Blake Bennions running

8.25 or so, lots of hills. I'm starting to think I'm going to go to SUU, it sounds like I could have a great career there, and my Dad was saying he's heard some good things about the school. Haven't heard from USU in a while, and SUU sounds awesome, I'm excited to run in college!!! I think my sickness is coming to an end, I'm still coughing but I think I'm getting better. Sub 2:00 this week, a sea level mile next week, and the Leadville Marathon the week after that. I'm going up to Leadville that Thursday to get a little more used to the elevation. Also might work in a sub 10:00 3200m sometime, maybe in California. Going to be an awesome summer! I'm think of doing the 800m either Wednesday or Friday.

86 minute run up bell canyon with Tayte, it gets very rocky up there, good amount of pain and plenty of hill, very steep! Good training run for Leadville, lots of elevation gain, and a good length. I'm going to do a lot of things to prepare for the elevation, but going to California next week isn't going to help, maybe mentally. Maybe I can get one of those altitude simulator masks haha, that would be pretty cool, but I bet they cost a bunch. We also ran 4 hill sprints after we got back, my turnover was so fast I felt like Captain America at the beginning of the 2nd movie. Still kind of sick, maybe the 800m will be Friday. No matter what happens, Leadville is going to be a great experience, I think I'm gonna be a different guy after doing something like that, at least have more character and I will be more tough. Going to be the hardest thing I've ever done probably, but i know the experience and the intrinsic reward will be worth it.

4 miles and then 4x200m. I ran the 200ms at 29-32 pace. I only actually got the time on the 2nd and 3rd, it was 31 on the 2nd, and 29 on the 3rd. After that I did another half mile cool down. Premeet tomorrow which is nice for graduation day, and then Friday, I'm thinking 10:00 for the 800m, I seem to race better in the morning.

Pre-meet workout, easy and good feeling. I'm going to break 2:00 tomorrow. I graduated from Alta High School today. High school has held a lot of trials for me, but running has helped me though it, even when my running was the trial, and I've done some good things too! I'm going to miss some things about high school, even some things I didn't really like, but one thing I can take with me everywhere I go is my passion for running, and all the lessons I have learned from my experiences with it and with my team and coach the past 4 years. Going to miss it here!

I FINALLY DID IT!!! This morning I went to the Alta track, and Coach Murphy timed me for an 800m time trial. With California next week, and a marathon after that, this was my last chance to break 2:00 in high school (officially today was a day of school haha). I felt good while warming up, pretty loose and light, ready for hard 800m. My lungs have still been having a little trouble, but I was able to push through the 800m despite that. Turns out I may currently have whooping cough or something, not sure. But anyways I ran my first 200m in 28, I came through the 400m in 58, I didn't hear my split for the 600m, but at that point you always want to quit, so I concentrated on pushing through the last section. Coach Murphy yelled 1:40 in the second half of the last turn, I wasn't sure if I could make it, but I really turned on the engine and started putting everything I had left into one final effort, I didn't know I would be able to make it, or if I was already safely under 2:00, but I knew that whatever the case, I needed to finish as hard as I could. It turned out to be 1:59.93!!! I made it by 7 hundredths of a second! This has been one of the most amazing things I have done, maybe the most amazing! Huge thanks to Coach Murphy for training me and teaching me so much over the past years, and for helping me overcome the 2 minute barrier today! This was the perfect way to finish out high school, and my time as an Alta Hawk!

Ran the regular gully long run nice and easy. I was a little tired from the 800m but didn't feel it at all because I was thinking of how awesome it is that I am a sub 2:00 800m runner. Jeremy Ranch tomorrow!

Good 13 mile run, about a half marathon, or half the race in doing 2 weeks. I ran a lot of it pretty fast, I might have averaged under 7:00, it was the Wasatch dimpledell loop plus the upper loop, so it was all hills, there's a good amount of elevation gain. I'm pretty confident about the distance of 26 miles and the 6000 feet of elevation gain, its going to destroy my body and it will be hard, but I know I can do it. I only have two big concerns about this race, the elevation, how much will it affect me, and what if I need to take a dump really bad and there's no where to go, also I dont want to lose a couple minutes on crap (literally crap). Well I guess the best thing to do is get up 2 hours before the race and eat what I want to then. This is going to be such a great race at Leadville in 2 weeks!

Workout plan for the week:

Sunday: 4-5 miles

Monday: 3 miles

Tuesday: 1600m, distance run to get up to 10 miles

Wednesday:10-15 mile long run

Thursday: 6 miles

Friday: 3200m race with a long run to get a 10 miles

Saturday: 10-16 mile run

About to go on a run, tomorrow will be in a car for 12+ hours, so its a good idea to do premeet. Should be a 60 mile week.

Didn't feel super good today, a lot of heartburn and kind of sick. But I got out for a run. Tired.

A little running when we stopped during the drive. 27 minutes of fast good running on the road along the beach at night. feels so good! I dont know if I will have access to a track tomorrow :/.

Surfing this morning. I will have to alter my week plan slightly, I need to figure out a way to get to a track. So in the mean time I will go on a 10-12 mile run tonight, 70-85 minutes, and then tomorrow will be the same, then Thursday will be like 6, and Friday will probably be a 3200m. Probably no mile race this week :/. But its ok, I'm trying to get a lot done in a just a few weeks before my mission.

New plan!!! I'm going to race tomorrow, I finally found a track to race on but its too late now, I will go there and race tomorrow morning. So a premeet today. After surfing we went to the Griffeth J. Griffeth observatory science place, it was pretty cool!

I ran a little over 25 minutes by the beach. Tomorrow I will race a 1600m in the morning, I will run up to a track about a mile from my house for a warm up, stretch and do striders, and then I will run in the mountains about 7 miles later in the day. Maybe up to 10 miles in the mountains because I did less today, I might cut out the race on Friday and concentrate on mileage, not sure.

Bad race, then I did a 54 second 400m after it which was ok for a post race. Then I ran over 57 minutes along the beach trail at a fast pace, I kept picking it up to put bikers in their place. I ran past a group of French girls on bikes and was like Je parle Francais aussi! But I don't actually speak French that well yet and am horrible at understanding it so I didn't really understand anything they said and they were biking at like 9 minute mile pace so I kept going haha. But there were also a lot of bikers who were just talking to themselves... Los Angeles is a very weird place. Also a lot less people wave back at you when you wave at them, I did see a few serious runners though, and they were pretty cool. Also I think the number of handicapped people here is very high because A LOT of people act very...unusual around here. It was very beautiful to run along side the ocean with all the mist coming off of it from the hurricane (I think), it was a very good run, lots of fun! Too cold and then tide is too strong to surf today I think, probably just gonna hang out on the beach and play volleyball.

Long run of over 115 minutes in the Santa Monica mountains. Very beautiful run, lots of hills. I ran fast and it felt good. Going to go surfing after lunch. The mountains here are different from Utah, it was very misty in the canyon I was running along, it looked really cool. I ran through a few different mountains and peaked a couple of different places. I'm going to be fine at the Leadville Marathon as long as I handle the elevation well.

Later did a lot of stuff at the ocean, also I walked a few miles to and from bubbagump shrimp for dinner, I've always wanted to go there because of the movie! Its one of my favorite movies! Tomorrow will be a 10 mile run.

Another run up the same trail, a little over 72 minutes today. It was so misty and foggy that I could only see out about 5 to 10 meters in a lot of places, 20 in clear areas, there's only one marker for distance, there's this weird place at 4 miles that they call a park, yesterday I was a total beast and ran to it in 27 minutes, the first 3 miles are pretty steep uphill and the last mile is half up and half down. So sub 7 pace was really good, I think I might have actually done up to 17 miles yesterday. Today I still ran pretty well, I reached the mark in 30 minutes, I was pretty tired but still running decently fast. I ran 8 minutes past the 4 mile mark to make sure it was a mile, it was half downhill and half uphill. Then I ran back, the run back took me 34 minutes so that was sub 7 minute mile pace. Tomorrow will probably be a day off, we leave pretty early, stop to race these really fast cars, and the drive home. We might not be home until 1am. So I might just run to stretch my legs when we stop. The Sunday I will do Wasatch pepperwood or something, maybe something higher elevation. I need to talk to Coach Murphy about what I need to do the week of the marathon. Last day of beach and surfing!

I'M GOING TO SUU!!! They said they will definitely have a spot for me after my mission, I will have to work hard to keep it though, and I will! I'm so happy and grateful for this opportunity, it is such a huge blessing!

Just a little running when we stopped in Nevada, didnt get home until midnight so I decided to go to bed.

Ran up at Alta, I did a mile at the parking lot, ran up the road to the campground and did a lap there and then ran back. I think its 8.4 miles. Elevation was a pretty rough change at 8000-10000 feet from sea level, but it was alright, I did the whole run in less than 65 minutes, so it was a decent speed. I was busy from 7:00am to 6:00pm today so couldn't run until the evening, but it was a good run, felt really nice to run at Alta again. I'm going to spend a lot of time at elevation this week in preparation for Leadville, hopefully it will be enough! This is going to be a very hard but fun race! Tomorrow I think I will go run with the team in the morning and then maybe go up to the mountains for a shorter run and just time at elevation.

Good long run, about 11 miles, feeling the altitude haha, also I think I was tired from the Alta run last night. For some reason I thought practice was at 9, but it was 8 so I got there late and ran a mile into the gully, then I ran a mile with Coach Murphy back to the start, then I started running with read and went down in the lower gully for a few miles and then did the longer run. Tomorrow will be about 12 miles up at Alta again, that will be another hard run, after that its just some easy days in preparation for Leadville. Coach Murphy said I should do the heavy half instead of the marathon, I think I beat last years heavy half winner at Jupiter Peak so I will try to win it!

About 110 minutes up at Alta doing my first double Alta run, it was pretty hard! I ran into Coach Murphy about 3 miles through the run and ran on some pretty steep trails around the campground for a few miles and then headed back down. Murphy is right, I need to enter this race humbly and not do anything I'm going to regret the first few miles. Its ok if people put a little distance on me in the beginning. Once I get a feel for things I can start doing faster miles if they are still comfortable enough, and then the downhill I need to crush. But I definitely want to be conservative the first few miles considering this race is going to be even harder than Jupiter Peak. Also I haven't been doing the mileage I was doing last summer up until the past few weeks, the good news is that I'm a year stronger, faster, and more developed than last year, especially aerobically. It will be a very good experience for me. After I got back down from the run the first time, Murphy said to run up the road to the top again, so I ran it, the way up I felt alright for a while, but once things started evening out my knees started hurting and I felt tired. But I continued to the campground, ran up it until the snow and then came back down the mountain. My legs were pretty beat, a double Alta run plus some steep trails at the top of the first will make your legs work pretty hard! And your lungs, but actually I think my lungs are getting better, I didn't feel the elevation that bad today. I'm glad I ran into Coach Murphy, I was thinking of the easiest way I could get in 12 miles up here but he got me to do a hard 14 miler which was way better! The race this weekend probably won't be too much harder than this run, just a little longer, and a couple thousand feet higher. But I will be fully rested and they will have aid stations with food and Gatorade, so its going to be a lot of fun!

Watched Mcfarland USA tonight, I thought it was a great movie, and I really liked how they showed the way cross country packs spread out throughout the race. I didn't like how all the meets only had like 2-6 teams and no JV runners or spectators. But it was the first year of California cross country so maybe it was like that, and maybe it was 1A. Also I don't think the obese kid would still be obese if he was able to finish 5th on a state champion team, or beat people that weren't obese, that was my only big problem with the movie, the obese kid at the state meet.

I got new shoes from Wasatch running, I wanted to try out something new because I don't like the new Adrenalines, I was able to pick up some old 14s last time but those were there last ones. I know the change they made from the 14 to the 15 was small but for some reason I dont like the 15s. So I tried the Saucony Omni, they felt great! And I also tried the Saucony Guide, the guide wasn't as comfortable as the Omni but the shape was great, I was striking just like I want to, I decided to go with the Guide because I always want to improve my form and just for fun because I'm not training towards any huge race after Leadville so it will be fun to try out a different shoe. I also got Sauconys top trail shoe for Leadville, the pinegreen or something, I cant remember, but I wore it on the gully today. Definitely a different feel, kind of weird, kind of good, its light so that's good. I will need to get used to it the next couple of days. Felt a little tired from yesterdays run. Tomorrow I think Murphy said to take off, so besides some running to stretch out my legs on the drive to Leadville, I will just walk in the trail shoes and rest.

If you take last Wednesday to this Tuesday and count it as a week of running, I ran my first 70 mile week!

Nice easy day off, I'm in Leadville now, well right outside of it. Pretty high elevation, I feel a little light headed, glad I'm spending an extra day here to acclimate!

I ran 3 miles and then did 4 striders. David Roche, who represented USA mountain running at the world championship last year, is running the heavy half so yeah, its going to be fast! I'm really excited, I'm going to start out easy and calm, and then accelerate as I feel comfortable. The only thing I need to make sure of is that I get in front of the giant pack, at Jupiter Peak it was a huge pain to work my way around all those people on such narrow paths, and I ended up falling on my hip on a giant rock pretty hard, but I wont do anything that isn't very comfortable in the beginning. The way back I need to open up my stride and push down the hill, but I know if I'm too tired when i get to the top, it will be that much harder to get going downhill. Its kind of estimation game, how much can I give on the uphill and still be able to destroy the downhill, and its best to make a conservative estimate!

Such a hard race mentally and phsyically. Had a horrible nights sleep last night, only 5 hours, I couldn't fall asleep and for some reason I woke up before 6:00. I was tired of trying to get rest so I just showered and ate. I go to the race and worked my WA up to the 3rd line of people before waiting for the gun. I got out well, maybe a little faster than really easy. I was in 3rd place and I let David Roche and the other guy (need to find out his name) pull away. There was a group of marathoners right behind me, timmy part (last years winner) Mike Aish (two time Olympian in the marathon) and someone else. I stuck with them until they turned off for the marathon detour. I stayed in third for a couple more miles and then I turned and waited at a for because I didn't want to choose the wrong path. The next guy had a USA jersey and was 10-15 seconds behind me and he pointed me in the right direction. I started racing with him, I asked him where he got the USA jersey and he said Junior mountain running world championships in Italy last year, so this guy went to nationals last year and qualified for worlds! I knew I had to beat him. We raced hard, I would lead some, he would lead, then we got to the part where it gets so steep you start walk running it. I remembered reading Timmy Parrs blog about how you might as well walk and conserve energy, so I walked and ran when it was less steep enough that it was worth it. I could see the top two guys out in the distance, and the USA guy was getting away but I knew he was wasting energy on the climb, I was conserving to destroy the way back. It worked. He beat me to the top by a minute or so, even the first mile or two down he put a couple minutes on me because it was so rocky and narrow I had to be careful not to break an ankle, and there were hundreds of runners all over the trail so I had to run in more perilous areas. Finally I got to a nice dirt part and I let it rip! Like FAST!! Almost sprinting down that road, people were still in the way but it was better, finally I got th USA guy in my vision, first he was a few hundred meters away, next he was just a couple hundred, then only 100, less and less until he was finally right there, I was storming down the hill, and then it switched back to uphill for a mile, that's where I really got him, I kept going pretty hard and passed him finally, I thought he might go with me but he didn't, I looked back after a little while on a steep part and saw him walking, so I knew I had defeated him, I think he expended too much energy trying to get away from me at the top. The last half hour of the race I ran fast, hoping to break 2:15, I was running very hard at some points, well down low in the 5 minute pace I'd say. But once I finally got into the last mile or two I was getting tired, I thought it was closer than it was haha, but I stayed at a fast pace and there wasn't anyone around me for a good mile so it was really nust the time. I finished in just above 2:13. It hurt. After me there was a 6-7 minute gap before the next person, USA jersey guy fell or something and finished quite a ways back, felt bad for him to race so hard and die like that. I played a dangerous game today. But I would have won last years heavy half by 3 minutes! I should get an invitation to Mountain Running Nationals after this performance, I can't go, but that would be really cool to get a letter haha. Maybe in 7 years, after my time at SUU, I will be as great as David Roche in this sport. But until then, I need to get really good at the 10k!!!

My pace from the top back to the start was about 6:30, so if you take into account the first mile or two coming back that was plagued by hundreds of runners, tight trails, tons of shifty rocks, and ice, my pace for going back after that section was probably sub 6:00!

Finally found out why I'm having such a hard time sleeping the past few weeks. I have restless leg syndrome. I thought it sounded kind of silly, but basically my left calf feels very uncomfortable unless I'm moving it, specifically stretching it. Its been bothering me for a long time but I thought it happened to everyone. Especially recently, it has been taking me hours to fall asleep and then I wake up often during the night and usually give up sleeping earlier than I should. I looked on some websites about it and it turns out I probably am not experiencing deep sleep because of it, or stages 3 and 4 of sleep. I learned in AP psych that that's where most physical recovery takes place, so that sucks.

I also learned that it might be caused by and iron deficiency, which makes sense because I've increased my mileage a lot lately, so my body might be low on some stuff, iron in particular. So I should take care of this soon, because sleep is starting to really suck! Which kind of makes things suck in general a little! Right now I'm just eating some chocolate because it has iron in it.

Gully long run with the guys, I ran with cubby, read, mikey, 2 new freshmen and a new sophomore. We stopped at the water thing, and then circled around at the top of the hill while waiting for them. So it took a little longer, but Alta has some good incoming runners! The future is bright for the team! I wish I had another cross country season here, running with these guys is getting me excited about the season they're going into! And the future of Alta xc, there are quite a few freshman that have a lot of potential and it seems like they'll stick with running! I think when I get back from my mission, Alta could have a state champion team, fighting for a NXN spot! I think the last race I will do will be the sandy classic, unless there's a faster course for 4th of July 5k. Im going to enjoy the last two weeks of running before I go on my mission. Im going to miss it here!

I got to practice and finished Reads flying 40s with him, I got a mile with that, and then I did the workout with the team. We did 8 flying 40s, 1 every 2 laps plus some extra laps at the beginning and end to get 5 miles. It felt good, I'm still a little sore in the hamstrings and arms, but my back, gluts, hip flexors, and calves are feeling good now. Tomorrow will be a nice 8 miles in at porter Rockwell with a good fast 2 mile tempo, I haven't done any tempo in a while so I'm excited. And then thursday I will try to wake up at 6:00 and go up to Alta to gets 12-14 mile run in with Coach Murphy. After that I'm off yo Chicago for the weekend to visit my brother, lots of trips the past few weeks! I'm going on my mission in only 15 days! That will be exciting though, I will be able to run a lot in the MTC I think, after that I will have to convince my companions to spend our morning exercise time running.

We ran half a mile to warm up, then did drills. After that we ran 8 miles out and back on the porter Rockwell trail, we ran 2 tempo miles on the way back. The 2 miles didn't feel fast, my hamstrings were still kind of destroyed. My arms aren't sore anymore, now its just my hamstrings that are hurting, and mostly only when its faster running. I ran 11:45 which wasn't great, but it wasn't all out, just a hard effort so it was ok. Then I finished the run with 2 easier miles with Cubby. Our overall pace was about 7:15 which was alright, it was a fun practice! Only 2 weeks until I leave on my mission!

Long day, good run. I ran up at Alta with Murphy, we ran to the top and did 8 campground loops and 2 out and backs on the street. On the way back I started getting that feeling you get after a long long run, but I still had a couple miles to go, so I had to make a couple bathroom stops. It was a good run though. After that I had a doctors appointment where I lear ed that apparently I'm highly allergic to like 20 things that I'm regularly exposed to and feel fine around, so not sure if I trust that skin test anymore haha. Then at the airport I was selected for being pet down by a fat guy which was pretty weird. I will probably take the next two days in Chicago easy, probably 8 miles at most, they're packed days.

Well today's looking unlikely for a real run, been super busy and will be until 10 tonight. Also its raining really hard. Chicago is way cool! My hotel has an open lobby that goes up super high and when I walk out of my room, I can look down over 100 feet to the lobby, it reminds me of pacific rim except its looks really cool. I ran about a half mile fallowing a segway herd, I wanted to see how fast they were and I was taking pictures too, they weren't going that fast, less than 10 miles per hour. Segways are kind of like wheelchairs for people that aren't handicapped I've also walked a lot today around Chicago and the field museum, which has a t-rex amongst many other things, so that was cool.

At the art institute, I think I will be able to run tonight, but its the heart of Chicago so probably not a super long run, so im hoping like 5-8 miles. The art museum is kind of cool and kind of not ok at all. I'm fairly certain I walked into a pedophile exhibition which was really weird like why would anyone want to see completely naked children, and it wasn't old, it was from this century... So I got out of there fast and ended up in the modern art exhibit, which wasn't that much better, there was a VERY weird painting, I mean I think paintings usually have way too much nudity, but this was like over the top not ok to be in a room that doesn't have a giant warning saying "Hey, this room contains paintings inappropriate for literally anyone to view" k maybe that's a little exaggerated, but it was really weird. There was also a sculpture of a male triceratops-bat who may or may not have seen a female triceratops-bat. So yeah, that's art for ya. I think that some art is really cool and impressive, but some of art is just weird crap.

Well at least I've done a lot of walking the past 2 days. I ran 1.5 miles or so back from my brothers apartment to the hotel. I got back even later than last night, I got home after 10, Chicago isn't the greatest place to run either, I kept having to stop to cross the road. Oh well, this will count as my summer break from running, my ankle is hurting on the upper right side, hopefully tendonitis.

Easy run in the morning with Cubby and the team, it was an alright pace. I might do some more tonight depending on what's happening.

Warmed up and then a 400m at get out pace, I ran 69 seconds. Then ran a 12 minute tempo, I was thinking of just doing like mid 5 minute range but Cubby said we should go for sub 10:00 for the 2 mile since we'd never done it before, I said I didn't think this we were in good enough shape for it but we went for it anyways haha, at least for the first two laps, I ran 76 and then 2:35 and then let the pace slow, the next lap came in at 3:55 and then 5:20 I think. I never do well when I dont do even splits for a workout so I kind of let it go and just ran a little under 6 minute pace, Cubby started getting away but then with 2 minutes left I thought that I might as well push it because the biggest thing I can do for the team before I go is give Cubby some competition to train with. So I surged the last 500 or 600m and caught him again, I finished about 8 laps and 250 meters, which is about 5:30 pace. So it was a pretty good tempo run, especially the surge at the end. This wasn't max effort or anything but it was fairly difficult, I think if I had run even splits I could have finished 9 laps and it wouldn't have been any harder. But still a fun tempo! I like tempos, which I've heard you do a lot of in college, so so that's good! I want to run sub 17:00 at the sandy classic on Saturday, that would be pretty fun, mostly I just want to be up racing with the lead pack. Also found out I have a dentist appointment tomorrow morning at 10:00, so if I can't move that I will have to miss my last Alta run, but I will just run with Matt, Tayte, or Davis if I can't make practice.