This is how things are going

For those of you reading for the first time, welcome.  For those returning, I also welcome you.  I had all of you in mind as I did this post.  A lot of people will ask me periodically, "How's the running going?" or "Are you still planning on going after the Olympics?" etc. and for those of you I have not told or for those of you I have kept less informed this is the latest on my running life:

On Father's Day I was with my father and we were talking about life.  I told him I wasn't excited about law school or the LSAT.  Even though I was feeling good about those things and they were going relatively well, I was just not at peace with myself and my choices.  My dad proceeded to ask me what I really wanted to do and I told him what I have always told him--that I wanted to run full-time, see what I could achieve with full-time training and not have any regrets.  He told me that he would be willing to house and feed me and my family for about a year and then I could do just that.

Well my wife, Amy, and I decided it probably wasn't a good choice for our family, but my dad suggested we do a pros and cons list for staying in Utah and moving to Idaho.  We did just that.  As we did, we realized a few things and began to feel surprisingly good about the idea of moving to Idaho despite all the reservations we previously had.  Then, as we moved forward with the idea, miracles began to happen that communicated, at least to us, that we were making the right choice. (I talk about these more in detail on my 14 Miracles part 1, part 2, part 3, and part 4.)

Today my father-in-law and I drove my parent's mini-van pulling a 5'x8' U-haul trailer to Idaho Falls at 5:30 in the morning, unloaded it with the help of neighbors and friends from the church, then we came back to Utah.  We'll be staying in Utah until the 18th of August, then going on vacation from the 19th to the 29th, then we will officially be living in Idaho Falls where I will work part-time and train full-time.

The main goal will be to achieve my potential and ten years from now be able to look back and not have any regrets whatsoever.  This is my passion, my dream, my goal and I am giving up almost everything to chase it while I'm still young.

I would be grateful for your support and there are many ways you can do it.  There's a Support and Sponsor! tab up there for more information on that, but the best thing is to spread the word and let people know.  I figure the more people that know about the goal the more support I will get, the prayers will be said and deep down inside I feel like I will be able to achieve my dreams.  If I do everything I have imagined since high school I will be at the Olympic Trials in Eugene, Oregon next year and running in the Olympic final(s) for the 5,000 meter and/or 10,000 meter.  Help me chase the dream.  Thanks.

When There's a Burning in Your Heart

There was a morning before the 4th of July that I was driving to the track to do a time trial for 100 meters.  As I approached the track, a song came on by Death Cab for Cutie called You Are a Tourist and it was inspiring.  I've posted the YouTube video that has the song and lyrics below so you can partake of the goodness. (The music video is a little weird so watch at your own risk.)  The reason why it inspired me is because there's a burning in my heart, and that burning talks to me and tells me I can.  That's the fire the propels me forward with a crazy dream at a crazy time in my life.  I know I can.  I know I can go faster.  I can feel it inside of me.  When I'm running it's like I can feel my potential.  It's real.  I can feel the fact that someday in the very near future I will be able to drop several minutes from my PRs and amaze everyone including myself.  I just know I can run faster and there's a burning in my heart.

The Week of the Move

I apologize in advance.  I may not have a ton of new and exciting material for you because we're moving all of our stuff up to Idaho this Saturday.  I will stay and work in Provo until August 17th because that's what my boss has asked me to do and I was happy to oblige.  We'll be staying at my in-laws' place until then.  I am very grateful to and for them and all they do.  It's crazy to believe this is all really happening.  I'm not exactly sure what to think.  I'm tired right now and my calves are sore from the race yesterday.  Anyways, crazy life.

My Craziest Pre-Race Experience Yet

Okay, just to give a little background for today.  My best 10K up until this morning was 36:30, which I did as a freshman at BYU in the Rex Lee Run.  I have done 10Ks since, but they have almost always been part of Olympic distance triathlons.  So I went into this race wanting to break my PR and I did it.  I ran it in 35:13, and I came in 46th overall (check out the Deseret News 10K results).  Pretty fast field.

But the craziest, funniest things are yet to come. Making it to the race was a little intense. I left with enough time to pick up my race number, change into my racing clothes, and possibly take a little nap before the race. But I got lost, and I hadn't even picked up my race number by 1 minute until the race started, and I didn't even park 5 minutes before. For the full story, check out the video below.  I wanted it to be fresh and exciting so I called my best friend Brant and had him on speaker phone as I told him, which is why it might sound like I'm yelling--I'm not, I'm just talking loud.  He asked me questions and brought out some more details that made the story even better and more complete:

"I'm a little envious"

Today I had to meet a client outside of work to make it easier for everyone.  As I was waiting, I ran into a friend who is a really good triathlete.  I know he went to Age Group Nationals which is really hard to do, I know because I tried.  I also know that he did really well at the national biathlon (swim-run, I think, or maybe bike-run, duathlon) and was invited to compete in Spain for that.

Anyways, he asked how training was going and I told him that I was going to be moving up to Idaho to train full-time, work part-time.  He said, "I'm a little envious."  He said something to the effect that he wished he could go back and do something like that, train full-time and see what could have happened.

I'm grateful that I have great parents who invited me to stay with them so I could pursue my dream.  I'm grateful I have a great wife who supports me in my dream.  I'm glad I have a son who's 17 months old and to my knowledge is game for the adventure, and really from what I can tell, could care less as long as he has his parents, food and a place to sleep.  I'm grateful that I never stopped asking the Lord for a way to make my dream come true.  I don't know what's going to happen, but I am so dang excited!

An Unfortunate 26.94 200 meters

Okay, I'm going to be brief.  I let things slide this week and for the last week's time.  I've been sugar bingeing again.  There were brownies at work and I just couldn't help myself, I ate 4 or 6, I lost count for two days in a row along with granola bars and other wonderful sugary snacks.  This morning when I ran I felt sluggish.  Granted, if you compare my time today a 26.94 to last week's time trial time of 26.95  it's .01 seconds faster, but I KNOW I could have gone faster and I'm going to prove it to myself.  One weeks from today I'm going to run significantly faster, which for a 200 may only be a half-second faster, but I'm going to eat better so I can recover better and dominate my time!  That's all I have to say.  I will be better I promise.

14 Miracles (part 4)

The continuation of the miracles or tender mercies I have seen as my family and I have gone forward with the decision to chase my dream and move to Idaho Falls:

Miracle #8:  My parents, and siblings still living at home, feel good about it.  It's a lot to offer where they are willing to house me, my wife and child for about a year-ish and help pay for some expenses.  They are my biggest sponsor right now (besides God.)

Miracle #9:  We sold our food storage shelf.  Amy and I have been purging all of our belongings.  If it doesn't mean anything to us and if we haven't really used it then we're either giving it away or selling it.  Part of the goal is to accumulate a $1000.00 emergency fund recommended by the finance guru himself, Dave Ramsey.  Anyways, we had a food storage shelf that we were kind of using, and we knew it would only go into storage and we wouldn't take it to Idaho... Anyways, it sold for a good amount and that was a small miracle in my opinion.

Miracle #10:  I met with one of the owners of a new running store in Idaho Falls when I went there over the 4th of July weekend.  Who knows what will happen, but there could be some open positions coming available about the time I move there.

Miracle #11:  For my birthday present I was able to run the Firecracker 5K in Idaho Falls on July 4th, 2011 and I will be running the Deseret News 10K on July 25 so two road races in one month is more than usual, for me lately and that's awesome.

Grassy Hill(s) on a Rainy Day

Alright, so I thought it would be cool to have some video coverage of my training.  You got Plyometrics last Friday so today you get hills.  It's actually pretty flat for the first 120 meters-ish, and then it goes pretty steep which I like.  The grass is great so I can, and did do it completely barefoot.  I did six of these bad boys with 3:00 rest in between.  I figure it wasn't quite 200 meters because I was hitting 27s and 28s and with a little hill I don't know if I could hit that, BUT maybe we'll see.  If in Thursday I can bust a 24 second 200 meter then maybe I'm wrong... Vamos a ver.

My Wonderful Wife

I have a wonderful wife.  Today I was feeling tired and not completely up for an evening run, but then I got an inspired text from my wife which said, and I quote, "What if you went for a run while I walked with Kimball tonight at 7:30 or so? We could have a quick FHE and then go exercise."

It made me so happy.  I love my wife.  Even more.  We ended up going shortly after I came home and then doing FHE afterwards and eating dinner after as well.  It was great.  We both looked at each other during dinner and talked about how good we felt.  My wife helps me to run fearless.

14 Miracles (part 3)

Alright, continuing on I'd like to share 3 more miracles or tender mercies that lead me to believe this is the right decision:

Miracle #5:  I'm not going to tell all the details because I don't know if I should, but suffice it to say that I talked to an important person and to make a long story short I'll be running a big race for free in hopes that I can run a very fast time and attract some sponsors, or at least get on track for something like that.

Miracle #6: I met with Ed Eyestone, former marathon Olympian and NCAA champion, and he gave me a lot of really good advice, some of which I was happy to hear, some of which was hard to hear, and all of which I was grateful to hear.  I wrote a post about it called Meeting with an Olympian, check it out.

Miracle #7: Both Amy and I feel very good about it.  Now that should be no surprise to you that I feel good about it; this is what I've been waiting for for about 10 years.  Amy, however, has not always felt this is a good idea, but as of late she's just as excited as me and pushing me out the door to do a second workout in the evening.  I love her and I'm grateful for her love and support.

Plyometrics (+ video)

I was thinking back to when I was running my personal bests.  There are a couple factors that play in to that one of them being I was training and racing at sea level in Vancouver, Washington, but I remembered that one thing I think was a big contributor to me running my best was doing plyometrics.  

In high school we would do them almost daily.  We had a little 10-20 minute warm-up jog, then we would do 15-20 minutes of plyometrics, then the work-out.  Anyways, 3 days a week I am doing plyos (as we/I like to call them.)  I do them on my easy days, MWF.  I wake up at 6 a.m., read the Bible and/or Book of Mormon for 30 minutes, then I'm out the door to a nearby church where there's a small grassy area (that you'll see in this video) and I do plyos for about 20-25 minutes until 7:00 and then I run for 30 minutes either by myself or a friend.

Anyways, watch this sweet video, see what I do and have a good day.

First 200 meter time trial; I'm pleased.

So today was exciting.  I was tired and sore from hard training, but I went to the Provo High School track and did two all-out 200 meter repeats.  I was pretty pleased with the results.  I was hoping to run so fast that on my first try I would hit my goal, pass Level 2 and move on to Level 3: The 400, but that wasn't the case.  Here's how it turned out:

1st 200: 26.95 with 7 min 05 sec of rest
2nd 200: 26.97 and 800 meter rest and cool down after each repeat.

So I'm pleased for a few reasons.  First, I ran all out and I love doing that.  I could feel the lactic acid build-up, which I didn't really get doing the 100 m.  It was awesome. Secondly, if you remember from my 100 Meter Progression post my first all out 100 meter was 14.11.  Double that and you get 28.22 and my time today for 200 meters was 26.95--That's awesome.

14 Miracles (part 2)

Alright, let me give you a couple more miracles that just say to me that this decision is right.  Whether or not you think they're legit or I should move is besides the point.  This blog is for posterity, you just get to read it.

Miracle #3: When I was hired at my current job my boss asked if I would commit to being around for a while, at least a year.  I had no intention of doing anything else at the time, although professional running was a dream in my mind, but at that point didn't seem like it was going to happen any time soon.  I love my boss.  He is an incredible man.  I think he's one of the hardest working people that I know and it has been a huge blessing to be able to work for him and have a great job, especially in our economy.  He is however pretty intense and I hate not making him happy or doing things to disappoint him.  I think that's how I am with anyone I work with or teachers I've had--I want to impress and I want to work hard for them.  Anyways, so one of my biggest concerns was wondering what my boss was going to say.

I scheduled a time on his calendar the day before to chat with him, thinking I would have another 24 hours to really figure out what I was going to say.  That evening when the day was coming to a close I needed him to look over some documents I had prepared.  I went in, he helped me out and as I was leaving he said,"I saw you scheduled a meeting for us tomorrow.  Do you want to talk about that now?"  I got real nervous, but told him that would be fine.  I told him everything and he was very accepting, very encouraging and, honestly, he was excited for me.  Yes, he was sad to see me go, but he said he understood and wished me well.  That was awesome.

Miracle #4: With what we've seen for health insurance we were looking at it being one of our biggest expenses, but after doing some more research and crunching numbers it turned out to be $100-150 cheaper than we had originally thought.

Boom.

14 Miracles (to Date)

Okay, I know there's a movie called 17 Miracles, but I'm not trying to copy that at all.  Ever since I have made the decision to go to Idaho, or rather I should say ever since my wife and I have made the decision to move to Idaho and pursue my life-long running dream there have been some miracles that have happened.  I truly and 100% ascribe it to this decision being right.  Does that mean all of my wildest dreams will come true?  Who knows, but I do think it means that it's a right decision and I dare anyone to argue with that especially after you read this post and the post to follow.  I'm only going to list 2 miracles in this post in the interest of time, but stay tuned for more in the near future...

Miracle #1: Our apartment is great.  It really is.  We moved there primarily for the reason that it was/is newer than most apartments out there.  You see, last year I had a mold allergy because of the apartment we were living in and it messed me up; wiped me out big time.  So we found this place for a good price, but it's low-income housing, so you can live there if you make less than $40,000 a year etc.  So they gave us our first month's rent free upon signing a year contract because we weren't going anywhere for one year plus.  Well it turns out that if you move then you obviously break that one-year contract.  If you break the contract then you pay the free month's rent you got AND you pay the remaining months if your apartment doesn't get filled.

This is the scary part: They fill the apartments based on the ones that have been vacant the longest and when we moved in there were like four open apartments--not a super good sign. So we were prepared for the worst and seeing as how our financial situation isn't spectacular in the first place we were worried.  So Amy goes into the office, this is like a couple weeks ago, and let's the manager know we're leaving at the end of this month.  She looks at Amy with a smile, motions to her desk drawer and says, "Good.  I just got a deposit from a family a couple days ago and they want to move-in in August."  WHOA!  That was a miracle for sure, the fact that there was someone lined up and ready to move in practically after we move out.  Granted, we'll still have to pay that free month's rent, but as far as everything else goes we are good.

Miracle #2:  This one isn't as big as the first, but I see it as a tiny miracle or a tender mercy if you will.  We currently pay around $90.00 for car insurance (American Family, who I'm not a hug fan of) and it looks like we'll be able to tag on to my parents' plan and save $30.  The reason why this is a miracle to me is that money is looking tight.  Yes, we'll be living with my family and saving money on housing and food, but there's still expenses like health insurance, life insurance, car insurance, cell phone, races, travel to races, gas for the car and the list goes on.  So any area where we can save is awesome.  $30 isn't a ton, but every little bit helps and I consider that a miracle.

That's all I have time for today. Hope you enjoyed it.

The Agent

I thought it would be good to mention other things I've done in preparation for this big decision.  Eventually I could see my life's story becoming a book, maybe a book that only a handful of people would read, but a book nonetheless.  Anyways, so I have a buddy named Isaac and his dad is an agent for New Balance.  He's an agent for professional runners and has been since it was first started back in 1980-something.  Anyways, to make it short because I'm really tired, but still up because we're getting ready for a yard sale tomorrow, in summary what Bob the agent told me was the following:

1. In order to get sponsored you have to be really fast.  
2. The way to show you're really fast is to go out there and run a fast race.
3. Even though you may think you're sponsor worthy, until you've proven yourself, you're not.

He apologized for being pessimistic, but I told him thank you for being honest and upfront.

100 Meter Progression: Level 1 Completed.

Level 1 Completed.

In my blog post called This is what I figure I talked about some checkpoints I wanted to hit. One of which was to get right around 12 seconds for an all out 100 meters sprint.  Today I hit that checkpoint and next week I will be moving on to the 200 meters.  This is how my progression went.

Date            Time
6/9/11         14.01
6/16/11       13.62
6/23/11       13.51
6/30/11       13.03
7/7/11         12.23

Now, before you think I'm incredible or something I have to admit that I bent the rules a little, emphasis on the "bent" part, meaning I did not break them.  The time trials the 9th through the 30th I did the 100 m from a standing start, but this morning I thought, you know, if I had a running start I think I could hit my goal.  So that's how I did the 12.23 was with a running start.  I figure with the 200 m where after 100 m I keep running, meaning I don't have to stop and start again, that a running start for a 100 m time trial should be fine.  I feel good about it.

Meeting with an Olympian

Yesterday I met with Ed Eyestone.  I think I'm safe to say that Ed and I are friends. (Ed, if you read this and you disagree, let me know, because I thought...) Okay, so I emailed Ed and told him I needed to talk to him etc. and he said he would totally talk to me and we had a little meeting.

I told him at the beginning that I didn't want him to tell me if what I was doing was possible or a good idea but rather to tell me how to get to where I wanted to get if he were me. I don't know the ins and outs of elite, professional running so I also don't know what to do in order to get to the Olympic trials.  That was my purpose in visiting with Ed Eyestone.  This is what he told me, broken down:

1. "As your friend, I would be doing you a disservice if I didn't tell you that I don't think this is a good idea, I don't think it's possible, some dreams are meant to be and judging by your high school performances and collegiate performances this type of goal is not within your reach--So don't do it." (I'm paraphrasing a little, but this is pretty dang close to what he said.  Even though I told him I didn't want to hear this, I'm glad he did and I appreciate his professional, realistic advice.)
2. Get Daniels' Running Formulas and use that book for workouts.
3. Get your mile time down.  The guys who are the best at the 5,000 meters and 10,000 meters are able to run an all-out mile in around 4:00 or better.
4. Train specifically for the 5,000 and 10,000.
5. It'd be nice  if there was a weak event, but there isn't--we're stacked.
6. Run a race each month.

It was a great meeting and at the end of it all he said if I proved him wrong he would get down on bended knee and beg me for forgiveness.  I told him he could write the foreword to my biography.  He consented.  The end.

The Real Reason

I ran a 5K in Idaho Falls yesterday. It was horrible, and I'm not just being hard on myself.  Granted, it had been a rough weekend.  The little guy was sick and woke up multiple times each night while we were in Idaho Falls, coughing and saying "poo poo" because on top of having a fever and a cough, he was also constipated.  This was the first time I ever watched Sesame Street at 3:00 a.m.  Trust me, it's not worth it, but when your little one can't sleep because he has a high fever, you'll do anything so he can be distracted and won't cry and wake people up.  Anyways, I started questioning whether or not moving to Idaho Falls was a good decision because the race had gone so poorly, but I still felt good about it all and this is why:

The goal is not to necessarily to become the world's greatest runner and win 75 gold medals at the Olympics  the goal is to fulfill the dream I've had to become a professional runner doing what I love to do full-time, to find out what my body can do and in 10 years to be able to look back and say, "I have no regrets. I had my chance and it was awesome."


If that is the goal then I can't fail and moving to Idaho, on top of feeling right and all things falling into place, is a good decision.

The Proposal

It happened on Father's Day of this year.  Amy and I found out that my family was coming down from Idaho Falls to visit my uncle and aunt.  We asked if we could meet them because we don't see them as often as we would like.  They said that would be fine.

I mentioned to my dad that I wanted a priesthood blessing because I was frustrated with my life.  He said he would, but he wanted to talk about things first which was fine.  He asked me, "Okay, so what do you really want to do with your life?"  I said, "Dad, you know what I want to do, we've talked about this several times--I want to run.  I want to run professionally and go to the Olympics.  That's been my goal since I was a kid and it still is."  My dad replied saying, "Okay, well why don't you and Amy move up to Idaho Falls and live with us.  We'll provide a place for you to live and food to eat.  You get a part-time job and train full-time.  then you'll be able to look back and not have any regrets."

Now this isn't the first time my dad has made this offer, but this was the first time Amy and I seriously considered the offer.  This was Sunday morning when I talked to my dad.  Monday night, Amy and I had decided we weren't going to do it, but by Tuesday night we started making pros and cons lists for staying in Utah and for moving to Idaho.  We hated to admit it, but Idaho won.  The reason why I hated to admit it was because I hated admitting that I couldn't really make something happen on my own, but the more I thought about it the more I realized that if I was ever going to make something happen with my dream, this was a good option.

Law school and LSAT study are not out of the picture.  I haven't given up on those things, BUT I will be 26 this month and I'm not getting any younger.  The time to seriously pursue my dream without any regrets is dwindling.  I know that if I don't do this then ten years down the road I will look back and say, "What if..."  and for right now, I never want to say that about my dream.  Especially about my dream that has outlasted all of my other dreams combined.