Blake Bennions running

Part of a mile repeat workout before the soccer kids showed up for practice, averaged 5:18 for 2.5 reps.

Stroller miles along Virgin river trail

2x 800m, 4x200m. I ran 2:24, 2:21 for the 800ms and 33-35 on the 200s. Pretty squarely in 4:40s shape based off that workout, maybe could get under 4:40 with spikes.

Busy weekend. Got in a few miles and 90 mins of tennis.

Neck got strained while sleeping over the weekend, I guess I slept on it funny. Kept spasming whenever I moved wrong for a couple days and had slowly been getting better.

Felt alright today, legs felt heavy and rough and my neck was tight and sore. Did some slow strides getting up to maybe high 5 minute pace.

I'm supposed to be racing a mile this weekend, we'll see how it goes.

4:47 mile at the Weber state classic. I was in the slowest heat and there were 20 runners and they put 8 of us in the 2nd row which kinda sucked. My plan had been to go out hard and try to take the lead or close to it and then hang onto lane 1 and see how long I could hold on. But starting in row 2 I had to start in the back and pick people off. I prioritized staying in lane 1 which killed my momentum on numerous occasions.

Painful race but I pushed through pretty well. My goals were pretty much run 4:40s and not embarrass myself and I feel pretty good. I took 12th in my heat and beat a UVU guy. I think I actually enjoy track more now in some ways, I don't take the races as seriously as I used to and there's not nearly as much pressure as I used to feel... track lung definitely sucks though. I'll definitely do some more of these and try out some different strategies. Fun to do a track race again!

Gully long run with a bit of warm up and cool down. I ran it pretty close to max effort, probably like 80-90% of a race effort. Finished 6.4 miles in 41:30, averaged 6:29/mile. My goal was just to go out and have a fast fun gully run and keep under 7 minutes for every mile, I ended up running 7:02 for mile 4 but overall it went well and I enjoyed it a lot. I'm happy I'm getting back into pretty good shape, the numbers and specific goals I set for myself would be nice to hit but the real thing I want is what I have- being able to run fast on a challenging course and feel good.

Also I thought the gully long run was only 6.25 miles so I might have started or finished at the wrong point. Either way, beautiful run and great time!

Feeling very grateful to be where I am and doing what I'm doing these days, life is good. Lots of stuff coming up that I'd really like to knock out of the park!

5 min tempo, 400, 8x200m with Jake and Whitney. I ran 62/63 for the 400 and averaged about 31 on the 200s. Not sure I could actually run 2:05ish in the 800m rn and I don't think I'll bother finding out anytime soon.

Got some really fun races coming up. Goals are to

Win Coldwater Traverse

Sub 4:40 at BYU

1, 2 Crossover Half with Jake or win it if he doesn't enter.

All those races within the next 26 days!

Then I'll have twisted fork, founders day 5k, and Des news this summer. Goals there will be win twisted fork, sub 16 at founders day, sub 33 at Des news 10k.

Either big bear or Huntsville marathon this fall and maybe some cross races.

Stroller miles and barefoot strides

Stroller miles and some barefoot running.

Insane how much different I feel at 5:40 pace and 5:20 pace.

Based off today I'm feeling pretty confident about running 5:40-5:50 pace for a half marathon, and I also think I'd struggle to break 16:30 in a track 5k.

Workout was

3 min tempo

Mile

5 min tempo

Mile

7 min tempo.

2 mins rest between each.

Paces/times were 5:45, 5:17, 5:50, 5:25, 5:40. It's so strange because the 7 minutes at 5:40 felt really good and only felt uncomfortable when we picked it up the last lap. I felt like I could have done 30 minutes of I'd had to. But the 5:25 mile just before it I felt like I was about to die for pretty much the last 3 laps.

Ran the crossover half backwards with Jake. Did 2 tempo miles on the way down average a little under 5:30 pace. Also did just a half mile on the way back up at 6:55 pace. I think both of those paces are fairly sustainable for the race. The turnaround mile is easily going to be the slowest/hardest section. It's steep technical and was very muddy today.

Boston Marathon watch party at Jakes house before a workout on the track. So much fun watching those BYU guys finish close to the top, Mantz is getting incredibly fast.

Then we ran up to the track and did a 5 minute tempo, some 600s and 200s, and then we did another 5 minute tempo. Then I did added 5 more minutes of tempo. Tempos were around 5:35-5:50 pace.

Honestly 5:40 pace was feeling better than the warmup. I could definitely break 35 in a 10k right now. In fact I think I might be able hold that pace for a nice flat half marathon. It's just too bad everything under like 5:20 pace feels horrible... Good thing Des news has a lot of nice downhill to start.

Easy run with Jake and Whitney

Easy run while my dad biked

Run/bike with my dad.

Warmed up a little over a half mile and then won the Coldwater Traverse 11 miler! Well my Strava said it was 11.75 and the 3rd place guy had 12.2 for distance. Regardless, it was a fun race!

I averaged 8:20 pace the first few miles during the ascent, about 400 feet of elevation gain per mile. Then I averaged low 6 minute pace on some rolling hills. I was averaging 7:30 when I hit mile 5 and had like the entire descent to go so I was thinking I'd average sub 7 for the run... then I hit the technical section. Like miles 6 to 9 were super technical. No one went with me at the start of the race so I was more focused on time and running a course record, which I think I might have done if the course wasn't long this year, my average pace was 7:27 per mile and Jake's was 7:29 when he set the record. Guess I'll have to run it again next year!

Becca and Whitney met me at the finish line, Whitney got to see some puppies and drink all of my chocolate milk- twice. I also got $75 to Ogden running center which is cool. Very fun race!

Nice to get a win in before I go get wrecked at the BYU meet next week.

Last track workout of the season, been feeling pretty sore from the race this weekend. Just had a pre meet 4x400 at mile pace with 2 mins recovery between reps. I ran 70, 69, 68, 66. They didn't feel easy but I could have done 4-6 more reps if I had to.

Stroller and barefoot miles