Blake Bennions running

I was not sure at all how I would do on this, it was my 3rd day of running this season so far and I was worried I would do embarrassingly bad. Because I'm not currently in good shape I just thought I will be happy with an 11:30. 11:46 isn't far off from that, considering I am way ahead of where I was last year at the beginning of the season, and the beginning of the season last year was late July and my best time was a 17:05; I am really looking forward to getting into shape this season and really pushing my limits to achieve my goals and help out my team. We did a 2 mile warm up and a 2 mile cool down so overall 6 miles.

I went running with my team this morning at Alta ski resort, it was really tough, we stayed together for 12 minutes and then once the 12 minutes were over I picked up the pace a lot and then died after another mile or so. Its hard to say exactly what pace the miles were at because it was uphill so they were slower but at the same time it was really hard, especially after I ran out of energy and died. Really hard, but cool run that I know will help me during the season.

I woke at 6 and left to go to the sandy classic, I thought it was off redwood road in south Jordan but I couldn't find it. I was really disappointed, so I went to the brighton track and ran an easy mile to get my legs moving. I will either cross train or go back to the brighton track for some more miles later today.

Last week after I missed the race I did some cross training and core but stayed off my legs for the most part, the recent stress fractures have made me quite cautious. Also I didn't know if the team had any runs, and if so where they were on thursday-saturday.  Today I got to the gully late because of tennis practice, I started running the gully backwards from the way we usually do so I could find my team. I came to the road that the huge hill is on and saw some of the guys so I followed them, we went on a modified gully long run which made it longer. I'm not exactly sure how far I ran but I was running for a good 45 mins- and hour. I felt very low on energy and it was hard to not slow down. My lungs feel like they have opened up on the run but I think I will do 500-1000 meters of swimming at work today to open them up even more. Tomorrow should be interesting as I haven't done a speed workout for well over 2 months. I'm assuming its a speed workout because it's at the cottonwood complex. I will do my best to hit 75s or so if we do 400s, my average was 68 or 67 during track and I want my average to be less than 65 by the end of the summer. If we do 800s then I think I will aim for around 2:40ish, I guess we will see. I want to be hitting around 2:20 or less on 800s reps by the end of the summer. If it's something else,  I will just go hard and see where I end up.

We did 800s at the cottonwood complex today, I couldn't find it on map quest so I just sort of had to guess at where it was. I ended up missing about half a mile of the warm up but still got in 2 and a half miles before we started the 800s. My 800s were 2:39, 2:35, 2:36, and 2:40. My average was a 2:37.5 which is 2.5 seconds faster than my goal was. Overall I'm happy with my workout, I like how closely grouped they were although I was a little slow on the last one. After the 800s we did a half mile cool down, Coach said we should do another mile when we get home so I will either do 2 miles on the bike or a mile run. I need to get mentally prepared to take on the Alta run tomorrow.

I ran to the Brighton track last night (always some shady looking teens there at night), I had taken some of that asthma inhaler stuff and my regular asthma medicine and I felt great. I felt like I was running faster than I had been in a long time, the Brighton track is a little over 1.5 miles from my house and at least half a mile of that is a pretty steep uphill. I hit the uphill fairly fast and still felt pretty good at the top, I ran 3 miles at the Brighton track, and then I ran back home. I think if I included how much I walk at work, I would probably be at about 30 miles this week. I'd say I'm walking a good hour of each shift. Also I went swimming at work, swimming is always a great workout for me because I suck at it so bad. It really opens up my lungs, possibly another reason why my run felt good. I had to write the summary today because yesterday I could only put the miles in from my ipod but it wont let me write run reports on there. I didn't get a chance to run today because I woke up to one of my church youth leaders ringing my doorbell because I had slept in for the mini-mission, It was a great experience though and I'm really glad he woke me up for it. I just got home from at 10 and I need to hang with my family because they've been in Montana all week visiting my uncle and his family. However, I will have to consider a little stationary bike workout before I go to bed.

I ran with my team in the gully today, we did time trial of the gully long run today. Before that we did a mile warm up. I ran the 6.25 or so miles in 47:48, which is a decent time for that challenging of a course and even though that's a 7:45ish pace that's not bad for the gully at all. I finished 2nd for the team, about 6 minutes behind Kramer, I need to work on closing that gap by a few minutes before the season starts and during the season. There was no one close to me for most of the run after Kramer took off, but in the last 1.5 miles Ashton showed up 100 meters behind me and by the time about a mile was left he had passed me, I went all out the last mile and got back ahead of him but I was really impressed with his closing speed today. He has been working really hard all summer, pulling out high 40s to 50s miles per week, and the results of his great efforts are really showing! I'm really excited to see how our team does this year, I think we have a lot of potential! I think I might go swimming at work if any of the lanes are clear today.

We ran at the cottonwood complex with some guys from the Alta cross country 2008 state champion team, it was really cool. We warmed up 3 miles or so and then we did mile repeats, we did two miles repeats around the course, both of mine were in the 5:40s or 50s which isn't good. Then we did an 800, I didn't work hard the first 600 or so and then I kicked the last 200 and caught gained a lot of ground on people but I kicked about 100 meters too late, although I was very tired after the 800 I could have been more so. After that we did a mile cool down after that. I'm disappointed in my performance today but I just need to be patient and work hard consistently. Looking forward to Alta run tomorrow, I know that run will push me.

I went to Alta with my team and we ran up there, we did some easy laps around the parking lot before starting the long run. I ran the 3 miles up to the campground and tried to stay with my coaches, Kramer, and Braydon but I wasn't able to. I stayed within 100 meters, maybe 50 of them up to the campground but the last time I saw them was at the beginning of the 2nd lap of the campground. Then I ran back down and waited for people, when Kramer and Jake got down I did a lap around the parking lot with them a pretty good pace. I had a solid run today and I pushed myself, I am a lot stronger of a runner than the first time I did it this summer. If I had known I had time I would have done another lap or two but I wasn't sure. I just need to keep running hard, maybe drop some pounds and I will start feeling really good and run fast.