Blake Bennions running

First day of summer practice. Some hill sprints and easy running.

Longest stroller run yet (I think).

Warm up and then 1.5 miles hard, 8 minute jog, 12 minutes hard up. Averaged 5:38 for the 1.5 and 5:28 for the 12 minutes.

Also ran home from the shop for my car and then back over there a couple hours later... one more round of that and then hopefully done for a while.

Also ran about half a mile on our evening walk to go back to the house to get a ball for Whitney to play with at the park, plus some barefoot strides on the grass. Also 100 jump ropes.

Easy stroller miles. Legs felt heavy and tired.

Ran with Jake, felt tired and heavy.

Finally tracked distance for a tennis set. 10 games took 64 minutes and my Garmin measured 2.12.

Warmed up 1.5 miles and then ran a 5 mile tempo with Garry and Jake. Averaged 5:25, the first 5k was 5:20 pace for 16:35 and then I fell off pace a bit the last mile or two with a 5:28 and 5:34 to close. To be fair the original goal pace was 5:30 and those guys averaged 5:19. I'm pretty happy with this, I'm not too far off of being able to keep with them for the whole thing. Big confidence booster that I can go sub 33 at Des news 10k.

Cooled down running with the Weber team, also did a 5 minute plank which was pretty solid considering I haven't tried a plank in years.

Another mile run to big O... hopefully the last for a while. Also my left IT band has been acting up recently, was feeling pretty sore this morning but after some stretching and massage gun it felt mostly better for this short run. Gotta keep up with the injury prevention exercises and stretches.

Evening run, felt kinda crappy and heavy

Stroller run over to the harrisville Park and ran the loop there for the first time, it's a half mile loop and then also runs out another third of a mile or so to a splash pad, pretty cool. Ran 4 miles and then Whitney played for 45 minutes and then I ran the loop one more time and continued on home. I notice that if I go to the park exactly at the right time there's like an hour window where the shade covers one of the play structures perfectly so I've been trying to make it there for that each day this week. M

Sandbagged a 12x400m workout with Jake and Garry. My IT band has been having a rough time and I didn't want to take it too hard. So I did the first 4 and then I did every other rep for the last 8. Splits were 69, 67, 69, 68, 69, 66, 65, 66. Then we did a mile tempo in 5:27.

Felt pretty good really, especially considering I haven't ran the pace of those 400s in a couple months. My knee/IT band was feeling a little tight the first couple but felt good the rest of the time.

Then we drove over to Weber county fair grounds for practice and ran with the kids, I felt pretty drained for that part and my it band/knee started hurting after we finished or maybe like in the last mile or so.

I think I'll probably skip out on the twisted fork 30k this weekend in favor of staying healthy. I suppose I could just take it as an easy run but even an easy 18 miles would probably be too much. Much better to get healed up and run a lot of fast races this summer and fall than wreck myself this weekend.

Easy run with Jake and Kolten. No knee/IT pain.

Set of tennis with Adam followed by a bit over a 4 mile run- first 1.5 were with Adam.

My knee felt tingly and weird when we started playing and I stretched it out for a few minutes and made sure not to run too hard the rest of the set, had no further problems during tennis or the run. I need to make sure I stretch out before each run.

Ran the first mile and then the last 2 tempo miles of Jakes Michigan workout. Garry ran the fast parts and I ran the slow parts of it. First mile was 4:57 (74, 76, 74, 73) and felt really good. 5 seconds seems like an undersell on these super shoes, today was my first day running in the endorphin pros and they felt incredible. Like really no pain, I was pushing but comfortablely so. Like going much faster might have gotten me into trouble but I definitely felt like I could race a sub 10 two mile right now and even sub 5 pace for 5k with some more training is on the table after this.

The two tempo miles were like 5:30 and 5:40. They felt good, slower than 10k pace but half marathon pace seems like a stretch. Somewhere in that range. Garmin increased my VO2 max by 3 points so I'd say those endorphin pros are a great fit and I'm excited to do more in them. IT band/knee felt totally fine today, I'm tempted to do the full 5 mile tempo and stay with Garry and Jake on Thursday... we'll see how Tuesday and Wednesday go.

4.3 with with the Weber team and 3.2 stroller miles to the park and back.

Stroller miles, took Whitney to the park. Haven't had any problems with my it band or really felt it at all this week, I'm thinking I'll give the tempo run tomorrow a go.

Great day today. Did an out and back 5 miler, first 2.5 miles was 360 feet uphill and the 2nd half was back down. Mile splits were 5:51, 5:55, 6:05, 5:25, 5:40. I felt good the last mile but in kind of let off the gas. Averaged 5:48 and it was the first workout where I dropped Jake in... maybe ever. Uphill is definitely my strength. In fact I beat Christian Allen's time to get the segment record for a mile segment in the first half.

Easy stroller miles

Ran up to the big rock trail and made a hard effort about a mile up the switchbacks and then made a wrong turn. I decided to go back home so I could get Whitney to the park for the best shade hour. I ran about 3 miles at 5:40 pace on the way back. Then I ran over to the park and played watched Whitney. I segment hunted a record for the loop at the park and ran a bit over half a mile at 4:50 pace to get it.

Easy stroller run over to the park with Whitney. Tomorrow should be about a 10-12 mile day doing 12x400 and a short tempo and then I think the rest of the week will be 4-7 mile easy runs with a easy pre race workout on Thursday. Maybe I'll take Wednesday off.

I think my IT band is pretty much healed, I haven't felt it in a full week now and have done some pretty intense workouts. I think I'll try and hit 50 miles again this week and then in July my weekly format is going to be

Sunday- 8-10

Monday- 10-12

Tuesday- 8-10

Wednesday- 4-7

Thursday- 10-12

Friday- rest-4

Saturday- Long run starting at 15 and building to 22 by August

So that will get me 55-75, obviously I'll start at the lighter end of that. I'm starting the long run build a little late for a marathon in September but I think my base is sufficient. I still haven't signed up for the Huntsville marathon quite yet because I want to get some longer long runs in and get a feel for like a 20 miler first.

I'm trying to decide between running the USA trail half marathon championships in Moab or the big bear marathon for my final and biggest race of 2025.

1.5 warm up with Garry and Jake

12x400 @75 with 80 seconds rest. We alternated leading this one, it's nice having a 3 person squad for these. Gonna be sad when Garry leaves for his mission. We also averaged 73 instead of 75.

3ish miles with the team

With the Weber team. Sped up a bit the last mile to make it home in time. Considered running to the park with Whitney to get 7 today but I'm a little tired from not getting enough sleep lately and decided between that and the big face for June being Saturday, taking it easy doesn't hurt. I've run every day for 11 days in a row now so I might take tomorrow off, or I might do an easy 4.

Easy day with a few 200s

Pre race shakeout

Really fun race today. Course is a bit short at 3.06 but sub 16 feels equally good. Splits were 5:22, 4:59, 5:16. I was running with Wyatt for the first 2 miles and then he dropped me by 12 seconds the last mile. I just couldn't get back into rhythm after the hill up to the high school. Jake has been killing it and broke 15 on this course, Garry and Wyatt were both about 15:40.

Also a kinda crazy stat, I dropped from 166 to 158 between last night and post race. Des news is in 26 days I'm hoping to drop a few more pounds before then.

Jake says his first 5k of Des news is consistently faster than his time on this course. If I can run 15:30 for the first 5k there I should definitely be able to run in the 32 minute range. Sub 32:30 there would be awesome.

Wrecked my ankle on the canal road during a 4 on 2 off workout... not sure if it's a moderate to severe sprain or dislocated/broken. Going to the doctor now.

It's broken, recovery will be 4-8 weeks... that sucks. Not even sure what to do for cross training these first couple weeks, sounds like I can start biking by mid July. Knowing I'm about to lose a lot of fitness hurts a lot more than the ankle, was really looking forward to Des news. Really felt like I was approaching the best shape of my life... oh well, I'll be back to where I am now by this fall at latest.