Blake Bennions running

Ran outside for a little plus 2 miles on the treadmill at Wenda's gym. Went pretty well, I increased speed a every tenth of a mile and then put it up to 12 mph for a minute before cooling down a little. Then we went to a park to stretch out. I'm not entirely set on it, but I'm thinking of committing to run a marathon this fall.

My lungs are fighting me on the whole getting back into shape thing. Not sure what's up with that. My body looks in shape, but the fitness isn't there. 2 miles at 6:30 pace, I want to run a marathon at just under 6:30 pace but I'll have to put in a lot of work to get there. February I'm going to be running a few times a week for 2-5 miles and then I'll see how my body is responding going into march.

Can remember what the other run I did earlier this week was. I ran 3 miles at 7:23 pace, it was nice and easy.

2 miles on a crappy treadmill and then an endurance core workout.

Was thinking about running today and then saw Coach Murphy's comment on my last run and decided to do a 4 mile run for the first time in...a while. My body was pretty tired and my lungs were complaining today, but it felt good to get in a solid run.

Tough run, ran to a track, flipped some tires, did some pull ups. Last mile was hard averaged 7:04 for the run and included a 6:33. I need to get in shape.

Easy mile with wenda followed by some stadiums.

Ate some hot wings with Jake and then used some really hot sauce, and then put that hot sauce on the hottest wings. Then we ran a mile and threw up 4 times.

Went to the gym with my dad and ran on the treadmill and lifted weights. Good day.

A little over 4 at the track. The first mile was easy with wenda, the 2nd was also pretty easy but faster. The third was a 6:17, and the 4th was pretty chill. I flipped tires after the 2nd and walked a little with wenda after the 3rd. Shooting for 12-20 miles this week.

Lungs feeling better than they have in months. Couldn't help but run a little fast today. I've been trying do easier miles. Today I ran 6:11, 6:17, 5:40, and then I ran jogged with wenda for a lap as part of a 7:05 last mile. I felt good though, my muscles seemed a little low on endurance. But that's because they are right now. New goal for the week 15-20 miles.

Easy 2 miles. Knee was feeling off so I cut it short.

Was going to do 4 but wenda wanted to go to yoga so I left the track early, it felt like a good stopping point too so I didn't add anything later. Yoga was relaxing, it's been a good week for running, I'll try to keep it up!

Ran for 30 minutes. I went to the track and did 3 laps in each direction and stopped to do pull ups on the way home. Averaged 7:20 so it was a nice and easy run. The last mile still felt a little hard, but I'm just coming back so that's ok.

Easy mile with wenda.

Ran to the park and did some laps and then ran around the neighborhood. Windy day, over 20mph. Also pull ups and push ups. Wenda and I are agreeing to run and eat vegetables every day for the next week. Then we will be in Denver for my psychology conference and then California the week after for some grad school stuff. Gonna be a busy month!

5k in a little Colorado town.

Short jog on Claremont's track, so nice. That campus is really pretty.

My achilles aren't doing great and I need to see a doctor about that. They've been bothering me for a few months when I run but also aren't getting better when I rest them.

But most importantly I'm going to Bowling Green State University to get my PhD in Industrial Organizational Psychology!!!

I can't wait to get started. It's still hard to believe I'm in. I mean Bowling Green IO has been my first choice and dream grad school program since I planned my route to grad school years ago and now that it's actually happened it's hard to believe!!! I was on the wait list until Friday and the deadline was Monday... So it's been a wild process. I seriously can't get off this emotional high or stop planning for grad school. I also can't make myself believe I'm actually going to BGSU this fall, I don't know how long it will take for me to really believe I made it. Maybe once I'm there. I'll be prepared though, and I will be visiting bowling green in May so hopefully that will make this more tangible.

The success I have in life will always have strong roots back to my running experience. Rob Murphy is an incredible mentor and coach, and he brought out some of my best qualities during my time on the team. I am lucky to have learned from him. This is the beginning of what I'm sure will be the most demanding part of my life so far. The same discipline and persistence I developed on my way to becoming a solid runner at Alta will be essential to my success as a grad student!

I worked out for an hour at the Kaysville vasa and then went and dropped my new car off to get it's oil changed. I walked home and ran the last 5 minutes at 7:40 pace, I got to my house just as 5 minutes were up so that was nice. The physical therapist said to try and stay between 7:30 and 8:00 pace and 5-7 miles per week.

I'm also doing a couple exercises to strengthen my achilles and gluteous minimus, although I stopped altogether for a week or so because my achilles got worse. So I ran a couple times for 2-3 minutes last week, today 5 felt good. I've also been doing some swimming, I'm frustratingly slow at it. It takes me a little over half an hour to swim 3/4 of a mile. From what I understand, a mile swimming is a similar workout to 4 miles running. So basically it's like struggling to maintain a 10-11 minute mile pace. I guess I've never been a huge swimmer. And it feels good to get some sort of a aerobic workout that has little chance at bothering my achilles.

Ran to the tennis courts to play with my parents, then ran home.

Good workout, ran for 10 minutes.

3 miles in the heat. Good workout.

Ran before lifting, made lifting pretty hard. It was hot.

10 minutes of running after lifting. The past couple weeks I've been advised to run every other day with a max of 3 miles. There will probably be an increase when I go to PT again.

I'll go back and add in the days I've been running. Today was a little over 3 miles in 100 degree weather at 7:30 per mile. Definitely felt the heat, but I've got to get over my love of warm weather before I head out to ohio anyways. I did pull ups and an abb workout when I got to the park.

Was going to run more after tennis but my hand started swelling up, I assume I popped a blood vessel. Anyways I had to take Luna home and put some ice on it.

So hot today, 103 degrees. I got through 2 miles and did some monkey bars and pull ups at the park. Then I was feeling really hot so I took a little break in the shade before finishing up my run. Felt kind of sick after the run. Probably was a little tough on my body to hot tub and then go run in that heat, who knows. But I pretty much always hot tub before running now, it helps keep my Achilles loose and pain free.

Ran with Jake for about 30 minutes. We averaged a little over 7:10. It was draining, a lot harder than it remember 4 miles being. Then we went to vasa and worked out for a while. Good solid day, my body repsonds well to running every other day at the moment.

Mile at the park.

Run split up into 3 parts.

1. Turned on oven and went for a mile (7:15)

2. Put pizza in and ran to the park and did pull ups, ran home (6:45)

3. Went to the park with my dog while the pizza cooled off and ran 4 times around the perimeter of the park. I let Luna run around at her own pace. (7:45, grass)

Each of those 3 parts of the run was a mile and it took about 30-40 minutes total. So not bad.

Awesome morning run with Jake, ran 4.25 miles in 30 minutes. Splits were 7:40, 6:48, 7:02, 7:02, and then we were averaging 6:20 for the last quarter. It felt pretty good, definitely harder than 7:00 pace used to feel. But also a lot better than I've been feeling, so I'm happy with the progress. Also beat him in our pull up contest, 14-11. Then I did a little bench and curls before heading home. Good morning workout. My achilles felt good, knee felt a little weird at the end. I think it's ok. I really like the every other day running schedule, I think it's great for easing back into things.

I got food poisening from a burrito at beto's in the morning, I spent the rest of the day violently I'll.

Feeling much better today after the food poisening. My body feels a little tired, but that's to be expected with basically having kept no food or water down from yesterday. The fever is gone and I can finally eat, so it's a great day and I'm glad my body got rid of those bacteria and toxins as quickly as it did.

I also learned that beto's often times leaves their meat sitting out for great quantities of time, I recommend not eating there.

I'm feeling great today though, lucky my body got rid of everything and I was only sick for a day.

I need to go back and fill out some recent runs. But for the moment, I'll give a brief update.

I left Utah on Thursday and things have been crazy and amazing. I am so excited about everyone in my cohort, they're all so friendly and chill! It's easy to look forward to each day because it's just been fun. There's going to be so much work and I want to get started.

Anyways I ran 6 miles with Brent and then crashed when I got home, ever since I started driving from Utah I haven't had a lot of free time and I guess I just really needed some more sleep, so I took a nap. The run felt kind of tough at the end, and it started pouring. I feel out of shape and I haven't been taking my asthma medication so we'll have to fix both of those things. But it's good to have a fellow runner in the cohort, oh yeah, Brent ran high school cross country for a really good school in Akron! He's a pretty quick guy and seems to have a good mindset about the sport so I'm excited to run with him more.

3 miles, it took me a little while to find the track. It was not constructed with the idea the track could be a spectators sport. But it wasn't a bad track, I ran a 73/74 400m, I still haven't broken 5:00 this year. Overall it's been a great first week here. So much to do. I've got like 8 huge responsibilities before school has even started.

Ran to the track, did an easy lap, then a 72. Another easy lap, another 72. The rotc people showed up for a mile time trial and I considered jumping in for a fun competition, but I didn't want to be disrespectful of their thing so I opted for the safer route and went home.

Am- short run with the dog.

Pm- ran at the track because this weekend was a rough one. Going to be tough little bit, but I like my program and I like what I'm doing. It's all going to work out fine. Anyways I ran a 62/63 400m and then a 73 after a recovery lap. The faster 400m started out slower and picked up, still felt way too hard for a 62/63. In high school those felt so smooth and good. Monday I will probably go up to 3 400s at under 75.

Gave away my puppy yesterday to a family with a big fenced yard, wasn't working out with the my housemates cat and our fence doesn't have a locked door. Had lunch with alonso and Ian. Then Ryan and Annie came and took me to dinner and ice cream dn breakfast this morning. Bowling green has amazing food, it's also cheap and the portions are quite generous.

Anyways such a good run. I ran to GameStop averaging 7:10, just going to be an easy day. I tried to increase my cadence on the way back, it still felt easy, hard to get my legs moving shorter and faster. But I didn't pay attention to the pace until I got back, I ran a 6:20 and a 5:50 on the return. Didn't feel hard at all, so that's awesome! I'll do an easy long run with Brent later this week I'm sure. And then I'll do a 3x400m at some point too.

Easy with Ian after arm day at the gym.

Back day at the gym with Ian.

Ran to the track and did 5 or 6 laps reverse, then 6 or 7 laps the other way. I was having side stitches all over, probably because I had a bunch of chocolate milk earlier.

I'm going to race the bg 5k next week and decided to run a mile at goal pace, my goal is under 18. So I had 5:45 as my goal pace, I ran somewhere between 5:33-5:37. My first lap was slow and then I guess I overcorrected, it wasn't a good speed day for running and I was already 4 miles into my run when I started the pace mile, but I thought it went smoothly. Let's hope I can run in the mid 17 minute range. I'll run again next Tuesday probably, hopefully. We'll see, Mondays and tuesdays are rough.

Also gave me a little practice for my sub 5 attempt that will take place in a few weeks/months. Need to happen by December. Right now I could run under 5:20, not exactly sure what. That means I'm pretty close, I think two weeks from the 5k I should be able to do it.

Kind of stupid today, ran the first 3 miles in 6:47, 6:13, and 6:28. I stretched out a bit before running a 6:54 on the way home. Probably would have been better to run about a minute slower for all of those miles. I'll run again Thursday before my 5k and will just do 2/3 miles at no faster than 7:30 pace. Then Saturday is going to be fun. I'm not in amazing shape but I have been running a little.

Ran over to the recreation center and talked to some people. There was a kid trying to run under 18:00 for the first time so I told him I'd pace him for it.

I just stayed at 18:00 pace and he ended up running about 17:30! So that was exciting to see him hit his goal and win the race, I had a fun. Went on a cool down with him, apparently there's a track club here, he said they meet at 6 each night so maybe I'll run with them sometimes!

Ran to the track and did 4 400s at mile pace. I ran 76, 74, 72, 63/64. The last one I just worked on my finishing lap. When I run my sub 5 mile it will be good to be able to finish in under 70 at least just in case I'm a little off. I think I'll be ready soon, I might do an 800m workout soon. I also did chest day at the gym and that went pretty well, also taught a bunch of classes, did a bunch of readings, and planned my facilitation for tomorrow.

Easy recovery run with Brent, four miles at just under 8:00 per mile. Karleigh is going to time my mile trial and hopefully I can convince Brent to race me the last 800m or so.

Ran over to the psych building and then to the track. I did 2 800s in 2:24 with a full recovery between them. I was shooting for 2:30 for each so they were a little fast. The second one felt better. I think that's probably how I'll start out my attempt, if I run a 2:24 then I'll probably hit a wall and run like a 78-82 my 3rd lap and then it just comes down to a kick.

Amazing weekend, pretty great. I'm very happy with the last few days.

Today I ran to the track, my body felt a little weird, wasn't sure if it would be a good run or not.

Once I got there I just tried to start a workout. It went well

I ran a 2:25 800m, lap recover and a little stretching, 2:28 800m, lap recovery, and finished with a 67 400m. I just ran what felt fast but didn't push it the last 400m. So it was a decent workout. I'm pushing the time trial to at least next week. Tomorrow I have a huge facilitation and I'm a little nervous. Overall life is amazing, definitely nervous about some things, and PhD program is tough, but lots of good things are happening.

4 easy miles with brent, averaged 7:35 pace. Very nice run, I'm starting to look into marathons for next spring a little bit.

First 3 miles in 18 minutes, last two in 14. Just feeling some fast miles at the beginning today. Things with karleigh are going well, things with school are going well. I still sometimes have a sense that things could implode at any moment and some days there's still that imposter syndrome. Everything is going a little too well I guess, it feels strange. Also because a lot of the time there's just a lot of work and only so many things to look forward to. The only final frontier I need to figure out here is research, that's a tough one. It's a lot harder than it was at SUU. But I'll crack it. Besides that I just really hope things keep on developing like they have been. As far as moves go, this one has been pretty good. As far as all my hopes and dreams for my first month at bg, it's fulfilled most of them.

I think I'm ready to run under 5:00 for the mile. Today I ran 5 400s with about a minute and a half/2 mins recovery between each.

My first 400 I ran at what felt like a 75 effort and ended up running a 67, I went easier for lap two and it was still a 68. My last 3 were about 70, I think there might have been a 72 for one of them. Then I cooled down.

I think my body is ready for an attempt, I guess we'll find out if it's there yet!

Went for it today, my 8th consecutive year running a mile in less than 5:00. The first half went well but I wasn't feeling great going into lap 3. I ran a 2:25 to start off and was feeling crappy but I told myself I only needed to run a 2:35, 10 seconds slower than the two laps I'd just run. I kept at it and found myself with 40 seconds for the last 200m. I kept pushing and it barely kept me on pace.

2019 has been checked off and now I can look towards doing it early in 2020. Hard race, good feeling getting it done.

Nice long cool down.

13.1 in 1:29:18. Marathon training has begun. The last 2/3 miles were pretty hard.

Ran home from dropping car off for oil and recall thing.

Ran to the dealership after my last class to pick up the car.

Solid run today. Yesterday was a really good day with Karleigh, it's been a great weekend. I'm starting on a thesis idea with my advisor.

Today I also ran a 5:30 mile in the middle of the run, just a preparation for whatever Thanksgiving 5k I end up doing, it felt pretty good. I'd love to run sub 17 but we'll see. Marathon would probably be in April.

Tore my trapezius earlier this week while lifting. I couldn't stand up or lay down on my own for a couple days and now it just hurts. It hurt during today's run but wasn't too bad. I figure a good run will help it recover faster anyways.

Today was a good one but I can't just become a weekend warrior. I need to run every Wednesday and every Sunday at the minimum.

1/10 of a marathon on the treadmill. Busiest week of the semester so far.

7 miles averaging 6:30, including a 5:28 mile. Pretty solid day. I'm planning on running again Sunday for anywhere between 4 and 10 miles.

Today I just felt like running more, I initially had only planned on running 2-4 miles. One of my students invited me to a party tonight while I was at the gym after my run. That was kind of funny, I told him I might be going out with other grad students, cool guy though.

I lifted for the first time since I tore my trapezius, just some curls because I knew those wouldn't hurt my traps at all.

Glad I'm through this week, it's been a pretty good one though.

Decent run, 5 laps in less than 7:00 to get ready for Thanksgiving 5k. I would have done a 6th but I was wearing new sweats that just didn't feel good to run fast in.

I felt ok, don't think I'm going to run under 17:00 for 5k in 3 weeks. Under 17:30 probably. But we'll see.

Also had a solid day at the gym, first day really lifting in a couple of weeks. My trapezius is mostly better.

6.1 in 38 minutes, averaged 6:16 for the run.

Biggest reason for the fast average was that I started out with 2 5:23 miles, for a total of 10:46. Not bad at all. Good even splits too. I have a habit of starting off pretty fast if I don't stop myself, and I got to the track averaging that pace and decided to hold on until I got to 2 miles.

Maybe I can run under 17:00. Not counting on it, but today I got to 5k in 18 minutes and I took my 3rd mile easy. If it's a fast course, who knows? I'm sure I could run 3 miles in under 17:00 right now.

Lifted and then ran for a little on the tread mill, it's really snowy and icy outside so running out wasn't going to happen today. I was wearing sweatpants and a long sleeved shirt so I didn't run long.

Ran part of the way from the psych building to the gym. My Achilles was feeling a bit vulnerable so I decided against running. It's been in the low 20s this week, hopefully Utah is a bit warmer while I'm there. Hopefully all this snow melts soon.

Ran at a pretty quick pace to the pscyh building, jogged back.

Cold and windy, but the least cold and windy it's been since last week.

I ran to the track and did some laps backwards, and then some laps the other way. I ran a few quick laps in 77 and 78. I was aiming for 80.

I then ran to the rec center and ran 2 miles on the treadmill because my hat wasn't keeping my head warm enough and I was getting a headache. I ran 5:27 pace for a little over a mile. Overall today's run took 46 minutes and I averaged 6:24 per mile. I don't know if I'm sick or just having asthma but my lungs and throat have been pretty messed up the past few days.

Solid run.

Lots of running around getting my car working.

2 miles at 6:40 on the treadmill and then 5 miles outside. Didn't feel as good today as usual. That might be because I lifted with Ian right before I ran. First semester is coming to a close, I think it's gone alright. There are some stressful things and so much I need to learn, but I think I've built a good base here.

Ran to the psych building, later ran home to get my car.

6.2 miles at 6:20 pace to celebrate BYU upsetting NAU today! So much fun to watch, monumental day for Utah running. Pretty exciting we get 2 more years of Conner mantz running at NCAA.

I actually averaged 6:17 for the the run but it works. I also watched Karleighs dance performance, bgsu hockey, and OSU beat Penn State. Good day. Not nearly enough work on my papers... Oh well, there's always tomorrow and Monday. Really all of next week.

I really want to run under 2:40:00 in the marathon eventually. But for my first race the goal is 2:55- safely under BQ standard. Slowly working my way up to 2/3 10 mile runs per week. Well it will probably end up being at one or two long runs and one or two shorter runs.

Anyways, today was good. Life is good, I'm happy. School is stressful and sometimes I feel like I'm just nothing, but that can be motivating. I'll get there.

Got to the start with about a minute to spare. I already knew this wasn't going to be my best race, haven't had a good night of sleep in over a week and probably one nights worth of decent sleep since the week started. With the washer flooding, car getting broken into, and driving cohort members to the airport early in the morning, in addition to the research proposals due next week, my sleep schedule has been pretty off.

From the gun (they actually used a musket which was kinda new) just ran with the top pack of 3 or 4 guys, around a mile I started getting some asthma but I kept up pretty well. Came in around 17:30.

My head was pretty cold afterwards so I just ran right back to the car from the finish. I'm hoping to do another 5k on the track before I go home, once my body gets out of the funk the past few days have put it in.

Treadmill run

Warm up and then a crappy speed workout attempt. It was really cold and I didn't warm up enough.

Ran home after my dentist appointment

Speed workout with Jake and alijah. Getting ready for a 4x400 in January. We ran a 100, 200, 300, and then I ran another 200. So pretty short, sprinted the first 100 and 200, gave a solid effort for the 300m but I was getting asthma problems by then. Awesome day, lots of fun.

Treadmill, threw in a little over a half mile at 5:00 pace.

Not sure how much mileage I got today but I'm rounding up because I've also been running a lot playing catch with my brother.

Warmed up about a mile,

4x 200m at 30/31 with 30 seconds rest

About half mile recovery

400m at 61/62.

Early morning walk/jog.

2 miles at the rec center on the treadmill, can't wait until it's warm. Then I did dumbbell bench, flys, and curls. Hot tubbed and sauna.

I really need a haircut, hopefully places are open tomorrow.

4x400m should be fun, our only true opponent will be Westminster. I'll be really happy with a 55.

I've also decided I should out a minimum mileage per week at 8 miles, I read a study a while back that said you start getting a lot of long term benefits from running as long as you're doing it at least an hour a week. So about 8 miles. So that's my winter minimum from now on, I'll run much more when it's not freezing.