Blake Bennions running

5 miles running and 4 miles walking today. Made the most of some good air quality. Ran 4x200m buildups. Not sure if I'm in shape to win the 5k on the 4th but it'll be good to get into a real race for the first time in a year. This course looks pretty slow so I'm not expecting a great time but it'll be fun racing people.

6th place at my local 5k. The guy who won it was pretty quick. I stayed with the lead pack going out, one guy was pretty clearly faster than the rest of us and another guy was trying to go with him. I ran in a group of 4 or 5 other guys and eventually we kind of strung out. I ran in 5th for most the race but some kid ran a smarter race than me and passed me around the 2 mile mark and I wasn't feeling good enough to go with him. I could feel legs wanting to take off in the last mile but something was holding them back.

The course was on a golf course full of sharp turns and really steep hills. Like steeper hills than I've raced on for a 5k since I ran at that Herriman meet in high school. Air quality was also pretty rough today. I forgot my watch at home so I had no idea about my time. Once I saw how hilly and sharp the course was (plus according to other runners before the race, the course is a few hundred meters long), I decided sub 19 would be a solid time for today. I ran like 19:05. So time was pretty slow, as I expected, but the course was a lot harder than I thought it would be.

It was a fun run and beautiful course, and I ran some hill sprints on the beginning of the course during my cool down. I'll be back next year assuming we're in Ohio for the 4th. I should sign up for a another 5k and give sub 18 on a quick course a shot.

The two kids who finished 15 and 30 seconds ahead of me both ran 4:40s for 1600m and and I'm the low-mid 10 minute range for 3200m this spring. So I'm getting close to my sophomore year level of shape. Really not a bad performance for me today, I think by the end of the summer I should be running sub 4:50 for a mile and maybe I'll take a shot at a 3200m as well. I think I ran a pretty good race, maybe I could have tried to stick with the guys in 3rd and 4tb when they started to separate from me. And I had plenty left in the tank for a kick, I should have tried to run down the kid in front of me with 800m to go but I didn't know how close to the finish I was until like 200m left and by then it was too late.

Legs were still sore from Tuesday. Ran pretty easy today but included 6 100m strides. I ran 4 of them on the track. I did tried to just do them at a pace that would stretch my legs out, which turned out to be 17 seconds. I think I'll do a few more weeks of just doing these 200m buildups or strides on my runs.

Pizza I had for dinner turned on me during my run tonight. I made it through the planned 4x200m buildups. The first 3 felt rough but the 4th actually felt super good, I felt like something changed on that one and my legs started turning over a faster on that one. I think doing these buildups a couple times a week, along with the drills I've been doing, is really fixing whatever is wrong with my running. Slowly but surely. Maybe I'll try doing an all out 400m soon.

Mowed the lawn and ran. Felt pretty good.

Warmed up and ran an all out 400m in 59 seconds. Then did 4x200m buildups. Just happy to be under 60 seconds for the 400m. I'd like to get back down under 55 seconds by this time next year. For now I'll just try to get over 30 miles this week and keep doing strides and buildups every run.

Felt great today, averaged just under 7:00 pace and it didn't feel like I was pushing it any point. I did 4 strides towards the end of the run and the last one was probably closer to 200m. Some good changes are starting to happen, I'm getting back into shape. I'm still a ways from the best shape of my life, but that's the goal. I want to get faster and stronger than I've ever been and this time I want to maintain it until age starts to eat away at my fitness.

I started out easy and then did a harder mile. I decided to do a couple 400s at mile pace, I ran 73 and 74. Those felt pretty good, I think next week I'll do an 8x400m workout at 70-72. I think I'll start doing those more often and then after a while I'll start doing 5 or 6x1000m workouts at 5:20 pace.

Meh run. I need to do more Spartan specific workouts. At least one run a week needs to be lots of random core/hang/lifting workouts mixed with running at under 6:30 pace.

Treadmill run, air quality has been awful this week. And the worst part is the forecast keeps saying that the next day will be in the green, and then it gets there and is at like 90 for AQI. About a mile at 12 degrees incline at 7-8 mph.

Ran to the track and did 6 400s, was going to do 8 but I ran out of time. First was a 76 and the rest were 71-73. They were pretty tough. Had trouble breathing by the time I got home.

A little over 10 at Battelle Darby. Felt great. Did a few hard hill efforts at the end. Really beautiful day. I need to get out here more often. Having a baby has really changed my perspective and understanding on the importance of sleep, I need to get better at averaging at least 7 hours per night. I got 9 hours today and I think that's a big reason for feeling good on my run.

Also the other runs this week were on Wednesday and Thursday, not Thursday a d Friday... I'm too lazy to fix that rn.

Mowed and then ran. Felt good today. Between scrambling to get my broken HVAC system figured out and my brother visiting I missed out on running last week. I did get some good workouts in with climbing and tennis though. Had an awesome weekend hanging out with Adam. We also got some window ac units to hold us over and the home warranty our sellers gave us for the first year is covering a decent amount of the new system, so really it's all worked out perfectly. Pretty huge update for the house for cheap.