Blake Bennions running

Easy run. Sinuses are feeling wrecked, nasal rinse did not help.

Running goals for 30s:

-Run faster each year than 10 years before that year (faster PRs at 35 than 25, might change this to faster than any point in my 20s since I was in 18-19 minute 5k shape from 23-27)

-Sub 2:30 marathon

-Sub 70 half marathon

-Win Salt Lake Marathon, Des News Marathon, Ogden Marathon, or Top of Utah Marathon. Ideally all of them or several wins.

-Run Boston Marathon

-Sub 3 hour 50k

-Run over 2000 miles every year

-Sub 5:00

-Add in lifting 3x per week and cross training 2x per week

Warmed up 3 miles with Jake

4x800m on the runway. 2:32, 2:38, 2:32, 2:27. I think they were a little long and the 38 was uphill. Legs felt decent but my lungs and throat were wrecked, my sinuses are really giving me a hard time. Originally was going. To do 6xK today but they're just wrecking me. Maybe I'll sauna tonight.

Ran into Kolten on the 2nd to last one and did the first mile of his workout with him after the 800s.

I think it's good to have a few weeks with nothing too hard going on, I really haven't taken a true unforced break this year and have rushed return to workouts after every race. I think Peach Days will be my only full effort run this month and the rest of the workouts will be pulled back to a comfortable level for the next few weeks. Just going to focus on building back mileage and feeling 100%.

Easy run with 5-6 minutes at cadence of 168 throughout the run. 6 20-30 second strides at the end.

Easy with 10 mins at 168 bpm, although it kept inexplicably shifting down to 163 during the last 2 2 minute reps. 4 strides at the end.

Easy with Jake on canal road. My big toe nail broke off 90% of the way yesterday right before I was about to run, I didn't pull it all the way off because there's still a tiny piece connected to the nail bed and part of the stuff inside the nail is still on my toe towards the top. Wrapped it today and it felt fine on the run.

Easy run with 10 mins at 168 spm and 4 strides. Felt pretty good, toe is holding up well.

Easy run

Warmed up with the boys and then did 8xquarter mile with Jake at 74-78. Felt a little too quick for 5k pace.

Easy

Warmed up a couple miles with Jake and then ran the race. Lungs were feeling pretty wrecked by the end, wheezing a lot. Will be good to see the ENT next month.

Peach Days was fun!

18 mins of cadence work + 4 strides. I ended up doing 3 mins of 168 spm and the 3x(3 mins @168, 3 mins normal, 2 mins @175 marathon pace, 2 mins normal).

4 strides afterwards.

Couple miles at Whitney's soccer practice and then more later. About 2.5 miles total at 168 bpm. 4 strides at the end.

With Kolten Jake and Henry around the neighborhood. Explored the new community being built across the street from our neighborhood, at the moment it's just about 2-3 miles of fresh roads that are disconnected from the rest of society- perfect for our purposes until the houses until all the buildings start going up.

Cadence was 160 today running naturally, I looked on Strava at past spm for similar runs and they were mid to high 150s on days I averaged 8:30ish like today- I averaged 160 when I ran closer to 7:30. So that's a promising return on the cadence work I've been doing. Might double today and get some more cadence work in.

8 mins at 168 spm and a little over 8 mins at 175 spm including a mile in 5:40. Couple strides at the end and some plyometrics.

Not feeling it today, legs just felt drained. Did some cadence work.

Easy run with Jake and Kolten.

I need a heart rate band if I'm going to do heart rate based workouts. I warmed up and then did 10 miles averaging 6:13. My watch lagged following my heart rate and kept telling me I was in the 140s the first couple miles and I ended up running 11:50 for the first 2, then it spiked to 175 and I spent the next 4 miles trying to reign it in, then I just said screw it and picked it back up a bit the last 3. Felt pretty good, definitely could have run faster- I need to focus more on feel than watch heart rate.

Jake joined me about 2-3 miles into my tempo and then Kolten joined us for the cool down. Was a fun day!

Splits were 5:50, 6:00, 6:13, 6:26, 6:22, 6:32, 6:20, 6:16, 6:02, 5:58.

Cadence was low 160s which I was a little disappointed by until I checked my runs where I held similar pace during the spring, I was more like high 150s average on those. So that's encouraging, even though this pace doesn't feel quite as easy as it did then because fitness has been lost.

Tuscon is out of reach for this year unfortunately. My current marathon pace seems to be about 6:20s and I need that to be 40 seconds faster. Even I I give myself 5 seconds per mile because I was using trainers vs racing shoes and 10 seconds per mile flat vs downhill course and 5 seconds for elevation being lower that's still 20 seconds off where I need to be. I don't think I can close that gap in less than 3 months.

I'm going to keep building back and doing occasional speed workouts. Rest of September I'm going to keep intensity pretty low and just focus on cadence and strides and then I'll start doing 1 VO2 max and one marathon workout per week after that with once a month doing a 400-800m pace workout.

Cadence work at 168 (16 minutes) and 175 (4 minutes). Couple strides at the end.

10 mins biking setting up the smart trainer.

Easy with Jake and Kolten.

Looped around the new build roads 4x and let myself speed up to 6 minute range for most of it. Average cadence of 164 today and 7:00 for the run, seems like that's improving.

Easy mile in the midst of a few hours of yardwork.

With Kolten and Henry. Kolten and I found a 5k going on at Harrisville park and I jumped in with the leaders for a little over a mile of that at about 6:00 pace. I asked a few volunteers what race it was and none of them knew.