Blake Bennions running

Easy run with a couple miles on grass. I need to test out my trail shoes this weekend.

A couple miles easy and then 4x400 at mile pace. I ran 74, 70, 74, 71, they didn't feel as easy as I'd hoped. I wasn't able to get out until 8pm and for some reason it's always harder for me to pace accurately when I'm running in the dark. I also think when I run later at night I'm just tired these days. I guess that's what becoming a parent does to you, I used to have tons of energy well past 8pm during grad school.

Tomorrow I'll do a little uphill running and a few miles with circuit type stuff. Nothing too hard. I think after that I'll take Sunday off and do easy 4-5 miles on Monday and Wednesday, then probably just a shake out on friday before the race next weekend. Not ideal that I went 3 days without a run this week but I didn't really have any time- I'm tapering anyways.

Ran just over half a mile at varying speeds and inclines between 6 and 12 degrees and 6-9mph. Then did some pullups and went out to the park. I did some of my running at the park in my brooks and some of it in my trail shoes. I did about 12-15 spartan workout type things and sped up to mid 6 minute pace for a while. I climbed field goal posts and did some monkey bar stuff with those, same on some goal posts, climbed on the fences a bit, did burpees, pushups, jumped over some fences, flipped some tires at the track. Not sure how heavy the tires are but they seemed pretty heavy, heavy enough that I when I dropped one of them it rolled on my foot and my toe started bleeding... still kinda sore.

I'm not sure whether I'll wear my brooks of trail shoes at the race next week, the trail shoes feel way better on the grass- like probably 20 seconds per mile difference. But on the other hand the trail shoes have terrible grip on hard surfaces, so if I need to use my feet on any of the obstacles that will be a problem... Guess I'll check the map when it comes out in a couple days and make a decision based off that. I think it will be a really fun race!

A little upper body workouts and 5 easy miles with few 200ms between mile pace and 6:30. Felt a little sore today which I wasn't expecting, I'm sure I'll be 100% by Saturday though.

Easy 4 miles with a couple strides.

Spartan race today, I think I took like 9th but I'm not sure and I also have no idea what my time was except for that I got back to my car about an hour and 20 minutes after the race start time haha. Had a lot of fun though!

I started out well with the top pack but I let a few guys go because the course was a lot more technical than I was expecting. When I did this in Utah it was mostly just a regular mountain trail, a fairly technical one- but I was pretty used to those at the time. This course has a lot of high grass and lots of rocks so I had to slow down because I didn't want a repeat of the most other races I've done on technical courses... Too many sprains.

First couple obstacles went well, I was a little slow on the cargo net climb because I'm not great with heights- then I missed the spear throw, but I'm pretty sure almost everyone misses that. So I had to take a penalty loop there.

Next several obstacles went well, I whacked my leg pretty hard on a post during one of the barbed wire crawls. Hercules hoist was heavier than I expected but I got it done just fine. Really everything went pretty well until the Olympus wall.

I was in 5th place and had 3rd place in my vision when I got to the Olympus wall but my terrible technique on that obstacle caught up with me, I really should have taken the penalty loop. It's basically a 20 foot long wall and there are chains, climb holds, and holes for your hands but nothing for your feet. I know the better way to approach this obstacle is to grab the chains and push off the wall with your feet. But I decided to just use the holes and dead hang while I pulled myself along the holes, which went up and down. I almost fell a couple times and had to exert a ton of my grip strength and upper body strength holding on. I made it but the toll was way too great, I had to slow down and my upper body was shot bad enough that I had to take the penalty loop on the next obstacle- which I normally would be able to do fairly easily. 1 guy caught me while I took that penalty loop.

Then there were the bucket carry and sandbag carry right after that and my upper body was still pretty shot, sandbag was 60 pounds and bucket carry was either 60 or 80. Both were about 200-300 meters up and down a hill. Again usually I would be able to get through both those pretty well, but my upper body was shot and another 2-3 people caught me during those. I think all the driving yesterday didn't help with my lower back for those as well haha.

Overall a great workout and has given me a good goal to train for this year. I think if I keep training I'll be a lot better by the next one next summer in Cincinnati. Need to find some technical trails around Columbus to train on and do that once or twice a month, idk how to train to improve my technique on the Olympus wall haha. These are a lot of fun though!

Might jump in a half marathon in Louisville tomorrow on the way home.

I felt good the day of the race but the day after I felt maybe the most sore I ever have, and my ankle felt wrecked. I twisted and rolled it a few times a little funny but nothing too severe during the race, and I also whacked it really hard on a post while rolling over during the barbed wire crawl. But it felt terrible on Sunday, felt better and better the last couple days. Finally decided to test it out today, it still feels pretty sore but pretty stable.

Easy run with a few 200m pickups at the track. Still pretty achy and tight. My goals for the rest of the year are to run sub 18 in whatever thanksgiving 5k I do, run sub 4:50 for a 1600m, and average over 30 mpw during November and December.

I've successfully built up to running 30 mpw without my Achilles falling apart over the past 2 years. Kind of an insane timeline... Maybe too conservative, but now my Achilles are the best they've been in 7 years and I'm ready to start doing some real mileage. My goal is going to be 2000 miles for 2024. I only have a couple years left before age starts becoming a factor in shorter races, I want to be running 60-80 mile weeks and set some fast PRs in the 800m-5k before I'm 30... So I've got 24, 25, and the most important part of 26. Hopefully I'll be even faster when I'm 30-31 but I think it's wise to see what I can do before then.

Garmin map was all over the place today, been doing more of that lately. I signed up for a trail half marathon next month with 3k feet elevation gain, hopefully I don't bonk out!

Ran to the park/track. I did 6x200m, 2 at mile pace, 2 at 800m pace, 2 starting at mile pace and building up to a sprint. Legs didn't feel super fresh but I hit the splits I wanted to for the first 4.

Easy 4, legs feeling pretty tired today. Was considering signing up for another long trail race just 1.5 weeks from now but am leaning towards not doing that. This one would be 15.5 miles... I think 13.1 with a month to prepare is more realistic.

Warmed up and did 2x800m at mile pace and 2x300m at 800m pace. I felt slow and heavy today, I have since the race a couple weeks ago. The 800ms were both 2:28 and the 300ms were 49 and 51. Good to get moving though. I missed my run on Wednesday because my weekly got shuffled around a bit. Tomorrow will be a 10 mile run, or 90 minutes of moving time if I bonk out.

I haven't been feeling 100% the past couple weeks but it's time to start upping the mileage because that half marathon will be here soon- I really only have time for 1-3 10-12 mile runs to prepare. I think over the winter I'm going to focus on building mileage to 4 8 mile runs and one long run per week, doing lots of strides/sprints, and working on marathon/ half marathon pace. I'm going to start with doing half marathon pace at 6:30-6:40 and hopefully work it down to sub 6:06. Once I'm there I'll jump into a half marathon this spring and hopefully run sub 1:20. Once that's all done and I've been working on sprinting and doing strides, then I'll revisit the 5k and mile distances and hopefully be ready to run some fast times at some track meets.

Felt good today, I felt a little tired around 2-3 miles but then felt great for the rest of the run. Started off with some easy miles around 8 minute pace and the got faster as the run went on, with the last 3 miles under 7 minute pace. I also did 4 strides.