Blake Bennions running

Warmed up about a mile and then did 3x mile on the grass with Jake and Kolten. Field was wet and grass was kinda long and there was one couple hundred meter stretch where the ground was super uneven and covered by leaves. No significant hills.

I kept with Jake on the first one and got dropped on the next two. I ran 5:44, 6:00, 5:50. Last two are somewhat estimated because my watch was being lame. Jake beat me by like 15-30 seconds on the last two. My legs were still feeling the mileage from earlier this week so I didn't feel fresh for this workout, but I've got a ways to go before I'm challenging Jake in races.

Cooled down about a mile.

Easy run with a couple 200m pickups at mile pace. Felt like spring today.

Easy stroller miles

Cold wet slushy and snowy long run with Jake. First time doing a 50+ mile week in years, first time since 2017 which shockingly is now 8 years ago. Have a lot of races I'd like to do this year, gonna keep steadily improving.

Easy run in the snow, was hoping to do more but ran out of time

Warmed up a mile with Jake and then did 3 mile tempo and 4x400m with 2 mins rest. It was a massively successful workout, I've had a huge fitness leap from this time last month.

The tempo run was a on a hilly muddy canal road over segments of snow and with a couple of gates we had to climb through mid run and we had to stop for a car at one point. Despite those conditions I ran 5:37, 5:49, 5:58 which was awesome. Very good run for me and I finished with Jake, I put about 50 meters on him in the first mile but he was slowly feeling me in on mile 3 and then I had to stop for a car and he finished catching up. He then started putting a little bit of a gap on me but the last part of the run was downhill and I caught back up. Great tempo run.

We had a pretty full recovery before the 400ms- like .75 mile and some dynamic stretches. The goal was to run sub 70 for the 400ms but I was feeling super good on the first one and took the lead and ran 66. 2nd was harder but I held on for 68. 3rd one I had to give it like a 90-95% effort to get 69. Last one Jake ran a 60 and I fell off a little and ran a 72. I averaged 68-69 seconds which I'd say is a success.

This is probably the best workout I've had since college. On a track as opposed to a muddy snowy dirt road with several obstructions that easily could have been a 5:30s average for the tempo run. I even averaged faster per mile than in my mile repeats workout last week on the grass field next to my house. Big day!

Stroller miles

Workout with Jake today. We warmed up and then did a 5 minute tempo followed by 4x 600m, 200m with 30 seconds after the 600m And 3 minutes after the 200m. Goal pace was brutal. 1:45 for the 600ms and 32 seconds for the 200m.

We ran the tempo just under 5:40 pace and the workout splits were 1:46, 33, 1:49, 34, 1:50, 37, 1:53, 34. I was pretty wrecked after the 3rd 600m as displayed by only being able to muster a 37 second 200m after that one. I'm pretty proud of the 1:53 considering how I was feeling.

Stroller miles

Cold long run with Jake. Legs were getting tired the last few miles. My knee hurt during the first mile or so and I stopped to stretch it out, hopefully that was just a weird one off thing, didn't bother me after that.

16x400m with Jake and Kolten with 60 seconds rest. Averaged 75. It was snowy and cold.

Pretty good workout today. I think I could have gone a little harder for the first 10-12. I started with a 79 and then was hitting a lot of 76s with a few 75s and 74s and my last 4 were 74, 74, 73, 72. I was pretty exhausted after the last one so really I think it was pretty good. More than anything I need to get my reps more consistent, I always start faster than I finish. I think my 2nd 200m of most the reps were like 39s.

Tomorrow I'm going to double with a stroller run and then easy 7 with 2 miles at about 6:00 pace. Wednesday will be easy stroller. Thursday will be another workout with Jake and then another easy run Friday and long run Saturday. Should easily get over 50 again this week.

I'm going to try and be consistently around 40-55 miles over the winter and then in March/April I'll start getting some weeks over 60.

5 stroller miles. Then is took a short break and went back out on my own, warmed back up a bit for a mile and then did 2 miles in 12:30. Felt really good and loose today. 6:15 pace felt really easy which is a good sign. I felt like I could maybe do that pace for a full marathon.

Workout with Jake. 2.5 miles warm up and then 6x3 minutes on with 2 minutes at sub 7 pace between each rep. Average paces for the 3 minutes went 5:50, 5:45, 5:41, 5:37, 5:32, 5:25. I forgot my watch so I had to extra motivation to keep with Jake for the full workout and I did. The last rep was really hard but overall felt great!

Had to take yesterday off because I strained my coccyx or something doing bridges during my yoga session. Not sure exactly what it is but my tail bone hurts when I bend down. Running felt fine today but I shall proceed with caution.

Long run with Jake. Took Friday off as well and now my tailbone feels 100% better, as does my throat. I think cutting out 2 runs runs totalling 10 miles to preserve my health was the right choice. Now I'm entering a long weekend feeling ready to go and ready for some big miles. Planning to do 10 tomorrow and then whatever workout Jake has on the schedule on Monday.

I ran the fastest mile I've run since I was at suu today by a wide margin. We ran up big rock (was a mistake, very icy) and then around the city for a while and spontaneously decided to do a hard downhill mile. Jake finished maybe 1 second ahead of me but our watches got very different splits for our mile times, his was 4:33 and mine was 4:42. So we ran somewhere between those numbers. I felt great though, pretty sure I could go 20 seconds faster in a race down that street. Was highly enjoyable. We'll find out if I'm sore tomorrow I guess but I feel great, think I could go for another 13 miles now. I've got the Saint George Marathon in my sights for this fall, would like to go sub 2:40. Lots of fun races to focus on before then starting in March though.

Didn't mean to go quite this far today with a track workout tomorrow but got lost in the canal roads. Felt good!

2 mile warm up and then 5x800, 300 with a minute after the 800m and 3 minutes after the 300m.

Splits were 2:29, 51, 2:29, 54, 2:30, 54, 2:33, 57, 2:36, 52.

Overall a pretty awesome workout. 300ms didn't go great besides the first and last reps and I fell off a bit on the last two 800ms. But I fought through the pain pretty well and averaged 2:31 and 53.

Easy run, 4.4 were stroller miles.

Workout with Jake. 3x 4 minutes, 2 minutes with a minute jog between each. Paces were 5:57, 5:45, 5:58, 5:58, 5:55, 5:45. Then did 4x200m in 31, 33, 31, 30.

Legs were sore and the canal road we did the first part of the workout on was hilly and had some gates on it. Our goal was just to stay under 6:00 for the workout, though it was harder to do than it should be.

Easy run primarily on the grass. Hoping it helps my legs recover for tomorrow.

Very windy cold run with Jake, too fast and too many hills. I need a hot bath and an easy run tomorrow. We're doing a mile time trial this coming Friday, ideally I can go mid to low 4:40s.

I'm thinking 4-8 easy tomorrow, workout Monday for 8-9, Tuesday rest, Wednesday 6-8 easy, Thursday 4-5 easy, Friday race and 7-8.

Already hit the highest month of mileage I've had since 2017, only 30 more miles to reach 200 for the first time since then. Feels good to finally be back.

Warmed up and then did a 20 minute progressive tempo and then 6x400m.

20 minute tempo was clockwise on the track in lane 5. My watch said we ran 3.7 miles and averaged 5:25, watch might be a little generous on this one. According to Strava I ran a 16:48 5k during this. Regardless of whether the germin was a little quick, I felt great and am 100% confident I can break 17 rn. I could have kept going another mile.

400s were rough, goal was 65-67 and I averaged 70. Splits were 67, 68, 73, 71, 72, 69. Seems like my legs have constantly felt sore this month.

21 miles over the next 4 days to get to 200 miles this month!

Easy run mostly on grass. 4 strides at the end. So many races I want to run this year. I'll do a few track races with Jake but I'm mostly excited for trail races and road races this summer. I'll do a 1500m but I think the big goal I have is to go sub 9:00 in the 3k, that would be awesome but I have a ways to go before I'm there. I think I'd be lucky to break 9:30 right now. 3 more months of 40-55 mile weeks and good speed workouts might get me there... perhaps I'll also invest in some super shoes.

Warmed up 1.5 then did a 5 minute tempo, 4x800m (2 mins rest), 4x400m (1 min rest). Ran at millennium park.

5 minute tempo was about 5:55 pace, I took 3 minutes recovery before 800ms. 800ms were 2:37, 2:41, 2:29, 2:29. I switched from the direction to the fast direction after 2. I got through 2 400ms in 69 each and then about 300m through my 3rd one I ran out of time because Beccas lunch break was over. Planning to do 4x400m tonight and then take tomorrow off.

Later did 1.5 mile warm up and then 4x400 with 1 minute rest, went 72, 70, 64, 65 on the 350 meter track next to my house. Switched directions on the last two. So an average of just under 68... obviously kind of inaccurate.

So 800ms averaged 2:34 and 400ms averaged 68. If that had been on the track I'd be fairly happy, I also have a feeling that on the track the same effort would have yielded slightly faster times.

Legs felt drained today. Did 1 mile with Whitney and 3.25 on my own. 200 for the month!