Blake Bennions running

7 miles with Jake at BYU and then 7.5 approximately with my dad.

Ran while my dad biked up to the golf course

3.5 stroller and half a mile barefoot grass running including strides. Nothing better than running barefoot in the grass, unless there's weeds. Time to ramp the mileage back up.

Stroller miles and barefoot running with Whitney.

Ran 7 miles averaging 6:00 pace including a 36:45 10k and a 17:55 5k. Closed the last two miles in 11:15. Felt pretty good today. Initially I just had intended to run sub 7 pace, I just went out at a quick pace that felt good and by mile 2 I looked at the pace and it was sub 6. I'm pretty confident I could go sub 18 minute 5k pace for a flat marathon on enough mileage.

Felt pretty good today. Excited to race on Saturday.

Am: Easy stroller miles with Jake and Whitney. Talked about doing rim to rim this fall with Kolten.

Pm: Short stroller run plus some barefoot running with strides.

Shakeout barefoot running before the race.

What a fun day, took first place at the crossover half marathon! Pretty happy with 1:26 on a trail half marathon course with over 1400 feet elevation gain. Google maps took me on a route that ended 2.5 miles up the course at a closed road and I wasn't sure how long it would take to re-route so I ran downhill at 6:30 pace for 2.5 miles to warm up... definitely paid for that later.

I had planned to just stick with the lead pack on the way up and hammer the downhills back but that's not at all how it went. I took off when they blew the horn and ran a sub 6:30 opening mile and stayed sub 7 pace all the way up until mile 6 where there's almost 400 feet of elevation gain, was 8:55 for that.

I had hoped to go sub 5:30 pace the last 6 miles but my legs just did not have it today, partially because of my pre-race blunders. Instead I averaged about 5:45-5:50 on the way down. My legs were tired and it was a mental battle to keep sub 6 pace. Jeremy Tolman had been about 70-80 seconds back from me at the turnaround and with a little less than a mile to go I looked back and saw him gaining ground so I unleashed whatever kick I had left which was good for about a 5:10 pace last half mile, not bad considering most of that was flat. I ended up beating him by 35 seconds.

That late challenge really made the race thrilling for me, and I'm really happy that despite the fatigue and my legs being dead I was able to push that hard to close.

Awards ceremony was an hour and a half after we finished so I got some time to chat with the other finishers. I also got a free massage which was divine, very grateful for that. My legs were cramping up a bit before the massage and it fixed them. I talked a lot with Jon, who had also fallen into the closed road trap and had to run down to the start. He was a cool guy and a very experienced trail runner, and quite fast - he ran a 1:15 flat half earlier this year and is a low 16 minute guy. Adam Hendrickson took 3rd or 4th, he was a USU guy when I was a SUU guy and apparently has run the Des news half in 64 minutes since then... not sure how I beat him... so there were a lot of fast dudes in this race and I am feeling really good about winning today and generally having a phenomenal morning.

Bonus cool thing: Around mile 2 I was in the lead and ran past a pack of horses that were on the other side of the fence next to the road and they all started running with me for a few hundred meters. Was surreal.

Also got a new Strava 10k or of 35:50

Good day

Nothing like a windy stroller run while listening to the rigged NBA lottery. I haven't been following the NBA that closely since the Rudy/don trades but the whole situation with the Mavs has revealed that league to be about as legitimate as the WWE.

Somehow got through my jump roping at the park despite the 20 mpw winds. Just a quarter mile of barefoot running, most of which being short strides.

Still sore from Saturday and felt a little heavy and slow, nice run though.

Ran up to the top of 500 and then a little further, then went back home. Started raining on me pretty hard the last couple miles.

Ran up to the top of 500 and back while my dad biked.

Went with Jake and parked on and ran part of Bonneville shoreline trail over to the ogden half/marathon course and

ran the last 4 miles or so of Koltens race with him. The ran back up to where we parked. Felt pretty good until about mile 9/10. I've got a lot of work to do before I'm ready for a full marathon.

Set of tennis with Adam later on.

Short jog to the park... they really need to spray the weeds there.

Ran up to the top of pleasent view and then got on the canal road for a few miles on the way back down. Ran about 5:25 pace on the way down and it felt easy except for on the steepest sections... need to find a more gradual route for coming down the hill.

Ran with Jake from his new house up to big rock and back. Tempo effort up from the start of the trail to big rock but my Strava messed up the segment, Jake was about 20 seconds off Riley Cooks course record. We'll get it in a few weeks. My legs were pretty sore today. Tomorrow will be a much needed easy run and then thrusday we'll do a 3 mile tempo in sub 16.

Easy stroller run with some jump roping and barefoot strides. Feeling achy and sore.

Warmed up from Jakes house up to the canal road and then did a 3 mile tempo at a little over 5:30 pace. After that we ran up to the track and did some 200s but I was running like 5:40 pace and then speeding up to maybe like mile race pace for them, my legs are very sore. Generally felt awful today, my legs are in need of a break... we'll see if they get it. At least tomorrow will be easy or off.

Set of tennis with Adam later. I'm going to start logging tennis as running 1.5 miles, I run quite a bit when I play- I'd say 1.5 is pretty conservative for the actual amount of running I do and even more so when you consider the total cross training benefit.

Rest plus 2 sets of tennis in my first match in the mountain valley clay court tournament in smithfield. I played a guy on a high school team. I've never played on a clay court before today so it was a bit of an adjustment and I dropped the first two games before coming back to win the match 6-4, 6-1. Had a lot of fun.

A guy named Leland puts the tournament on and I like his style a lot, building a couple of clay tennis courts on your ranch is pretty high up there on my list of awesome set ups I've seen... and he's even done a 100 miler before. Seems like an interesting guy.

Stroller run to get the mail and then ran to the park and ran the millennium park loop 4x each way while Becca watched Whitney at the playground. Then I ran around the middle school park while Becca walked Whitney over there, ran around more with Whitney for a while there and then went home.

Set of tennis later with Adam.

Ran over to shady lane park and did 2x4 minute tempo followed by 5x1000m, some reps on the grass and some on the sidewalk/road. Then cooled down 3 miles. Tempo was at like 5:30-5:40 and the ks averaged 5:25 pace.

Ran with Joah around sugarhouse. Got to see Rob and Ann as well!

Tennis with Adam for about an hour

Ran with Jake and Kolten at 6:30am and did 18 minute tempo, 2 min recovery, 16 minute tempo. Was not feeling it today. I averaged 5:50 for the 18 minute and then I had to duck out during the 16 minute tempo to go meet Becca and ran down some mining road from the canal road, it was a little too steep to run optimally fast and I averaged maybe like 6:30 for the 2nd tempo... just good to get mileage really. Then after meeting and swapping cars with Becca I drove over and cooled down for a mile of stroller running.

Also had to run a stroller mile home from dropping my car off at the shop, and then the same thing back to pick it up a couple hours later.

Ran home from dropping car at the shop

Ran with Jake and Kolten and then added an extra mile to pick up my car from the shop.