Blake Bennions running

Have been sick with a fever of 103 this week. It's becoming clear to me that I should defer my Des news entry to next year. Just way too many recovery and taper weeks, minor injuries, bad air quality, and I've gotten sick twice in the past 6 weeks.

Real frustrating stuff.

Struggled through this one with Jake, who has also been sick this week. Head and neck are still feeling pretty rough and my legs feel sapped probably because I haven't been eating much, but good to get back out there.

Somehow feeling super wrecked still, legs felt rusty but also depleted. I deferred my Des news marathon entry to 2027. Got some other fun races coming up though. If I can stop this endless spiral of wrecked training weeks.

Had a great 4th of July and today we took Whitney to rush fun complex and she got to do bumper cars and try out bowling, mini golf, a big foam pit with lots of climbing stuff, and lazer tag all for the first time. I was pretty impressed with how she did for a 3 year old.

Very windy today, body still feeling like poop. Not sure how this bug wrecked my whole system so bad.

7:30 pace for this run got my heart rate up to 160. Not sure if I'm just not recovered yet or I just was set back that much. Either way it's time to start rebuilding. Gonna start with some faster speed on the track tomorrow.

Warmed up with Kolten and Henry and then did 200, 320 (accidentally started at the 4x100 transition start instead of the 300m for lane 4), 400, 500, 600, 500, 400, 300, 200 with Henry. Had 2-4 kind of rest between ach.

Splits were 31, 50 (probably 47 for the 300), 66, 1:27, 1:46, 1:29, 1:11, 51, 31.

So I fell off a bit especially the last 400 and 300. But pretty good really, I'd say my mile time right now is clearly around 4:35-4:45.

Body just doesn't want to run these days, been one long rut going back to like mid May when I got sick the first time. Just gotta keep getting out every day and do some fast but low stress workouts like yesterday until the magic comes back. Glad I pulled out of Des news, things will come around but the last thing my body needs is an all out marathon rn. Mileage is lower than I'd like to to be but I don't think it's wise to push it quite yet. Got to play some risk with the boys tonight, that was fun.

20 minute sauna

Ran Whitney to her swim lesson and back. She also made it all the way to the park on her bike tonight (close to half a mile), and then I carried her bike back home once she was done- which was a solid workout.

5 more miles in the heat, was 91° but I felt great. My legs are a bit sore from Wednesday but I generally felt better than I have since before the Ogden half. It was the first run this entire summer that was what I want in a nice warm summer run, I used to love this weather and it's been killing me this year up until today. Maybe my body just needed to adjust to the heat, and maybe racing through a half marathon while sick and then running an under fueled marathon 3 weeks later was a dumb idea. Probably nothing too mysterious about why I've had an 8 week rut, I likely just vastly underestimated the stress those events had on my body. Got 4 strides in today.

Got out late and ended up on a very hot run. Felt pretty good outside of the heat. Did 4 strides.

Whitney came over from her room in the middle of the night and gave me a hug and then just went back to bed. This morning I asked her why she came over and she said "I wanted to be friendly". Was very adorable.

Woke up at 6:40 but somehow didn't make it out on my run until closer to 8. Just not feeling it today. Ran up to canal and then over to 1050 and did a couple quarter miles at mile race pace. Then did a couple threshold miles on the way home at around 5:30. Walked wherever I could find shade the last mile or two. Was a glorious moment to be reunited with water. Enjoyed a nice milkshake as well- I did not get the ratio of milk to ice cream right but it hit the spot after wandering the scorching streets of pleasant view for a couple hours.

With Jake, got out at 6:45 and it was muggy.

Warmed up a little over 2 + strides with Jake and Henry.

Mile tempo in 5:27, didn't feel great

100- 14

200- 31

300- 46

400- 66

500- 1:27 (69 @ 400m)

400- 69

300- 48

200- 31

100- 14

Had a lot of trouble catching my breath after most of these reps. Hopefully these workouts pay off. I think I'm going to start trying to do one of these per month going forward.

Pretty easy pace averaging 7:30 but heart rate climbed to 150s. Probably just the heat. My motor has just felt weak for a couple months, but I think my legs are finally starting to come back. I think I'll be good after a few workouts focusing on 5k-half marathon pace.

Ran with Jake, started way too late at 7:30. We stopped at around mile 6 and and watched Josh Kerr break the mile world record, was very awesome. Gotta wake up at 6 and just get out the door tomorrow.

Easy plus 4 strides. Built up to a sprintish on the last 2 strides, I need to rush through strides less when I do them and focus on actually doing them well. Planning to get up in 8 hours and do a 10-12 mile day with some half marathon pace miles.

Keep both getting crap sleep and bad runs

With Kolten and Jake. It was hot. I guess it's not just me, those guys heart rates were also irregularly high on this run averaging 8:15 pace. Couldn't escape the heat even starting at 6:45.

2 mile warm up and strides with Jake.

Mile in 5:30, felt smoother than last week

8x600m with 2 mins recovery and goal was 1:54

Splits were:

1:53, 1:54, 1:54, 1:53, 1:54, 1:54, 1:53, 1:50.

Felt like I could not breathe in this mugginess and the track was slick but my legs carried me through. Pretty happy with this one, I think those fast ladder workouts the past couple weeks are paying off. 5:02 pace is pretty good for this workout. Now I just need to do it for 8x800m and then 4xmile.

Also a chance I jump into Des News 10k since Jake forgot to cancel his race. If probably just run 32:xx especially with this workout two days out. Would be a good tempo, which I have been struggling to get myself to do.

Not much time today, shake out for tomorrow's race + 4 strides. Legs felt pretty heavy from yesterday's workout- but I still have another night of sleep. I think I might be able to run sub 32 if I was fresh but I'll just be happy with a new PR.

Legs were trashed from Wednesdays workout, I think that just tanked this for me worse than I had expected. I have also likely lost some fitness. But this was effectively 1.5 minutes slower than I ran at salt lake 10k with 600 feet elevation loss compared to flat haha. So pretty huge difference in performance.

Marathon winning time was 2:39 and 3rd place was 2:50 so I am a little bummed I didn't keep on course for that, bonking while pacing a 2:50 marathon and getting sick twice during the last 2 months was a big mistake. But this has helped reignite the fire within my belly, which has been suffering due to muggy weather and generally feeling off. Time to build back up to 60-70 miles per week and make stuff happen.