Blake Bennions running

The Bengals first playoff victory in over 30 years gave me the strength necessary to go for my first run since the surgery. I'm going to take my return slowly. I want to run 5-6 days a week but start low and build slowly. Might wait to run until I'm 8n colorado because the air quality here is really bad at the moment.

Mile with Jake in northern Utah, definitely a little less inversion up here.

Celebration of Bengals to the AFC Championships

Ran around the outlot at Beccas dads.

Ran while Becca walked. Twas cold and my lungs were in pain. But the long road to being in shape again is continued.

First half was mostly uphill on a trail over by CU, walked an additional mile or so with Becca. 2nd half was at planet fitness. Through in a surge at 12.5 mph for a quarter mile as well.

Ran for 2 and half miles on the treadmill at planet fitness. Running with a mask on is pretty crappy. I threw in another quarter mile surge at 12.1 mph. Then did a workout with Becca, kept all the weight light and easy exercises as I get back it.

2 miles including two quarter miles at sub 5 pace with a quarter mile recovery between them.

Ran 2.5-3 miles that included 3 quarter mile pickups. My goal was 75 seconds for each but I think they were each just over that. Phone died towards the end so I'm not sure what the exact distance was.

1 mile after working out at planet fitness.

Ran on the treadmill and did a mile in 5:26. Felt really tough but also like I could have kicked at the end. Would be interesting to see how that went on a track.

Ran on the treadmill again. Did 1.5 miles at 6:50 pace and then put the treadmill speed to 12 mph for about half a mile, it didn't feel as hard as I expected but I'm not sure if that was the treadmill malfunctioning or me doing well. I could have broken 5 for a mile if the treadmill was accurate though. Cooled down afterwards and lifted a bit.

Cold run outside in Utah, felt pretty good but also a little short of breath. Can't wait for it to warm up.

Ran with Jake and jumped in for the first 4 of his 10 400ms and then 2 of the last 3. The first four splits were 69/70 (too fast, but felt great in the moment), 72, 76, 81. Then took a 5 minute break before running 72 and 74 for the last 2. I haven't been taking my asthma medication or I think I could have avoided the 81. Still felt good to get back out there. Asthma symptoms do feel a lot easier to work through and less devastating than before the surgery. Still don't feel 100% but breathing feels a lot more clear.

Ran 3 miles and then walked a mile or so with Becca.

Little achilles pain the past couple days. Need to get back to daily calf raises and using my massage gun. Feeling kind of out of shape, I sped up to 6:00 pace for a little over half a mile and it felt tough. I want to get back to where 5:50 pace is sustainable for a long run.

3 easy miles at the gym, looking forward to some warm sunny day next week.

Found a new route near the apartment

First 4 mile run since the surgery, legs felt tired the last mile.

Nice day for running, felt pretty good. Kind of tired the last two miles.

Ran while Becca walked on a path near the apartment. Weather was perfect today, and I ended up running pretty fast- averaged 6:45 for the run. It felt really good up until the last mile, I started feeling a bit drained. Excited to see how fast I can get over the next year.

Warm up at planet fitness, I tried a couple pick ups but I really don't like their treadmills- they make my legs feel really heavy.

Ran south and found a large park. Felt pretty good.

Walked another 3 miles with Becca.

Warmed up half a mile and then did 4 quarter miles and a half mile at 5:00 pace, quarter mile at about 8:00 pace between each. I ran 74, 76, 73, 71, 2:33. Felt pretty good for the first 2 or 3, the quarter mile felt tough and then the last rep was tough. Not quite as fast on the half mile as I would have liked, but I had to make a couple tight turns during it so was still probably decent.

Additional 2 miles walking with Becca.

Warm up on the treadmill at the gym.

Nice run before lifting. Achilles have been aching this week.

Had to get my car looked at and ran to a local track while it was there. It's was an asphalt track and it turns out it's a little short. I ran 3x400m at 64, 60, 67 and then an 800m in 2:21. According to my garmin the track was more like 380 meters.

I think on a normal track it would have been 4/5 seconds slower per lap.

Ran a bit before a light gym day. I want to do a mileish time trial tomorrow. I'll so 4 laps at the small track near my house, hopefully in 4:40. Then I'll just keep running until my garmin says it's been 1 mile.

Warmed up a mile and a half and then did a mile time trial. Well, 4 laps around the short track near my apartment. I did 4 laps in 4:49, according to my strava it was .95 miles at 5:07 pace.

I took a full recovery and half a mile of jogging before doing a second mile at goal 5k pace, it took me 4 laps and about a quarter of a 5th lap to getto a full mile. My goal was 5:40 and I hit it right on the nose so that went perfectly. Idk what it is but my throat was really irritated today. I probably just need to get on a good schedule with my asthma medication.

Pretty good workout today though. On the BYU track in 2 weeks with spikes and competition I think I have good odds at running sub 5:00. Sounds like Jake might back out of BYU though, in that case I might just focus on the SIOP 5k the week after that. I'd really like to run 17:30ish for that race. My goals for this spring/summer were originally sub 18 5k and sub 5 mile, but the 5k is at sea level so I'm feel like I'm in pretty good shape. I think I might be a little ahead of schedule! Suppose we'll see in a few weeks.

2 miles before lifting, quarter mile at 5k pace.

Ran while Becca walked. Pretty good pace, averaged under 7:00 for the run. I closed with a little over a quarter mile at around 5k pace.

AM- about a half mile at red rock

PM- Warmed up a half mile and started a mile repeat workout. Plan was to meet Becca over at walmart/planet fitness. I discovered the sidewalk doesn't connect all the way.

Workout went pretty bad. First mile was a struggle to get 5:40 but I managed it. Then I jogged half a mile for recovery. 2nd mile repeat was really tough. I ended up witb something like 5:55. Then I ran out of sidewalk and kinda gave up on doing a 3rd repeat. My body was feeling like crap today. But I got very little sleep and was in the car 5 hours today, and I probably didn't warm up enough- so I also picked a bad day for a hard workout. I'm kind of feeling like just doing an easy run tomorrow and then coming back and trying to redeem myself tuesday, but that might be a lot of days running in a row for my achilles. I'll take it one day at a time. Today disheartened me in terms of running a 17:30 in Seattle in 2 weeks. But I'm not entirely ready to back off of it just yet. I want to see if I don't have a better workout later this week before lowering my goal. Kind of in limbo with workout goals right now. I don't have any super exciting goals besides keep running without hurting my achilles and just lifting in general. The Spartan race in Colorado Springs seems like a good goal for me to focus on.

4.2 miles at just unser 7:00 per mile. Felt pretty good!

Very windy today, over 20 mph. Still wanted to get one more mile repeat workout in before the race.

Started with a mile warm up, but actually ran just under 7 minute pace for it. I did a couple strides and then started the first mile, I went out too hard, like about 5:00 pace. I tried to slow down to 5:40 pace, and I think I did because I ran 5:30 for the full mile. So if my first quarter was like 75 and the next three were 85s, that's 5:30. I need to really chill the first quarter mile of the race next week, going out like I did for today would probably kill my 5k.

Then I did half a mile recovery and low 7 minute pace and did another mile in 5:38 I think. It felt tough. Too be fair I'm at almost 6000 feet elevation and today was very windy. I think next week at sea level I can definitely run under 18 minutes, and sub 17:30 is a possibility.

Ran the pipeline trail with Rob Murphy, always great to see him and catch up. Very muddy run, which was nice for my achilles. Pipeline probably has the best view of any of the trails I've run in salt lake, I'll definitely be back!

6.5 miles with Jake at 7:45 pace. Felt very tough with bouldering Saturday, 9 miles yesterday, racquetball with Ryan this morning, and lifting with Adam leading up this run. Hadn't done leg press for a while before today. Time for 3 days of rest leading up to the race and maybe a short run wednesday or thursday.

Warmed up and ran a rough 5k, not feeling great today.

Just over 4 miles in 30 minutes. My lungs felt kind of messed up towards the end.

4.4 miles in 30 minutes, averaged 6:50. Felt equally hard to averaging 7:27 for 30 minutes on saturday. Next run will be easy and however long feels good, anywhere between 2 and 6 miles.

Ended up running a good deal faster than I intended to. My lungs still feel a little roughed up. Ran a mile in 5:32 and two quarter miles, one at goal mile pace and the other at goal 5k pace.

Five miles in colorado springs, mostly on the new santa fe regional trail. It was pretty nice, I can't understand why I never ran in running shorts during high school.

Another good run around westminster CO

3 hot and muggy miles in Columbus on the Scioto Mile. Hopefully I will get to run again tomorrow.

Short run

Got 1.5 miles in before I had to leave to have dinner with the in-laws out at a lake, got another 4 in there. Lots of bugs.

4 miles plus core/back day. I need to up my mileage.

Pretty good run today. I like the route near my apartment. It starts with a mile of mostly downhill so it easy to get rolling and get to 2ish miles before turning back. I felt pretty good!

Felt good today! My energy didn't fade towards the end like usual, a very good development.

4.5 miles. 4.3 around the neighborhood, about a quarter mile at the airport. Getting ready for one of the wildest competitions I've participated in yet- the saltine mile.

Warmed up and did a saltine mile with Jake, got wrecked but had a great time.

Ran up to the golf course on wasatch boulevard while my Dad biked. Twas a good time!

Ran down to planet fitness to work out with Becca. Planning on 6 easymiles for saturday.

Ran 5.5 miles on my way to work out with Becca. Sweat a ton, it was hot. Looks to be a 20 mile week this week, probably 4/5 miles tuesday, and then 7 friday and possibly a run on saturday while I'm in Cedar.

4 easy miles in the heat of the day, so it didn't feel very easy.

Mile warm up and then summer games 5k. Ran the first mile just under 6:00 pace and realized in the 30mph winds I wasn't going to breai 18, so I slowed down and let Jake lap me a couple times and then tried to push him to finish stronger the last couple laps. It was a good time! Cooled down 3 miles around the old warm up loop.

5.75 slow windy miles around cedar city with Jake.

6 miles up past the golf course with my Dad after a fun day of tennis, bowling, mini golf, pizza, and jackbox tv.

5 miles averaging 7:05 over to the gym, felt strong today!

5.2 miles over to the gym to work out with Becca. Felt really good and averaged under 7 minutes per mile.

7 easy miles. Felt good today. Achilles and lower calves were a little sensitive today but I'll just keep doing more calf raises and use my muscle gun a little more often.

I followed the western states 100 this weekend, pretty amazing that people run that far. Also cool to see fellow SUU alumni Hayden Hawks take 2nd!

2 miles with Benni

4th of July 4 miler with Rob and Jake. Lots of fun! Also got married over the weekend, so glad I could make it out to this before heading out on my honeymoon.

Ran in garden of the gods. Love this area.

Walked 4 miles and ran 4 miles in the Black Forrest in Colorado Springs, amazing trials.

Finally back on the blog, and trying to get back into a consistent running schedule. Been a wild past month. French Polynesia was an adventure, lots of really cool stuff. Unfortunately there's like no where to run there. The roads have no shoulder and the beaches aren't continuous. I'm pretty out of shape, but I'll get back into a good rhythm.

Easy run to the track with some pick ups.

Easy run to the track and a little into the xc course. Picked it up a bit for a lap or two.

Ran to the track and did 6 100m strides. I got up to a sprint on the middle two. I'm not going to worry about my pace at all until like november, for my long runs or track workouts.

It's nice to be back in bowling green, I love the track and xc course combo here. I'll come up to bowling green once or twice a week this semester and my goal is to get a run in every time I do.

Easy run over to the track.

Ran to the track during a 2 mile warm up. Then did 6 laps with a 100 meter stride on the backstretch of each. Cooled down about a mile. Got up pretty close to a sprint in the middle two again. Also walked about a mile and a half.

I'd really like to run 1000 miles next year. This year I'll probably only get to 500 again... hopefully I'll be running 80-100 miles per month by the end of the year though. I should be around 60-70 next month and we'll see where things go from there.

Best run in a couple months. Felt great today and my pace kept getting faster throughout the run. Also walked about 2 miles today. I'm trying to get in the habit of at least going for a walk each day. That will be less fun once november hits.

Felt great. Fitness seems to be improving a bit, I'll have to take full advantage of the warmth in September and October before things start cooling down this fall. I'd like to get in shape and get back to a spartan race.

Ran at the track after a long day of bowling green activities. Had a really fun day, I kind of have a perfect set up with most of the time in columbus with Becca and then going up to BG on tuesdays. I'll start going up a 2nd time each week once we have a 2nd car again. I do like it up there, great people and a good running area. I'll miss it when I stop having a reason to go.

Found a good trail in westerville, had to cut it short to pick Becca up from work

Ran while Becca walked at the track. Felt good! Been feeling my achilles throughout the days more than I'd like over the past week- need to make the massage gun a more consistent part of my life.

Ran while my car had its oil changed.

Ran on some trails near Beccas work, got a little lost. Pretty good day, started out with some aches and pains in my legs but felt better as the run went on.

Warmed up a bit and did about 4 miles at 6:30 pace. One of the better runs I've had in a while. Felt great today, had a little asthma problems towards the end. Need to be better about taking my asthma meds and doing my nasal rinses.

Certainly a confidence building run, might run again tomorrow... would take it really easy if I do. Running on back to back days is typically not a good choice for my achilles. But if I want to get fast again it might need to happen eventually.

Ran at a park in westerville I found a couple weeks ago. It's got a nice trail. Took the first mile really easy. Felt pretty good once I got going.

Becca and I closed on our house today, I guess we are now officially columbus people. Lots of work to get to on the new house, but I might still go up to bowling green for the homecoming 5k on saturday, Dave Wottle will be there so it would be really cool to meet him.

Ran in my new neighborhood for the first time, there's a perfect mile resedential street loop and our house is on a street that cuts through it. I foresee many good workouts in my future just in this neighborhood. My achilles was acting up a bit during todays run, I need to get back to massaging it and doing calf raises every day. Also a lot of work to do around the house... and a lot of work to do for school and such. It will be a really good fall. Bengals have been breaking my heart the past two weeks, very disappointing after their super bowl run last year.

Easy run

Been using my massage gun and doing calf raises again, achilles feeling a lot bettee.

Ran while Becca walked on a trail near our house, perfect weather. There's very little traffic on the trails out here.

Ran to the track and did 6x200m at goal mile pace, ranged from 35-37. Felt pretty good.

Ran the loop around the stadium 8 times and then a little over 8 laps on the track in the outside lanes.

My lawnmower battery died about 80% through mowing the yard so I put it in the charger and ran a couple miles, then finished mowing and continued on my run. Felt good, perfect day for a run.

Ran to the track and did 8x200m at goal mile pace. Twas a windy night.

Ran on the Battleby Darby park main trail while Becca walked. Felt good, quickly becoming my favorite area to run. Followed it up with a romantic dinner at the melting pot.

4 easy miles in bg around the stadium, track, and xc course. Lots of aches and pains, might take a couple days off. Also ran right after eating at the oaks which didn't help.

Forgot how much hills and altitude can break you down when you're coming from Ohio. Awesome run with Jake, definitely felt less strong than I did on Sunday 😅.

Great run today. One of the last perfect weather days here in Ohio I think. I was really sore from lifting with Adam on monday, at first I thought I'd just go for like 4 miles. As the run went on I started feeling better and better and speeding up. Last mile my achilles started hurting a little.

About 1.5 mile walk after, mostly with Becca. By the end of the year I would like my average week to entail 3-4 runs of 4-8 miles and one run of 8-15 miles.

Ran to the track and did 4x400m at goal 5k pace with 200m jog between each. I need find a doctor in Ohio to give me more asthma medication. It went okay today but had some asthma problems starting in the 3rd rep. Finished okay, but definitely harder than pacing workout should be. But that's how all workouts will be until I get more singulair.

Ran at battelle darby while Becca walked. I started slow and then just started going a little faster as the run went on.

About a mile from the turning point a biker came into view and I decided to catch him. I had to speed up a bit to pass him, and then I kept up a good pace the rest of the run.

I thought it was getting harder and harder to maintain like 6:40 pace on the way back to the car but turns out I was speeding up on the way back, ending with a 6:20 mile. Averaged 6:45 for the 7 miles and felt great. Maybe I'll officially do a 10k at goal half marathon pace soon, so sub 38. I want to do a few runs where I run 2x2 miles at 5:55-6:05 pace before then. Would be great if I could do a half marathon in like 1:17 next spring, but starting out with anything under 1:20 will be great.

Ran a little over 4 miles at a comfortable pace and walked 1. I'm feeling good about my fitness and my ability to manage injuries. The massage gun and a couple pt exercises have given me pretty good control over my achilles, hopefully that continues to improve.

I feel like I'm getting into good shaoe too. 4 miles at 7:30 pace felt like an easy walk today, as opposed to just last month when the same distance/pace felt like medium level workout.

Tomorrow I'll find out if I'm in as good shape as I think I am when I do the 2x2 mile workout at goal HM pace.

2 mile warm up and then 2x2 miles at goal HM pace. It went pretty well, I ran 6:01, 6:03 for the first rep. Then I walked for a little before doing an easy mile between reps. 2nd w mile went well too, 6:01 and then 6:04. The pace was less smooth and consistent than I'd like it to be during the workout, but I'm pretty happy with the end result.

I walk/ran a little over a mile to cooldown. I'm happy with todays workout but also not super confident I could hang on to that pace for a 10k quite yet.

Easy 4 miles around Niagra Falls State Park. Nice trail loop on goat island.

Easy run with 4 200m strides at 5k pace.

Short run in bg before lifting with Ian.

Mile walk with Becca and then 4 miles easy around my neighborhoods loop. Very sore today after a lot of work on the house yesterday.

Warmed up about a little over a mile and then ran 12x400 at goal 5k pace with 200m jog between each and a 2 lap recovery walk/jog between first and 2nd set of 6. Goal was to keep between 80-85 for each rep.

I didn't keep track of each reps time, but most were between 80-83 and all were in the goal range, I ended with a 77. I also let myself walk the first 50 meters of the 200 meter recoveries before the last 3 reps. Not sure whether I'll do a 800m or ks workout next, but maybe another 2x2 mile or even 2x3 mile workout before then.

I really need to get back on asthma meds before I actually race a 5k.

Mile warm up and then 2x1 mile at goal 5k pace for this thanksgiving. Goal was to run under 5:45 per mile. I ran 5:39 and 5:43. First one felt really good but the 2nd one was harder than I was hoping it would be. Probably too close to my workout on saturday, but I felt like doing something faster today. I'll do an easy run on tuesday or wednesday and then either 800s, 1 ks, or a sub 18 3 mile on Thursday. Just trying out some different workouts and feeling which I like most these days. So far the 2x2 mile workout was the most fun for me, but also maybe the easiest.

Sub 18 at the thanksgiving 5k is going to be a tall order on the tough cottonwood heights course, but I'll only get into better shape before then as long as I keep running.

A little over 5 miles at 7:30 pace. Legs still a little tight from the last two workouts, but it felt nice and easy besides that.

Quarter of a marathon. I started doing a tempo run but started to think maybe I've been switching over to lots of harder training runs too fast. I was avoiding doing tons of speed work for months and the past couple weeks I've been wanting to do them like every run.

I'm going to stick to just 1 planned speed/tempo workout per week and focus on building my base. Then I can add a 2nd in another month or two. I think I actually get more out of training when I do a lot of long runs and naturally speed up if I'm feeling good.

Will go to my favorite park to run tomorrow or saturday.

8 miles at battelle darby, I made it to the old race track (for horses), which is like 1.08 miles around. I had to turn back once I got there, but this looks to be a great route for marathon training. 8 miles to the the track and back + however many horsetrack loops. And there's more unexplored trails in that area. Will be interesting to figure out a training schedule when the baby comes.

Wasn't planning on running today but ended up needing to go pick up the altima from one auto shop and take it to another that gave us a cheaper quote.

Felt smooth and easy. It's nice to reflect on how much better a run like this feels now than it did just a couple months ago.

Ran to pick up the car from the shop and then finished the run when I got home. 7:30 pace felt easy but my lungs still felt a little beat up.

Going to a doctor to finally get my refill on asthma meds next thursday. So that will give me one week back on singulair before thanksgiving 5k. Hopefully that will help to combat the shock of increased elevation, hills, and cold weather.

I've also decided to do a 5k next thursday a 5k the week after the thanksgiving 5k. So I can get a baseline without any asthma meds, and then see how much the medication effects my running performance.

Mile warm up and then 6x800m at goal 5k pace with a quarter mile recovery jog in between each, and half a mile between the 3rd and 4th. Was trying to run between 2:50 and 2:55. The first 4 were all between 2:45 and 2:50. The 5th was just over 2:50 and the last one was just over 2:55. A combination of me running out of gas and the last one being all uphill. Pretty good workout all things considered.

9 miles around my neighborhood and track. Cold weather has finally hit the area unfortunately, but high 30s/low 40s felt surprisingly comfortable today. This was my first week over 30 miles in well over a year. Will slowly build up to about 50/60 mile weeks by next summer before my first marathon.

45 minutes of running around my neighborhood. Gonna have to find all my winter running clothes. I'll also keep my eyes out for a treadmill, hopefully black friday has some sales.

Ran home from the auto shop.

Ran to my doctors appointment and then over to pick up my car. Phone was dead but the routes said it was about 6 miles. I ran pretty quick because it was cold, not as much fun as running in the warmth.

Ncaa nationals was super fun to watch today. I wish there were more events like that thoughout the year.

Twas cold and I guess I started off pretty quick. By the start of the 2nd mile I realized I was running around 6:20 pace and decided to see if I could keep it up for a 10k and go sub 40. It felt pretty good, I ran 39:40 and felt like I could have kept it up for longer. It was easy enough I want to try running under 39 in december. Exciting that I'm running pretty consistently again.

Ran over to chick fil a.

Short treadmill run ahead of the 5k. Sped up to goal race pace twice for 40-45 seconds. Did a light upper body workout with Adam.

Warmed up a mile and then raced the cottonwood heights thanksgiving 5k. I felt pretty good the first mile, the opening hill was tough but I recovered pretty well. The 2nd hill before the half way point turned my legs to jello. I've very much been neglecting hill trainingy. It was hard to get back up to pace after that one. I'll have to find some hills near grove city or start using a treadmill for incline.

Ended at just over 19 minutes for the race. So a good amount slower than my goal, but that's okay. Next week I'll try to run another 5k at the track near my house or my neighborhood loop.

Overall had a great time, I got to see Rob Murphy after the race which was really cool. No better feeling than getting a good workout racing a morning 5k and still having the whole day ahead of you.

Was still kind of sick, cut it short.

Got sick over thanksgiving break, feeling better now. Run went pretty well today!

5 miles around the neighborhood. Felt pretty good.

Easy run, felt good. Going to try and do more really easy running at 7:45-8:15 pace.

3 mile warm up and then 2x800m at 6:00 pace, 2x400m at 5:40 pace, and then 2 quick 200m. Twas cold and rainy.

Easy 4 miles to start, then a mile in 5:52... it was supposed to be 6:00- I think my garmin might be a little off on distance. Then another 1.25 back home.

My garmin also said my heart rate was 160 during miles 2 and 3 and I averaged 8:00 per mile for those, and it said my heartrate was 175 for the sub 6 mile. Idk, seems wrong. Did some pull ups at the during my last mile.

Easy run around the neighborhood

Easy run, picked it up towards the end a bit. Heart rate seemed less weird today, but still kinda high for 8:00 in the 140s.

Ran to the grocery store while Becca drove to pick up some provisions for the storm. Our flight got cancelled to denver, we'll see if we can make it out tomorrow.

Tried our the treadmill I just got off fb marketplace. Will mostly just use it for warming up and incline training, hopefully will help me to 100 miles each month in 2023.