Blake Bennions running

Walked 2 miles with my sister.

Then went to the gym and did back, shoulders, and biceps.

Then ran home but decided to run to the mouth of the canyon on the way to get to 4 miles. Warmed up half a mile on the treadmill before I went out.

Gym was very crowded today.

Ran with Jake and alijah at Weber states indoor track again. We ran 400, 200, 100. Pretty good time. Warmed up a mile and had a shorter cool down.

Easy walk/run

Very easy 2 mile run in the afternoon

Easy 4 mile run later on.

2 mile walk in the evening.

1.5 mile warm up

800m race

2 mile cool down

Few hundred meters jogging

400m

About a half mile cooldown.

I should probably do some more speed workouts, today was fun but I didn't run very fast at all.

Anyways, I was comfortably over my 8 mile per week minimum I've set for myself during the cold months.

2 miles

3 miles at 7:30 pace, 2 of them on the treadmill.

Febraury is always a pretty rough month, especially for running. I'm going to run twice before next monday, that's the goal. Lifting is going well, need to get moving on my thesis but that's easier said than done. Grad school is certainly a balancing act, everything will get easier and more enjoyable once it's warm out though.

Ran to the gym and did chest day, then ran to the track and did 4 laps. My Achilles was getting tight so I took a break and massaged it before heading home.

2 easyish miles.

4.5 in 30 mins. Felt pretty good, a little fatigue towards the end. Finally warming up.

4.5 miles at about 7:00 pace as well as 3 miles walking before and after. The plan is to run tomorrow after my recitation. I will indeed be running the glass city marathon at the end of next month haha. So that's a big motivator to get in shape. This weekend I should be looking at an 8-10 mile run.

Chest day at the gym with Ian after I finished up at the psych building, went pretty well. Walked home to put my laptop away and ran back to the gym and ran 2.62 miles on the treadmill at 6:44-6:49 pace. Then ran to the psych building because I was really hungry, I had to run around a bit to get to 4 miles total. I walked home as a cool down. Planning on doing an 8-10 mile run this weekend/Monday.

Warmed up on the way to the rec center. Last time I'll be on bg campus for a while. I needed my free t-shirt though. Took a while to find the guy proctoring the mile time trials, which were on the treadmill btw. BG is a ghost town ever since they cancelled classes for the semester. Wow that happened fast.

Anyways, the fastest time on the board was 5:01 and since the treadmills only go 12 mph I figured the best I could do was tie it. So tie it I did. Started hurting at the quarter mile but just pushed through it. Had a little doubt with .4 left but then I just thought of it as a completion thing rather than a race and that got me through it.

So tied for 1st, wish the treadmill went a little faster so I could cross off my 2020 sub-5:00 mile. But I'll do that soon enough.

Cooled down and went home. Probably driving to Utah tomorrow. No need to be here in BG.

Back in Utah after a couple long days of driving. Beautiful drive, and a beautiful run. Perfect weather today. Took it easy, walked the uphills to avoid strain on the Achilles. Averaged 7:00 but a good deal of the run was a slight downhill.

Ran with Jake, we tried doing a tempo but it didn't go super well. Good workout nonetheless and a fun day!

Good run today. Was supposed to be rainy but it was perfect weather, slightly chilly but that's good for running.

Ran up to Wasatch boulevard and went about a mile and a half on that before turning back. Achilles felt fine... potentially some mountain runs this summer, finally.

Ran while my dad biked up the canyon. Pretty gassed but I managed to stay under 7:00 the whole time. Achilles didn't give me any problems on the hilly route. I'm still massaging it out every day and that seems to be doing the trick. Averaged 6:38, started having asthma problems and wheezing at mile 2 so pushed through it pretty well.

Ran up to the canyon and back. A little slower today but pushed it on the big uphil at the end of the way up.

Felt good, more smooth and effortless than running has in a while. All signs point to one of the best summers for running I've had in a long time.

Ran up to the mouth of the canyon and back while my dad biked. Stayed around 6:50 on the way up and then averaged 5:35 the last mile and a half. There was a good amount of downhill the last mile and a half. Feeling the post-run high. Averaged 6:26, which is pretty good. Tomorrow I'll probably run with Jake, so probably another hard day, but who knows.

School work has been kind of weird, just kind of making to do lists and doing the tasks on them whenever feels good. I like it, but it does feel weird. Lots of time for working out, I did 15 wide grip and 20 side grip pull-ups, some bent over rows with rock salt bags, some curls with plates, and then a bench workout of 2x8@150, 2x5@170, and 1x3@180. I have a old small bench and a 15 pound bar, so it's not ideal, but it's something. Bar is really small so it hurts my hands a little on higher weight. Definitely better than not being able to exercise. Back workouts are hard without a gym.

Core later.

I looked and this has been my highest mileage month since 2018. Only by a mile though, let's hope in April I run about twice as many miles as in March. Goal is 100.

Trail run with Jake, went well. My Achilles started getting a little tight so we went down onto the roads. Felt good, then we had mod pizza. Always a good time.

RM to the canyon and back with my dad while he biked. Averaged 6:35. Felt pretty good. Ran to the church and back after to get up to 20 for the week. Productive day.

Gully long run with Alta track and cross country legend Rob Murphy, had a great time catching up and running. Perfect weather, little windy. Probably the busiest I've ever seen the gully. I'll have to make it to there more often while I'm back, amazing views and a great workout. 

This whole week is in the 60s and 70s so I might run every day through saturday. Meeting Jake up in Weber county tomorrow for mile repeats. My goal is just to stay under 5:30 for 3 and then do what I can on the 4th. If I can't go under 5:30 on the 3rd I'll cut the 4th. 

Ran a warm up mile in the park and then went to the track and did another half mile to a mile of warming up, then we ran 3 mile repeats.

Mile 1- 5:27

Mile 2: 5:30

Mile 3: 5:45

I probably could have pushed it a little harder on mile 3, but I thought I was going slower than I was and had kind of lost motivation. Awesome day though, lots of good athletes at the track. Cooled down a mile in the park. Walk/jogged 3 laps between each mile. We went out in 75 on the first mile and it felt pretty good, I think I could make a good run at sub 5:00 right now. We'll probably do that next week, and then have 15 minute recover before we try two sub 5:30 miles.

Broke my finger playing football with my brother. Was going to run after doing some sprints with football routes, but ended up getting my finger taken care of tonight. Long run tomorrow.

Music part of the music forerunner 645 hasn't been working well so I'll probably send it back in for a replacement. It also froze once I completed the run.

6-7 miles is about my comfort level right now, averaged 7:09 running up wasatch boulevard from my house. About a quarter of a marathon. If marathons are happening 3-5 months from now I'd love to run one.

Averaged 6:43 over 4.1 miles. Plus a few hundred meters before my GPS started tracking. Pretty good run, kept to flat ground today. Will probably do mile repeats again with Jake on Sunday and another run Friday or saturday.

Averaged 6:50 for 30 minutes. Felt a little harder than it should. 5-9 miles tomorrow.

Also finished the Red Book today. Man Carl Jung was on something during world war 1. Great writer. Very smart man. Had a psychotic break for a few years...

Ran up to wasatch boulevard and went until the shoulder gets too small to run on. Luckily there's a trail head there. So I went another quarter mile on the trail and then turned back. Probably best to avoid trails right now, if I sprained my ankle I would also mess my hand up even more. And I'm still easing my achilles back.

Very beautiful run and perfect weather. Best feeling run I've had for a while. Very enjoyable day. Averaged about 7:00 for the whole run, I tried to hold back the first few miles and then on the downhill going home I let myself go faster and pushed it for a mile.

2 mile warm up followed by 3 miles of mile repeats. Ran 1250m on 5:04 pace, and then 5:20, and 5:25. Could have gone better with the first one but not a bad work out. Ran in between and then cooled down a mile or mile and a half. Pretty sunburned.

Good day!

I'm planning on 2 long runs and another speed workout this week, maybe 8 400s at 75 pace with 90 seconds in between. Also maybe an easy run. I'll see how it goes.

Amazing gully longer run plus some extra to get to 8. That's going to be a weekly event as long as I'm in utah.

Interval workout, quarter mile at goal 5k pace and then 75-90 seconds rest. Didn't get all the splits but they were around 77-82. Accidentally stopped watch instead of started a split a couple of times. Did 7-8 of them, but 2 of them weren't great reps because I realized I'd stopped my watch. Achilles feeling it a little. Need to go to a flatter course if I'm going to do workouts like that.

Little windy today, maybe running on Bengal boulevard was a mistake. 17 days left in the semester and then this summer will be all about my thesis, which I made some good progress on this week.

Ran the gully with zach, Brandon, and David. Felt good, had a great time with those guys.

Might do a little more later, I had a goal of getting to 100 this month but I think in the interest of being careful with the achilles I might just miss it.

Easy 4 mile run. Ran around my neighborhood and surrounding area. It was nice, split 7:59, 8:06, 8:03, 7:40. Tomorrow will be a nice long run, tuesday will either be another easy day or rest day. And then wednesday is a track workout with Jake. We'll see what the rest of the week brings.

If I do get to 100 mile for the month, it would be something like 10 miles tomorrow (possible), 4 miles tuesday, 7 miles with jake wednesdays, and 4 miles on thursday. I'll play it by ear, but its possible.

I'm starting to believe more in the easy pace. I want to do a half marathon at goal marathon pace soon, but probably not this week.

Solid run today, I ran 8.7 up wasatch and and then about a mile on the trails. My knee and foot started bothering me a little on the way back but I massaged them out and they felt better.

Got home and took a 10 minute break before running up to the canyon with my dad while he biked, solid 4.5 mile run but I stopped walked it in once I got to half marathon distance. I averaged 7:32 for the day and had almost 600 feet of elevation gain. Not a ton, but it felt good besides the foot and knee ache/pain in the middle. I was drained the last couple miles but not as drained as when I ran a half marathon last fall.

Tomorrow will be a rest day.

I'll easily hit 100 miles for the month, I only have 11.4 miles left and I'm there. Which means 7 with jake and then a 30 minute easy run on thursday. Also means I'll get over 30 miles this week.

Warmed up a mile.

5x1000m on the track. Fastest was 3:05, slowest was 3:10, which was also the first one. We walk/ran a lap and a half in between each. Awesome workout, solid pace and good effort.

Cooled down until I got to 7 miles. Probably had closer to 7.5 with all the times I forgot to start my watch on the recovery laps. We did some strides at during the cooldown.

Ran up wasatch while my dad biked. Started raining on the way back down. Splits were 7:27, 7:59 (150 feet elevation gain), 6:31, 5:52, 5:42 (150 feet elevation loss), and then I cooled down at 7:00. Averaged 6:43.

Solid run and puts me above 100 miles for the month. Plan is to do it again in may.

Tomorrow is probably going to be a rest day, and then I'll play the weekend by ear. Maybe another gully run.

Decided on a 2nd rest day because my legs are still beat up and I need to be careful about the achilles. Gully tomorrow. I did work up a sweat twice today, I played some soccer with my brother and got some jogging during that. According to the pt I met with about my achilles a year ago, kicking with my left foot will build up the muscle in my right hip that will take pressure off of my achilles. So... yeah I've been trying to do that.

Solid gully run. I gave a little harder than average effort, didn't push it too much but I also wasn't taking it easy. The last mile I realized I could go under 45 minutes so I ran a 6:10 to finish in 44:46. Not bad, I'm not sure if I could break 40 minutes in an all out effort right now. Averaged 7:07 which isn't bad for the gully. I finished with 1.7 miles in the lower gully. My garmin died on the way back to the car, but I ran out .85 and then turned around so fortunately I knew the distance.

Last week of school, I have one final the week after this. Need to finish writing one proposal, write another. Do a group project. Present for one of the proposals, and study really hard for that exam. Also have some thesis work that's been going well. It's really interesting, but there's also a ton to read. In 10 days I'll be done, and will just have my thesis and other research probects to worry about. Time to finish strong. Hopefully keep up mileage unlike the end of last semester.

A little over 6 miles up on wasatch with my Dad while he biked. Slowest mile was 8:08 (gained 200 feet elevation) and fastest mile was 6:31 (lost 140 feet elevation). Averaged 7:20, it was a comfortable pace and talking felt easy the whole time. I just let my legs go and didn't push it at all, also didn't pull back when my pace dipped under 7:00. Good easy day. Tomorrow will either be a rest day or a very light day. Finger is healing well but still a couple weeks out from being good to go.

Warmed up 2 miles and then did a 12x400 meter work out in which I averaged 72 seconds. 200 meter jog between 400s and a bigger break between the first 6 and last 6. Ended on a 68. Cooled down to 8 miles. So pretty solid run. Felt good and smooth, I think I can run a pretty good 5k in a few weeks.

Ran up to the mouth of the canyon and back, cut off the last part. My foot has been aching so I'm probably going to have tomorrow be a rest day too. Then maybe gully again on sunday if its feeling better. Averaged 7:19 for the run, besides my foot everything felt very nice and relaxed.

Warmed up and ran a 5k course preview in 17:30. Not what I was hoping for. But go be fair my ankle is messed up so I was holding back and only going as fast as my ankle felt okay with, never really pushed it like I would in a race. But it didn't feel easy.

I have no idea what's going on with my ankle. It started in my foot a week or two ago and has slowly crept up to my ankle. I took 4 days off but it seems to just somehow have moved the injury into the front/right side of my ankle.

So idk what I'm supposed to do with that. It feels kind of like a sprain injury, but I haven't sprained it... so... idk what the heck is going on. I'm going to ice it today and then maybe try out a couple easy miles this weekend.

Goal for this race is sub 17. If I'm going sub 16 this summer it's going to be in bowling green on the track.

3 miles with one 2 and a half minute pick up in which I covered half a mile. Got an orthotic for my foot so I can run on it now, but it's not perfect. Still need to be careful.

Ran up to the mouth of the canyon. Ran a 5:22 on the flat mile on the way back, felt good so I should be ready for the race next saturday. Certainly lost some shape, but today felt decent, averaged 6:40 something. But really low 7s outside of that mile. Hopefully I can average that mile pace on Saturday but I'd be pretty happy with averaging 5:30 right now. Foot felt better than wednesday. A little sore after, my pinkie is also still sore and it's a battle to return it to mobility.

Need to finish my thesis intro draft 1 next week.

Warmed up half mile and then ran a 5k in 17:42. So 5-10 seconds slower than last time. But I've been resting my ankle. So it works out. Had a good time!

Warmed up 4 miles with Jake.

Then we started our race which a 4x chicken sandwich and lap.

Was pretty gross but it was also fun. We'll try it with spicy wings next week along with some additional competition. Won't win next week.

Ran to the canyon in back. Out of shape.

Mile or two warm up and then a donut mile. Much easier than the chicken sandwich mile. Took less than 9 minutes. 2and of 3 although there was some tampering, likely would have stayed in 2nd but we'll never know for sure. Very fun day.

Ran up milcreek canyon today. Averaged 7:35. I ran up 4.6 miles with 1400 feet of elevation gain in 39/40 minutes and then ran back down in under 30 minutes. Felt a little tired towards the end but I would love to do Jupiter peak if it's on next month. I'll have to check. Not going to try and win or anything of course, just love that race.

Bout a mile of running. Desperately need to get in shape.

Mile warm up

Hot wing mile

2 garlic parm chicken tenders

Lap

2 hot wing tenders

Lap

2 Carolina reaper tenders, took my a long time to get these down because I ran our of water and they were really dry and crispy.

Lap

Last dab renders

Final lap.

I lost to talon by a few minutes, but beat jake an henry by a solid amount too. Nothing quite as exciting as last weeks finish. I was kind of hanging on to talon until we got to the Carolina reaper, he'd built up a good lead on me and he threw those down incredibly fast. No idea how he did it, one tough dude.

Cool down mile.

This one was painful, but I had a great time and would do it again. Not for a while though.

Nice easy shakeout.

Car was having troubles with the instrument cluster, so I took it in to the dealership. They inspected it for a few hours and told me the cluster was totally busted, no way to fix it, they wanted 1500 to replace it. The part costs 150 on ebay.

Anyways I was looking into alternative options (dont want to waste 1k), but today the car was totally dead. I tried jumping and charging it to no avail. I called and asked the dealership mechanic if the problems might be related, or if the battery might be causing both problems. (Hadn't considered the battery was the problem as I replaced it last fall.) The mechanic guy told me it wasn't a connected issue and they'd have to look into them separately. Considering he had "generously waived" a 150 dollar fee for diagnosing the original problem, I wanted to avoid that.

Just to be sure I couldn't avoid losing 2 thousand dollars (or more depending on what made up problem they'd say there was with the car not turning on), my dad and I checked out the battery and noticed a lot of corrosion had built up over the relatively short life of the battery, so we took the battery out and cleaned it off and charged it, and then put it back in.

The car started immediately and the instrument cluster was back up running perfectly. Not broken at all. Bunch of crooks.

My dad and I also went biking/running up milcreek canyon road. 30 minutes up and then turned around, made it 3.4 miles over just under 1000 ft elevation gain before I turned. Averaged 7:31. Fastest split was 5:26 on the way back, with 330 feet elevation drop. To cool down a little I walked once I got past the gate so my total mileage was 6.5 instead of 6.8. The effort coming down wasn't too hard, I was just overheating and wanted to actually cool down before I got in a car.

Half a mile warm up and then raced jake for a 1600. Had an asthma attack but finished somewhere between 5:10 and 5:15. Kinda fell off the last two laps. But honestly not that bad. Especially considering my bad my asthma attack was, couldn't breathe much at all for like 15 minutes and wasn't getting much oxygen and then it slowly got better. I also don't think turf fields help my lungs at all. I need to start taking my medication again. That was rough. My lungs and throat feel shredded. My goal is to not only break 5 when I get back to bowling green, but run under 4:50 for the first time since 2017. It's time to stop settling for barely good enough and go for the next goal. It's not like I couldn't run a 4:45 if I gave it a good 2 months of training, so I should go for it!

Fun race though, and we got burly burger afterwards. Didn't cool down because my lungs were too messed up. I'll do another race with Jake as one last shot at humbling him before I retreat on back to ohio. Hopefully will go sub 5 on that one at least. Conveniently just had my asthma appointment and am going to get started on a new steroid, so that will likely help.

Also a little surprised at how easily the past week slipped by without a run since last Wednesday. Running really is so much about getting yourself out there on any given day and starting the run. I think that should be a goal is to get out and start running for however long at least 4 days a week until november. All bets are off after that. Might just have to sell all my belonging and live out of the back of a tesla truck somewhere near the southern coast if I want to continue running this winter. Or just wear warmer clothes.

Ran 4 miles on a trail while my mom walked. Murray canal trail I believe was the name. I averaged 7:30 but I still felt pretty drained during the run. Felt hot afterwards. It was a good day though. Very grateful for my country and for the people who have worked and fought for it.

15 minutes running and 15 minutes walking. Averaged 7:27 for the 2 miles running. Didn't plan on how long I would run or walk but just went out for an evening cardio session. Felt good. Tried increasing my cadence on the way home and I sped up with very little effort, I should practice improving my cadence more. Typically i have a tough time getting above 155 steps per minute.

Mile and halfish warm up and then a 1 mile race with jake. We went to Roy high school because it is the only high school around that hasn't adopted the gross turf fields that mess with my lungs. But tragically, when we got there we found out that they're replacing the grass with turf this summer and the track is closed. Sad day, not sure why high schools are switching for turf fields. Like honestly, they're gross in every way and they're toxic for the athletes that use them. And grass is pretty cheap, is it really just to avoid watering and maintenance costs? Or does administration think they're actually preferred?

Anyways, glad the bowling green track is off on its own and no one uses the grass field for anything there. I'll do a legitimate mile race and break 5 when I get back.

But anyways we did our downhill mile, 130 feet elevation loss with an unplanned sharp uphill at the very end. Ran a 4:46. Had a good time. If I can run a 4:46 later this summer on the bowling green track I'll be pretty excited. Gonna start running more. Need to to get to the gully 2 more times before leaving utah.

Ran up the trail near my house and then turned back and took it to the park near my house where I did 2 laps and ran home. I worked on my spartan ability by doing the monkey bars and some pull ups in between the two laps at the park.

Had a shake and shower afterwards. Goal to get out 3 more times before next sunday seems good. We'll see how long the runs are, could be anything between a mile or two and the gully long run for the those.

Also did 3x10 of wide grip pull ups, chin ups, and side grip pull ups. Will do bench tomorrow, my biceps have really gone to crap since covid started.

Ran around the park and area north of that. Felt great, kept it pretty slow. Walked for a few minutes before and after.

Run up on wasatch and went up the mountain a bit. Watch died on the way back at 4.5 but we'll just say 5 for the day. Plus about half an hour of scrambling.

6 hot miles in the gully with Jake.

No run but about 7 miles walking in and near San Francisco, saw the coastal redwoods!

Finally done driving everywhere. Went to SF and lake tahoe with my mom while getting our swiss passports and then drove back to ohio with my brother. We stopped by the mothman monument down in west Virginia too.

Today I ran 1.5 miles to the track from my new apartment. I was going to do 4x400s but my first was an 84 so I didn't count that one. The next was a 77 at a much harder effort, harder than a 77 should feel. After that I ran pretty hard for the next two and only managed 72s. I took about a minute to a minute and a half between reps. The last on was a 74. Cooled down by running home. I ran a little between reps which got me to 4.7.

Got some work to do, but my body also might just be in a funk from all the driving.

Warmed up 2 miles and then tried doing 1x800m and 2x400m at sub 5:00 pace. My legs have turned on me haha.

I ran 2:29 for the 800m so that was good but didn't feel as easy as it should. Then I ran a lap recovery in 2:30 and then I ran a 69 for the first 400m. It felt way too hard for a 69. I ran 200m recovery between that effort and a 76 to finish out my workout.

I think my legs will come back, especially if I do some lunges and calf raises. I think I might keep doing track workouts most days too. I miss running fast, and of course I'll do some days that are just easy but I want to do a lot more speed workouts and get my fitness back. Then I'll eventually get surgery to clear out my nasal airway and maybe after that I'll be fast again. I want to get faster than I've been the past few years, I don't want to struggle to maintain a little fitness. It's tough with these ohio winters but I think I just need to get better clothes and be smarter about it.

Ran to the track and did a mile there and then ran back. Felt pretty good.

2 warm up miles, 7:06 and then 6:46.

800m in 2:31 (74.6, 76.8)

Lap recovery in between reps (2:06)

400m in 72

200m recovery (1:07)

400m in 69

Lap recovery and then jogged home, some walking because I brought my phone and pokemon go was calling.

Felt better than I have recently. The 800m was pretty smooth up until the last 200m, which is way better than last weeks even if it was slower. 400m were somewhat hard efforts, the 69 still felt like a little too hard of an effort. But I'll wait a few more weeks before I start trying to do shorter/quicker pace workouts.

Ran a few miles and then did 3 100m sprints and 2x26 lunges. I also did 25 calf raises on each leg after I ran back home.

I guess I didn't wait a few weeks to start doing shorter and faster workouts, but it felt good.

Been busier this week and forgot to post this.

I ran 5 miles with Alonzo, pace was about 10:00. It was hot but it was an enjoyable outing. Legs felt kind of weird running that pace but I don't see a harm in switching it up every now and then.

Ran to the track and did 4 100m sprints and 84 lunges, 42 on each leg. Then did 30 calf raises on each calf after I ran home. Pretty good workout.

Ran 2 miles for my warm up in 7:32 and 7:04.

Then I ran 4x400m with 200m jogging in between reps.

1st was 72, 200m break in 1:04

2nd was 72, 200m in 1:08

3rd was 74, 200m was 1:18

4th was 72.

Then I ran a cool down, stretched a little bit and then ran back home.

Not sure what I would be able to run for a mile right now, I think it would be close to sub 5. I was considering trying it today but my legs were sore from my last workout. I'm thinking I'll a couple runs during this week and then try racing a mile this weekend.

4 miles with Brent on the bowling green trail. Felt great, could have gone for 8 miles and would have felt good I think. Might just do a longer run on that trail saturday. Or might go for 2 runs this weekend.

Ran in the heat after a long weekend. 7:20 pace for the run. School is starting up this week so that will be good. Dude in my cohort challenged me to a race out of the blue, he also claimed to be able to run a 10.8 100m without spikes or blocks and doesn't train for sprints... so I'm timing him for that tomorrow morning.

He also challenged a new girl who ran varsity xc to a mile and 5k race.

Went to the track with Alonzo and we ran some 100s. He ran 15 for both 2 attempts, I ran 13 after I did about 600m warm up. We'll do a 400m some time, which I'm excited to do. I think I'm doing a track workout tonight with izzy and brent.

Ran to the track feeling hot and stuffy.

Ran 4x400 with 1:20 recovery. First one I forgot to time but I know it was under 75 by a good amount, at least a couple seconds because I looked down at my watch right after I started running it and I finished less than 70 seconds past that time.

My others were 72, 74, and 76. I had to run into lane 4 around some girls who were running on the 76 so I'll count that as good enough. The way I felt for the pace I was running was not good enough though. And my achilles are hurting a bit, so I need to start doing exercises for that.

Ran to walmart in hopes of picking up a bike so I could cross train to give my achilles a break while getting in better shape, but all of them were gone. So I ran home. Picked it up pretty well but didn't bring my garmin, kind of nice to not have ny garmin for a run.

Walked barefoot on the grass for a lap

Ran 2 barefoot laps on the grass

Ran 5 laps at 5:40 pace

Ran 5 more laps with 2 81/82 second laps thrown in.

Ran 3 laps barefoot on the grass.

Walked another lap or two barefoot.

This is probably what more of my workout are going to look like before it gets cold.

Went to the track and started with a barefoot warm up mile on the infield with some stretches and warm ups thrown in.

After the first mile I put my shoes on and ran a mile where I started out easy/as quick as felt easy and got a little faster every lap, I ended up running a 5:40 but my achilles wasn't feeling good. I took off my shoes and decided to do some cooking down on the in field. My Achilles pain went away very quickly with my shoes off, running in the grass. I ended up doing 2 more miles and most of it was low 7 minute pace. Think I'll stick to running barefoot in the grass for the most part, until it gets too cold.

Ran a little over 30 minutes barefoot today in the grass today. My feet are a little sore hut my Achilles feel good. I also realized that my current inserts aren't for my achilles, they're for that weird random sprain that came out of no where earlier this summer. I think these inserts make my achilles worse, so I'm throwing them out. Hopefully I can remember where I put the regular insoles,I guess I can just go get some that might be better for my achilles if i cant find them.

Anyways, today's miles went

6:56

7:27

7:24

7:32

It felt really nice and easy, a little hot and humid, but besides that it was great. And like I said, my feet are a little beat up. But overall pretty great.

Walked barefoot on the infield for a lap while doing warm ups.

Tried out my new insoles, I also got some gel inserts. Today I just used the insoles though. They felt pretty good, a little soreness in my upper achilles/calf but nothing too bad. I was planning on starting out pretty slow but I just naturally started picking up the pace and just went with it. Miles went

6:20

6:08

6:19

My right achilles/calf was feeling a little sore so I slowed down and ran a couple laps at a slower pace which didn't feel too much better.

Then I took off my shoes and walked a lap or two on the in field and then ran another half mile barefoot at somewhat of a light jog, that felt great. Walked some more after I got to 4 miles. My last mile was a 8:10. Next time will try with both the new insoles and gel inserts and see how that goes.

Beautiful day. Did my barefoot warm up lap and then started running. Did 2 miles on the track and then went out to the fields/abandoned golf course behind the track. Last time I went behind the big hill there was a ton of goose crap so it's been a minute, but this time I made an amazing discovery.

There was a cross country course behind there! There was a lot of course, I ended up getting 3 or 4 miles in back there and then finished up on the track. Also walked some more barefoot to cool down.

Wanted to do more today but I decided it would be prudent not to.

Very nice run today. Started off with my easy barefoot warmup lap.

Ran a mile on the track and then went out and ran on the course behind the track.

Miles went:

6:40

7:07

7:16

7:06

6:30

7:30.

The last one was barefoot on the infield for most of it. Felt good.

Warm up barefoot lap. Decided to concentrate on marathon pace, next time will be easy pace. Today felt good though, not too strained.

Ran 3 miles on the track in:

6:46

6:36

6:45

Left and ran the cross country course, which I always run part of it and I still need to figure out what the course actually is. The next two miles were:

6:56

6:54

Around the end of mile 5 I slowed down for this weird little stretch where I must keep going off course to kind of get back towards the track. Every single time I've crossed this little area I've rolled my ankle. So this time I slowed down and tried to be careful... and I still rolled it!

Anyways I ran another half mile at a more relaxed pace to the track. I took off my shoes to do some barefoot running but my knee kept cracking. It doesn't hurt at all, but I didn't like that at all. Well I know ky ankle was cracking, but I'm fairly certain my knee was too. So idk what's going on there but I will proceed with caution. Probably nothing serious. Stopped running for the day just in case.

Solid workout! The days and weeks are really starting to blend together at this point. My thesis is going a little slower than I'd hoped. My new goal is to propose at the beginning of next semester. But I have an idea I like, the first 10 pages are looking good, I have a great annotated bibliography, and I have a good idea for how to put it all together. I think things are about to pick up again with that. I really just need to get my study design worked out with my advisor and then finish writing and go through revisions!

Went to the track and warmed up, started running but my knees were still feeling weird so I stopped.

Went to Walmart and bought a bike and took it for a 30 minute ride. Felt great, forgot how fun bikes are. Maybe I'll be able to try out a couple triathlons after covid.

Went for a 10 mile bike ride.

3.5 miles in another biker glided by me as I was doing a pretty intense workout. Some middle aged dude with a road bike. Obviously I wasn't going to get dropped by some random dude so I made it my goal to keep with him until the turn around point.

I was mostly successful over the next mile and a half, he put on a few meters but nothing huge. I was definitely working harder than him to maintain that pace though.

I did some research after my run and found that my cheap walmart mountain bike just isn't made for a street/paved path race. I averaged about 13.5 on this bike, and from what I read that would be 15.5/16.5 on a road bike and if I was on an expensive $2,500 bike it would have been something like 18.5 to 20.5. Biking is a strange sport. But I like it, and I like that I have a mountain bike. Lots of benefits:

1. Will push me harder, and I'll get a better workout

2. Safer because a) its slower b)tires are bigger and less likely to give out.

3. If ever needed I can bike on different terrain than a road bike could.

If I ever do a triathlon I'll have to upgrade though. But hopefully my knees feel good enough for a run this week.

28 mile bike ride. Started out with Izzy, and Zach too for the first few miles. It was great! My quads are dead now, and the last 5 miles were pretty rough. But I love this post workout feeling, and my knees are feeling great right now. Good enough I might try running tomorrow or early next week. Buying a bike was a good investment.

Originally was just going to do about 2 miles today but I felt good so I went for longer. Kept a pretty steady pace of just under 7:30/mile.

Knees were tight before the run but felt pretty good during it, no weird clicks or pops, and just a couple times that they felt weird or had minimal pain. Achilles were a little sore/tight at the beginning but overall pretty great.

I'll probably go for another run before the weekend. Maybe I'll still be able to reach 500 miles for the year. Next year I'd like to be over 1000 for the year and run my first marathon. I think it will really just depend on how well I can manage my injuries. Might abandon my sub 5 mile goal because faster running seems to cause more injury, but I also want to spend a few weeks training and then make an attempt this fall if my knees are feeling better. We'll see.

Ran 2 miles on the track and then ran on the course for 2.5 and walked it in. Solid day, a little knee pain but nothing too bad.

Biked to the track with Izzy. Locked up the bikes and then ran a mile to the start of the course and did the 5k route, which I can confidently say I've figured out. Averaged 7:30 for 4.25. Biked an additional 15 mins. Also met with a small group for a coffee/writing session, not that the coffee was the draw for me but it was fun!

Biked go thr track and started running, didn't feel great so I stopped.

Biked a couple extra miles as then went back home.

Ran the course behind the track, my knees felt a little tight but not too bad. Pushed the last mile harder to see if that would help warm up my knees, it didn't really. Didn't make it worse though. Averaged about 7:30 outside of the last mile, which was about 6:00. Felt pretty good.

30-40 mins swimming, a couple short breaks.

35 minutes of swimming, took a couple minute long breaks but mostly continuous.

Warmed up .8 miles with Izzy.

Jake had challenged me to a 3x mile race where we would run 2 miles under 6:00 and then do whatever we could for the final mile. Break in between miles was 5 mins.

First mile was 5:47, felt alright but my lungs kind of hurt. Today was a cold day, maybe should have done this workout next week or even this weekend. Oh well, can do more then.

Second mile was 5:45, my lungs were complaining a ton after this one and I was skeptical of my ability to even go under 6:00 for the last one.

Last mile was 5:37, I went out in a 75 and then just kept my pace just under 6:00 until the last lap where I threw in a bit more of a surge.

Times were a lot worse than when I did this over the summer, and even those times were nothing to write home about. But it felt good to get in a workout. My lungs and stomach felt like they were going to explode on this last mile and I pushed pretty hard, so even if I'm not in good shape, I'm happy with my effort.

Cooled down another. 8 with Izzy, she did a 400m workout at about the same pace I was running my repeats so that was helpful to have someone to run with for one or two of the laps each mile. I'll be happy with a high 17 minute virtual thanksgiving 5k at the moment. We'll see how it goes. Glad I'll have a nice warm week to get in a few workouts next week. Great news is that my knees feel fine besides just a slight amount of soreness in my right knee today, but very slight. Achilles felt pretty good today honestly, a little tight and sore on the warm up but nothing horrible.

Been lifting 2 or 3 times per week with Ian, I'm feeling fairly strong. Dumbell bench is at 160 for 3 sets of 4, regular bench max is back up above 200. I'm using 80 pound dumbbells for overhead tricep extension, bent over row, and dumbell bench. Goal is to eventually do all those workouts with 100 pound dumbells. I try to get in a back, chest, and arms day in each week and we do 4/5 sets of 5/6 workouts each day. Then I do core, cardio, and pull ups separately. Ideally I'd have 3 lifting day, 6 core days, and 4-6 cardio days each week. Lifting is good for the moment but I'm at like 2 core days and 2 cardio days per week rn. Doing a dead hang challenge next week, so that will be fun.

Mile warm up and then a 400m in 73, my calf was really tight so I stopped and ran a cool down.

Mile warm up and then a half mile on 2:35, I felt fine. My goal today was just do 2 laps in a pace that felt good and if I was under 2:30 to go for a sub 5 mile. I was definitely feeling it at 2:35 but I could have done it again for a 5:10 I think. I'll probably do something like this or maybe mile repeats soon. I want to run as much as I can before wednesday when it gets colder again.

Mile warm up, a couple striders. 2 200ms in 30 seconds each, a 400m in 69, a 400m in 72. Called it a day because I forgot to take asthma medication beforehand.

Jake challenged me to a race the day after getting home from a 2-day 25 hour drive, I also hadn't run in 2 weeks. Needless to say, it did not to well. 5:30 about. I have a virtual Thanksgiving 5k race tomorrow so hopefully this will get my muscles nice and warmed up haha. If I break 18 I will be pretty excited.

Ran the 5k course but I'd left my garmin charger at Jake's yesterday, so I used my phone to time myself. My phone died with about 500/600 meters left. The last time I looked at strava was around the 2 mile marker, and I was at a little over 11:30 so I had been doing alright. Walk/jogged home.

Oh well, I can run the course until saturday so I'll just do it again. Good to make me run more anyways.

Rough go of 5k number 2, probably a combination of fatigue, not yet being acclimated to the high altitude, and most importantly being out of shape.

I'm pretty out of shape. I'll have to get on that.

Warm up on bike and then a short run. Not a fan of winter running.

32 minutes on the bike.

35 minutes on the bike

Warmed up 10 minutes on the bike, did a core workout, and then went out for 2 miles. My lungs are not doing well out in the cold utah air, and I'm just in general out of shape. Need to get out more days this week.

10 minutes on the bike, core workout, a little over 2 miles. I get pretty rough headaches when I run in the cold, even with a solid hat on. Geez I need to graduate and move somewhere warm.

One tenth of a marathon at goal pace. It didn't feel easy, but it felt good. Besides the cold and high altitude of course.

I've got 17 weeks before the marathon. I need to be able to run a 20 miler at goal pace a couple weeks before the marathon.

So early April goal: 20 miler at goal pace

Early march goal: 15 miler at goal pace

Early february goal: 10 mile run at goal pace...

Seems ambitious to add 5 miles to my long runs per month but it'll be good to try. I need to get in shape. And if I can pull it off then I should have a really good summer of training. If I could be running about 40 miles per week in the summer inury free I'd be pretty excited.

3 miles at goal marathon pace with Jake