Blake Bennions running

We did another Alta run, today was the last day the water will be on up there. So if we go up again it won't be as easy, today I went pretty fast on the way up to the campground. I had a headache by the time we reached the top. I did a 6 laps plus a mile and a half on the newly founded "Allred loop" which is about 1.5 miles. We went down the mountain fast as well, and I ran over to the water fountain and back to the cars after we finished. Tomorrow I will do 5 or 6 miles in the morning, probably 6. And then 8 or more 400s on the track afterwards, I'm am excited for the 400 hundred workout because I havent done any 400s in a few weeks besides one after an 800 workout. If we do 8 400s my goal average will be 66 or 67 and to close with a 65, or I will try do them however fast Coach wants me to do them also I dont know how much rest we will get so I dont know if those are good goals. Either way, tomorrow will be an awesome day, I like 400m workouts even though they hurt!

Am-6 mile run, decently fast. Im not sure exactly how fast but I think it was somewhere in the 40s minute range. It felt good for the first half, a little tired for the 2nd. I did fine but I havent been feeling very good lately.

Pm-We did a mile warm up and then 9 400s at mile race pace. I didnt feel good and I ran embarrasing times on 3 or 4 of them, maybe 5. I don't really feel good about that workout, I don't really feel good about my running lately. I don't know what happened, I'm just doing bad and stuff that shouldn't be hard is destroying me. I don't know whats wrong with my lately but I just need to work through it and hopefully things will turn out really good. Maybe I should quit work so I waste less energy walking each week, I don't know what else to do, I guess more sit ups.

Today was preregion. I think we did about a mile and a half cooldown and warmup. We took the first mile at race pace, I ran up with the bingham kids, tayte, and christian for the first mile and Brayden also. I think Coach said I did the first mile in 5:15. I wanted the opportunity to run with those guys and see how it felt to run their pace, it definitely isnt too fast. It felt harder than I usually take the first mile but I think it was important experiance so I could find out how fast I should be running if I want to break up Binghams top 5. After the first mile I slowed it down to about 8 minute mile pace, Alec caught up and then stayed with me. For the 3rd mile We did about half of it fast and half of it slow (3 fast parts, 3 slow), and I cruised in the last 100 after i had finished my last hard minute or so. I slowed down a lot from the fast part but I went fast enougth that I didnt lose any places. My time was 19:18 or so or 19:11. I'm not sure, but it was a nice run. I realized how much people slow down after the first mile, It makes me really consider slowing my first mile of races down 5 or 10 seconds to see what happens.

Easy 2 miles around the lower loop. Then we did 4 laps around the track, we walked 100 then we jogged 200 and then ran 100 at race pace. So I counted the 4 laps around the track as .5 easy miles and .25 VO2 max

Well I'm not happy with my performance. My goal was to run a sub 17 minute 5k. I was where I needed to be and running as fast as I needed to be until I got kicked in the back of one of my legs from behind 2.25 miles in or so, I stumbled and barely caught myself from faceplanting and and then I just slowed down and started getting passed. I think its safe to say i lost 40-50 positions from the time I got kicked until the end, I had been passing people the entire race up until that point and I was feeling great. I was really concentrating on running through the pain today but the last .75 or so was just really bad and I just gave in to the pain. I had 2 goals coming into this race 1. Give the race everything I had and no matter the time be able to say I had done my absolute best and ran my absolute hardest through the pain and 2. I wanted to run the race in less than 17 minutes. I achieved neither goal, I am happy for my team that we did better overall than last year and Kramer won which is great. I need to get faster. I really thought breaking 17 minutes today was possible, all the way up until I got kicked. It wasn't even like there wasn't anywhere to pass me anyway... it was 2.25 miles in so there were plenty of openings. But I shouldn't blame that for my horrible last portion of the race. I feel that I ran the first 2.25 miles very well, I ran through the pain well for that distance. I also didn't kick at all and continued getting passed by a lot of people up until the end of the race. At herriman I'm not even going to set a goal time, and I'm not even going to target rivals from other schools. I'm just going to run and try to push myself to my limit, I don't want to be able to walk through the line at the finish. I want to give it my all, I just haven't been running through the pain like I should be. I guess I will just put in another solid week this coming week and do my best at Herriman.

Easy run in the gully. I felt good and none of it was hard. I'm not sure how fast we were running. I am going to do some core and maybe a little biking or swimming later today.

Easy run in the gully, we also ran there and back. I felt ok, for some reason I didn't enjoy it.

Am: I ran 4.2 easy miles around the neighborhood, it felt pretty good. I like my morning a lot more when I run, although I was a little tired today until lunch time. It felt really good when I entered the miles from the afternoon workout and then realized that I could add another 4.2 from the morning.

Pm: We did a 2 mile warm up and then we did 4 600s on the track, I did about 600 meters of jogging in between each and about 600 meters of walking inbetween each. I only counted the jogging but that still added an extra 1.2 miles to my mileage if I include striders. For the 600s my times were 1:35, 1:34, 1:34, 1:35. The last one I probably could have run faster if I had paced it better because my first 300 was a 44 and my second 300 was a 51. I enjoyed this workout, it was tough but it was really fun. I love fast track workouts, even though they hurt. I've started trying to get back my form recently, like since murray. I had sort of forgotten form. I'm ready for whatever we will do tomorrow.

Today I felt a little sore but the run felt easy. But I think more important is that I realized how important running is to me. It gives me something to really look forward too each day, each week, and every year. And my running improvements and accomplishments are some really important things to me. I remember how dull my life was the first 2 or 3 months of my high school when I hadn't started running and couldn't play other sports. I really appreciate running and I know that even if I don't accomplish my goals I will still be really happy that I ran throughout high school and I am already happy that I have accomplished some things in running and I know I can accomplish a lot more. I think things in life don't really matter unless you think they do, and in reality that's really all thats important is what you care about. I really like running and I am definintely going to keep doing it as long as I can. At herriman in two days I don't have a goal time, I'm just going to go into the race and enjoy it but I am going to give it everything I have, I'm not going to have to worry about failure. My only goal is to finish the race and think "I gave it my all and had a great time at this meet." I'm really happy to be part of my team at Alta. And i'm really grateful for my amazing coach and team. Coach Murphy and recently Coach Jake have really helped my running, and helped me delelop a really strong love and devotion for running and my teamates really push me and make me work my hardest. Thanks team!

We did 3 miles and then 2 200s with an easy 400 afterwards and a 100 meter jog before the first 200. I feel ready for tomorrow, I'm going to do my best.

Well it was another race, I'm happy I could compete. I'm struggling to keep negative thoughts out of my mind. There are some things I'm going to change starting tomorrow. I will start concentrating on the little things, I will start taking a daily multi-vitamin with iron in it again, I will change my mentality so that I can race harder. Also I need to find a way to make my arms less of a problem. The only other things I can do is more core (abs), and just keep running every day but sunday. I know if I keep running and doing my best each day, I will have great rewards and improvement eventually. It will all work out if I do my best, I just need to keep finding more things to improve on and ways to improve on them.

Today we did the gully run twice, it was nice but sort of tough the 2nd time we did it. I added .05 because I am going to do a little 100-200 meter jog in a moment. The reason I'm doing this is because im at .95 so I want to get that up to the next mile. One of my tendons behind my knee is giving me a little pain but it's been doing that on and off ever since I started running. It will be fine by monday, especially if I ice it. I'm also going to do some sit ups, bicycle kicks, and other core work later today. Maybe I will swim a few hundred meters at work as well. We are well into the season now, I really need to get my head back in the game for races. I need to concentrate on my breathing more during races, also I need to relax when I'm running.

I don't have much time, I need to be at work in 20 mins. It was a recovery run but it felt hard because it was so hot and I haven't run the best buy loop in a long time, and my calfs were hurting for some reason during the day. So it definintely didn't feel nice and easy but i could talk very comfortably. After best buy we did a lower loop and then I did 6 laps with Chase and Kenton to get up to 10 miles.

2 miles in the morning. 2 mile warm up, bad work out of mile repeats 5:18 5:33 5:46. 2 mile cooldown. Not good stuff at all.

We went up to alta for the last time today, we did a mile warm up and then 4 laps at the top so it was 10.4 altogether. It felt good on the way down, the way up hurt less than it usually does. Oh wait, actually my left calf wasn't hurting on the way down but it felt like it was about to cramp up. That's probably because it started cramping up in the middle of the night, but I've had enough of them that I've learned to just stretch it out and hold in place but not to tense it or fight the cramp so it really didn't hurt at all, but I was a little worried about that on the way down from the campground and on the last lap. Well I guess tomorrow will be interesting, I'm late for work hahaha.

We did a 30 min jog and then 6 200s. I just want to go race, and I want to do good. I don't think I am a very good runner, I thought I could finish top 10 at state senior year or even junior year, but I've just slowly been coming down to earth and realizing that it's not going to happen. I don't think I have the potential to do that, all there is to do is keep going and see what happens in the end. See where I CAN get, and try to make it a little better than it would have been every day.

2 miles and 4 striders. I felt good.

Our team was REALLY tight for our 1-4 this race. It was great, our first four guys were 24-31 and alec came in at 41 to finish our top 5. Cubby ran a 17:50 for 24th place, American Fork's 7th guy was 19 so we are getting close to those guys. Chase had an awesome race and came in 2nd for our team a couple seconds ahead of me and finished 29th. I was 30th and Davis was just behind me at 31st. We were really close to each other the entire race, it was really good. This kid cut me and Davis in the finish line and was really rude about it, then I told him he was behind us and he got really angry, so on paper (which hasnt come out yet) there was a guy between me and chase and davis was 7 seconds behind me, but in reality I was right behind chase and davis was like a half second behind me. We had a really good race, and we got to cheer on the girls as well. I really liked the course, it was a tough course with slow times but I had a good time racing. I'm looking forward to the nebo invitational! And my favorite race, park city, is after that so it will be a good! They never really came out with official results but I'm assuming we took 3rd behind American Fork and Evanston. I actaully don't know if we lost to evanston, but theyre top jv freshman/sophemore guy took 2nd in the freshman/sophomore race to an american fork guy so I think they probably had some good varsity guys. I hope Kramer and Brayden did well!

We ran to the gully today and did a time trial. But the top 6 guys had to stick together, Brayden droped back to run with cubby so we finished we 5 but brayden could have kept with us. 4 of our top 5 guys had major prs for the gully, Kramer didnt because he was running with us but Davis, Alec, Chase and I all had great PRs all over a minute. We finished with a time of 43:40, My PR and Alecs as well was a 44:40 and Chase had like a 7 minute PR, Davis also had a large PR. Cubby and Ashton had PRs as well. There arn't many days when I've been able to say I gave it my all and I was happy with the result, today is one of those days. Hopefully more of these days will happen at the races! But a 43 minute range time in the gully, I'm definentely happy to be heading into Nebo with that, I want to get faster but I'm happy with the time. Hopefully next time I run this it will be a 42 range! I really felt good about this run, I can't wait for nebo!

Am: 4.5 miles, the first 3.75 were easy. Next .5 were barefoot easy on the inside of the track, last .25 were striders.

Pm: 6.5 miles, best buy loop. We took it easy, it was a nice run. Overall, today was just easy mileage. It was a nice easy recovery day from the maximum effort at the gully yesterday. I think we're doing a track workout tomorrow, I'm excited! Actually I'm not sure what I can do on a track workout right now, I think I will definintely take my inhaled medicine tomorrow, I haven't taken it for like a week because they were hurting my throat and voice but I think its a good idea to take them on speed and race days at least.

We ran to the gully and did 4x400s. My times were 1:30, 1:32, 1:34, 1:38. We had 7 minutes of rest between each 400. Obviously these would be horrible times on the track, but its all uphill and windy. It got harder to finish the last 150 each time.

3 laps around the track, then 2 lower loops, then 4 striders. I feel pretty good, I sort of wish my lungs feeling better though. The race is tomorrow, I am really determined to do well.

I havnt really had the same motivation every since that last stress fracture, it just doesn't matter as much. I like running and I want to suceed but the motivation, fire, and hunger for improvement I used to have just doesn't seem to be there anymore. I promised myself when I started running that I would never give up and never quit, because the only way to get truly good at something is to stick with it. So I'm not going to stop, I just need to keep going and never give up. I feel like there's something more I could have put into today's race but for some reason I just couldn't do it. My lungs were the only thing hurting going into mile 3 but I was just dropping and dropping. The only reason I'm still on varsity is because my good friend from EFY over the summer, Kyle Gibbs from Woods Cross, passed me and it gave me motivation and reassured me that I could still finish ok. I just got behind Kyle and just kept right with him up until the end, I would not have broken 17 if I hadn't had my friend's support.

We ran up at Jeremy ranch, it was really nice but I didn't do to well on the last 2 miles. Coach Murphy said I should try to enjoy running more so I will work on that, I will try to find ways to enjoy each days run more. I have heard that you should enjoy the process more than the finish, or something close to that, so I think I need to do that. I think tomorrow I should just concentrate on other stuff, and I will just do some core tonight as well.

Today we did a 2 mile warm up and then 12 200s. We did 3 sets of 4 200s, with 5 mins rest in between each set and 30 seconds of rest between each 200. For the first set of 200s, the goal was 32, then 30, then 28. I'd say my average was 31 and I only did a sub 30 for 1 of the 200s, I think it will help with the last 800 if I can actually push myself for the last 800, I'm starting to get really pissed at myself, i can't believe how little I've improved this season. Im getting angry, I just need to use the anger in the races. I need to pissed at races. Thats how I was successful in football but I've always thought cross country was different. I just need to use my motivation and energy more conservitavly in cross country than in football. I also need to get more sleep so I don't burn out during the week. I haven't really felt great about many workouts this year, I can remember 1 or 2 that I've been happy with. And my races have all been terrible, I'm not going to run anyone else's race on friday. I'm not going to run outrageously ambitous but I'm going to get out a lot faster than I have been, I need to kill the 2nd mile, I need to stay strong in the 2nd and then finish with a great 3rd. If I'm going to do this sport I'm not going to settle for sub-par I'm going to do the best I can, and I'm better than this. I really need to push through the walls and fight through it when I get tired.