Blake Bennions running

5 miles wit Matt. We did a run west of Brighton, its a good route! My hamstrings were sore today, flying 40s did their job! The 16 mile race tomorrow will be a new and big challenge to me, I'm very excited to test myself on this course. It's now August which means that Cross Country is about to start, Highland Invitational is in 3 weeks and I have never felt so prepared for something in my life. And I have even more time to improve before the race.

This was completely new to me, it was like nothing I have ever raced or even run before. Coach Murphy saved me from burning out in the first few miles, thank you! Murphy is an awesome coach and he's the reason I am becoming so much of a better runner! I stayed with my Coach for a while, I think mile 5 or something. I had been keeping Adam Jensen in view and he was staring to pass a big group so I followed him from 80m back and started gaining on him, I caught him less than 10 minutes before we for to this crazy hill, so steep and rocky that I had to climb using my hands! I didn't know if I would make it up, but I did and I took a second to drink some water before going into the last half. There was no one to race with going down so I just went at a comfortably fast pace. Eventually I  some people coming up behind me around the 10k left mark and I started really going, I put a lot space on them. With a 5k to go a really fast girl came into view behind me and I had to really kick to keep ahead, I was staying ahead well until the final mile when I twisted my ankle and felt something snap or year or something and I went face first into the dirt, I got back up but I was having a lot of trouble running with that leg, I struggled to jog slowly at first but then I heard someone behind me and I started sprinting with my uninsured leg and doing what I could with my other leg. I finished in 2:02:49 which is fast! I was really close to under 2 hours! I loved the course and I like mountain races, I think all of the changing scenery and sharp turns force me to pay attention! I managed to keep not let anyone else pass me so that's good. After the race a reporter interviewed me and gave me her card, she said I will be in the news! I talked with some people and with Adam and Coach Murphy after the race, I've been icing my ankle a lot to. This will be a fun season, Adams a good competitor and cool guy, it will be fun to race with him more! After that, 5ks are going to be easy! Thank you for inviting me to come run this Coach!!!

turns out I sprained my ankle when I fell, my dad says its a grade 1 sprain so its not bad, hopefully I will be back Monday, he said it could take 2 weeks but I will be back in 2 days, I don't really care if it just hurts, I will just be careful. but I will just go on how it feels. I will be fine though.

When I woke up this morning my ankle was probably feeling worse than it had yesterday, but after another 12 hours of rest and ice and a 2 hour nap I was feeling an incredible amount better. This is a miracle, I think it may have just been tight from sleeping in the morning but it didn't even hurt to walk by the time I went to the rec center, so I ran 20 meters and that felt fine, there was a little pop but it was a good feeling pop. The workout on the bike today was one of the hardest I've done 5 min warm up and then 55 mins of 2 mind hard, 3 mind easy. My shirt felt like I had jumped in a lake by the end. I did 8 minutes of cooling down at the end. My ankle is still swollen probably as much as this morning, I think the biking may have gotten it a little more swollen again, but everything feels like a minor injury. I bet I could run the workout tomorrow if I had to! I am hoping to maybe get out on the track tomorrow for 4 easy miles or something, the doctors appointment is at 3 so if they clear it I will go! My ankle feels awesome! It's really swollen but compared to this morning it's really incredible! I'm very excited about this and I feel like I dodged a bullet, I was really worried this would destroy all my build up for the season but I'm really excited about how good its feeling!

Sports med. doctor said 4-5 miles tonight, 7 miles tomorrow, and Thursday I could do 10 if the next two runs are ok. Also I can't run downhills for a while so unfortunately Alta tomorrow isn't a good idea. Thursday I will come and run at practice, hopefully do the workout, but maybe just a long run, I will see how I'm feeling and talk to Coach Murphy. The Achilles and sprain are healed, but there's a very loose ligament, my left foot can be pulled to the side about 3-4 times as far as the right. So more icing and then when it clears up tonight I will do 4-5 miles and a 20-30 minute bike ride. I am thinking 5 min warm up, 20 mins of 2:30 hard, 2:30 easy, 5 minute cooldown.

4 miles at the Brighton track, just had dinner before so not the most enjoyable but my ankle felt fine! Time for the biking part.

7 miles with Matt around Brighton. My ankle is still swollen but its feeling good. The ligament is still loose but feeling better after the run. I will bike 30 minutes tonight, probably just a hard pace. This week has been ok training, tomorrow I will return to practice and do 10 miles if Coach Murphy is ok with that. I might go at 7:30 and do 4 miles and then run with the team, I'm not sure if I should do the workout tomorrow. But I think next week I will be able to do all the workouts without trouble, my plan for the rest of the week is 10 miles tomorrow, 12-14 miles at Libert Park on Friday, 11-12 miles on Porter Rockwell trail on Saturday. So I will get about 45-48 miles for the week, plus 1 really hard biking workouts, and 2 decently hard biking workouts. I say this is an ok week of training, its definitely made this season even more valuable, I was blessed to not have been more injured by that fall. I had 3 different ankle injuries but they all turned out to be ok, I could have been out for 2 weeks which would have really damaged my season. But this has given me even more reason to make this season count!

It's great to be back, we ran a warm up and then 10 miles over to Porter Rockwell and back, the pace we needed to hit was 7:00 and when we got to 5 we were a minute or two slow so Cubby, Ashton, and I picked it up on the way back. We had fun pushing it on the hill, its nice having Cubby back! We picked it up to make up for the time we had lost but we were talking the entire time so it wasn't too hard, it was a decent pace. Friday will be a long run at liberty park and Saturday will be a team practice at Sugar House. My ankle is almost all better, still a little pain but never while running. I think our team will be good this year, Highland is going to be amazing, only 2 weeks away!

9.5 around liberty park with Matt. Kind of tired today. I will do another 3 miles tonight. Pretty good run.

3.2 at a park near my house at 9:00. I felt great, perfect temperature. I ran the opposite way I usually do around the park for the final 3 laps, it was really weird but also fun! Good run.

60 minutes of running at sugar house today, about 4 laps and the state course. Then we did 8 hills. It was a power workout, the first one or two I was just using my legs but after that I started attacking the hill and going a lot faster. Davis and I were the only ones that showed up today. After practice, Coach Murphy took us to Dunkin Doughnuts, thanks Coach! Sounds like there are some really crazy mountain runners out there, someday in like 7 or 8 years I want to race with that Jornet guy, I'm sure he will win by a ton but it would be cool to race him! 

11.25 in the gully with Coach Murphy, Cubby, Davis, and Read. I felt good today, my ankle was a little tight at the beginning but it got better. I'm really curious about this years team, there's a strong top 3 and then a lot of guys who could be good, but its really unclear how good any of them are going to be. I'm really excited to test myself at highland, 3 months of good summer training is almost finished and I'm ready for the season to begin. I really like hills, especially when there are other people to run with. I might do a few miles tonight, I'm feeling really good and I'm feeling like running. Also, my spit is blue, which is awesome, thanks for the Gatorade Coach!

We did 30 minutes of tennis ball fartleks where one person sprints out and another throws the ball to them. It was fun, very quick practice today! 6 miles tonight!

6 miles, half in the rain. I wasn't feeling very good in the middle of this run, my legs were feeling really weird, 6 miles feels really short now! But I started feeling great towards the end! Good to get out a poopy run the day before a time trial! 

Not so good, it was a PR by a but but I haven't run it in a month. I wasn't really feeling it today, I didn't do any pre-meet stuff. But I didn't do as well as I wanted but its just one race, I will get back to my usual self quickly. There was really know part of this run that I did good on, I did ok on the uphill but should have pushed harder, I sucked at the campground as usual and then I just wouldn't push it back down. Cubby and Davis did really good today though, and Ashton and Read also, out team looks like it could be really good! I will do 3 miles tonight. This week I am going to run about 65 miles.

3 miles later, a good strong pace. Back in middle school I had an iPod classic, sometimes I would make a playlist of about 128 songs, listen to them all, the best 64 would make it to the next playlist and I would cut it in half every playlist until there was just 1 left. Then I lost my iPod at a track meet. Two thoughts came to my head, 1. I had way too much time on my hands in middle school and 2. I'm still really pissed I lost my iPod! To be perfectly honest it was probably stolen, my first track meet a junior football player/sprinter stole my shoes. A lot of things got stolen that year!

I got in 7 miles with the team, we also played tag after 2 miles and before the last 5. So we got a good run in and had some fun! I felt pretty good today. 3 more miles later.

I ran 1 mile, to the park and was on my 2nd lap when I twisted my ankle. I had to limp home half a mile. I'm in a terrible mood. My ankle is swollen and hurts pretty bad.

The ankle is feeling a lot better today, I had a ton of trouble getting up the stairs yesterday, every time I put wait on my ankle it would started hurting a lot until I elevated it and got off my feet. But today I had to limp at first but now I can walk with no pain. Probably going to just ice and rest today and maybe run tomorrow night.

20 minute biking workout, just wanted to see how it felt on my ankle and get a small workout in.

30 minutes of biking, decent effort

11 easy miles with varsity guys. I told chase to only do the gully because he was still  a little sick and he's not in shape right now. Today was pretty fun, hopefully tomorrow is a track workout! My ankle felt pretty good, it was a little painful at some points but that's good, my muscles in my ankle need to relearn all the movements. I've been doing calf and ankle exercises to help my ankle get stronger, I think it's helping, more ice of course. Well as I've learned throughout all of high school, its not a real season if I don't get an injury haha. I'm getting new spikes and trainers tonight!

Warmed up a little over a mile and conutinued to 10x400m at 75-80 pace. I ran 77, 77, 74, 75, 75, 76, 74, 75, 75, 72. So I averaged 75. I went a little fast on the last one, I was just happy, excited for the season, and feelin good so I let myself speed up. The rest wa about 40 seconds of walking/jogging. It was a pretty easy workout but I felt really good and had a lot of fun, I'm feeling a lot more confident  and energized going into the season! I cooled down a little over 2 miles with the team, and them did 2 miles on my own because I had a little extra time before I needed to go. Good workout!

Out of all the first days of school I've ever had, this has by far been the worst, and I've had some pretty horrible first days of school. I'm feeling really crappy, I was looking forward to the meet tomorrow a lot but I don't know if it's happening. I went for a run a while back when I got home from my asthma doctor appointment and it felt weird, I need new shoes. Well school is back.

I had to line up in row 2 and so I got boxed in at around 150th place. It took me a long time to weave my way through to catch up with read and some other guys, and it took me half the race to get back to right behind Davis. I just stayed there for the rest of the race, not feeling good but I could have run harder. I also kicked too late, I really should have gone when my coach told me to but I waited. I still managed to outkick a few guys from rival schools in the last 100 meters. I need to do a lot better, I am going to run in the low 10 minute range at grass relays. Hopefully I get first leg so I can race with Adam Jensen! I meant to go on a 4 mile run tonight but I had 5 pages of AP lit to do and I didn't finish until 10:30.

Easy 70 minute run plus 6 striders. Felt good, we went to corner canyon and checked their track and indoor track out, huge school! Like 8 gyms! Tomorrow is 4x1000m on the track. I will be there along with cubby and Davis!

Easy two mile warm up and the a good track workout. I did 2x1000mthen 2x800m and finished with a max effort 400m. I ran 3:17, 3:14, 2:30, 2:28, on the 400m I used Brayden's advice and went out slower, but too slow. The last 250 meters were just like my kick would be in a real race though, I ran 62 seconds but could have quite a bit faster if the first 150 meters weren't so easy. It wasn't too hard of a track workout, I felt good and strong today. The pace felt good. I liked this workout, looking forward to more track workouts! 4 more miles tonight.

Later- nice bike workout, my resting heart rate is low 40s bpm, I found out a while ago at the doctors, I want to get down below 40!

AM- 4.5 easy miles with the team

PM- 7.7 easy miles with the team. 12 miles today, about 10 tomorrow, probably 16 Wednesday, guessing 12 on Thursday, 4 on Friday, 10 on Saturday. So about 65 miles for the week! We will find out if this prediction is acurate later. Grass relays is Saturday, I think it will be fun, I am going to read some of my posts from track and try to get that mentality about these races. My plan for grass relays is to race it like the 3200m, 5:05 for the first mile, try to repeat on the second, and then give on heck of a kick. 

Easy 4 miles with one big uphill and downhill. I feel good, my body feels ready for the day! Workout after school, probably 6 miles total.

After school I did a 1.5 mile warm up followed by 3 miles on the track, 200m in 34, 200m easy. I hit all of my 200s in 32-34. The last two were supposed to be 30 but I hit 33 for them. Not feeling good on the last two at all, I believe that when a workout feels unreasonably hard for you, it's because you needed that workout. So I didn't do well today but I think it's because I've been lacking the thing this workout trains and this will improve my running a lot. When I recover I will be a very improved runner. Tomorrow is an aerobic threshold test, I'm excited to find out mine, my aerobic strength is something I have confidence in after a good summer of training including Jupiter Peak Steeplechase.

AM- 4.5 miles easy, 8 laps in lane 8, lower loop, 4 barefoot striders. I also played 4 games of ultimate frizbee in 6th period.

PM- 9 miles in 68 minutes. We were behind by quite a bit until the last 2.5 miles, I'd been trying to pull people along but at that point I just took off. I wasn't feeling good today but I wanted to do the workout right. We actually ended up going faster than we needed too for the last mile, people like really pushing it the last mile. I felt happy with my effort. Mentally and physically I'm breaking down but that's good, it's the only way to get out of my comfort zone and adapt to the workload, thus becoming a better person, and a better runner. I also dropped one of my 4 ap classes so my stress should be decreased a little. Tonight I will just do some homework, relax, maybe nap, and possibly do some sit-ups, maybe a few push ups.

AM- 4.5 easy miles, I love my new film studies and seminary class.

PM- 5.5 miles including 8x flying 40s. We were going to do 4x1200m at 5:00 pace but not everyone was feeling up to it so coach Murphy had us do flying 40s. I was fine with just doing flying 40s, I would have loved to do 4x1200m at a good fast pace but my body hurt just fine with the workout we did, and I'm no expert on team building but I had fun and thought it was good bonding time, I really like some of the varsity guys this year, good guys! I felt motivated to run for my team today at grass relays, more so than I've ever felt in cross country. I'm ready for some good hard racing, some big mileage, and some hard workouts this season! I know I'm going to enjoy it!

A mile warm up, 800m at race pace, 2:34, and a mile cool down. I'm running the 4th leg so not the most exciting one, but just as important as the others. I want to run somewhere between 10:15 and 10:30 tomorrow. It shouldn't be that much different from a 3200m and the 3200m isn't so hard.

Not happy with the race, looking back it felt WAY too easy. I slowly passed runners that I am a lot faster than, I could have run another mile at this pace easy. The only hard parts were the hay bales where I felt like I couldn't breathe going over and they hurt, but the rest was too easy, I don't like this course because there's no where to kick, it was too far away to do much of a kick before the 3 hay bales and after that you have to prepare for the gauntlet and after that you have to prepare to hand off so the result was I didn't really kick. I passed 4 teams but it should have been more, I am very motivated to go run a fast 5k at the next race, I'm determined and hungry, I want success. I'm going to go hard the next time I race, its too easy to run slow when I go out conservatively in races. I need to go at a 5:10 for the first mile of a race like pre-region, I want to stick with people I should be sticking with and beating them. I should be running with all the guys I was running with in track, and will be running with in track this spring. I know I have the ability, I know I have the speed, and I put in the mileage, I need to start racing like it. After I got home I did 4.25 miles, a 400 in 60 seconds in the middle of the run. Adam Jensen did awesome today, 5th overall I think! And Cubby did good too, our team did well as a whole so I was happy about that.