spending the time in the investigator and new member class. The lesson in the Elders' quorum was on President Monson's message in the Ensign. He talked about using faith in Christ to maintain a positive outlook on life, and having the courage to try again. Very relevant for me.

A.M. Did 1 with Jacob, 1 with Joseph, 2 with Jenny and Julia, 6 with Benjamin and 2 myself. I took Benjamin for 3 out, then he waited for me to go a mile out and back, and rejoined me. I decided to do a pickup for a mile down the canyon, and ran it in 5:22. It did not feel too easy or too hard. Then at the very end I had Benjamin pace me through the first 200 of the uphill quarter, and did it in 75. A small improvement. Total of 12 miles.

A.M. Did 1 with Jacob, 1 with Joseph, 2 with Jenny and Julia, then took Benjamin with him doing 6 while I did 8. Increased the length of my strength building baby step to 1.25 miles and ran it up the canyon in 7:23.4. Felt good, but decided not to push it further and save the strength for the downhill run. On the way down I was expecting between 10:38 and 10:42, and thought that I might even regress to something like 10:48-10:50 and was willing to take that in stride but I was pleasantly surprised. The quarter splits were 79, 78, 76, 79 (5:12), 79.5, 80, 78.5, 76 (5:14) with 10:26.2 total. Benjamin pulled me through the last 500 meters. The pace felt good, I felt in control. The form felt good as well. This was a surprise - my best run for 3 miles last summer was 15:33 (5:11 pace). That was in shorts, and with the first mile being a bit steeper, which made it a nice 5:07. So my last 2 in that run ended up being 10:26, just like today, and from what I remember I put in more effort into it. This run today shows the fitness is close to that level. I was expecting the progress in the recovery from sickness to plateau some after 10:44 last Tuesday, but it continued. Well, I must have done something right. Total of 12 miles.

A.M. 1 with Jacob, 1 with Joseph, 2 with Jenny and Julia, then 8 more with 6 of it with Benjamin on the usual route. Total of 12.

A.M. Total of 12. 2 with Julia, 1 with Jacob and Jenny, 1 with Joseph. Then 8 more with Benjamin doing 6 the usual way. I did 6x400 on the way back. First 5 down the Provo Canyon with 200 recovery. The splits were 72.6 - 71.4 - 70.4 - 70.3 - 70.5. Then the last one was with full recovery and on the standard uphill stretch by the house. I hit my fastest time on it so far - 74.4. Starting to feel more power in the legs.

A.M. Total of 12. 2 with Jenny and Julia, 1 with Jacob, 1 with Joseph, 8 more with Benjamin joining me for 6 the usual way. 

A.M. Too much snow for tempo work today. 7-8 years ago I would have pushed it through regardless. But I am smarter now, I think. Tempo runs are effective not so much because they give you strength or endurance, but because they teach you to be efficient at race pace in a race-specific environment. A tempo on snow teaches you to be efficient on snow. I usually do not race on snow, and when the unfortunate circumstance of that does comes around I do not care to get an edge in that situation anyway. So running on snow is valuable to me only for general aerobic and strength conditioning, and I decided to use it as just that. Ran total of 18. First 10 in 1:11:33. Then 1 with Jacob in 8:49, 1 with Joseph in 8:26, and 6 with Benjamin in 46:37. Jenny and Julia did 2 in the Jacob/Joseph pair run.  Benjamin ended a record mileage week of 36 miles. 

Day of rest. Went to a confirmation in my old ward with Benjamin, then took everybody to our regular set of church meetings. Got called as a Ward Mission Leader. Had good lessons in Sunday school and in the Elders' quorum. The Sunday school lesson talked about Nephi, Laman, and Lemuel. I remembered that it was the discussion of those three that finally helped Benjamin find in himself what it took to break the 6:00 mile for the first time. One brother in his 80s commented that he considered it a "compliment" to get a wayward child. Means the Lord chose your family to give that spirit the best chance. Then in the Elders quorum we talked about George Albert Smith. He was called to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in 1903. Back then they often just announced your calling over the pulpit without talking to you first with the assumption that you were faithful enough to accept, and General Conference sessions could take place on a work day. So he was at work and could not attend when his calling was announced. He came home, and there were people gathered around his house to congratulate him on being called as an apostle. 

A.M. 2 with Jenny and Julia, 8 with Benjamin going 6 the usual way, 2 alone. Did 0.25 pickup to catch Benjamin after a VPB in 86 up the canyon. On the way down ran a mile in 5:21. The road had some snow on it, especially in the first half, which I ran in 2:44. Second half was 2:37.

P.M. 1 with Jacob, and 1 with Joseph. Another Jacob who is in our ward, is 11 years old, and wants to run the Utah Valley Half Marathon came to train with us and ran 2 miles. I will call him from now the older Jacob.

A.M. Tempo workout today. Extended my baby uphill strength training step to 1.5 miles. Ran it in 8:58.0. First 0.5 I did not have the headwind, and coasted through it in 2:51. Then the headwind hit, and I slowed down to 6:07 pace. I do not think the headwind was necessarily too bad, although it was a factor. I experienced a loss of strength as well that was not wind-related, I think. All of a sudden I felt like I was jogging, but I could not go any faster. And I could not breath the air quite right, I felt l that whatever I was breathing was not making it to the muscles. Maybe a side effect of mild dehydration - I had a minor diarrhea yesterday. Also the temperature was around 20 F, which makes it difficult to breathe, but I do not think it was just the temperature - I had a funny feeling coming from the heart yesterday at the end of the PM run when the temperature was 36F. It was no big deal, but I could feel that the heart was doing something sub-optimal, and it was still doing it today. I had the same feeling during the 2 mile tempo coming back as well. The first mile was 5:20, which was not bad considering that parts of it were on snow, but the second mile was weak - I did three quarters in 82 each, and then ran 78 as Benjamin pulled me in the last quarter, but that 78 required a heroic effort. Total time was 10:44.5. Benjamin did a total of 6.

2 with Jenny and Julia, 2 more alone, total of 12.

P.M. 2 with the older Jacob, my Jacob did 1, Joseph did 1 after that.

A.M. Total of 12. Some with the the kids. Benjamin did 6, Jenny and Julia 2.

P.M. 1 with Jacob, 1 with Joseph.

A.M. Total of 12. Benjamin did 6, Jenny and Julia 2. I did a tempo run to check if Tuesday was just a temporary problem, or maybe something else was going on. Ran down the Provo Canyon. It was cold, there were patches of snow, but there was a nice tailwind. I got 10:30.3 for 2 miles with the splits of 81, 78, 77, 79 (5:15), 80, 79, 79, 77 (5:15). Benjamin was concerned about his ankle, so he did not help me in the last quarter. I think with his help I might have run a couple of seconds faster. So I suppose Tuesday was just a fluke, possibly diarrhea related.

P.M. 1 with Joseph and the older Jacob. My son Jacob fell on the stairs and cut his tongue. So he did not run today so as to not raise the blood pressure and flow without need.

A.M. Total of 12. 6 with Benjamin, 2 with Jenny and Julia. Did a post-VPB pickup for a mile uphill, the wind was quite solid, but I managed 5:56.

P.M. 1 with the older Jacob and my son Jacob, 1 with Joseph.

A.M. Total of 20.2. Ran a good part of it with Chad. Did a 6 mile tempo run with Chad joining me for portions of it. 2 down the canyon, then 2 back up, and 2 more down. Paced Chad through the first 1.5, the mile split was 5:44, missed 1.5, though. Second mile was 5:36, (11:20), then turned around, and had a hard time with the headwind. Thought maybe I was out of shape. Struggled through the next 2 miles in 6:26 each (24:13 at 4). Thought that the last two would not be very good, I'd be lucky to go 5:50. But I was able to shift gears and get going. First quarter was 90, but after that it was quite solid. 5:38 for the 5th mile, and then the last mile with the quarters of 82, 82, 80, 79 - 5:32, and 35:13 for the total time. Odd. The wind did not feel that strong, I've been able to hit 6:00 pace into something similar lately, I thought. After the first 12.2 ran 1 with the Jacobs, my son Jacob got 8:39, a new mile PR, 1 with Joseph, and 6 with Benjamin. Jenny and Julia ran 2. Benjamin and I got caught by two BYU guys and we joined them. They provided a nice wild shield. They were going around 7:00 at first, then picked it up to 6:15. We ran a quarter in 93 with them and a little more to our turnaround. It sure felt easier behind them than in the tempo run, even though that was faster and mile 17 for me.

Day of rest. Went to church. The talks in the Sacrament meeting were on faith. One brother told about his grandson who is a baby. He said he never cries, just has the faith that his parents will take care of him eventually. Afterwards a member of the bishopric asked me if Stephen has that faith. I told him not yet. He said his grandson needs to work on it too. The Sunday school lesson was on the vision of the tree of life in the Book of Mormon. 

A.M. Ran with Benjamin and Jeremy, our new training partner who we met in our ward. He owns Cafe Fresh and a number of other health-food businesses. We ran 6 miles together. It was early in the morning, so inevitably I had to do a VPB then run to catch up. Ran 82 quarter into the canyon and it felt easy. When we turned around, I found out why. There was significant wind blowing into the canyon, which is rare for the early morning. Then I added 4 more, including  circular strides. I got the idea when Joseph asked me to show him cross-country skiing videos. We stumbled upon a technique training video that suggested the strength imbalance can be corrected by skating in circules in the direction that opposes the imbalance. I figured since my imbalance was developed by running on the track in the standard counter-clockwise direction, I should try doing a few strides in the clockwise direction. So I did 6 strides, the diameter of the circle was about 20-25 meters. Will call that a quarter. Then 2 more with Jenny and Julia, total of 12.

P.M. 1 with Joseph and the older Jacob, 1 with my son Jacob. The older Jacob's brother Nate ran the first and the last quarter or so with us. 

A.M. 6 with Benjamin and Jeremy. It was 7F, quite cold, but not competely miserable yet. Did a post-VPB 0.5 down the canyon with mild tailwind in 2:38. Then 4 more with circular strides in the middle, and 2 more with Jenny and Julia. Total of 12.

P.M. 1 with Jacob, 1 with Joseph. Nate ran the first 500 and the last quarter with us. 

A.M. Benjamin had a sore throat so I had him rest. Ran with Jeremy. I did a tempo run of 4 miles with the first 2 up the canyon, then turnaround and the same 2 miles back down. The wind was quite mild, and it showed in the splits:

87, 88, 86, 89 (5:50), 88, 92, 92, 90 (6:02, 11:52), 87, 84. 82. 83 (5:36, 17:28), 83, 83, 83, 79 (5:28, 22:56.5). Jeremy joined me for the last 600, but fell back with about 200 to go. But it was still very helpful to have him around for that quarter, helped me shift  the gears. 

I was happy with the way my muscles worked and the way the form felt, but was not happy with the cardiovascular performance. The heart was not quite giving what it should have, and the breathing felt labored after the first quarter. But the muscles and the form made up.  Maybe it is time for some hawthorn berry tea, garlic, and cayenne pepper.

Then added 4 more with circular strides, ran into Sarah and ran with her for a little bit, and then 2 more with Julia. Jenny's calf was hurting, so she ran only 1. 

P.M. 1 with Jacob, 1 with Joseph. 

A.M. Total of 12. 6 with Jeremy. 2 with Jenny and Julia. Did a pickup for a quarter in 79 going down the canyon. Circular strides.

P.M. 1 with Jacob, 1 with Joseph. Benjamin did both of them. He is still recovering from the cold.  

A.M. 12 total. 6 with Jeremy. Did 4x400. First one uphill in 77.9. The headwind was not bad, but I was asleep on this one. Then two more downhill - 69.9 and 68.4. Those went better, I felt the form smoothing out. Jeremy did the first 100 and the first 200 respectively.  The last one was by the house with about 130 downhill and the rest up a steep 6% or so grade. Jeremy did the downhill part with me. I felt good on this one and managed 73.7. Then ran some more, including circular strides and 2 with Benjamin, Jenny, and Julia.

P.M. Had quite a group of kids for the runs. Ran the first mile with the little Jacob, big Jacob, his little brother Ben, and Benjamin. The second mile was with Benjamin, and Joseph. Total of 2. 

A.M. 20 miles. Started with Gary and Jeremy. Had a VPB, followed by 500 uphill in 1:44. It felt so easy that I thought I would have no problems going sub-6:00 uphill in the tempo. After 4.5 mile warmup started the tempo, the same as last week. Gary and Jeremy helped me some by joining me for a quarter on every 2 mile stretch. First mile was 5:24, then I relaxed a bit trying to prepare for the uphill and did 5:33 (10:57). When I turned around, there was a surprise. The headwind picked up and it started to rain. So I struggled through the next mile in 6:08 (17:05). Then it was rather odd. I could not feel the headwind anymore, and in all honesty thought I was going around 6:00 or maybe a bit under. But the watch showed different. My next two quarters were 95 and 97. This completely puzzled me. How in the world is this possible? I began thinking all kinds of thoughts - maybe I am just out of shape, getting old, losing strength, etc. Then, all of a sudden, I regained the speed some for no apparent reason - 93, followed by 91 (6:16, 23:21, 12:24 for the two miles uphill) which would have been 90 or 89 if I did not have to break to do a 180 on a wet road. I am wondering if maybe the rain was pounding so hard that I could not feel the wind that came with it, and thus had no idea how strong the gusts were. After turning around I felt I was regaining speed better than last week. My first quarter was 88, then 84, 82, and 83, so 5:37 for the mile (28:58 at 5). I was a bit hestiant to give it a really good push because the road became quite slick from the rain. Also I started to get wet and cold, and that made things difficult. Did 4:07 in the next 0.75, and then tried to kick but could only do 80, so 5:27 for the last mile, 34:25 for 6, and 11:04 for the last 2.

So that was the first half of the run, but the worst part of it was still ahead.  Rejoined with Gary and Jeremy, we ran back to the house, and then ran with the kids. Jenny and Julia did 2, Joseph did 1, the two Jacobs 1. Took Benjamin for 4, and at that point still had 2 left. I really felt like going home away from the rain, but decided to run 2 tempo miles instead. This was quite an adventure as those were hilly wet miles. I call it 2, but it is actually more like 2.04. They are hilly, but I thought I'd be able to run 6:00 pace still. It turned out that I was too cold, too wet, and the road was too slick for that. I only managed 12:56 for that segement. When I got home, I decided to weigh my clothes. 4 lb, so about 3 lb of water.

Day of rest. Went to church. Had a return missionary and his family talk in the Sacrament meeting. He just got back from the Phillipines. The lesson in Sunday school was Nephi's vision. Then in the Elders Quorum we discussed President Uchtdorf's talk "You Matter To Him". Had a nap in the afternoon.

A.M. Total of 10. Ran 6 with Jeremy - Bejamin joined us for 4, 2 with Jenny and Julia, and 2 alone. Did circular strides. My Crocs are at almost 1700 miles and they still do not have a hole.  That is definitely a record. I do not have an explanation as to why. It is the exact same model as the one that only made it to a bit over 1200 miles.

P.M. 2 miles. 1 with Jacob, 1 with Joseph. We had some neighborhood kids running various distances.  Benjamin did 2 miles as well, and Julia did 1.

A.M. 12 total. 6 with Jeremy. 4 with Benjamin. 2 with Jenny and Julia. Did circular strides. Wanted to do a tempo run, but there was too much snow, decided to wait until some of it melts.

P.M. 2 miles. 1 with Jacob, 1 with Joseph. Had company from the neighborhood kids. 

A.M. Total of 12. Started with Jeremy and Benjamin. They did 6. I did a tempo after a warm-up. 4 miles total, 2 up the canyon, 2 back down. There was some adversity - strong wind blowing out of the canyon, some snow/ice on the trail, and overall slippery condition of the trail. My splits were 6:10, 6:11, 5:39. 5:24 - total time 23:24. I had a hard time shifting gears in the third mile because the trail was slippery and I was afraid to turn on the engine full blast. The concern is not only the mechanical aspect of maintaining balance at a higher speed, but also the loss of coordination that is inevitable as you push harder. The more toll the pace is taking you, the less brain power you have to think about avoiding icy spots. However, that helped save some energy for the last mile, and I ran it stronger with the last quarter in 77. Did circular strides, and 2 with Jenny and Julia.

P.M. 2 total. 1 with Jacob, 1 with Joseph, neighborhood kids joined us. 

A.M. Total of 12. 6 with Jeremy. 4 with Benjamin. 2 with Jenny and Julia. Had a bathroom stop, but it was not a VPB - there was actually a real port-a-potty on the trail. This took longer, so I had to run longer to catch up, about 0.7 or so. Timed 1000 in 3:44. The first quarter of it was 93. The wind was blowing pretty hard then calmed down some once I got into the canyon. Did circular strides.

P.M. 2 total. Jacob did 1, Joseph 1, Benjamin 2. Had neighborhood kids join us. 

A.M. Ran with Benjamin, Jeremy, and Gary. I did 5x400, two up the canyon, and three down with fairly short recoveries that were slightly longer than 200 jog because I would jog back some to make sure I still had partners for the next repeat. Benjamin, Gary and Jeremy did parts. Benjamin stayed with me on the last one. The times were 74.8, 73.3, 71.3, 71.9, 71.6. The wind was blowing into the canyon, so that helped the uphill times, and hurt the downhill times. The road was covered with tiny icy spots, and I felt it hurt the traction some. But obviously not so bad that I could not hit 73.3 going up.

After finishing 6 miles with the team, ran 4 more including a circular mini-tempo. I decided that due to the nature of the circle I was not powering hard enough to really need rest in between the strides. So I decided to just go about 0.5 in circles in the clockwise (opposite of the normal track) direction. I did not get a vertigo.

P.M. 2 total. Jacob did 1, Joseph 1. Had neighborhood kids join us. 

A.M. Long run. Total of 20.2. Started with Gary and Chad. After a 4.5 mile warmup I did a 6 mile tempo with 2 down the canyon, 2 back up, and 2 more down. Gary and Chad joined me for portitions of the tempo.  It was cold - 18F at the start, and the wind was strong and blowing out of the canyon. My splits were 5:35, 5:34, 6:24, 6:16, 5:41, 5:26 - total time 34:56. Chad made it to a little bit past the mile on the first one, while Gary went about 500. On the way back they helped me a little bit with the wind block, but the first quarter after the turnaround was quite horrible - 98 seconds. Then with their help I was able to run 2:22 in the next 600, still not a stellar pace, but at least not quite as disasterous. Once in the canyon the wind abated enough to allow me to run around 6:16 pace without a wind block. Was struggling to shift gears again as usual after the uphill, but then with some encouragement from the tail wind was able to do it with 0.75 to go. Last quarter was 78. Then ran home, picked up the kids. Jenny and Julia ran 2 on their own. Benjamin ran 6. Joseph and Jacob did 1 each. Jacob set a new record for our mile course - 8:36, which is quite impressive for the day. I was alone for the last 2.04 miles, and decided to repeat the last weeks tempo. Last week it was raining, I was cold, and my clothes were soaked. I'd have to say after today's experience that 26 F and some snow on the ground is not nearly as miserable and slow as having 4lb of wet clothes and running on a wet road. I was able to run 12:27 for the distance, compared to 12:52 last week. I think I am going to make that tempo at the end of a long run a regular practice. It is a great preparation for the last 2 miles of TOU, the elevation profile, the turns, and the fatigue are quite similar, perhaps the elevation profile is actually worse as there is hardly one flat spot on it. I think if I can learn to run it in 11:30 in ideal conditions at the end of 20 with some fast running done already, I would be ready for 2:28 in TOU.

Day of rest. Went to church as usual. We had a Stake Conference. Heard good talks on home teaching, missionary work, the Proclamation on the Family, patriarchial blessings, and the Plan of Salvation. 

A.M. Total of 12 miles. 6 with Jeremy and Benjamin, 4 alone, 2 with Jenny and Julia. Did the circular 0.5 mile tempo.

P.M. 2 total. 1 with Joseph, 1 with Jacob. Had the Tobler family join us for a run, then dinner and family home evening. 

A.M. 6 with Jeremy, 4 with Benjamin, 2 with Jenny and Julia. Did a circular tempo pickup, plus a couple more that were straight. Benjamin joined me on the straight ones. 

P.M. 1 with Joseph, 1 with Jacob. Had some extra kids on the run as usual. Benjamin did 2 miles. 

A.M. Ran with Benjamin and Jeremy. Did a 4 mile tempo, 2 up and 2 down. The wind was strong again. Mile splits tell the story. 6:15, 6:14, 5:39, 5:21 - total time 23:29. Benjamin and Jeremy joined me with 0.5 to go. Benjamin stayed the entire half getting 2:36, Jeremy fell back after the first quarter and finished in 2:50.  Then we ran 1.93 or so with Sarah at almost 8:00 pace (15:42), which was her tempo run. Then I did more miles including my circular 0.5 tempo pickup, and 2 more with Jenny and Julia.

P.M. Ran 1 with Jacob and 1 with Joseph. Had Tobler kids with us as usual. 

A.M. Total of 12. Jeremy did 6, Benjamin later ran 4 with me, Jenny and Julia 2. Did some pickups including the circular 0.5.

P.M. 2 total, 1 with Jacob, 1 with Joseph. Tobler kids joined us. 

A.M. Ran with Benjamin, Jeremy, and Gary. Did 6x400. They did portions with me. The first 2 were into the canyon (up, headwind), then 3 more the other way, and the last one up the hill by my house. The splits were 74.9, 73.7, 70.9, 69.9, 69.0, 73.3. Gary stayed with me on the last one, which helped a lot. He is getting into better shape. Then ran more, including 1.5 with Sarah, and 2 with Jenny and Julia.

P.M. 2 miles total. Jacob did 1, Joseph 1. Tobler boys joined us. 

A.M. Splits the run into two because of a chess tournament. So did 12 with Gary including the standard Saturday 6 mile tempo - 2 down, 2 up, 2 back down. The wind had record strength today and the splits showed it: 5:27, 5:32 (10:59), 6:31, 6:44 (13:15), 5:29, 5:21 (10:50). Gary stayed with me through the first mile. This is great progress for him. Once you can run a full mile at a good pace, the upper rungs of the ladder move within reach. Then he blocked the wind for me for about 600 meters on the way back, which is a good part of the reason the mile was 6:31 instead of 6:44, and stayed with me through a half in 2:42 in the last 2 miles. I felt I experienced a positive development in the form in the last mile. The hamstrings were working and were getting tired. That is good for me, as mine tend to be idle while the quads fatigue and become the limiting factor. But when the hamstring works the quad has to relax. 

Jenny and Julia ran 2. Afterwards, I took Benjamin, Jenny, Julia, and Joseph to a church chess tournament. Among all the stakes of Orem there were enough chess players that they got around to organizing one. Benjamin and I played in the advanced division, while Jenny, Julia, and Joseph were in the intermediate. The games were rather informal, no time control. Benjamin played 7 games and won all, although he did have close calls in a couple. Jenny played 7, won 6, lost one. Julia had the same score. I saw the end of one of them, and was pleased to observe that she was able to win the exchange (rook for a knight), then stop the opponents pawns that threatened to queen, then queen her own pawn, capture the knight with a fork, and then mate with the king and the queen. She remembered all the things I've taught her in her seventh game. Joseph won 1 game and lost 3, I think. I drew two games, and won 2.

P.M.  Total of 8. 1 with Jacob, 1 with Joseph. Tobler boys joined us. Then 6 with Benjamin. We discussed the chess games the entire time. There were 11 games to review. It took up most of the 6 miles. But we still showed the 8:00 guy who's the boss in spite of the brutal canyon wind.

Day of rest. Went to church. We had a fast and testimony meeting. There were so many people that I did not get a chance to bear my testimony. Then we had a lesson on 1 Nephi 16-22 which talked about the contrast in the attitude of Nephi and his older brothers. One more reason for the Book of Mormon in addition to the Bible. While the Bible does mention here and there that it is not good to complain, I do not recall any stories or sermons that highlight this sin and its consequences to the extent that the Book of Mormon does. The Book of Mormon, on the other hand, teaches a powerful lesson on the subject that is easy to remember. You can just say "like Nephi or like Laman and Lemuel" to an LDS person and he will know exactly what you are talking about. Even those who are inactive will joke that they are choosing to follow the example of Laman and Lemuel.  The Elders Quorum lesson was on prayer, but I missed a good part of it because I took Stephen to the nursery for an introductory visit. 

A.M. Ran 6 with Benjamin and Jeremy. We paced Jeremy through his first sub-6:00 mile - 5:59. Afterwards I did my circular pickup, ran some more, then 2 with Jenny and Julia, total of 12.

P.M. 2 total. 1 with Jacob, 1 with Joseph. Tobler boys and Mandy ran with us. 

A.M. 7 with Jeremy, 5 more with Benjamin. The last 2 of it was with Jenny and Julia as well. Did a circular pickup, and a few more pickups. Total of 12.

P.M. 2 with the kids. 1 with Jacob, 1 with Joseph. Tobler kids and Mandy ran with us. Julia did 1 with Mandy. 

A.M. Had plans for a tempo run, but got hit with a stomach bug and could barely run at all. Running at any pace was painful. Benjamin was also having problems from a stubbed toe, and could only run 3. I ended up running a total of 9.3 or so including 2 with Jenny and Julia. Jeremy went 4.5 and had a calf problem after that. So it was a day of affliction. 

P.M. Next time I get a stomach bug I should just say a prayer to open the fast and fast formally. That way at least I'll be going without food with a spiritual purpose. So aside from drinking some water and a smoothy I did not eat anything until dinner. This did the job of running the bug out of resources and making it die out, and I was able to run in the PM with much less trouble. Ran with Jacob (1), Joseph (1), Tobler boys and Mandy. Benjamin's toe was feeling better and he ran 2.  

A.M. Did 5 with Jeremy including a short pickup, 1 more alone including circular pickup, 4 with with Benjamin, and 2 with Jenny and Julia. Total of 12.

P.M.  Total of 2. 1 with Jacob, 1 with Joseph. Tobler boys and Mandy joined us. Benjamin did 2, Julia 1.

A.M. Felt better. Ran with Gary, Benjamin, and Jeremy. Jeremy had to turn around after about half mile because of his calf. Benjamin felt a cold coming on so I told him to keep it easy. Gary and I did the quarters. I did the first two up the canyon ( 76.6, 74.4), then three more down the canyon (70.0, 69.8, 66.1), and the last one up the hill by my house in 71.0, which is a new record. Gary did the first two with me finishing about a second back, then skipped one, did one more finishing a couple of seconds back, then stayed with me on the on the one that was 66.1, then finished 1 second back on the last one. Ran some more by myself, then 2 with Jenny and Julia.

P.M. Had a physical therapy visit with Sergio Orozco to try to diagnose and treat the hip imbalance that has plagued me for years. He observed two things on the right side: mainly tight piriformis compressing the sciatic nerve and thus causing weakness/lack of control down the leg in the muscles that it innervates and also a tight IT band. He did some manipulation to restore pelvis mobility and electrical stimulation of the piriformis. Afterwards I ran with Jacob (1 mile), and Joseph (1 mile), total of 2. Tobler kids, Julia, and Mandy joined us. Julia ran 1 mile.

A.M. 20 mile run. Did a good part of it with Chad. We did a 4+ mile warmup, then I ran a 6 mile tempo - 2 down, 2 up, 2 back down. The splits were 5:27, 5:22, 6:06, 6:11, 5:29, and 5:17 with the total time of 33:52. The wind was quite significant, but not as bad as last week. However it was bad enough that my splits in the 3rd mile were 94, 86, 91, 95. On 94 I was running by myself, on 86 Chad blocked the wind for me, on 91 he was still blocking it but was getting tired, on 95 I was by myself again. I felt very strong in the last two miles. Was able to shift gears quickly after the turnaround with a quarter in 86, and after that the remaining 1.75 were at 5:20 average slipping off the 5:20 pace by 4 seconds up to the last quarter, but then making it up with a kick in 76. Overall the improvement from the best time for this 6 mile course was 34 seconds. Some of it came from wearing shorts, but I think some from the PT session the day before. I am estimating about 3 seconds per mile from the PT session, although it is difficult to say exactly. I have 5 more sessions scheduled and will be doing tempo runs the day after, so this will allow me to document the results with more reliability. Also, if the treatment is effective I am anticipating the results to continue improving of over the course of several months. Some things produce immediate improvement, such as better balance, less waste in movement, and immediate muscular activation, but other things take time - strengthening the muscles that were less developed due to deactivation, improvement in muscle coordination, and the improvements in recruitment that require practice. 

Then we went home and got the kids. Benjamin did 6, Jacob 1, Joseph 1, Jenny and Julia did 2 on their own. Tobler family joined us.  When I was done with everybody I added a quick 1.5 tempo on the hills. The wind was blowing and blew me away - I ended up with 9:11. But there is something about this course that makes it hard - even without the wind 6:00 average on it feel so much harder than it should.

Day of rest. Went to church. We had a ward conference. The stake presidency spoke in Sacrament meeting, and in other meetings. The talk was on service, then there was a lesson on the Book of Mormon.

A.M. Did 6 with Benjamin, then 2 with Jenny and Julia, and 4 more alone. Did a few pickups. Noticed that I really did not like the wind. 500 into the wind was 1:52, barely 6:00 pace. Then on the way back that exact same stretch was 1:36, which is 5:07 pace, with pretty much the same effort.

P.M. 2 miles. 1 with Jacob, 1 with Joseph. Tobler kids and Mandy joined us. 

A.M. 6 with Benjamin and Jeremy. 2 with Jenny and Julia. 4 alone. Did some pickups. Total of 12.

P.M. PT session with Sergio. He taped up my back, right buttock, and foot to try to encourage the piriformis to let go of the grip.Ran total of 2. 1 with Jacob, 1 with Joseph. Had our usual running club with us.

A.M. Total of 12. Ran with Benjamin and Jeremy , they did 6. Did a 4 mile tempo. The road was covered with snow, so it was a battle. Fortunately the headwind was relatively mild. So I managed 6:06, 6:15 (up), 5:42, 5:21 which gave me 23:24 for the 4 miles. As the splits show, there was more snow on the second/third mile. I was rather cautious after I turned around at first, but then I got going in the last mile.

P.M. 2 miles with the kids. Jacob did 1, Joseph 1 as well. Julia ran 1 mile with Mandy. We had a bunch of other kids as well. 

A.M. Ran 6 with Benjamin, 4 alone, and 2 with Jenny and Julia. Paced Benjamin through a 5:14.5 mile down the Provo Canyon. His splits were 77, 80, 80, 77. He is now a sub-5:15 miler, we are going to work on sub-5:00 next. Crocs are now over 2000 miles. Still no holes.

P.M.  Ran 2 with the kids. 1 with Jacob, 1 with Joseph. Julia ran 1 mile with Mandy.  

A.M. 6 with Benjamin. 4 alone. 2 with Jenny and Julia. 

P.M. Rescued the Fast Running Blog server and moved it in the process as well. I had very little time to do the job, so I ended up grabbing the family computer that had more or less the same hardware and swapped out the hard drive. Then I had to do the DNS switch as well because I moved it from the old house. I still have not gotten around to diagnosing what exactly was wrong with the old server, but I am suspecting motherboard failure because the power supply fan spins when the motherboard is unplugged and does not otherwise. PT with Sergio. 1 with Jacob and Joseph, 0.5 chasing other kids around. 

A.M. Started with Gary, but he only ran with me about 3 miles and turned around as he was not feeling well. So I ran alone the rest of the way. It was total of 21. After 4.75 warmup I did a 7.5 mile tempo run - 2.5 down the canyon, then back up and down again. The wind was strong today, but not the worst. My splits were: 5:33, 5:33, half mile in 2:49 - 13:55, then 6:18, 6:22, half mile in 3:16 (15:56, 29:51), 5:35, 5:30, 2:38 for the last half mile - total time 43:34, last quarter in 76. Felt odd, not sure what to make of this run. Definitely struggled into the headwind, and I think more than I should have. Sergio think is has to do with the stability of the pelvis.

Did some more jogging, then ran the last 2 miles hard. It might have been more than 2 miles, but I call that stretch 2. The first "mile" was 5:51. In quotes because I never measured it, but it is close enough to be called a mile, and I timed a measured quarter in 87 in the middle, so it was close. It was down a small grade. Then the second mile was 6:07, and it was uphill. The last two miles were difficult because I was low on fuel, but I got through them.

Then I came home and ate a snack - pita pocket with peanut butter and jam. I remembered the can of jam from The Other Side of Heaven book/movie that helped Elder Groberg survive the famine. Then I ran a mile with Jacob and Joseph.

P.M. Recovered the family computer that was sacrificed to be the Fast Running Blog server.  This involved getting a new system, doing a maneuver to pull the family hard drive out of the running server, which I managed to do without shutting it down, a major mechanical accomplishment for somebody as clumsy as myself, and then putting it into the new computer and sorting out issues. The only issue I had to sort out was the video driver, but it was not too bad. 

Day of rest. Went to church. A couple spoke in the Sacrament meeting that is going on a mission to manage the Perpetual Education Fund. Then we had a lesson on agency based on 2 Nephi 2 in Sunday School, and a lesson on Jesus Christ in the Elder's quorum.

A.M. 12 total. 6 with Jeremy. 6 with Benjamin, 2 of that with Jenny and Julia. Did some pickups including 0.75 600 into the wind, 600 back in 4:07 with the splits of 2:08/1:59. Total of about 1 mile of pickups.

P.M. Total of 2. Jacob did 1, Joseph 1. Neighborhood kids joined us. 

A.M. Slept in. Ran 6 with Benjamin, 4 alone, and 2 with Jenny and Julia. Did a 2 mile tempo with 1 out and 1 back. There was little wind and it was blowing into the canyon. The first mile was 5:46, but then the second mile was only 5:39. Part of it was the wind, part was that I was having a hard time after the turnaround. Total of 11:25 for the tempo.

P.M. PT with Sergio. 2 with the kids. Jacob did 1, Joseph 1. Julia ran another mile with Mandy. We had the usual neighborhood kids crew. 

A.M. 12 miles total. Warmed up with Benjamin and Jeremy. They did 6 miles. I ran alone after the first 2.5 because I did a longer tempo. It was 5 miles. I wanted to measure what yesterday's PT did for me and set a target of sub-29:00 on the course assuming the wind was not too bad. It was OK, mild tailwind going up the canyon. I ended up with 28:49.7 with the half-mile splits of 2:54, 2:54, 3:00, 3:02, 3:01, 2:53, 2:50, 2:47, 2:47, 2:41. Finished the run with 2 miles with Jenny and Julia.

P.M. 2 with the kids. Jacob did 1, Joseph 1, Julia 1 pacing another girl. 

A.M. Ran with Jeremy (6 miles), then 6 more with Benjamin including 2 with Jenny and Julia. All easy except one 600 meter pickup in 1:52.

P.M. 2 miles with the kids. Jacob did 1, Joseph 1. 

A.M. Ran with Jeremy, Benjamin, Gary, and Ryan, a new running partner. Decided to do something different, longer intervals, but still quite intense. The wind was strong blowing out of the canyon. I started with 600 in 2:00 into the canyon. That was hard. Then 800 into the canyon in 2:45. I was headed for maybe a 2:43 but in the last 200 my heart skipped a beat, I got confused, and eased off the pace. I did those alone. Then I did the mile in the opposite direction. The target was 5:00. For some reason (lack of sleep, maybe overdid it a bit in the last few days on speed, although it does not seem like I did too much) I felt sluggish. Dragged myself through the first quarter in 76, that was all I wanted to do. Then gave myself a motivational talk and did the next quarter in 74. It was hard. Started to think that I was going to lose the steam, but I was able to maintain and did the next quarter in 75. Then with 200 to go I found another gear for some semblance of a kick, and Ryan was with me and he also found another gear. So he pulled me through the last 150 meters or so, and we finished in 4:59. Gary ran the first 0.75. Benjamin just did the first quarter, but then coasted fast enough to run the mile in 5:49.

Then we did the usual 400 at the end up the hill. Gary was able to pull away from me by a couple of meters. I ended up with 71.5. Ryan and Benjamin made it to 300. I suppose Ryan was worn out from the mile.

Afterwards I ran a mile with Jenny, and then picked it up to catch up to Sarah. I figured I'd use this as an opportunity to practice running relaxed. I am feeling something different in the hip, I am able to stand on the ground with more firmness. But how to use that advantage when running after having run for at least 25 years with the instability is a different question. It will take some practice. The cage door might indeed be open but the captive bird is in no hurry to fly to freedom.

So I decided to put in about a marathon pace effort and see what happens. There was a strong headwind. Strong enough that I struggled with 6:00 pace on a net downhill. Ended up doing 9:08 for the stretch that I think is 1.5 miles. Then I ran with her and told her I would start going fast again when I needed to run 6:00 pace to the end to hit sub-8:00 average for the last 6 miles, which included an 8:53 mile with Jenny. Sarah was actually able to cut the fast segment to only a little more than 0.5 which I did in 2:51 in spite of the uphill. The quarters were 82, 85. I think on that stretch I hit good form and was letting the captive bird out of the cage some. The change from PT is that I am able to extend the right hip better, but it appears that that extension is not very helpful unless you fix the timings of the stride. I felt like I was slacking a bit, but it actually produced faster pace than when I tried to run hard. So perhaps the trick is to know when you are trying to hard and working against yourself.

P.M. 2 miles with the kids. Jacob did 1, Joseph 1, Julia 2. Neighbor kids as usual. 

A.M. Long run. Total of 20.5. Ran with Chad and Ryan. Did the same workout as last week - warm up of 4.75 miles, then 7.5 mile tempo with 2.5 down the canyon, 2.5 up, and 2.5 back down. The wind was less and was blowing into the canyon. I do not know if that helped or hurt. On one hand it produced more even splits, which in theory should result in faster times, although I do not know if that works in this case. On the other hand with the way I was doing it you get the headwind for 5 miles total instead of 2.5. Chad and Ryan made it through about the first mile, then dropped back. But it still helped to have them around in the first mile. Then Chad paced me through a mile on the way back and that helped a lot. On the final 1.5 stretch Chad and Ryan saved the day for me.

 Splits - 5:34, 5:36, 2:50 (14:00). In the first mile I felt comfortable, but then in the second mile I started getting sluggish and really did not want to run any faster than 5:44 pace. But I made myself go faster regardless. On the second 2.5 stretch this sluggishness was magnified. I ran 3:09 half mile, but then Chad came to save me, and made me do a more decent pace. So I ran the next 0.5 in 3:00, then Chad pulled me for another half mile or so, and then I had to pass him and take off. So my next mile was 6:13, followed by 0.5 in 3:08 with 15:30 for 2.5 and 29:30 for 5 miles. Seemed like when left to my own devices 6:15 was all I was willing to do, but with help I could do 6:00. Then I turned around again, and tried to give it a push. But 86 quarters with one in 87 was all that came out finishing that mile in 5:45. I was frustrated, and ready to abandon the workout, but nevertheless I said a prayer to have the strength to run 14:00 for the last 2.5, which by now appeared impossible given how I was feeling and the splits that I was getting. The prayer was more of the type "Lord, have mercy on me, but if not I understand that I need to suffer the consequences of something I did that I should not have done so that I can learn". I've had many of those. Nevertheless, my prayer was answered. Chad and Ryan met me with 1.5 to go, and Chad was able to hit the next 4 quarters in 83, 82, 85, and 82 with the mile being 5:33. I tucked behind him, and the pace actually felt easier than my 5:45 mile earlier.

This is making me think of Matthew 11 verses 28 and 30: "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest...For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.". The 5:33 that felt easier than the earlier 5:45 showed me a practical illustration of that scripture in a way that I find difficult to explain, but it speaks to me. Sure it does! Only a runner will understand how much and how well.

This little break allowed me to find a better rhythm, so once Chad was out of juice, I was able to shift gears a bit and run the last 0.5 in 2:42 alone, which gave me exactly 14:00 for the last 2.5, and 43:30 for the tempo. So I ended up 2 seconds faster than last week by a miracle.

Chad finished the last 1.5 in decent time, 8:28, which is sub-5:40 average. 

Then we ran to the house, dropped off Ryan, and took Benjamin for 6 more miles. At first I felt terrible, but then I started to feel better, although still a little fuzzy.

Jenny ran 2, Julia was on the move and ran 4.5, Joseph and Jacob did 1. 

Day of rest. Went to church as usual. The talks in the sacrament meeting were on service. I missed a good portion of the second one because Stephen got fussy and I had to take him out. But I caught the first which discussed the need to serve without delay and without waiting for what appears to be a more convenient opportunity. 

Then we had a good lesson in Sunday school on 2 Nephi 4 which contains the Psalm of Nephi. The teacher played a rendition of that for us by the BYU men's choir to the tune of Be Still My Soul, which has an interesting history. To the Latter-Day Saints it is Be Still My Soul, but the tune comes from a Finnish patriotic hymn that was originally written to protest the Russian oppression of Finland. So I remembered two things during the lesson. One time back during the winter of 2003 when I was struggling to improve my times, hit a seemingly impassable plateau with no apparent hope, was out on another training run, 7.5 miles into a 15 miler and found myself in deep snow. At that point I just wanted to lay down in that snow and not move. I was wondering why I was even trying and ready to give up. Then a hymn came to my mind, and it was Be Still My Soul. By September I made a breakthrough, and won the Top of Utah marathon.

Noting the connection of the tune with Finland, I recalled Lasse Viren's win in the 5000 meters in 1972 Olympics. Many American runners experience that event through the movie Without Limits about Steve Prefontaine in which he finishes 4th in spite of running the last mile in 4:01. Well, Viren is the guy that won that race. In my mind I visualize the last 600 meters of that battle with Finlandia/Be Still My Soul tune playing in the background, and Viren saying: "The coach said take the lead with 600 to go and stay there. I did". The power of quiet peace which gives the strength to persevere. Indeed we would truly run without limits if we could understand that.

A.M. 12 total. 7 with Benjamin and Jeremy. Did a short pickup. 2 more with Jenny. Julia did 1. 3 more alone.

P.M. 2 with the kids. Jacob did 1, Joseph 2. We had the usual bunch of neighbor kids. 

A.M. 7 with Jeremy, 5 with Benjamin. Jenny did 2, Julia 1. A couple of pickups.

P.M. PT with Sergio. 2 with the kids. Jacob did 1, Joseph 1, Jenny 1, Julia 1. Usual bunch of kids. 

A.M. Ran the warm-up with Benjamin and Jeremy, then did the tempo. 5 miles, 2.5 up the canyon, 2.5 back down. No significant wind that I noticed, it was not bothering me going in either direction. Some snow on the ground, but not enough to cause serious problems with speed. Maybe occasional loss of a second per quarter or so. Splits by half-mile: 2:54, 2:55, 3:01, 2:56, 3:01 (180 turn), 2:52, 2:47, 2:43, 2:47, 2:39.  Half-way split 14:47, second half 13:47. Total time 28:35 which is an improvement over last week by 12 seconds.

Yesterday after PT with Sergio I got a better understanding of what muscles are contracting and when, and how to tell what is contracting. Then I practiced standing on one leg with the other hip and knee flexed and the hand on the piriformis of the leg that is on the ground to check how hard it is contracting with the goal of making it contract less. I figured out what it should feel like when it contracts less and tried it in running. The feeling was rather interesting. When I first started I felt like I had to slack quite a bit to avoid the piriformis contracting feeling, and thought I would hit the quarter in 92, but I decided to take whatever that effort produced without complaining. It ended up being 87, and then it did not get slower until the hill got steeper or I hit some snow, or maybe some headwind sneaked up, but whenever I slowed down I was always able to recover. On the way back at first I thought I would not be able to go very fast, but then I was going 5:30 before I knew it. I felt still that I was slacking some, but  I could not push harder without getting the tight piriformis feeling, so I did not.

In the last quarter I tried to speed up without the tight feeling, and something was out of sync, it felt like some muscles were contracting out of sync, but I still did manage a 79 quarter. 

 Ran some more with Benjamin, including a pickup for 0.6 or so. Benjamin ended up doing 8 miles total. 2 more with Jenny and Julia. Total of 12.3.

P.M. 2 with Joseph, 1 of it with Jacob. Jenny and Julia ran 1. Neighbor kids came as usual. 

A.M. 4 alone, 6 with Benjamin, 2 with Jenny and Julia. Total of 12. We got some snow, and it was slippery.

P.M. 1 with Jacob, 1 with Joseph.  Had our friends as usual.

A.M. Lots of snow. Ran with Garry, Jeremy, and Benjamin for 7 miles, then 2 more with Jenny and Julia, and 3 more alone. Total of 12.

P.M. 1 with Jacob, 1 with Joseph.Had the usual company of friends. 

A.M. Ran with Sergio. Had to cut the run short to 15.8 because we were going to a funeral of Sister Pauline Pace who taught me the Gospel in Russia with her husband. She died at the age of 92. It was a great privilege to know her and Elder Pace who has now been gone from this life for about 11 years. I am thankful for the sacrifice they were willing to make in their 70s to go on a mission and show me the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ through their example. I could feel it, and I knew that it was not just from their personality, but there was some power beyond it that they possessed that came from their faith. I learned from them that service was not something you do when it is convenient, but you do it when the Lord asks. One of the hymns performed at the funeral was Be Still My Soul. It is interesting, perhaps more than just interesting, that this hymn drew my attention a week ago enough to write something about it in my blog.

Saw Mike Ramsdell at the funeral. We knew each other in Moscow. He was a branch presidency councilor in my branch. He asked me about my run this morning and laughed when I told him I had to cut it short to 15.8 miles.

As far as the run went, I did a warm-up with Sergio with a few pickups, then ran the 7.5 tempo with 2.5 down, 2.5 up, and 2.5 down.  The splits by half mile were: 2:46, 2:49, 2:48, 2:50. 2:48 (14:01), 3:02, 3:05, 3:11, 3:07, 3:10 (15:35), 2:49, 2:47, 2:47, 2:43, 2:40 (13:46), total time 43:22, 8 seconds faster than last week.

I felt sluggish in the first 2.5, then felt stuck in the uphill 2.5. There was headwind, maybe it was stronger than it appeared, but regardless I slowed down way too much on that uphill/headwind stretch. The quads are working too hard while all this is happening and I cannot find my rhythm. This slow down is still a concern and needs to be fixed. I should not be seeing 6:20 and slower pace in almost any wind on that grade - it is only 1-2 %. 

Then surprisingly I found another gear in the last 2.5. All of a sudden I started running 5:30 pace and it did not feel hard. 

Cooled down with Sergio, total of 15.8 miles. 

Kids ran on their own. Benjamin did 6, Joseph and Jacob 1 each, Jenny and Julia 2. 

Day of rest. Went to church. It was a Fast Sunday. So we had testimonies in the Sacrament meeting. Then we had a lesson on 2 Nephi 9 in Sunday school, and a lesson on prophets in the Elders' Quorum.

A.M. 7 with Benjamin and Jeremy, 2 with Jenny and Julia, 3 alone. Total of 12. Did a pickup for 600 in 1:55. Felt good. Today I decided to retire my old pair of Crocs which lasted 2220 miles and broke in a new one which is exactly the same type and even color as the old.

 P.M. 2 total. 1 with Jacob, 1 with Joseph. Had the usual company.

A.M. Total of 12. 7 with Jeremy. 5 with Benjamin. Last 2 in 11:58, which is his new 2 mile record. Jenny and Julia ran 1 mile.

P.M. 1 with Jacob ans Joseph. Jenny and Julia did 1 helping pace friends. 

A.M. Ran with Benjamin and Jeremy. Did a 5 mile tempo - 2.5 up, 2.5 down. The wind was about 0.6 tail, then head, then backwards more or less after the turnaround. The splits reflected that: 3:34 for the first 1 K, 5:51 at the mile, then 6:09, half mile in 3:04, then half in 2:49, next mile in 5:26, got excited about running 5:20 for the last mile, but hit a wall of headwind instead and it was 5:34. At least it was not 5:45. Total time 28:53. Finished the cooldown with Benjamin and Jeremy - total of 7 for them, 8 for me. Then ran 1 with Joseph and Jacob, and 3 with Jenny and Julia.

P.M. Travel to Mountain View, CA to visit the Linkedin office.  

A.M. Ran in Mountain View on Steven's Creek trail. It was actually marked every quarter. I knew I should not be doing anything fast since I ran hard the day before and traveled on top of it, but it was too tempting. So I did 2 miles thinking I would just blast it at sea level, but no, I was dragging and it took some effort to run 11:27 on a stretch that appeared to be going downhill and had some minor headwind. I jogged some, and decided to run the same stretch backwards. This time I managed 10:50 with almost the same effort. That was odd. I tried the other direction one more time for half a mile and it was 2:46 (5:32 pace) with quite a bit of effort. That was certainly odd, but I suppose the fatigue from travel + hard run yesterday were showing. Total of 12 miles.

P.M. Flew home. 

A.M. Ran with Benjamin, Jeremy, and Gary. Was feeling the fatigue from travel. Tried a couple of quarters into a headwind - 82, and 81, felt tired, sensed the struggle was more than from just the headwind, decided it was not a good day for quarters. Then paced Benjamin and Gary through a 3.5 mile tempo in 21:38 - 6:11 pace. Our estimated 5 K split was 19:03, so Benjamin got a PR. Slower tempo pace actually did not feel too bad. Total of 7 with them, then 2 with Jenny and Julia, and 3 more alone.

P.M. 1 with Jacob, 1 with Joseph. Usual company of kids. 

A.M. 10 miles before the chess tournament. Ran the last 3.5 in 20:57, 5:59 average. Felt sleepy, and it felt harder than it should have, but that was expected given the lack of sleep this week.

The tournament was Utah Elementary championship. I took Joseph, Julia, and Jenny to play. Benjamin came along to support his siblings and to play chess with whoever happened to be around. That is an exciting possibility, because Kayden Troff and his brothers and friends usually happen to be around. Kayden is 14 years old, is a national master, and on the verge of becoming an international master.

I promised the kids that if they came back from the tournament with a greater than zero score they would each be getting an electronic gadget of some kind depending on the age and the performance. So for the last two months they practiced every day and improved quite a bit. I knew they would score above zero, but they did better than I expected. Joseph won 3 games, drew one (his opponent managed to stalemate him), and lost two, so 3.5 points and 22 place in the 1st grade out of 66. First graders are fun to watch, they play very animated. The tournament director has to be called quite often to resolve disputes. However, the overall experience is a testimony to how much we underestimate the attention span potential of a 7 year old kid. They are engaged in an intense analytic activity for a period of 6 hours with only short breaks in between, and they think it is fun.

Jenny won 4 games, and lost 2, 4 points, 28th place in 5th grade out of 110. Julia won 5 out of 6 and lost one, 5 points,  6th place out of 110 in 3rd grade. She should have been 4th as she beat the girl that was awarded 4th in a dramatic game where she at one point was a full rook down but then sent her queen on a rampage sending the opponent's king out of for a walk, then she grabbed a couple of pawns, managed to win the lost rook back, forced a queen trade, then won on pawns. But the tie break system backfired because Julia coming into the tournament unrated was getting weaker opponents in the early games, so she ended up placing lower even though she won the face-off and otherwise scored the same number of points.

After the tournament I ran 1 mile with Joseph and Julia. Later I ran a mile with Benjamin, and 1 more with Sarah giving me total of 13 for the day. Benjamin ended up with 6, Jenny ran a mile. 

Day of rest. Went to church. We had a departing missionary speak. He is going to Fresno. The we had a lesson on Isaiah quote chunk in 2 Nephi in Sunday school, and a lesson the priesthood in the Elders' Quorum. Stephen has been faithfully attending the Sunday School and the Elders' Quorum instead of nursery due to his persistent refusal to go into the nursery. He behaves very well in class, so I have had little motivation to get him to stay in nursery. Sarah nevertheless thinks that he should not be a nursery dropout. I keep telling her I never went to nursery, but I did OK - went on a mission, married in the temple, still married, active in the Church, and am able to support a family.

A.M. Ran with Benjamin and Jeremy. 7 miles. Did a pickup for 0.3, timed a quarter in 77 going down the canyon. It felt good. Then we did a pickup for 2 miles in around 12:40. Then I added 3 more alone,  and 2 with Jenny and Julia.

P.M. 2 miles total. 1 with Jacob and Joseph, 1 alone. Had the usual company.

A.M. Started with 6 with Benjamin.  Jacob Tobler joined us for the first 1.5 miles. Then added 4, 2 of it with Jeremy, 2 back tempo in 11:44. Felt good. Then 2 more with Julia. Jenny ran 1, and then 1 in the afternoon.

P.M. Total of 3. Jacob and Joseph did 1. Jenny 1 as well.

A.M. Started with Benjamin and Jeremy. They ended up with 7. I did the 5 mile tempo in the canyon. There was significant wind blowing out of the canyon, but not the worst. The splits by 0.5 were: 2:54, 2:57, 3:03, 3:00, 3:05, then after 180 turn, 2:47, 2:45, 2:44, 2:44, 2:38. Total time 28:37. Tried to focus on less effort in the quad, and more effort in glut/hamstring. It was odd. Without the quad effort I felt like I was slacking, but could not use the extra energy to go faster, like I did not know what to do with the hamstrings and gluts. But I figured it is better feel like you are slacking than like you are working if you are going the same pace anyway.

P.M. 3 miles total. 1 of it with Jacob and Joseph.

A.M. 7 with Jeremy, then 5 more with Benjamin. Jenny did 1, Julia 2. Total of 12.

P.M. Went to the Utah State Junior High Chess Championship with Benjamin. Joseph came along for the ride and to cheer. Ran 1 mile with Joseph from where we parked to where the games were happening. Then ran back to get the car - total of 2 miles.  Benjamin ended the day with 2.5 points out of 3. His draw was against a girl. So he could not hear the end of teasing when he got home about drawing a girl from his sisters - "She was so good looking you decided to draw her. You should pay attention to the game, not draw girls while you are playing!". His friend David got 2 points of out 3. Next round tomorrow.  Jenny and Julia ran a mile with Jacob.

A.M. Ran early due to Benjamin's chess tournament. Started with 7 with the last 3.5 at a tempo pace in 20:31. Then ran 5 more with Benjamin. Total of 12. Jenny and Julia did 1.

A.M2 - 1 mile from where I parked the car to the game venue. 

P.M.  - 0.75 back to the car. Found a short cut. Benjamin started the day on a sour note by making a blunder and losing his first game. However, he made up by winning the remaining three, and scoring 5.5 out of 7 in the tournament, which got him 2nd place in 7th grade. His friend David won 3 more games as well, and finished in 5th place in the 8th grade with the score of 5 out 7.

A.M. Ran with Chad, Jeremy, and Jeremy's brother Josh joined us for a little bit. Chad and I paced Jeremy through the Uneventful Provo River Half Marathon, meaning a time-trial on the Provo River Half course. I did a couple of VPB-forced pickups, and then a 3 mile tempo in 16:10 on my standard stretch from Nunns park to the mouth of the canyon. The splits were 5:23, 5:24, 5:23. Jeremy got 1:30:28 in the time trial. Chad and I ran some more to make it total of 20 for me. Benjamin ran 6, Jenny, Joseph, and Julia 1.

P.M. 1 with Joseph, Jacob, and Julia.  

Day of rest. Went to church. We had a sister that just returned from a mission speak to us. She was originally from Guatemala but came to the US at the age of 10. She said she remembered poverty and third-world living conditions. The talk was on the Atonement of Christ. Then the lesson in Sunday School was on on 2 Nephi 26-27 where Isaiah is quoted and explained. The lesson in the Elder's Quorum was on sustaining our leaders.

A.M. The winter came back for a brief (hopefully) visit. I ran 7 with Benjamin, then added 3 myself, and 2 with Jenny and Julia.

P.M. 3 total. 1 with Jacob and Joseph. 

A.M. 7 with Jeremy, 2 with Julia, 3 alone. Jenny did 1 mile. Benjamin had sprained his foot, so he took a day off.

P.M. 1 with Jacob and Joseph, 2 more alone, total of 3. 

A.M. Ran mostly alone. Benjamin did the first 0.5 mile with me then turned around and wobbled back, totaling 1 mile for the day. I did a different workout than before this time breaking up the tempo into two parts. First 2 mile up into a significant but not completely disastrous headwind in 11:56.7 with the splits of 5:57, 5:59. Then a mile uphill jog to recover, and 3 miles back down from Nunn's park to the mouth of the canyon in 15:49.2 with the splits of 5:13, 5:21, 5:15. I was pleased with the result, as I was expecting something in the range of low 16:00 maybe no more than 3 seconds under through a gutsy effort. Then I came home and ran with Jenny and Julia. Jenny did 1, Julia 2. I ended up with 12.5.

P.M. 3 miles total. 1 with Joseph and Jacob. 

A.M. All the morning run kids were out of commission today. Benjamin has a sprained foot, Jenny has some foot problem as well, Julia was rollerblading and hurt her knee. Jenny tried to run, and managed to do 1 mile. So I did that with her, and then 11 more alone. I actually got going on the way back down the canyon and was hitting a fairly consistent 6:24 pace, which was still in the range of easy, but I did some math and realized that this is on pace for about 2:48 marathon. So it was encouraging to be on pace for 2:48 and think of it as a jog. Of course, I would much rather actually run 2:20 and think of it as a long grueling sprint. There is little glory in imagining that the moderately fast but not record setting pace is easier on you than it really is. But I got into the rhythm, and I did not have anybody to talk to, so I just cruised along to get the run over with.

P.M. 1 with Joseph and Jacob. 3 with Julia going with me on a bike. 4 total. 

A.M. 12 total. 2 with Jenny and Julia. 10 with Benjamin on a bike. Did a 2 mile tempo in 10:35 down the canyon. Wanted to just shake my legs, but ended up pushing harder than I anticipated having been lured by hitting slightly sub-5:20 pace from the start, and not wanting to let go of it.

P.M. 1 with Jacob and Joseph, 2 more alone. Total of 3. 

A.M. 20 miles alone in 2:07:58. Ran on a new course. 10 miles from the house to somewhere in the middle of the South Fork, and then back. With a small variation, basically the Provo River 10 miler course out and back with the difference that on the way back the first downhill mile is removed, and then at the end you have an uphill mile to the house. So maybe 20-30 seconds slower than Provo River 10 miler on the way back. On the way up did a 2 mile tempo in 12:01 into a headwind. Then on the way back I realized that I picked the wrong time to run this course because around 10-11 AM the wind often changes directions, and it did today. So I ran back into a headwind as well. The time was 58:13. I was expecting fuel problems due to the fact that I had not done 12 miles total of tempo in a while, but I did not get any. Instead, I felt that my heart was weak.

Jenny and Julia ran 2. Benjamin took Joseph for 1 mile, and then Jacob for 1 mile in the evening. 

Day of rest. Went to church. We had another departing missionary speak. This is quite a difference from our old ward where we might see this maybe once every two years or so. The Sunday School lesson was on the last words of Nephi, so 2 Nephi 31-33. At the start of the lesson I was actively participating and making comments. However, towards the end my body decided to remind me that I had a sleep deficit after running 96 miles with increased intensity last week. So I drifted away and continued to learn via Lehi's dream. This gave me the needed boost for the Elder's Quorum where the lesson was on Elder Bednar's talk on family history. I was able to stay awake, pay attention, and actively participate in the lesson.

Took a long nap when I got home. Vigorous exercise is a very effective treatment against insomnia. I would highly recommend it. 

A.M. 7 with Jeremy. Benjamin did 3. I ran another 1.4 going back to Sarah and returning with her,  then drove the Fast Running Van to Computune to get the alternator changed, and ran back the long way which was about 4 miles. So 12.4 total. Did a few random pickups - one post-VPB, one to get back to Sarah faster.

P.M. 1 with Jacob and Joseph, 2 more alone, total of 3.  Jenny and Julia ran 2.

A.M. Ran 2 with Julia. Then 3 with Benjamin, Jenny did 1. Then worked on leg strength with hill sprints. Finally measured the marked supposedly 100 meter stretch. It ended up being 334 feet the way I run it, so 5 feet longer. So I suppose it was measured on the very innermost curve. I had already measured the incline with an electronic level earlier - it was 6%. So I did the first one in 18.0, then 17.7. The conversion factor to the true 100 meters is about 0.3 for 18.0, actually very convenient, subtract the factor of 1:60. I was doing great on the third one but apparently overdid it as my left hamstring cramped up. I slowed down and finished the interval in 17.6. Then tried one more, but could only do 19.3. So I called it a day as far as the speed was concerned and jogged. It was painful, but I could run a bit sub-8:00. Ran enough to make the total 12 miles.

P.M. Ran 1 with Jacob, 1 with Joseph, and 3 to Computune to retrieve the van. The hamstring felt a bit better, but was still hurting. 

A.M. This was an interesting night. Stephen woke up and cried, so I decided to calm him down by sleeping on the floor right next to him. That worked. He likes company. While on the floor I dreamed that William woke up, and in my dream I entertained him by running a file system check utility on a computer. Then I woke up from that dream, and moved back into my bed. This time I dreamed that James and Allie were getting married. Its been a while since I've checked anybody's blogs, maybe they are getting married after all.

Ran with Jeremy and Benjamin. The hamstring was still fussing, so I ran mostly easy. However, I could not resist the temptation when Jeremy told me he had done three quarters in around 90 the day before. So I told him, just run a quarter like you did the day before and let's time it. I was expecting a 90, so I figured it would not be too bad for my hamstring. He did 82 uphill. Then we did one more downhill. It was 74. My hamstring really did not like the 74 but I toughed it out.  

This was quite remarkable. A couple of months ago Jeremy was getting dropped while trying to run a downhill quarter in 80. Hardly any speedwork, just base, and now he is able to hit 74 without being pushed. I asked him what he thought his split was, and even after having run 82 earlier uphill, and knowing the time of that interval he guessed 80. This goes to show how much aerobic endurance is a factor in a race so short as a quarter mile. Granted, this is not a true quarter as we are doing it mid-run, so it is perhaps more indicative of 800 meter run performance, but still. No speed work at all, and we have an improvement in the middle distance speed. This also goes to show the futility of doing speed work without proper aerobic base.  The lack of aerobic fitness will keep the sustainable speed at bay so there is no speed stimulus, and the shortness of the intervals will preclude the development of endurance. In other words, in order of Jeremy to work on speed, he needs to be hitting quarters in at least 74. But when he is out of shape aerobically, you cannot expect him to run even one that fast.

Benjamin ran 4. I got back home, ran 2 with Julia (Jenny did 1.5), and then 3 more. The hamstring was chiding me for the 74 quarter the entire time, but was manageable.

P.M. 3 miles alone. Benjamin ran 0.4 with Joseph and Jacob. 

A.M. Ran 8 miles alone in 55:56, then 4 more with Benjamin in 23:40. His foot is feeling better. Julia ran 2, Jenny did 1.5. Total of 12 miles for me.

P.M. 1 with Jacob and Joseph. Jacob set a new mile record in 8:27. Our course is a bit longer than a mile, I think, I still have not gotten around to wheeling it, and it is out and back with some serious grades - 6% in some places. So this was very solid, I think he can hit sub-8:00 on the track. 

A.M. Ran with Jeremy, then with Benjamin. Jenny and Julia ran 2. I did a total of 12.4. Did a pickup to catch up to Jeremy because I went a bit further out with the idea that the pickup would be 1.5. I hit 1.5 in 7:51 (5:14 average) down the canyon, but I was still not caught up, so I went a bit further, probably to 1.6. Then I did another pickup for about 0.6 at 5:40 pace or so.

P.M. 1 with Jacob and Joseph. 

A.M. Ran with Jeremy for the first 10 miles at about 8:00 pace uphill to about 1 mile mark of the Provo River 10 miler. Did one post-VPB pickup. Then ran a tempo on the way back. Felt cautious in the first three miles or so and hit almost identical splits on ad hoc markers compared to last week. My body was for some reason reluctant to go faster, even though I was not breathing very hard. I decided to put in a bit more mental effort into the pace, and found another gear. The pace got into 5:30 - 5:35 range, it took concentration to maintain it, but my heart felt strong, and I did not feel like I was low on fuel. Around mile 17 into the run I passed the BYU guys who were going about 6:10 or so. I asked them to pull me at 5:40 for 1.5 miles. Some of them made excuses that the pace was faster than what they were planning on doing. Others did not respond. I continued running alone. That was disappointing, I could have used their help. I did not understand that at all. 5:40 pace for them is a brisk jog, they race 10,000 meters at 4:50 or so. It is good even for a middle distance guy to do at least a little bit of marathon pace zone running in the middle of a long run even the day after a hard track workout, and is more than just good for a 10,000 meter guy.  Was everybody so tired from the Friday workout that not one person had the ability to spontaneously go 5:40 mid-run for a little bit? If so 6:10 was way too fast for a recovery run then. This is hard for me to understand. I have gone many times back to pace the people I knew and the people I didn't immediately after a hard race, and sometimes the pace surprised me and required significant effort, but it was still good because it challenged me to work past the point where I thought I was done while helping somebody else. I believe in reaching out to people in every reasonable way that presents itself, and when you do your body and your mind become stronger. 

Nevertheless, I was able to do OK without company. My last uphill mile was 5:53, and the total time for the last 10 miles was 56:43, which was 1:30 faster than last week, all over the last 7 miles. 

Benjamin ran 5 miles, Jenny and Julia 1, Joseph and Jacob ran 1 with Sarah.

After the run watched the General Conference. Some talks that stood out to me in the Saturday sessions. Elder Packer's mention that it is better to not be able to have children than to have the ability and not have them by choice. Elder Holland's message to the men of the Church "arise from the dust and be men", and Elder Bednar's account of his father who was not a member of the Church at the time yet attended every meeting saying: "Why is it that those who believe they hold the restored priesthood need to be coaxed to do their duty?" Overall I felt nourished by the talks and the hymns, and felt it was very well worth the 6 hours that it took even after a hard run.

Day of rest. Watched the General Conference.  My favorite talk was by President Uchdorf with his two word sermon: "Stop it" regarding our tendency to get offended and hold grudges, and his mention of the bumper sticker: "Do not judge me because I sin differently than you". I also liked Elder Nelson's: "Can an explosion at a printing shop produce a dictionary?" in reference to the Big Bang theory, and Elder Rasband's "Do you ask a drowning person if he needs help, or do you just jump in and help?"

A.M. Ran with Benjamin and Jeremy. Did a 0.6 pre-VPB pickup, felt strong. Dropped Benjamin off at 6, ran 2 more with Jeremy, 2 more alone, and 2 more with Jenny and Julia. Total of 12.

P.M. Ran 1 mile with Jacob and Joseph. Joseph wanted to earn a trip to the Y on the mountain. Normally we take our kids there when they turn 8 as a right of passage of sorts. But he wanted it early. So I told him he had to run sub-8:00 on our course slightly longer than 1 mile hilly course. He ran 7:49. Jacob did 8:14, which is also his new record.

A.M. Ended up doing a medium long run of sorts. Started with a 5 mile warm-up. Then did hill sprints. This time there were more like hill strides because I did not want a repeat of hamstring fiasco of last week. I did 6 of them up 334 foot stretch up 6% grade in 19.0, 18.6, 18.4, 18.2, 18.0, and 18.0. The hamstring still tightened up, but it did not bother me as much as last week, I could still run mostly normal pace after that. Then I ran 6 with Benjamin, including a post-VPB 600 in 1:53. The hamstring began to fuss after the first quarter, but I managed to maintain the pace in spite of it. Then I ran another 3 with Julia and Sarah. Jenny ran 1, she was having leg problems from her accelerated growth. She is now about 5-4, about half an inch taller than Benjamin, even though she is only 11.

P.M. 1 with Jacob and Joseph. Then Joseph joined me for another 2 on a bike. I was not sure how he was going to handle it. His bike has only one gear, he is 7 years old, and the course is hilly with grades up to 6% in places. Julia struggled on that course last time I took her. However, Joseph did not. He kept up with me just fine on the hills, and our time for a little over 2 miles was 14:53.  

A.M. Ran with Benjamin and Jeremy. They warmed up with me, then did the start of my tempo. My workout was 2 miles uphill, then 1 mile jogging recovery, and 3 downhill. Jeremy made it to about 900 meters up, the split at 800 was 2:53. Benjamin made it past 1100 all the way to his turnaround. The split at 1000 was 3:35, and at 0.75 4:19. My mile split was 5:50 as the next quarter brought on some serious headwind. The next mile was 5:59, so 11:49.9 for 2 miles. I was feeling tired from yesterday's 18 mile day, and decided to take it a little easier in the 3 mile downhill tempo. First mile was 5:21. Then I fell into a coasting grove where 83 quarters felt good, but anything faster did not, so I coasted like that for 1.5 miles. Second mile was 5:32, and the next 0.5 was 2:46. Consistent, but slow. Passed a guy that wanted  me to tell him what I was training for. I did not have either the time or the lung capacity to give him any kind of answer, much less the one that I would have wanted to give him. But I will give it here. The moment you begin to insist on training for concrete immediate goals such as a particular race you reduce yourself to being slower than your potential because training properly involves long-term conditioning. It also involves a change of lifestyle, and a creation of good habits. Thus to say "train for a race" is an erroneous oversimplification of the process.  You train to be fit, and when you have the fitness or you want to test your fitness you race. You may introduce race-specific elements into your training to make sure you do well in a race of particular importance. But all of that is minor details compared to the issue of general fitness, which most recreational runners seriously lack ironically due to the mindset of "train for a race". With no race in near view they stop training consistently and lose whatever fitness they may have gained by "training for a race". Without training being a solid year-round process they are not able to progress. With that in mind, I never think too much about which race I am training for. When you are fast, there will always be a race to prove it. I just train to be faster and once in a while I race to evaluate the quality of my training. 

With 0.5 to go I began to question if I was just holding back, or perhaps maybe I was tricking myself and 5:32 pace was really all I had in me today. So I decided to see if I could speed up to 5:20. The effort was successful. I ran two quarters in 79 each, which gave me 5:24 for the last mile, and 16:17.3 for the 3 miles.

Finished the 10.5, then added 2 more with Julia. Jenny took a break to let her muscles and tendons heal. Total of 12.5.

P.M. 1 with Joseph and Jacob in 8:34, 2 more with Joseph on a bike. He surprised me by maintaining 7:00 pace on the uphill. Our time was 14:21 for 2 miles. 

A.M. Ran 8 with Jeremy, then 4 with Benjamin, Julia did 3 of that. Did a post-VPB 0.5 in 2:39. Jenny rested trying get her muscles to heal.

P.M. 1 with Joseph and Jacob, then 2 more with Joseph on a bike. 

A.M. Ran with Jeremy, Benjamin, and Gary. Benjamin did 5, still recovering from the stomach flu. I paced Jeremy and Gary through a 4 mile tempo, which we did at slightly sub-7:00 pace. The weather was challenging - snow and wind changing directions. I did a post-VPB pickup for 700 meters uphill. The first quarter was 91, the next 300 1:03 with the same effort. So going from 6:04 pace to 5:36 as the wind all of a sudden changed directions. Then ran 2 alone and 2 with Julia. Total of 12.

P.M. 1 with Joseph and Jacob, 2 more with Joseph on a bike. 

A.M. Started with Chad, Jeremy, and Benjamin. Benjamin turned around after 3 to make it 6. I started the uphill 3 mile tempo after about 2.3 miles. It was one weird day. The wind was blowing as usual, but felt not too bad. So I went through the first mile in 6:02 feeling quite good and  thinking the others will be somewhere around 6:10, maybe 6:20 if the wind picks up. The second mile was 6:20, and I could not understand why - I was not feeling bad, nor did the wind feel like it picked up, but I was getting progressively slower with every quarter.  Then I did not feel the wind too much, but for some odd reason the next mile was 6:49 giving me 19:11 for 3 miles. I turned around and ran an 89 quarter until I met Chad and Jeremy. I was still wondering how in the world I could have run a 6:49 mile with a tempo effort. Then Jeremy turned around, and I ran with Chad. I stopped for a VPB, then ran to catch up. The catch up mile was 6:17, and it felt weird as well. There was some headwind and uphill, but it should have been sub-6:00 with that effort. Last week I was catching up to Jeremy in the same spot and going in the same direction and hit 5:40 pace quite comfortably. I felt like I all of a sudden for some odd reason I was running with a shorter stride, and began to wonder if there was some kind of health problem involved. Then I noticed that part of my face was numb. It was fairly cold, and I was wearing just shorts and a T-shirt. My hands were cold as well. Chad went on to the 9 mile turnaround, and I ran another 3 mile tempo this time in the opposite direction - tail wind and downhill. I went through the first mile in 5:51, but in some ways it felt like 5:20, and for the life of me I could not go any faster. Then the next two miles were 5:43 average, and I ended up with 17:13 for 3 miles. At this point the pace started feeling more normal, although still not 100%, and I wanted to go further, but it was time to turn around and meet Chad.

So I ran back for another 1.5 miles and re-joined with Chad. I was planning on a nice relaxing 6:30 pace that would eventually deteriorate into a more relaxing 6:50 or even 7:10, but Chad surprised me. For about 2 miles he was going 6:00. Then he slowed down to 6:15. If there was any relaxation for me, it happened in the last mile, which we did in 6:58. Chad averaged 6:15 in the last 9 miles of 18. 

When we got to the house, I was at 19 total, and Chad was at 18. I took Jacob and Joseph for a mile, and Chad joined us for one more mile. It ended up being a brisk mile for a cool-down with Joseph running 8:18, and Jacob 8:24 on a hilly course. 

Jenny and Julia ran 2 miles. 

Day of rest. Went to church. The talks in the Sacrament meeting were on resurrection, which is traditional for Easter. One of the speakers was a recently returned missionary. I spent a good portion of the Sunday School lesson in nursery providing company for Stephen. He seemed to have calmed down, but five minutes after I had left the nursery leaders brought him back to me. He behaved very well through the rest of Sunday School and in the Elder's Quorum, where the lesson was on immortality of the soul from the teachings of President George Albert Smith.  I say Stephen is thinking - forget that nursery nonsense, I am ready for the strong meat of the Elder's Quorum.

A.M. Ran the warm-up with Benjamin. I was still bothered by the 6:49 mile on Saturday and wanted to get a better understanding of how it happened. So I repeated the 3 mile uphill tempo. The conditions were similar wind-wise, but it was warmer. The first mile was 5:58, then 6:10, and 6:31 to produce a total of 18:39 for 3 miles. That was more reasonable, especially considering that one quarter was 1:44 when the wind picked up to the point of stopping me dead in my tracks. So without that quarter I averaged 6:20, which is acceptable for that section.

On the way back I decided to stretch my legs with a quick downhill mile, and did it in 5:14. Then I rejoined with Benjamin and we finished the run. Then I added 2 miles with Jenny in 16:53, which is a progress for her as she has been struggling with injuries and growth. Total distance was 12.6 miles. Julia ran 1 mile, recovering from a stomach flu.

P.M.  1 mile with Joseph and Jacob, 2 with Joseph on a bike.

A.M. Ran 3 with Benjamin, then he turned around and I ran more. Still felt like I had an ax to grind against the hill and the headwind. So I ran the nasty mile in 6:09 shaking my fist at it. On the way back did it 5:12. Ran home, then added 2 miles with Julia. Jenny did 1, was dealing with a sick stomach. Total of 12 miles.

P.M. 1 with Joseph and Jacob, then 2 more. 

A.M. Ran with Jeremy. Did a 4 mile tempo, 2 up and 2 down. Jeremy joined me for the first 0.5 and a middle quarter on the way back. The tempo splits were 5:55, 6:03, 5:29, 5:14 - 22:41.9 for the whole thing. Then ran 2 with Julia - Jenny did 1, and finished 2 more with Benjamin. He ran total of 6. I ended up with 12.6 for the run.

P.M. 1 with Joseph and Jacob, then 2 more alone. 

A.M. Ran with Benjamin and Jeremy. Benjamin did 6, Jeremy 8. Then added 5 more including 2 with Joseph and Julia, and 1 with Jacob. Did a pickup for 0.5 in 2:38.

A.M. Ran with Benjamin and Jeremy. Benjamin did 6, Jeremy 8. Then I did 2 with Julia, and 2 more alone. Jenny ran 1. Total of 12.

P.M. 3.25 total. 1.6 with Jacob and Joseph, then the rest with Joseph riding a bike. 

A.M. Long run. Started with Jeremy and Benjamin. Benjamin went 3, then turned around, total of 6. Jeremy did 16. I did a catch-up mile in 6:09 uphill into the wind, then on the way back ran a tempo. My time for the first 10 was 1:15:25. Then I felt sluggish starting out the tempo, but about 4 miles into it found a decent rhythm. Caught the Air Force ROTC guys doing their 2 mile test. At first I caught the back of the pack, but it gradually kept getting faster, very gradually so that it was difficult to notice. So I still thought I was passing the 8:00, maybe 7:30 pace group when I heard their timer announce 6:53 mile split for whoever I was passing. Then I realized that pretty soon I will be seeing guys that are running it in sub-13:00 and maybe one of them will run with me when he starts to kick. This is pretty much what happened. I kept passing them until about 200 to go, then one of them passed me back and I latched on behind him. His time ended up being 12:24. My quarter around that spot was 80. The earlier ones were around 83. I was happy that there was an 80 quarter in me mid-run around mile 17. But I think it wore me out, because the rest of the run was difficult. Part of it was the wind changing direction around that time, but part of it, I think is the fatigue from that surge. But it is good to feel this fatigue because you will feel it, and more than that in the marathon. So I did my 3 mile stretch with the splits of 5:37, 5:34, 5:39 in 16:50, after that I was cruising at slightly sub-6:00. Total time for 10 was 57:39. My heart felt tired this time unlike 2 weeks ago.

Jenny and Julia ran 2. Benjamin ran 1 with Joseph and Jacob in the afternoon.

Day of rest. Went to church as usual. It was a Fast Sunday. We had a testimony meeting. Then a lesson in Sunday school on Jacob 5, the allegory of the olive tree. Then a lesson on temples in the Elder's Quorum.

A.M. Ran with Jeremy and Benjamin. We did 8.25 miles. I did two pickups - 1000 uphill in 3:38, and 800 down in 2:38. Then I did 2 with Jenny and Julia, and 2 alone. Total of 12.25.

P.M. 1 mile with Jacob, and 1 mile with Joseph, total of 2.

A.M. 8.25 with Jeremy. Did a pickup for 600 in 1:57. 2 more with Benjamin, Sarah ran 1 of those, then 2 more with Jenny and Julia. Total of 12..25. Benjamin ran 5.

P.M. Paced Joseph in his mile record attempt. He ran 7:37 on our hilly course. Benjamin ran with Jacob. 

A.M. Ran with Benjamin and Jeremy. Benjamin did 7, Jeremy 8. I did the tempo workout. 2 miles uphill, then 3 mile downhill after a mile jog recovery. Benjamin stayed with me through the first mile of the uphill tempo, which I did in 5:53. Jeremy made it to about half mile. The second mile was 5:57, giving me 11:50..3 for 2 miles. In the downhill tempo I ran 15:56.6 with the splits of 5:16, 5:23, 5:17. After the first mile I started drifting into slower than 5:20 pace, and it went on like that to 1.75 mark. Then I said, enough of that, and decided to monitor my splits every 100 meters until I was back on pace, and then every 200 meters after that. That worked, I was able to kick myself out of the rut, there was only one 200 after that that was 41, every other was 40 or faster. In the absence of a strong training partner that will be annoyed by a slower than 5:20 pace, I think the next best thing is 100 meter splits and visualization. 

So it was 10.5 before I got to the house. Then I ran 2 with Jenny and Julia. After about 0.8 Julia wanted to go faster, so I went with her, while Jenny stayed back. Julia ended up running 7:59 for the last more than a mile stretch, which is uphill. I still need to measure it with the wheel to know exactly how far it is. Her total time was 16:49 for two of those stretches which I round off to 2 miles, but it is more.

Total of 12.5 miles for the run.

P.M. 1 with Joseph and Jacob. 

A.M. Started with a 4 mile warm-up, then did 6x100 uphill near the house. The splits were 18.3, 18.1, 17.8, 17.6, 17.0, 17.0. 17.0 is my new record for that stretch. No hamstring problems. I was happy about both the speed and the safety progress.

Then I ran 6.25 with Benjamin. We did 2x100 as well, this time coming out of the canyon, so I would say aided, but for a sprint it is not so much. I've done a workout once where I I did 100s in the canyon, then immediately drove to the track, and was able to repeat the "aided" times on the track. Those were not slow for me either, somewhere around 14.6 - 14.8. That was back in 2005. Our times today were 15.0 and 14.8. I was happy about that, not only the times, but also how it felt. I could visualize myself running 800 if not the mile like this if I could just find a way to relax some more, and be more efficient. Even though I could not find a way to run faster, I felt it was not because of strength, but more because I did not know what to do with my legs at those speeds.

Then I did 2 miles with Jenny and Julia. Total of 12.25. 

P.M. Jacob and Joseph ran a mile time trial on the track at Orem High. I paced Joseph while Benjamin paced Jacob. Joseph ran 7:09.3 with the following splits by 400: 1:44, 1:49, 1:47, 1:46, and 3 seconds for the last 9.34 meters.  Jacob ran 8:00.4. His splits were fairly even with around 2:00 - 2:01 per lap, and his last lap was 1:58. 

A.M. Did 3 miles with Julia, Jenny did 2. Then 9 more alone. Did a couple of tempo pickups. First a mile in 5:51 uphill into a headwind. On the way back, the last 1.5 in 8:40 which included uphill to the house. Total of 12. miles.

P.M. 1 with Jacob and Joseph. 

A.M. Celebrated my 39th birthday by pacing Chad through the Uneventful Provo River Half-Marathon, or in other words we drove up to the start and Chad did a time trial. The target was 6:00 whenever possible, and I was thinking it would be nice if we got a low 1:20, or maybe even a little under. In fact I was thinking that after we had finished the first half.  But then I moved up front and for an experiment decided to see how Chad would handle 5:52 pace. He groaned, but was not falling back. So we did my 3 mile tempo stretch in 17:34 and caught up to the 6:00 guy who slipped away from us during the uphill/headwind detour earlier. Then we held on to 6:00 or around that in the last mile. The finishing time was 1:18:42.

During the run I felt sluggish. The pace did not feel like a jog, I felt I had to concentrate. In fact, until we got to the headwind, we were running side by side and I made zero effort to push the pace letting Chad take the initiative. Even when I moved forward once we hit the headwind, I could tell I was going too slow at first as Chad kept running into me. However, around 3 miles, and around 8 I had to make a VPB stop, falling back by about 30 seconds each time and both times caught up in a little over half mile with what felt like my own half-marathon race pace effort. So I did have another gear, but for one reason or another was very reluctant to shift into it. Maybe it was psychological. I told myself - you are pacing a 1:18 half that will likely deteriorate into 1:20 later on, and my body refused to work any harder than it had to. 

Overall, I think this sluggishness on my part ended up being a plus because it happened to hit Chad's fitness level right on the dot and he ended up with a 4 minute + PR.

We jogged to make the total 20. During the cooldown we met Benjamin and he joined us. He ran the total of 8 miles, having run 1 mile with Joseph, and 1 mile with Jacob earlier. Jenny and Julia ran 2 miles. 

Day of rest. Went to church. Had recently returned missionaries speak in the Sacrament meeting again. We get those quite often in this ward, I think recently it's been almost every other week. One talk mentioned a 9-year-old girl in Zambia who is the only member of the Church in her family that walked to church alone for an hour each Sunday. I think there is an aspect to the missionary program of the Church that does not get frequent enough attention. Those who are in the church take it for granted, those who are not are not close enough to the Church to be aware of it. There are thousands of young men and women that would not otherwise even know where countries like Zambia are that end up dedicating two years of their lives to serving in those countries learning the language and becoming intimately familiar with their culture. Their parents and grandparents would not otherwise know where those countries are. I understand that we are not unique in sending missionaries to other countries. Where we are unique is that we send them by assignment for two years and expect them to learn the language. We also expect them to do more than just preach the good word. They are expected to figure out what they need to do to convince people to make significant changes in their lifestyle. Anybody who has served a mission will know the difference between telling people to do better and seeing through to make sure they actually do better. You cannot get away with a superficial approach. If you do not immerse yourself into what the people you are working with live you will not succeed.

When I lived in Russia I happened to run into an influx of foreign, mostly American, missionaries when things opened up. However, it was not until I had met the LDS missionaries that I found somebody who has some depth behind them. They were the ones that were not afraid to invest their skin into the matter, so to speak. This was definitely a plus. While the message alone was convincing enough for me, to observe the messenger living up to the message made it even easier to believe.

A.M. Did 10 alone + 2 with Jenny and Julia. Benjamin had a sore throat, ran just 1 mile.

P.M. 2 with Joseph. Jacob ran 1. 

A.M. Did a tempo run. 2 miles up in 11:56, then 3 miles down in 16:14. The two mile tempo went OK, the splits were 5:56 - 6:00. Then in the 3 mile tempo I started with a 5:19, but then lost steam and dragged the next two miles in 5:27 and 5:28. Wore an HRM today for the first time in several months. On the uphill after the first mile HR was around 154, then it climbed to 159 in the second mile. On the down tempo it hit 159 after the first mile then was stuck at 156 and refused to go higher until I kicked in the last quarter in 78, then it was around 160. I had to kick in 78 to run 5:28 mile, so that shows how I was dragging in between.

I think the problem was the accumulated lack of sleep. Got home, turned around, ran at about 6:00 for 0.8 to catch up to Jenny, Julia, and Sarah, then finished the run with Jenny and Julia. Total of 12.5 miles.

Benjamin ran 1 mile. 

P.M. 2 miles with Joseph. Jacob ran 1.  Benjamin did 1.

A.M. Total of 12. Benjamin did 3. Jenny and Julia 2. I did 1 uphill in 5:51, and 2 down in 10:36. It felt better than yesterday, the nap helped.

P.M. 2 miles with Joseph, Jacob ran 1 with us. 

A.M. Ran 2 with Jenny and Julia, then 4 with Benjamin. Then did hill sprints, 334 feet on my usual stretch. The splits were 18.6, 18.2, 17.6, 17.5, 17.2, 17.3. Then ran 5 more miles, did a pickup for 0.75 in 3:49, it felt good, felt like things were clicking together.

P.M. 2 with Joseph, Jacob did 1 of them. 

A.M. Started with 2 with Jenny and Julia. Then Benjamin did 4 today again, the first 2 with me.  I continued into the canyon. On the way back I ran a mile down but into a headwind in 5:12. Then at the very end I did a pickup for 0.5 in 2:53.

P.M. 2 with Joseph, Jacob did 1 of them. 

A.M. Total of 20. Started with Benjamin, he went to 2.5 and then turned around making it a total of 5. Jenny and Julia did 2. On the way up I ran a 2 mile tempo. Wore an HRM. It was a bit colder this morning, maybe 40F, but there was a headwind on the way up. I had an experience similar to two weeks ago, except this time I had an HRM to gather some numbers. So my splits in the 2 mile tempo were 6:06 - 6:14, total of 12:20. HR for the most of it was stuck at 146. This is a good HR for 6:10 pace uphill into a headwind. The problem is that I could not go any faster, and I felt like I was not getting enough oxygen even though there was not a whole lot of air going into the lungs. So essentially I was experiencing what I normally would when it is 10 F, even though it was much warmer than that. I am wondering if I have developed a circulation problem of some kind, need to get it checked out.

On the way back I ran a 10 mile tempo. The wind turned around, and was actually quite strong. I had a weird experience again. For a long time I could not bring my HR over 140. I was still going around 6:00 down South Fork even with that low of an HR because the grade is quite steep. But for the life of me I could not speed up. Then I got out onto the Provo River Trail and was maintaining slightly sub-6:00 on average, but HR was stuck at 142. When the headwind eased off or I hit a sunny spot, I would speed up to 5:45 or even 5:40 with HR going to 146, but the headwind came back and HR would drop to 142 and so would the pace. On the positive side of things, I hit more warmer spots on the 3 mile tempo stretch and was able to beat the time from last week split by 1 second with 17:33. Total time for 10 was 59:22.

So this is really odd. What's up with this HR drop into a headwind? 5:55 pace at 142 HR into a headwind down 1-2% grade is good, shows good efficiency, I am quite happy with that. What I am not happy about is that for the life of me I did not have another gear with the headwind blowing. I tried upping the turnover, still no result. The moment the headwind stopped all of a sudden I could up the HR to 146 and go faster. Two suspects I can think of. A blood circulation problem, or some weird biomechanical issue that makes me not use all of the muscles when the headwind is blowing. But that problem was not there on Tuesday when it was warmer. So I am thinking it is circulation.

P.M. 2 with Joseph. Jacob did 1 with us. 

Day of rest. Went to church as usual. Sarah and I were the speakers in the Sacrament meeting today. Our talks were on Matthew 22:35-37 - the two great commandments of the law - love God and love thy neighbor. Then we had a lesson on king Benjamin's sermon in Mosiah 2-4, and a combined priesthood, relief society, and young men and women meeting where the bishop talked about family history.

A.M Ran 6 with Benjamin. Jenny and Julia did the first 2 with us. Then did a blood circulation declogging workout. The working theory is that the reason I have a hard time hitting decent HR and particularly struggle with that when the weather is a bit colder is that there is some kind of congestion in the circulatory system. My plan to test the theory - increase intake of fiber, take Dr. Christopher's Blood Circulation formula, and do workouts that maximize HR and keep it high for as long as possible. The thought is that there is some gunk that does not get washed off the walls of the pipe unless you have a particularly strong flow. So I wanted to do an experiment to see what would max out the HR. I heard of some research that showed you get good results with 30 seconds fast/30 seconds slow. So I tried a variant of that - 200 meters fast, 100 meters slow. It did not seem to work too well, 200 of fast running was not enough for me to get the HR too high - I hit around 156 eventually. Fast was 40 seconds into the headwind/uphill, and 36 downhill/with tail wind. Slow was about 8:00 pace, or 30 seconds for 100 meters. Then I tried a 600 after about 300 of rest due to the marks being painted over. Well, I got to rest 300 and figured I needed to go 600 to make up. This time I managed to hit 164 after hitting the quarter in 70, but then I could not hold the HR and it dropped to 162 with the pace dropping to 37 for the last 200, and I ended up with 1:47.8 for 600.

P.M. 2 with Joseph, Jacob did 1 with us. 

A.M. Started with Jeremy and Ariel. Ariel is from Uruguay so we spoke Spanish the entire time. He speaks English fine, in fact his wife does not even speak Spanish, but his presence gives me and Jeremy and extra boost to work on our Spanish. Based on my observations the day before, I decided to try this workout: 400 fast - 100 recovery - 400 fast - 100 recovery - 500 fast - 100 recovery - 500 fast going out of the canyon because I noticed it is easier for me to hit a higher HR on a mild downhill and without the headwind.  I did 75, 73, 1:33, 1:31 - recoveries were around 8:00 except before the last one when I was going around 10:00 pace.  HR was 157 at the highest. I was not happy about that, but no matter how hard I tried, it was not going higher.

After finishing a bit more than 6 with them I did 6x100 hill repeats starting out at 18.8 and finishing in 17.5. Then I ran 6 with Benjamin. I did a half mile interval on the way back again down the canyon in 2:25.3 with the max HR of 159. I am happy that I could hit 4:50 pace and after half a mile HR was still only 159. It actually got there by 600 and then was staying steady. That is actually a very good result as far as the economy is concerned. What I am not happy about is that I could not go any faster.

Total of 13 miles for the run. 

P.M. 2 with Joseph, Jacob did 1 of them. 

A.M. Started with 6.7 with Jeremy and Ariel. I wanted to know if Ariel could run a 6:15 mile. So we did a fast mile coming back down the canyon. We opened with a 92 quarter. I sensed that Ariel could go faster and upped the pace a bit with the next quarter in 90. The next quarter was 87. Then I saw that Jeremy could break his mile record and challenged him to kick. We finished in 5:53 with the last quarter in 84, which is his new record. Ariel finished in 5:56 with the last quarter in 87. So that is encouraging, he has more speed than I thought.

Then I ran another 6.5 with Benjamin, total of 13.2.

P.M. 2 with Joseph, Jacob did 1 of them. 

A.M. Started with Ariel and Jeremy. Repeated my workout from Tuesday. did 2x400 71.8, 72.3, then 2x500 1:32.3, 1:30.0 with 100 recovery. HR maxed out at 159 on those. Then back to the house, 6x100 hill sprints 18.8, 18.2, 17.8, 17.6, 17.3, 17.2. Then 6 more with Benjamin with a half mile interval in 2:22.7. Benjamin ran the first quarter with me in 71. HR maxed out at 162. The overall feeling was that I could push more air through the lungs and more blood through the legs.

P.M. 2 miles with Joseph, Jacob did 1. 

A.M. Ran with 6.5 Jeremy, did 1000 pickup in 3:18.  Then another 6.5 with Benjamin. Jenny and Julia did 2.

P.M. 2 with Joseph. Jacob did 1. 

A.M. 20 mile run. Chad ran the first 9 with me then turned around. On the way back I did the 10 mile tempo. It was windy, the wind was blowing into the canyon again. I think it was stronger than last week - HR was notably higher, while the pace on certain stretches was much faster, while on others only marginally faster, and there was a mile stretch right when I came out of the Vivian Park where I could not even break 6:00. Total time was 58:23, HR hovered around 148-152, maxed out at the end at 160 on the uphill by the house. The 3 mile tempo stretch was 17:26.  Chad waited for me at the 16 mile mark, then tried to join me for part of the tempo, but his stomach was not cooperating so he only lasted about half mile.

Benjamin did 6, Jenny and Julia 2, Jacob 1.

P.M. 2 miles with Joseph. 

Day of rest. Went to church. It was a Fast and Testimony meeting. Joseph and Julia bore their testimonies without any prodding from us or any help at the pulpit. Our family policy is that if a kid is going to bear his testimony in public, it needs to be his own. Then we had a lesson on King Benjamin's sermon in Sunday School, and on Elder Oaks' talk about sacrifice in the Elder's Quorum.

A.M. Ran with 7 Jeremy and Ariel. Did a pickup for 0.4 at 5:15 pace. Then 6 more with Benjamin. Total of 13. Jenny and Julia did 2.

P.M. 2 miles with Joseph in 15:54 on our tough course, his new record. Jacob did 1 in 7:51. I held his hand because he could not do that pace on his own, and I did not want to slow Joseph down as he was on pace for the record.

A.M. Ran first with Ariel, then with Benjamin. Total of 14 miles. Did a workout to push the HR - 400 in 71.8, 100 recovery at about 8:00 pace, 400 in 72.3, 100 recovery at about 8:00 pace, 600 in 1:52.8, then about a quarter recovery at about 10:00 pace, and 600 in 1:48.5. Then hill sprints at the house 6x100 starting at 18.8 and finishing at 17.4, then ran 6 with Benjamin - did 1000 in 3:00.6. The first 600 were with Benjamin in 1:49.5, and I was already feeling not quite up to the task of running 3:00 for 1000. But I regrouped and gave it a push and was able to close the second on the 3:00 guy. HR hit 167. I was happy about that.

P.M. 2 with Joseph. Jacob did 1. 

A.M. 7 with Ariel and Jeremy. We did 1.5 fast down the canyon. The target was 6:00 pace. They both were holding the pace quite well and ended up running 8:49, 11 seconds faster. The goal is to teach their legs the idea that 6:00 pace is a normal distance race pace, not something reserved for a short speed workout or out of science fiction. Then added 3 more at home. Benjamin did not run this morning because he was taking an AP Calculus BC test. We decided to throw him in the water and see how well he can swim - so give him the hardest math test we knew of that scored something of value. The goal is to score 5 and get credit for BYU Math 112 and 113. From what he described, it sounded like he might have actually gotten it, but we'll have to wait until July to get the results. If not, he is only 13 years old, we will try again next year. This test costs $87. A BYU course costs $600 so it is worth trying it again to get the $1200 worth of credits.

Jenny and Julia ran 2 miles, including 1 with Jacob.

P.M. Benjamin and I did 1 with Mandy, 2 with Joseph, and 3 by ourselves - total of 6. 

A.M. Ran with Jeremy and Ariel. Did a speed workout. First 800 into the headwind in 2:42.8, then turned around, 4x400 with 100 recovery at about 8:00 pace. Started at 72, then faded to 73.8 on the last one. Jogged a quarter mile at about 10:00 pace, then did 600 in 1:45.5. Hill sprints, 6x100 starting at 18.2 and finishing at 17.3. Then 6 more including 4 with Benjamin and 2 with Jenny, Julia, and Joseph. Benjamin did total of 6, Jacob 1, I ended up with 14.

P.M. Benjamin and I went to the chess tournament. A rare occasion for me - I won both games I played, one against a 1200 player, the other against 1700. Benjamin won one against a 1300 player  and lost one to a 2000 guy. Two weeks ago I managed to draw against a 1980 guy. It seems like in both of those games there was a common pattern - first I lost a rook on a blunder, and then my king got chased and ended up on the other side of the board. This is usually a recipe for disaster, but somehow I managed to get 1.5 points out of 2 in those two games. So as I joke I can now say that if you want to do well against a higher rated opponent, you need to first drop your rook, and then you need to let him chase your king around. 

A.M. Ran with Jeremy and Ariel, then with Benjamin, Jacob, Jenny, Joseph, and Julia. Total of 13 miles. Benjamin did 6, Jenny, Julia, and Joseph 2, Jacob 1. 

A.M. Long run. First 9 miles with Ariel at about 8:00 pace. Then one more jogging mile, and then 10 back down the Provo Canyon and back to the house in 57:13. Felt sluggish but could hold the pace. The 3 mile stretch from Nunns to the mouth of the canyon was 16:52. HR hovered around 150 and visited 155 range when the pace became sub-5:40. Around 18.8 mark there was an interesting incident that might have messed up the last mile. There was a lady with a little dog, actually a notorious theme in the Russian literature, Chekhov has a short story about a lady with a little dog, and this theme is talked about enough for me to be aware of a proof of the fundamental theorem of algebra (polynomial of degree N over complex field has N roots) that is named "a lady with a dog". Anyway, all those thoughts came together when with a little bit more than a mile to go with about 8.8 miles of hard running behind me and in a state of fatigue all of a sudden I saw a lady with a dog, and the leash blocked my path. I made an awkward attempt to steeple-chase over the leash, and thanks to its low height I was able to clear it - hurdles are definitely not my strength - but it knocked me out of rhythm. I was still able to maintain 5:50 on the flat and 6:00 on the hills going back to the house, but not enough juice to go under 57:00.

There was some headwind but not as much as last week. Overall I am happy with the workout as I was able to run faster and at a higher HR.

Benjamin did 6, Jenny, Julia, and Joseph 2, Jacob 1. 

Day of rest. Went to church. It was the Mother's Day, so the talks in the Sacrament meeting were on motherhood. Then we had a lesson on Zeniff and king Limhi in Sunday School, and on prayer in the Elder's Quorum.

A.M. Ran with Jeremy and Ariel, then with the kids. Benjamin did 6, Jenny, Julia, and Joseph 2, Jacob 1. I ran total of 13 miles.

A.M. Ran with Jeremy and Ariel, did 3x400 with 100 recovery in 71.8, 72.3, 72.8 then long recovery, 600 in 1:45.2, got home did 6x100 hill sprints ranging from 18.2 to 17.2, then ran with the kids. Jenny, Julia, and Joseph did 2, Jacob 1, Benjamin 6. I did total of 14 miles.

A.M. Ran with Jeremy and Ariel. We did a 2 mile tempo down the canyon. The target was 6:00 pace. We went through the first mile in 5:55. Ariel faded after the first 0.75 or so. Jeremy also had a hard time in the second mile and ran it in 6:12, total time 12:07. It is interesting that they both did fine at 5:53 pace for 1.5, but when we make it 2 all of a sudden we are in a different psychological territory. We will try again next week and see if we can break this mental block.

Then I came home and ran with Benjamin. We jogged 2 miles and then ran 2 miles hard coming back. Our time was 11:36.6. It is not an easy course, I had to work to keep up. Benjamin was pushing the pace most of the time except for about 500 meters after 1.5. This is a breakthrough for Benjamin. I estimate he should be running a track 5 K in a low 18:00 or a little under. He will run the Utah Valley 10 K. The goal is to hold 6:00 pace all the way.

Then ran with the other kids. Total distances were - Benjamin -6, Jenny, Julia, and Joseph 2, Jacob 1. I ran a total of 13.

A.M. Ran with Jeremy and Ariel. Did a speed workout. Modified it a bit. Started with 2x400 into the canyon with 100 recovery in 78.5 and 78.1, 200 recovery, 200 in 37.3. The 200 was unplanned, I just had to catch up to Ariel and Jeremy. Then a long rest, and 2x400 out of the canyon with 100 recovery in 70.2 and 71.5. Then a long rest, and 600 in 1:41.1. On that one Jeremy and Ariel ran the first 200 with me in 33. HR was 163 in the 600. I felt awkward, like I was swimming and barely staying afloat, but nevertheless it was the fastest 600 this year. I felt like I could have gone longer, but not faster. That was 7 miles total.

Then got home and did 6x100 hill sprints on my regular stretch. The splits were 17.8, 17.5, 17.2, 17.1, 16.6, 17.1. I really focused on the 16.6 and it paid off, but then I think I was too tired both physically and mentally. Then ran with the kids. Joseph wanted to do a time trial, so we drove to the Provo Canyon as doing it on our course near the house would have produced slower times. I wanted him to experience breaking 7:00. We did the mile down the canyon. He started out conservatively and complained that his pants were falling down. I told him to let the pants take care of themselves and just run since they had not fallen down yet, and if they do, so be it, he is only seven. So his first quarter was 1:48, then as his faith in the stability of the pants increased he sped up to 1:46. At this point I was not sure if it was just the pants or he was not feeling good because he kept falling behind and was not giving me five when I asked him, so I thought that there was no chance of him breaking 7:00. But then he sped up to 1:45 in the next quarter, and the 7:00 target became reachable with a strong kick. He found it and closed with 1:40 finishing in 6:59. Thus he became the fifth sub-7:00 miler in our family, and the first one to do it at the age of 7.

Jacob ran with Jenny and Julia at a slower pace to where we finished, and then we all ran back together. Jacob ended up running a good time for 2 miles in his debut - 17:42, and it was an out and back course. Not bad for a 5 year old. He does have more in him, I believe. Benjamin ran an out and back 5 K in 27:25 at the age of 5 which is 8:49 average when his mile PR was 8:21, maybe he could have done 8:10. Jacob has already run 8:00.6 mile on the track. I think Jacob is faster, but less mature, so he cannot yet push himself as hard as Benjamin did at his age.

So Jenny, Julia, Joseph, and Jacob ran 2 miles, Benjamin did 6, and I ended up with 13. 

A.M. Easy run with Jeremy and Ariel, then ran with the kids. Benjamin did 6, Jenny, Julia, and Joseph 2, and Jacob 1. I did a pickup for about 0.7 to catch up to the kids because I started late. Total of 12 miles.

A.M. Ran with Ariel. He did the first 8 miles with me, then turned around. I finished the first 10 in 1:17:05 and then ran the same stretch back fast on my usual Saturday course - from the house to a few meters past mile marker 2 of the Provo River Half Marathon and then back. It was more or less a repeat of last week. I hit all my checkpoints within 5 seconds of last week splits, including the 3 mile tempo stretch in 16:57 ( 16:52 last week), which put me 3 seconds behind last week's time at 8 miles with the split of 45:24. But I was stronger in the last two miles - maybe it was from holding back a bit, maybe because this time I did not have to steeple-chase over the lady's little dog and the leash, maybe I was just stronger. Once thing I noticed is that I today I was holding a steady 5:40 over mile 9, while I was a bit slower last week even before the dog steeple-chase incident. Also I had a feeling that if you just gave me a straight flat road with no wind and with somebody to follow, I could run 5:40 pace for a while even in the zone. So I finished the last 10 miles in 57:03. No HR data today as my battery on the HRM strap died.

Day of rest. Went to church. We had another missionary couple from our ward speak. They will be living in their home but serving full time at the Missionary Training Center in Provo. What I really like about our ward is that we have a large number of missionaries - both young and old. There is something special about a senior couple going on a mission. Sarah and I are planning on that once we grow up. It will not happen for another 18 years, though, unless they change the rules as we are expecting our eighth child.

The lesson in Sunday School was on Abinadi. Whenever I read that part of the Book of Mormon I am always amazed at Abinadi's calm and thoroughness in teaching as he speaks to king Noah and his wicked priests as they are getting ready to burn him to death. When we read the story somewhat superficially at first we just see the courage and conviction of Abinadi as he refuses to recant his words under the threat of death. That is what I got out of it after reading it for about maybe the first 20 times. But then I began to see more - Abinadi gives a very thorough explanation of how the law of Moses points to the Atonement of Christ as he quotes and explains the prophesies of Isaiah. There is a certain special rhythm, for lack of a better word, to his discourse. It sounds like inspiring music to me as it lays out the Plan of Salvation before the reader.

Then the lesson in the Elder's Quorum was on scripture study. 

A.M. Ran with Ariel, then with the kids. Total of 12 miles. Benjamin did 6, Jenny, Julia, and Joseph 2, Jacob 1, and William 0.3. 

A.M. Ran with Ariel first. Did a workout - 2x400 up 76.0, 77.0 with 100 recovery at 9:00 pace, then 2:30 rest, 2x400 down with 100 recovery at 9:00 pace in 71.4, 71.9, then long rest and 600 in 1:42.7. Got home, did 6x100 uphill starting at 18.2 and finishing at 17.4. Then ran with the kids. Benjamin did 6, Jenny, Julia, and Joseph 2, Jacob 1, William 0.3. Total of 13 miles.

P.M. We had a convert baptism in our ward.  A newlywed sister from Korea got baptized by her husband, who is also Korean, but has lived in the US for some time. Her father-in-law is good friends with Elder Choi of the Seventy, some may remember his talk I Love Loud Boys. He came to the baptism, spoke, and performed the confirmation. I am sure glad that Elder Choi loves loud boys. While our bishop was speaking about how Alma baptized in the waters of Mormon, my 7-year-old son Joseph exclaimed - "And he baptized 204 people!". When the bishop complimented him on learning well in Primary, Joseph responded: "I did not learn that in Primary, I read it myself!" Joseph reads his scriptures every day.

A.M. Ran with Jeremy and Ariel. We did a 2 mile time trial/6:00 pace "till the standard bearer fainteth". I learned a few things from last week and tried to do a better job pacing holding it back in the first 0.5. I also learned Ariel's patterns of losing contact better, and yelled "Da me cinco!" (Give me five) when I sensed he was about to lose contact in the next 5 seconds. In the past I asked him for a low five after he had lost the contact, but that did not work for him. I needed to ask while he was still in contact as a matter of prevention. This would give him an immediate goal to focus on instead of thinking negatively that he could not keep the pace. Right before the end of the first mile, which we did in 6:00 he said he could not go anymore. I told him he was not allowed to quit, and to give me five. He did. He ended up running the second mile in 5:58 for the total of 11:58 for 2 miles. Jeremy pulled ahead in the last quarter and finished in 11:53. So there is a lesson to learn from that. It is possible for the mind to perceive that you are not able to keep the pace any longer and believe that this is true enough to vocally protest at the point when in truth you are able to run twice the distance even speeding up slightly in the second half.

This is not to say that you can think and visualize yourself into running beyond the body's true limit. Your body has a real physical limit on any given day. The only way to raise it is to improve your health, training and recovery. But you will never find out what that limit is if you allow your mind to set limits on your body. Just go until you cannot, and then keep going at the same pace one more step at a time. One more step, one more step. 

After that I ran with the kids. Benjamin did 6, Jenny, Julia, and Joseph 2, Jacob 1, and William 0.3. Total of 13.5 for me. 

A.M. Ran with Jeremy and Ariel. Did my regular workout. 2x400 with 100 recovery up in 77 and 78, then long rest, 2x400 down with 100 recovery in 70.6 an 69.4, then long rest and 600 in 1:42.0 with Jeremy and Ariel joining me for the first 200. HR hit 170. I think this routine has been effective for kicking the low HR problem whatever its cause was. I was concerned enough about it to get a blood test done, which, no surprise, revealed nothing. Got home, did 6x100 uphill ranging from 17.9 to 17.2 at the end. Ran more with the kids. Benjamin did 6, Jenny, Julia, and Joseph 2, Jacob 1, and William 0.3. Total of 13.5.

A.M. Ran with Ariel for the first 6.5 miles. Then with the kids. Benjamin did 6, Julia and Joseph 2, Jacob and Jenny 1, William 0.3. Benjamin and I saw Jeremy shortly before our turnaround and chased him down running a mile in 5:35. Total of 12.5 miles for me.

A.M. Long run. 20 miles total. Started with Ariel, he ran 3.25 miles with me then turned around as he had to be done early. I got through the first 10 miles in 1:15:25, then turned around and ran my usual 10 mile tempo. There was more headwind today than last week, I think, judging from the splits. At times I would hit splits that were much faster over relatively short segments, and then at other times go the same or slower which seemed to coincide with gusts of wind. I ended up hitting the 3 mile tempo stretch in 16:58, but the first mile of it was 5:34 and then the wind slowed me down. My split at 8 miles was 45:16. Benjamin came to rescue me in the last mile. It helped a lot to have him around on those hills. I ended up with 56:57 for 10 miles. HR hit 162 on the last hill. Most of the time through the last 5 miles it was around 153.

Jenny and Jacob did 1, Benjamin 6, Julia and Joseph 2. 

A.M-2: 0.3 with William. 

Day of rest. Went to church as usual. We had talks on the Atonement in the Sacrament meeting. Then a lesson on the remaining part of Abinadi's testimony in Sunday School, and a lesson on Elder Holland's talk Laborer's in the Vineyard. 

A.M. Ran alone first, ran into Matt Harmer and joined him for a bit. Then got home, ran with Benjamin but he could only go a mile barely as he tensed his neck while sleeping and could not move much without pain. Amazing what a tense neck can do. Then did 2 with Joseph which included a trip to the track at Orem High. He did a 400 meter time trial in 93.0. His first 200 was 43, then he did not quite know how to run the last 200. We'll work on it, but 93.0 is still a good quarter for a 7 year old.

Then ran with the other kids. Jenny and Jacob did 1, Julia 2. I ended up with a total of 12.3.

A.M. Ran alone. Did a slightly modified version of my Tue/Thu workout. 5x400 down with 100 recovery with the times in the 72.6 - 74.0 range. Then long rest, and 600 in 1:41.9. Then got home and did 6x100 hill sprints starting at 18.2 and ending at 17.2. Then ran with the kids.

Benjamin's neck was still not allowing him to run, Jenny, Julia, and Joseph did 2, Jacob did 1, William 0.3. I did a tempo pickup for 0.6. Total of 13.5 for me.

P.M. 1 with Benjamin. He tried running with a neck brace and it worked somewhat. I had a thought that he should try running a little faster, and it seemed to help - his form loosened up at least and he looked more normal. 

A.M. Ran with Ariel. Paced him through a 2.5 mile time trial down the canyon. The target was 6:00 pace, so 15:00. He did 5:58, 6:00, and 2:56 for the last half - total of 14:54. This time he did not need very much "Da me cinco", and was able to focus on his own and maintain contact. This is great improvement for him. When he was 23 he ran the half in 1:09. He is 49 now. Physiologically there should be a 1:15 half in him still, or at least 1:18. But the problem is that when its been so long you forget how to run fast for a long time and start thinking of 6:00 as a sprint, 7:00 as 5 K pace, etc. Perhaps the reason why someone who used to be fast can return to being fast much easier than someone who has never experienced is that he expects a faster pace to be normal, and does not think of it as something outrageous. The same idea helped me learn Spanish - being fluent in English and in Russian I was just expecting to be able to say whatever I needed to and understand everything said to me regardless of the language, and when that ability was not there it bothered me enough that I would do what it took to fix the problem, while perhaps if I just expected Spanish to be a foreign language I would have just given up and never bothered to learn.

Got home ran with the kids. Benjamin did 2, Jenny, Julia, and Joseph 2, Jacob 1, William 0.3. Visiting cousins ran various distances. Total of 12.5 for me. 

A.M. Ran with Jeremy and Ariel. Did a workout. 5x400 with 100 recovery starting at 74.0 and finishing at 71.4 down the canyon. Held together better that on Tuesday - kept speeding up in spite of short recoveries. Then a long recovery, and 600 in 1:40.1. Ariel did the first 200, Jeremy did the first 300. The splits were 34 and 51. Then I was able to speed up closing the last 300 in 49. I was happy about that. 

Then 6x100 uphill at the house. I did the first three in 18.0, 18.2,  17.7 and felt like I had put quite a bit of effort into them. Then Joseph came and raced me. He was far behind (around 24 seconds), but just knowing there was somebody behind made me run it in 17.3. Then his cousin Nicholas came. Nicholas is 15, and I knew from running with him that there was a possibility that he could outrun me in 100 meters. With Nicholas racing me, even though he fell behind right away, and I knew he would not be getting faster as the hill got steeper, I ran scared and hit 16.5 - my best time on this stretch so far ever. Nicholas ran 18.7.  This was quite remarkable to me. Every single time I do this workout I try to figure out a way to make myself run faster. I try to focus, etc. All of this got me 16.6 twice in the entire history of this workout, and most of the time I do not even break 17.0. A 15 year old kid shows up and runs 2 seconds behind me, and all of a sudden I am able to run 16.5. In the last one, now we had Nicholas and his older brother Zachary. This time I knew that Nicholas could not outrun me, and I also knew that Zachary was not that much faster than Nicholas if at all. I still ran scared because I heard their steps, but I was not as scared as the first time, so I ran 16.8. They got something around 18.5.

Ran some more with the kids. Benjamin did 4, Jenny, Julia, and Joseph 2, Jacob 1, William 0.3. Total of 13.5 miles for me.

 Discussed the subject of internal and external motivation using my hill sprint example with my brother in law who teaches math education at the University of Nebraska. We both agreed that this was a good example that you cannot rely on internal motivation alone effectively. Even though I am mature in age (39 years), and just about as motivated internally to run as anyone could be (I have never missed more than 3 consecutive days of training in more than 27 years, I walk around and think what I need to do to get faster), the mere presence of a rather weak competition gives me significant improvement in performance. Yet the going theory in the educational circles is that competition is bad, and teachers who attempt to introduce it experience a lot of resistance. Perhaps that is the answer to our problems with education 

A.M. Ran alone for the first 6. Decided to do a little tempo on the way back. Did almost 3 miles of tempo, the last 3 miles was 17:15, probably would have been around 17:10 had I turned on the engine right away. Then ran with the kids. Benjamin did 6, Jenny and Jacob 1, Julia and Joseph 2, William 0.3. 12.3 total for me.

A.M. Total of 15. Did a 6 mile tempo run in the canyon 3 up then 180 and 3 back down. It was an odd run. First mile was good - 5:51, and felt sustainable in spite of the uphill and headwind. Then all of a sudden I had difficulty maintaining the pace in the second mile - 6:16. It did not seem like the uphill got too much steeper or the headwind stronger. HR was stable at around 154-157. I did not understand that. Then I slowed down even more - 6:33. The uphill gets steeper at that point, and the headwind did pick up, but still I think that was too much of a slowdown. Then I turned around, took some time to shift gears, finally got going. Hit the first mile back in 5:35. Then all of a sudden I got a side ache. I do not get them often, in fact, that is the first one I got in three years or so. And it was bad. I had to slow down to 5:50 pace for a while. Next mile was 5:48. With three quarters to go the side ache subsided some and I was able to speed up a little. In the last quarter I had some zip in the legs and ran it in 79. Last mile was 5:43, total time 35:43.

Got home ran with the kids. Jenny did 1, Julia and Joseph 2, Jacob 1, Benjamin 6. Benjamin and I ran the last 1.5 of our run  in 8:53. Total of 16.6 for me.

P.M. 0.3 with William. 

Day of rest. Went to church. We had a Fast and Testimony meeting. Then a lesson in Sunday school. Learned some Korean in it as we started a class for new members and investigators and we had two Korean speakers there. Then we had a lesson in the Elder's quorum on sustaining our leaders.

A.M. Ran with Ariel. Felt like I needed a mental reboot after the Saturday oddity. Figured it would be good to run a sub-5:00 mile. Short, fast, and a side benefit of increased glycogen accumulation kick-back, which I could use before the marathon on Saturday. Had Ariel help me for about 250 meters after 800. Ran it down the canyon. Splits were 71, 73, 75, 75 - 4:54.3. I think once I knew I had sub-5:00 in the bag I mentally relaxed and was not motivated to push harder. Plus 5:00 is not a walk in the park for me by any means even for short distances, so 75s was a nice compromise in the second half, I suppose.

Ran with the kids afterwards. Benjamin did 6, Jenny and Jacob 1, Julia and Joseph 2.

P.M. 0.3 with William. 

A.M. 8 miles total, all with the kids, except for a 0.5 pickup at 5:40 pace. Benjamin did 6, Jenny and Jacob 1, Julia and Joseph 2.

P.M. 0.3 with William. He set a personal course record of 2:57. That distance is a little less than 0.3 and I have not yet wheeled it, but I write 0.3 to round it off. 

A.M. Did 6 with Ariel, then 2 with Benjamin, and 1 with Jacob and Julia. Benjamin added 2 more with Joseph. I ended up with 9 miles.

Yesterday I found an answer to a question that I have been trying to answer for years. We have these odd pieces in my running:

• Best 100 m 13.9
• Best 800 2:12
• Best 5 K 15:37
• VO2 Max 75.9 
• Funny looking form, problems with stability on the right side
• Constant feeling of running against myself, being stuck in the mud 

A.M. 4 with Ariel. 2 with Julia, Joseph, and Jacob. Jacob surprised me today. I challenged him to run 2 miles instead of just 1, and he agreed. I was expecting him to fall far behind as Joseph lately has been closing his 2 mile runs with a sub-8:00 mile, but he held on quite well and finished our hard 2 mile course that I think is actually longer in 17:02. I am estimating this is worth sub-26:00 in a 5 K. Benjamin's best 5 K at the age of 5 was 27:25.

Jenny ran 1 mile. Benjamin did a total of 4. I ended up with a total of 6.

P.M. 0.3 with William. 

A.M. Did my pre-marathon carbo-load stimulation workout. It was my number 3000 or however many I've done in my life speed workout done with spina bifida occulta, but the first one in which I knew I had it. I wondered how it would affect me - would it make me slack off some knowing I had an excuse to be slow, or would I get mad and push harder? I believe the workout was sufficiently short and painful to not allow me time to think about it - I just ran. The workout was 1000 meters down the canyon with the target of under 3:00. Jeremy helped me with the first 200 meters. The splits were 35, 36, 34, 37, 36 - 2:58.2. I believe the variation was caused by the shifting direction of the wind. I did not feel like I increased the effort for 34 or decreased it for 37.

Benjamin did 3, Jacob 1, Julia and Joseph 2, Jenny 1.

P.M. 0.3 with William. 

A.M. Utah Valley Marathon, 2:41:31, 8th place.

The fields was loaded today, but the times were slow due to a headwind from about 7.5 to about 20.  I felt the effects of headwind a lot. Up to 7.5 I was doing great. I worked together with Jordan Perry and Scott Keate, we traded leads every 4 minutes. Jon Kotter and three Kenyans were up ahead. Riley Cook and Bryant Jensen were behind but they caught up to us around 7. Our splits were 5:33, 5:32 (11:05), 5:31 (16:36), 5:31(22:07), 5:41 (27:48),  then with some headwind/crosswind next two miles in 11:34 (39:22). Little did I know that I would have only one more mile in the race that would be under 6:00.

And then we got onto Hwy 189 heading to Provo, and the headwind started. Last night Scott expressed concerns about the headwind in the forecasts. I dismissed it saying the wind is never too bad when it does blow the wrong way, and it usually blows the right way anyway. However, today was an exception. It was more than just occasional gusts - it was steady and relentless, and gradually eating away at my hopes of a decent time. This was bad news for me for two reason. Slow time is one. Ability to compete is the other. Lately I have experienced problems with the headwind consistently slowing down more than what is usual even for me which is more than the average runner in my bracket. I tried to address them by doing speed into a headwind with no results. I am wondering if my lower spine experienced some deterioration in the last year. Regardless of the cause, it is a fact that at this point headwind is a serious competitive disadvantage for me.

I quickly went from being conversational to struggling to maintain contact with my partners. It was an odd feeling. I still felt like I could talk, the headwind did not tax my breathing. But I just did not have the power in the legs to go the pace, or so it felt. Perhaps the wind was changing the position of the torso which made it impossible due to the vertebral defect to get either good bounce out of the spinal column or push with the leg muscles effectively.  

I struggled for about a mile, then lost the contact for good, and now had a problem. The headwind moved me down into a lower bracket, but I had been in a higher bracket for the first 7.5 miles which was enough to gap my current bracket by a lot. So I was alone, battling the headwind, and whoever would come from behind I would not likely be able to keep up with because anybody who could catch up would want to go faster. Those who would go the pace I could handle were too far behind to be able to close the gap. And that pace was somewhere in the 6:20-6:40 range. There was one 5:55 mile (downhill), after that no downhill could compensate for the wind for me. I got to 10 miles in 57:55, so that is 18:33, 6:11 average, but that was helped by that miracle 5:55 mile. 1:17:06 at 13 (19:11 for 3 miles, 6:24 avg), 1:17:53 at the half.

Things started to look ugly. I was concerned that inefficient headwind running could run me out of fuel, and then I would be jogging (more than I already was), and that jog could start very early, so this could be a very long day. Unlike my last marathon, though, I had good things going for me - I was healthy, and I had good opening miles, which is an indication of good fuel levels, and I also felt not too weak in the fuel department even with the headwind. 

 Nevertheless, the idea of 6:20s that early in the race that could eventually deteriorate into who knows what did not sound appealing to me at all. I really did not want to run any further. Nevertheless, I had taken a comp, and when I do I make it a matter of principle to finish unless there is a serious risk to my health. I knew that it would matter to Hyrum to have one more person in the results with a time under 2:50 especially on a day like this when sub-2:50 becomes a more rare commodity. And I did not want to set a bad example for my children by not finishing the race I could have finished. So I just pressed on hoping that if things got worse they would not get much worse.

Was still at sub 6:00 average at 15 - 1:29:50, but that was the last mile where I had sub-6:00 average. Got passed by a runner I did not recognize in the 16th mile. Tried to go with him, told myself try until 16th mile marker, but after about a quarter mile realized he was out of my bracket under these conditions. Saw Jeremy around mile 17, he ran with me for about half a mile or maybe a little more. It helped a lot. Kept watching my mile splits. They seemed to be stuck around 6:24. Well, at least they are not getting slower, and maybe in the last 6 there will be no headwind.

20 miles in 2:01:48. So 31:58 for the last 5. That is almost exactly 6:24 per mile, 2 seconds faster. If I hold that, that is a 40:00 10 K, add a little slippage in the last miles, so we are looking at 2:42. With the wind this is better than embarrassing. 

The headwind subsided some in the last 10 K, although it was still present. I began to use the knowledge of my recently discovered condition to help with the speed. A way to partially compensate for the missing chunk of L-4 on the right side is to contract the right glut to help with support. I've always known that if I managed to do that at the right time during ground contact I run faster. But now I knew why, so I remembered it at this point in the race. It was not easy, it did not want to contract, the timing of contraction was difficult, it felt like a complex acrobatic maneuver that required focus. But it obeyed me somewhat, and I was able to slightly pick up the pace.  My last 10 K was 39:43 at a fairly steady pace which is 6:23 average, and I was able to finish faster than the projected 2:42 by 29 seconds.

Ahead of me - two Kenyans went 1-2, Jon Kotter third, then Bryan Jensen, Jordan Perry, Runner X (will find out who he was when the results are posted), and Scott Keate. At least that's all I could gather at the finish line. Apparently Riley and one of the Kenyans dropped out. Not sure about their times, I left before they got posted at the finish, and they have not been posted online yet. But I do know that Jordan got around 2:35 and Scott around 2:37.

Benjamin took 2nd place overall in the 10 K with 38:42, which is now his 10 K PR. During the awards, the announcer first observed that the third place overall finisher was 15, then she realized that the second place overall was 13. Benjamin remarked it would have been funny if the first overall was 11, but that was not the case.

P.M. 0.3 with William. Kids did their runs. Jenny and Julia did 2, Joseph did a total of 2 including his track meet, Jacob did 1. Joseph ran 800 meters in the USATF Utah Junior Championship. He was very excited about it, and did quite well winning Sub-Bantam boys in 3:16.13. In fact, he beat all the Bantam boys as well, and lost by a second to a Bantam girl - they were all in the same heat, but the awards were separate. What is impressive is that he managed to run a negative split (1:39/1:37) in spite of the windy conditions. Then we saw a funny line on the stadium display - "Joseph Pachev Fast 3:16.13". Fast Running Blog, which is Joseph's team, got appropriately abbreviated to just Fast.

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