Blake Bennions running

3 nile warm up and then did 3x(4 on, 2 off, 2 on, 1 off, 1 on, 1 off) in the mud and rain. Felt tough, I averaged 5:30-5:40 or so for the 21 minutes of fartleks. 25 minutes of sauna at 175-180 or so afterwards.

Need to get used to this distance for my easy days. Felt good today, just rather time consuming especially with sauna at the end. Very enjoyable though.

25 minute sauna at 180-185 right after.

With Henry and Jake. Did a 5k progressive tempo towards the end with splits of 5:50, 5:46, 5:41. Felt good today but a marathon at that pace will indeed be a beast to attempt.

30 min sauna at 180-185ish afterwards.

Easy run in the rain + 30 mins sauna at 180-190

Warmed up a couple miles and then did 12x400 and an 800m. Workout was 16 400s but I ran out of time. Rest was 1 minute between each with 3 minutes rest after every 4th rep.

Splits were 75, 72, 72, 73, 71, 71, 70, 70, 70, 69, 72, 72, and 2:33 for the 800m. So an average of 71 for the 400m and sub 16 5k pace for the 800m. Not a bad day. Sub 4:50 pace feels rough, but it will only get tougher if I don't work on it

I've also been doing this set of exercises after most runs, especially hard workouts-

20 step ups

20 step downs

20 calf raises

20 single leg dead lifts

30 lunges

10 reverse lunges

20 squats

My yoga/core routine right now is typically:

Windshield wipers

Laying on back, twist hips and do leg drives on each side

Figure 4 sterch

Clam shells

Side laying leg lifts

Bridges

Leg lifts

Figure 8s

Updog and twist to each side

Childs pose

Cat cows

Bird dogs

Down dog and kicks

Lizard or pigeon pose

Push ups

Standing forward and side bends

Supplements I've been taking:

Collagen protein

Multivitamin

Recovery drink:

1-2 ounces cacao paste

2 cups milk

Collagen protein (2-4 tbsp)

Honey

Supplements I'm adding:

Ashwaganda

Beta alanine

Vitamin C

Fish oil

Flaxseed oil

I had started using beta alanine and ashwaganda over the summer before my injury but stopped as I figured it was somewhat pointless while out of shape. Vitamin C helps with collagen production. I'm starting to take fish oil and flaxseed oil because omega 3s are super important and very hard to get enough of naturally in my diet... also trying to eat more fish, but the nice thing about fish oil is that it's screened for mercury.

Also trying to sauna 5x per week post runs.

I think my current set up is pretty much ideal for achieving my running goals and staying healthy. I'm optimistic about this year.

Am- jogged home from dropping mkz off.

Pm- 2x5k. First one I just ran by feel and the second I slowed down to goal marathon pace and tried to keep it more controlled. First was 17:11 (5:22, 5:30, 5:40), 2nd was 17:52 (5:44, 5:47, 5:45). I didn't fall off quite as bad as it looks on the first rep- I jumped up onto millennium park at the beginning of mile 3 and there's an awkward transition followed by a really steep ramp up to the park loop.

Definitely in better shape from a month ago, and in colder weather on wet slippery pavement. Felt like I could have done another 3 mile rep at 5:45 pace at the end. Feeling great for 60 miles in the first 7 days of the year, but I should be cautious and ease up on the mileage a bit. I averaged 51 over 5 weeks before my down week to close out 2025, so it would be prudent to keep my average at 52-56 over these next 3-4 weeks before my next down week.

Cold snowy windy run @ 15° followed by 25 min sauna at 185ish. I prefer the 185.

Not sure if it's the sub 20 degree weather and snow everywhere or perhaps I'm feeling the mileage, but it didn't feel super enjoyable.

30 minute sauna at 185ish afterwards, much more enjoyable.

Easy run with Jake Kolten Henry and Wyatt. Did a half mile at 4:50 pace around mile 10 and then another half mile at 5:30 pace to end. I could run another 10 miles right now... not sure how fast though.

25 min sauna at 185 afterwards. Nice change of pace from the 12° my run started out at.

Easy run followed by 25-30 min sauna at 190. Felt alright. Might go for 3x3 miles at marathon pace tomorrow.

Might have to take my easy week early, air quality has been horrific this week. If air quality is good tomorrow I'm going to do 3x3 miles at marathon pace, if it's bad I'm going to go up to wheeler canyon for 10-12 miles.

25 mins sauna as well, ran my Austin air purifier next to the sauna while I ran.

Ran in wheeler canyon to escape the crappy air. Beautiful to run up there and I felt good today. I ended up doing a downhill 5k tempo at an average of 5:25 pace. It felt pretty easy, heart rate was about 160. I think if I was in endorphins instead of my nimbus I could have averaged sub 5:10 without pushing at all. So on a half marathon course averaging 270 feet downhill I'm pretty confident I could run like a 66 minute half. Ogden half doesn't have quite that much downhill though.

33 minute workout of 300 lunges, 200 backwards lunges, 200 squats, 60 burpees, 60 pushups, 30 jump squats, 40 figure 8s, 50 sit ups, 50 leg lifts, several minutes continuous jumping as active recovery between exercises- these were the total numbers from 3 sets in an attempt to preserve form... I think that was everything.

Average heart rate of 138, legs are going to be feeling it tomorrow. Much prefer sore legs over wrecked lungs.

Really hope air quality starts improving soon.

Easy with a couple strides. I do a 2-4 strides on most of my easy runs and forget to log it- need to do a better job of that so I can look back and see when I was/wasn't doing strides in past years.

Sauna at 190ish for 25 mins.

Air quality is finally improving. My legs are pretty sore. I think I'll just do 11 miles tomorrow to cap off my easy week and then get a jump on next week's mileage with 10 on Sunday.

With Jake and Wyatt. Felt sore but had fun. 25 minute sauna afterwards.

20 minute night sauna.

Ran up Wasatch boulevard and back while my dad biked and then did a few more on my own. Did a few downhill pickups and also closed with a half mile at goal marathon pace.

Warmed up a couple miles and then ran a 5k tempo followed by the last two 400ms of Wyatt's workout. Ended up being about

16:48 (5:21, 5:28, 5:23)

3 min rest

67

70 seconds rest

66

400ms were faster and felt more doable than I would have expected. Maybe I could just in a 1500m this spring and try to run around 4:10. The 5k tempo also felt really good, that pace is too easy for a 10k but probably a stretch to keep quite that speed for a half marathon. Based off how it felt today I could probably run somewhere in the 32 minute range for a track 10k and about 72 minutes for a half marathon... I should probably actually go do that now. I think after a couple months at 60-70 now I could potentially break 70 on a flat half marathon based off how today felt. I want to race a lot this year.

I applied to get free entry to salt lake marathon over the weekend because I figure it will be valuable experience to go out and see how it feels in real race conditions. If I'm feeling good and am in the top 3 at a 10k I'll try and pull off finishing top 3 at that race, otherwise I'll just take the last 20 miles as a mix of easy and tempo. That way I get a marathon experience before Des news and either have a really good result or don't go all out and recover a bit faster but still know what to expect.

I also want to race a 5k, 10k, and half marathon before that. Going to get all the prs this year.

Run plus 25 minute sauna. Legs felt good!

Warmed up about 3 miles and then ran 2 mile tempo and 10 hill sprints. Amazing how much worse 5:45 pace feels at 20° on hilly roads compared to 5:25 pace on the track at 40°. Hill sprints weren't really sprints. I took them a bit easy out of some combo of my neck not being back to 100%, not wanting to aggravate asthma, and being lazy.

Easy run, bad air quality is really getting old.

25 min sauna after

Am- 12.6 with Jake on the trails, got some solid elevation gain.

Pm- 2.4, all I had time for

Feeling way better after my long runs lately. Might be due to the sauna, or maybe just getting in better shape. Didn't have time to sauna today unfortunately.

Warmed up a mile then 8 power miles at 6:15 average (was a little faster than I'd planned, especially given hilly nature of the route) and then close in 3 marathon pace miles at 5:45 average. Marathon pace miles were downhill but I was in my gel nimbus and not endorphins so I think it's a wash. Actually I need to remember to never run faster than 6:00 pace in gel nimbus because they felt kind of awkward at that pace. Total elevation gain of 875 for the run so not bad today. For my route I ran up to the rec center and did 2 of the 5k course laps and then went home. Cooled down a mile. I might do 4 miles and sauna when I get home tonight. Gotta start having bigger mileage days.

Warmed up 1.7 and then did 3 mile repeats in the dark... Lacrosse team showed up at like 6:45- seems really late for practice. Splits were 5:07, 5:05, 5;02. I jogged a lap for recovery, but also took off clothes and retied shoes between both so rest was probably a bit over 4 mins.

The pace did not feel as easy as I'd hoped but it also wasn't wrecking me, probably thanks to the mileage I've been doing. Running fast always feel harder when you can't see well too. I could have done a 4th but I'm easing into 5k pace and my foot is still a bit sore from sunday.

This is exactly what I wanted out of this workout, perhaps a little shorter rest would have been ideal- but I just wanted to be under 5:08 pace and I was, and I was ready for a 4th at that pace. Feels good to know I'm where I thought I was.

25 min sauna afterwards

Easy run. Foot soreness still isn't completely gone. It's worse in my gel nimbus than my endorphins do at least tomorrow workout shouldn't be effected. It's pretty minor but I've considered taking an extra day or two off just to be safe.

2 easy miles and then 5 miles averaging 6:15. Felt nice and easy. It was really foggy today, could see no more than about 30-50 feet ahead.

Easy run. I figured a 12 mile 2x4 @ mp run followed by another 12 mile run and then an 18 mile run on Sunday might be a bit much. Better to prioritize a quality high mileage weekend and just accept I missed my Thursday workout- or at least downgraded it. That's okay though, my plan was to have this week be more about easing into my new solo grind anyways. Hopefully Jake regains the fire in the spring- but for now it's probably good I'll be doing marathon specific workouts instead of miler workouts.

I also need to do 2 more hard weeks before my next down week in order to perfectly sync up my down weeks with tapering for the UVU 5k and the salt lake marathon, so this is good. Although my participation in the salt lake marathon in entirely dependent on whether they accept my elite athlete application... which is not that strong for the marathon at the moment given that I bombed the Huntsville half and my good races last year were trail races and a local 5k.

Easy with Jake Sammy and Wyatt. Did 3 miles at 6:45 but was tracking with my phone so didn't get hr data. Pretty relaxed week of training. Big day tomorrow and I'm feeling confident.