Breaking the Wall

Mon, Nov 09, 2009

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 07:00:00

A.M. Ran with Jeff. Benjamin ran the first 2 miles with us in 17:15. We ran 8 more and finished 10 in 1:18:06. Did a quarter in 77 in the middle to test the waters, and it felt good. Jeff made an observation that my back did not look as stiff and that I was leaning forward more. I was not trying to lean forward. I attributed the change to doing my Upper Cross Syndrome correction exercise throughout the weekend.

The foot pain is a whole lot better but still not 100%. With cautious optimism I anticipate to be 100% healthy in that area in two weeks.

Sun, Nov 08, 2009

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 07:00:00

Day of rest. We had a Stake Conference. The stake,is a group of several wards (in reference to the stakes of Zion supporting the tent in Isaiah). When I first heard the term in English I did not have any issues, but when I realized that its official Russian translation was ÐºÐ¾Ð» I was greatly entertained. Aside from a regular stake that you pound into the ground the word is a slang term for the lowest grade you can get in school - one, because number one looks like a stake. You do not get that great just for not knowing the subject matter, it is usually given for being a bad sport - e.g. if you get caught cheating on a test.

In any case, the word has acquired a new meaning for me since I joined the LDS church, both in English and in Russian. It represents a unit of strength in the Lord, something the Lord depends on to build his kingdom.

At the conference our stake was reorganized. Our ward is now much bigger, almost twice as big. The English population of our area is shrinking, and is being replaced by the Latinos. Most of the Latinos are not LDS. Even though many join our church, and the Latino branch is now big enough to be a ward, it does not make up for the exodus of the English speakers, and even if it did, the English wards would still be getting smaller.

My conclusion from the above is that we need to do two things to prepare for the future. Have children and learn Spanish.

Sat, Nov 07, 2009

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 07:00:00

A.M. Ran with Jeff. He is mostly over the swine flu. He monitored my form and compared it to what he saw in the footage of the Berlin marathon. He was able to see elite men, and the slower group that was running with the women. He noticed that almost every one of the slower men had a stiff looking spine, while none of the elite men did. Then he noticed that not surprisingly I had a stiff back. We spent some time trying to figure out the cause of it. The only way I could make it look not too bad was to lean forward excessively. Did some experimentation to see how hard it would be to run with that kind of lean at faster paces. So we ran 0.5 in 2:43, and then 0.25 in 81. It was not too bad, but there were no miracles either aside from the top of the quads feeling the strain instead of the lower portion.

10.1 in 1:14:41.

Then took Benjamin and Jenny in to the State Cross Country Championship. Benjamin ran 13:17 finishing fourth behind Aiden Troutner (12:08), Joshua Blackburn (12:47), and Lucas Norman (13:02). During the race Benjamin looked like he did not know how to run fast. His stride was long, but his turnover was very low. This should not have been a surprise as we have not done anything fast in the last couple of months due to my foot problems. More than anything, it was my oversight - I got too busy with other things and forgot to pay attention to make sure we were prepared for the meet. But on the other hand, no big deal, it is just a Bantam championship. Just get out and practice racing, who cares where you place at the age of 10.

Jenny ran a decent race finishing 7th in 14:28. Iain Hunter's daughter (I am pretty sure that's who it was, her last name was Hunter and she almost chicked Benjamin) won with 13:23.

Later in the afternoon I was pondering the forward lean matter, and remembered a detail. Some time ago Iain measured Jeff and I at his lab. One of the measurements was standing on the force plate for 2 seconds to determine the weight. But the force plate is a smart gadget. It does not just measure your weight. It gives you XYZ components of the ground reaction force. And I remembered that my X component was quite a bit bigger than Jeff's. Yes, when you stand upright there is a fluctuating X component in the ground reaction force because it is next to impossible to find such a balance that your center of gravity would be in the perfect position.

So I decided to integrate that component, or more precisely the acceleration from it over time. Turned out that over 2 seconds of standing I generated a velocity change of 0.1 m/s. Jeff did only 0.02 m/s. In other words, I had to work with my legs to pull my body forward quite significantly, or else my center of masses would have gone backwards and I would have landed on my rear at the end of those 2 seconds. Which means that my center of gravity when standing up is shifted towards the back with the feet ending up in front of it. I wondered if anybody has ever written anything about how the natural position of the center of gravity would affect running economy and found this article.

I tried the exercise suggested in it for correcting the Upper Cross Syndrome, and I like the feel of it. I also liked that it is easy to remember and do spontaneously during the day. We'll see what happens in a month or two.

P.M. Julia, Joseph, and Sarah ran 0.5 together, then I ran 1 mile with Julia in 7:52. That is her new mile PR. Her splits were 2:04 - 2:00 - 1:55 - 1:53. She was not planning on setting a record, just started out a little quicker, and I was able to talk her into trying to break it. Her previous record was 7:57.

Fri, Nov 06, 2009

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 07:00:00

A.M. Ran 2 with Benjamin in 16:25, and then 8 more in 52:19. Last mile in 5:55.

P.M. 1.5 with Jenny and Julia in 13:12. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:52.

Thu, Nov 05, 2009

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:00:00

A.M. 2 with Benjamin in 15:45. Then 8 more in 54:06. Monitored the form. Paid attention to the following: quicker knee flexion after the end of stance phase, relaxation of the quads while in the air, perception of effort, and the actual pace. Picked it up in the last mile and ran it in 6:02 gradually accelerating with the last quarter in 85. Liked the feel of the body at 5:40 pace. Felt the quads were able to relax and let the blood flow through them with less obstruction.

P.M. 2 with Jenny in 18:23. Julia ran 1.5 in 13:54. Joseph ran 0.5 with Benjamin in 5:15.

Wed, Nov 04, 2009

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 07:00:00

A.M. Jeff got swine flu. But he did not know it until after the run. But he did know something was wrong. So we ran very slowly on purpose. 10.1 in 1:23:59.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 16:01. Joseph, Julia, and Jenny ran their usual distances with Sarah on a bike.

Tue, Nov 03, 2009

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 07:00:00

A.M. 8 by myself on pavement in 55:38, then 3 more with Benjamin in 23:16.

Contemplated the form. Tried to figure out why it feels/looks weird. Perceived problem - some odd overstriding. I reach out in front with the foot, then start pulling it back, which is good, but it still lands too far out in front. Tried to understand why I do this. Then tried a trick on a whim - more aggressive hamstring action at the end of the stance. That in theory should help relax the quad, and also bring the knee up a little higher, and get rid of my patented backwards leg reach that kicks the competitors that are following too closely.

I liked the feel of it. Did not have an HRM with me to document the energy expenses, but it did seem that I was able to run a faster pace with less effort. The question is why I do not do that hamstring action naturally. I hope that it is just because I learned it wrong early on and never bothered to relearn because I had a workaround that kind of worked. A contributing factor could have been a knee injury at the age of 12, right around those formative years, that made it painful to bend the knee, and then the pattern of working around it became ingrained to the point that when challenged to run better by increased speed/distance I would simply invent a better workaround than address the root of the problem.

P.M. 2 with Jenny in 17:20. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 12:44. Took Joseph with me to vote. We ran there and back. On the way back I got disoriented in the dark and we went the wrong way for a while. So we ended up running some unintentional distance. Joseph thought it was fun, though, but started to get a bit tired towards the end. The whole run took us 11:29. Will call that 1.1.

Mon, Nov 02, 2009

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 07:00:00

A.M. 10 with Jeff in 1:14:59. Benjamin ran the first 2 with us in 15:37. I have transitioned to running on pavement instead of grass. Seems to make no difference for the foot. The dull pain is still there, about the same before or after the run. Day of rest does not do anything for it.

The speed does affect it though. I believe it has to do with the fact that due to more vigorous movement it becomes difficult to keep the heel from touching the ground hard. At slower speeds I am able to land on my toes and gently lower the heel later.

Could this be a minor stress fracture?

Sun, Nov 01, 2009

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 06:00:00

Day of rest. Went to church. Had a lesson on faith in Sunday school. Had some thoughts.

What exactly is faith? How does it really work? Faith is a very subtle thing. I would compare it to the TH sound in English. To a foreigner that does not have TH in his native language it may sound like T, S or F, but it is not T, nor S, and not even F, it is TH!

I would also compare it to driving on a narrow road in the fog while being pursued by the Russian mafia. You veer to the right and you hear the rumble on your right. That is how you know you went too far to the right. You veer to the left and you hear the rumble on the left. That is how you know you went too far to the left. You get scared of crashing and you let the foot off the gas, and the pursuers get dangerously close. So you floor the pedal and you listen for the rumble on your left and on your right. You must have no fear, yet you need to have a sense of balance and constantly adjust your course so you will not leave the bounds that the Lord has given.

I would also compare faith with physical endurance. In a Kenyan village the best way to get around for a boy is to run. So he does whether he wants to or not. Thus he develops a gift of endurance. In America the best way to get around is to drive. So that same boy while getting to places faster does not develop his gift of endurance quite the same. Instead of using the gift of science and technology to increase his fitness he becomes overly dependent on them and allows his fitness to slack. The blessings of scientific progress and resulting prosperity have become a curse because of our lack of gratitude for them.

Very similar with faith. When the necessities of life are no longer a daily certainty you have to rely on faith in order to survive. Thus a culture of faith develops. People grow up knowing what faith is and having a practical experience with it. It is as natural as saying TH to an native English speaker. With science and technology guaranteeing the necessities of life we become spiritually lazy and do not develop our faith quite the same. We could have used those gifts to create a culture of faith, but instead we become overdependent on them and our faith becomes atrophied. We are not able to see God with our spiritual eyes anymore. We want proof. We cannot tell the difference between right and wrong on our own, or are not even able to acknowledge it when taught by those who see. The little that we see by the Spirit we do not trust. The spiritual vision has become 20/800, God is 20 feet away from us but it looks like it is 800.

So what shall we do then? To develop our physical endurance we run. We defy the norm in a good way. Our friends think we are crazy for getting up every morning and running for an hour or more. Especially since we usually end up at the same place we started. Same needs to happen with faith. The mindset needs to change. We need not to be afraid to act on faith. Stop asking for proof. If deep down you know it is right, do it. If deep down you know it is wrong, do not do it. Learn to trust your inner sense of right and wrong, it atrophies otherwise. There will, of course, be missteps, given that we start with a spiritual vision of 20/800 or worse. But faith is developed by doing things that require it, and overtime that vision will become 20/600, 20/400, so on all the way up to 20/20.

Sat, Oct 31, 2009

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 06:00:00

A.M. Slept in on purpose. Spent the morning assembling the 12 chairs we got from IKEA for $20 each to match the table we got from a KSL ad for $235. 12 chairs has a special significance to a Russian due to a popular novel and movie with the same name.Now we just need to get some padding for them so we can hide the diamonds.

I discovered that a drill makes up for a good portion of my clumsiness, and having the kids do small tasks helps me stay focused. So it did not take as long as I was afraid it would.

Jeff ran in a little cross-country 5 K race put on by a group of Orem stakes, so we were not planning on running together. Nevertheless, when I went for a run I met him after 1.25 unexpectedly. Ran with him to 3.25, then he was done, and I went on to finish 10. Asked him how the race went. First sentence out of his mouth: "It was a weird race - the second place was 3 minutes back". Upon further questioning the suspect revealed that the race was really not that weird. There was a reason the second place finished almost 3 minutes back. Jeff ran 15:47. Second place was 18:36. It could have been more weird for sure.

Finished 10 in 1:11:57. Ran two more with Benjamin in 15:32. Jenny and Julia ran 2.5 with Sarah. Joseph ran 0.5.

Fri, Oct 30, 2009

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 06:00:00

A.M. Ran at Grandview with Jeff. 8.1 in 1:07:43. Then 2 with Benjamin in 15:49.

P.M. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:39. 2 with Jenny in 17:20. Julia ran the first 1.5 in 13:14.

Thu, Oct 29, 2009

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 06:00:00

A.M. 2.25 with Benjamin from Computune in 17:42.

P.M. Ran with Jeff. Joined him for a part of his control tempo run. His target was to run at 173 HR for 4 miles, then run the last mile hard. The purpose was to get an idea if he was fit enough to have a shot at prize money in Richmond half.

I ran the first and the fourth mile. 5:15 and 5:25 respectively. Also coasted through one more mile in 6:13 immediately following the 5:25. The foot did not like the 76 quarter at the opening of the first mile. I thought about stopping at 0.5, but decided to tough it out a bit more. Not sure if it was a good idea, but well, I did it. In the second mile it was not as drastic since the pace never was faster than 5:20, but the foot was already irritated from the previous mile. So my conclusion from this and my Saturday's run is that I should not run faster than 5:40 for some time. Not that I would be particularly anxious anyway - I do not look forward to anything faster than 7:30 in this kind of condition.

Jeff ran 21:27 for the first 4 miles, and then once the HR speed limit was removed, closed with a 4:54 mile. I think 173 HR is way below his half race effort, which is a good sign. So I am doing the following math - half race pace on the trail 5:20, take off 5 seconds for the weirdness of the trail (that's the difference I see between running on the trail and running on a street/highway), take off 10 second for going to see level. That gives us 5:05 pace, or in other words 1:06:38 for the half. With that he should be in the money in Richmond. Also, it would be nice to covert this math from theory to practice, and if we succeed, that's only 1:38 from OTQ through the half - close enough to see a flickering beam of hope.

Now it is the matter of logistics - time off work, finding a place to stay (they do not give hotel to anybody in the half, only the marathon), and getting a good airplane ticket.

0.5 with Joseph in 4:27. Jenny and Julia ran with Sarah on a bike.

Wed, Oct 28, 2009

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 06:00:00

A.M. Ran with Jeff at Grandview. 8.1 in 1:04:54. Then came home and ran with Benjamin. We decided to go in the direction of Sarah's run until we would meet her if we did not meet her before 1 mile mark. So we ended up going to the 2 mile mark, then ran back. 4 miles in 31:10. Benjamin felt it was like a jog in the first 2.5 miles, then he said it got signficantly harder, but he maintained the pace nevertheless. No surprise here. His usual run distance is 2 miles.

P.M. 2 with Jenny in 18:21. Julia ran the first 1.5 in 13:57. Joseph ran 0.5 with Sarah.

Tue, Oct 27, 2009

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 06:00:00

A.M. Ran with Jeff at Grandview. 10 in 1:15:56.

P.M. 2 with Jenny in 17:43. Julia ran the first 1.5 in 13:48. Benjamin ran 2 in 15:53. 0.5 with Joseph in 3:59! That is his new record. I believe it is also the family record for 0.5 in the 4 and under division.

Mon, Oct 26, 2009

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 06:00:00

A.M. Ran at Grandview with Jeff. Benjamin joined us for the first 2 miles in 16:48. We found a soccer ball and passed it along to each other as we ran. So a little bit of cross training. Total time for 10 was 1:17:28.

P.M. 2 with Jenny in 17:40. Julia ran the first 1.5 with us in 13:43. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:57.

Sun, Oct 25, 2009

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 06:00:00

Day of rest. Went to church. Downloaded and watch General Conference on my hack of a video playing system. Got a better understanding of the talks, some of which came while debugging the system. Hearing the same talk more than once eventually broke through a barrier, my eyes were opened and I began to see by the Spirit.

You can see some amazing things when you see by the Spirit! I strongly encourage that.

Those things, however, are not easy or should I say not possible to describe in writing. They must be seen by the Spirit, so I cannot post an image or a video, except refer the reader to The General Conference web site and encourage him to watch, read, and/or listen to the talks with a prayerful attitude.

Sat, Oct 24, 2009

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 06:00:00

A.M. Did a 5 mile tempo on the Fast Running Blog 5 miler course to access the damage from the lack of training and the foot-caused biomechanical problems. Set a modest goal of breaking 30:00, but still was not quite sure if it was going to happen. Wore an HRM to get a better picture of the problems.

Jeff and I warmed up 2 miles with Benjamin in 15:41, then ran another 1.37 to the start of the tempo. Noticed that HR was 125-127 at 7:30 pace - 5 beats too high.

The tempo went like this (quarter splits, off memory, my own not the watch's): 86 - 89 - 86 - 86 (5:48) - 85 - 87 - 87 - 87 (5:48, 11:36) - 86 - 89 (14:31 at the turnaround) - 84 - 82 (5:41, 17:17) - 88 - 89 - 83 - 83 (5:43, 23:00) - 87 - 85 - 84 - 80 (5:36, 28:36.0). 5:43.1 average, negative split by half - 14:31 - 14:05.

HR was 159 - 160 at 5:48 pace, again about 5 beats too high. I was not lucid enough to check it during pickups to 5:30, but I would guess 166-167, again 5 beats too high for the pace. Those were not intentional. Jeff was having trouble with his sense of pace due to the lack of anything fast in the last 3 weeks, and also due to the fact that the pace was dog slow for him. Nevertheless I was able to check the max HR after the fact and it was 173 probably reached in the last quarter. Not surprising. I nearly threw up when I finished from the effort in the last 200, which was done in 38

Jeff kicked in the last 100 on top of the already fast (for me) pace and managed to gap me by 4 seconds.

Afterwards we cooled down to make the total 10. Jeff then ran 2 more miles.

The foot did OK. I felt it, but it was at about the start of St. George level at the start of the tempo, which was OK but not that great, but what was encouraging is that when I was done it was not any worse!

Overall I was pleased with the results. I finished in the top range of my optimistic exceptations, and was able to do it with a negative split in a fartlek-style run with the pace varying from 5:56 to 5:28 excluding the last quarter. Some cardio power was lost during the layoff. Although most people would not call a training period of 8 weeks that involved 2 marathons quite exactly a layoff. What this tells me is that daily mileage is more important for aerobic power than a long run, even if that long run is long and hard. I did my long runs (TOU and St. George) , both done at almost race pace with at least 2:35 on my feet but my daily mileage was lacking. Thus some aerobic power was lost.

P.M. 2 with Jenny in 18:31. Julia ran the first 1.5 with us in 13:53. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:53.

Fri, Oct 23, 2009

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 06:00:00

A.M. Ran with Jeff at Grandview. 10 in 1:17:33. The knee still hurt from the fall, but it was runnable.

P.M. The children ran their usual distances with Sarah on a bike.

Thu, Oct 22, 2009

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 06:00:00

A.M. Ran with Jeff at Grandview. 10 in 1:16:43.

P.M. 2.25 with Benjamin, Jenny, and Julia to Computune in 19:07. Julia's record for the run. Took a spill on the the way, got a few scrapes. I have a peculiarity in the form, not necessarily a bad thing. I do not get off the ground very high, and I also bring the foot forward really fast to have enough time to pull it back before landing. All of this business happens maybe an inch off the ground if that. So if there is a bump only an inch high, you can guess what happens. The knee hurt from the fall, but I was able to keep running. In fact, it made me stop noticing the foot.

Wed, Oct 21, 2009

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 06:00:00

A.M. Ran with Jeff at Grandview. 10 in 1:17:57.

P.M. 2.25 with Benjamin and Jenny from Computune. Benjamin took off with 0.3 left, ran a quarter in 1:29 and finished with 17:39. I stayed with Jenny and we finished in 18:23. It was quite a sight to see Benjamin leave us in the dust while we were going 8:00, which is not slow at all for a little kid. Later 0.5 with Joseph and Julia in 4:26. Julia then ran another mile with Sarah on a bike.

Tue, Oct 20, 2009

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 06:00:00

A.M. Ran with Jeff at Grandview. Got serious and wore an HRM to see how I am doing on cardio. It was too cold for it to work - took me a while to work up enough sweat to receive correct data. At 7:40 pace HR was around 125-127 - normal for the grass. At 7:00 it was around 145, a little high. At 6:10 pace it was 157, not terrible. But I could get it up any higher and the culprit seemed to be the foot. It did not hurt terribly but at faster speeds I could tell I did not want to quite hammer it. Which is perhaps is a good thing. So my conclusion was that I did not get too bad out of shape cardiovascularly at least.

Total time for 10 miles was 1:14:42.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin and Jenny. Benjamin took off at the end and finished in 16:58. I stayed with Jenny - our time was 17:13. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:51. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:52.Now our family has only one person that cannot run a quarter in under 3:00 - William.

Julia ran 1.5 with Sarah.

Mon, Oct 19, 2009

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 06:00:00

A.M. Ran with Jeff at Grandview. We started out very slow, and at one point were more than 4 minutes behind the 3 minute per lap guy (7:40 pace). The reason, I believe was that we were too busy discussing my dream. I dreamt that I knew how to fly and remembered I had that skill around mile 21 in a marathon. I reviewed the list of USATF rules and recalled nothing that said you could not fly. When running at race pace you spend about two thirds of the time in the air anyway. They cannot possibly restrict the amount of air time. So I figured it was legal as long as I was not using an implement, mechanism or device to propel myself. I happened to have picked a bad spot to take off as the course went through a forest. Just as I finally managed to get above the trees I woke up and realized that I did not know how to fly. Nevertheless this provided a great subject for the morning run discussion.

Then Jeff went home (he runs to Grandview and back, while I drive to avoid having to run on pavement), and I decided to get that silly 3:00 per lap guy. So gradually picked up to about 6:30 pace and beat him by over a minute with 1:16:43 for the whole run. It was not easy, though. I felt like I was seriously out of shape. Not surprising given the lack of normal training recently. Also, the perception might have been exaggerated since I was on grass and wearing too much clothes for the weather.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin and Jenny in 17:18. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:16. He closed with a 1:58 quarter. Julia ran 1.5 with Sarah.

Sun, Oct 18, 2009

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 06:00:00

Day of rest. Went to church.

Sat, Oct 17, 2009

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 06:00:00

A.M. 10 with Jeff around Grandview in 1:17:44.

P.M. Supervised the kids on a bike. Jenny and Julia ran 1.5 in 14:50. Benjamin did 2 in 16:46. Joseph ran 0.5 with Sarah.

Fri, Oct 16, 2009

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 06:00:00

A.M. Felt better this morning. Ran at Grandview. Felt not that great in the first 3 miles, but then warmed up and felt normal. Wore new Airwalk Clogs to try them out. They are one size too small, so there is a bit of blistering, but otherwise they are very good for the foot - I could not feel anything and ran normally as far as I could tell. 8.1 in 1:01:55. Benjamin ran the first 2 with me in 17:22.

P.M. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:51. 2 with Jenny at Grandview in 18:31. Julia ran 1.5 with Sarah on a bike.

Thu, Oct 15, 2009

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 06:00:00

A.M. Was feeling fatigued, possibly because of a minor cold. So decided to take it easy. Dragged my way through 6.17 miles in 50:58 at Grandview.

P.M. Felt a bit better. Morning nap helped. Ran with the kids at Grandview. Julia ran 1.53 in 13:24. Jenny 2 in 17:11. Benjamin and I ran 2 in 13:48. Sarah ran 0.5 with Joseph at home.

Wed, Oct 14, 2009

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 06:00:00

A.M. Ran with Jeff. 10 at Grandiview in 1:19:56 barefoot. Rode the bike again to and back.

P.M. Supervised Julia on a bike. She ran 1.5 in 12:56. 2 with Benjamin and Jenny at Grandview. Benjamin ran 16:43. Jenny 16:59. I finished with Jenny, but I had a stop in the middle to go to the bathroom that took about a minute, and then caught up. 0.5 with Joseph at home in 4:14.

Tue, Oct 13, 2009

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 06:00:00

A.M. Ran with Jeff at Grandview again. The grass was warmer, so I ran barefoot. Total time 1:17:21.

Rode the bike to Grandview and back. On the way back had a bit of fun trying to keep up with a car from a standing start in a 25 mph zone. It gapped me, but not by a lot, and I felt the effort was sustainable.

P.M. 1.5 with Julia in 14:34 at Grandview barefoot. Jenny ran 2 in 18:51. Benjamin did 17:10 for 2 miles. Later 0.5 with Joseph in 4:52.

Mon, Oct 12, 2009

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 06:00:00

A.M. 10 with Jeff at Grandview in 1:17:25. Benjamin ran 2 with us in about 16:35.

P.M. Supervised Jenny and Julia on a bike. Jenny ran 17:41 2 miles. Julia did 1.5 in 13:27. Then 0.5 with Joseph in 4:59.

Sun, Oct 11, 2009

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 06:00:00

Day of rest. Went to church.

Sat, Oct 10, 2009

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 06:00:00

A.M. 10 with Jeff at Grandview in 1:17:50. I got tired of running 6 miles a day. The foot does not seem to care if it is 6, 10, or 0. Slowly getting better regardless, and rest, mileage reduction, or anything else for that matter does not make it any faster. I suppose if I moved to the pavement it would slow the healing down, but on grass it seems to be all the same. Plus I need my medication from running. In the last week I started to get an idea of why I never missed more than three days of running since I started in 1984. Not that I like to run that much, but if I do not I have a hard time focusing, and overall stop feeling like myself.

Kids ran their usual distances with with Sarah.

Fri, Oct 09, 2009

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 06:00:00

A.M. 6 at Grandview with Jeff.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin and Jenny in 17:37. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:13. Joseph's new record. Splits of 2:15 and 1:58. Julia took a break - sore foot.