Blake Bennions running

Warmed up about a mile and then did 3x mile on the grass with Jake and Kolten. Field was wet and grass was kinda long and there was one couple hundred meter stretch where the ground was super uneven and covered by leaves. No significant hills.

I kept with Jake on the first one and got dropped on the next two. I ran 5:44, 6:00, 5:50. Last two are somewhat estimated because my watch was being lame. Jake beat me by like 15-30 seconds on the last two. My legs were still feeling the mileage from earlier this week so I didn't feel fresh for this workout, but I've got a ways to go before I'm challenging Jake in races.

Cooled down about a mile.

Easy run with a couple 200m pickups at mile pace. Felt like spring today.

Easy stroller miles

Cold wet slushy and snowy long run with Jake. First time doing a 50+ mile week in years, first time since 2017 which shockingly is now 8 years ago. Have a lot of races I'd like to do this year, gonna keep steadily improving.

Easy run in the snow, was hoping to do more but ran out of time

Warmed up a mile with Jake and then did 3 mile tempo and 4x400m with 2 mins rest. It was a massively successful workout, I've had a huge fitness leap from this time last month.

The tempo run was a on a hilly muddy canal road over segments of snow and with a couple of gates we had to climb through mid run and we had to stop for a car at one point. Despite those conditions I ran 5:37, 5:49, 5:58 which was awesome. Very good run for me and I finished with Jake, I put about 50 meters on him in the first mile but he was slowly feeling me in on mile 3 and then I had to stop for a car and he finished catching up. He then started putting a little bit of a gap on me but the last part of the run was downhill and I caught back up. Great tempo run.

We had a pretty full recovery before the 400ms- like .75 mile and some dynamic stretches. The goal was to run sub 70 for the 400ms but I was feeling super good on the first one and took the lead and ran 66. 2nd was harder but I held on for 68. 3rd one I had to give it like a 90-95% effort to get 69. Last one Jake ran a 60 and I fell off a little and ran a 72. I averaged 68-69 seconds which I'd say is a success.

This is probably the best workout I've had since college. On a track as opposed to a muddy snowy dirt road with several obstructions that easily could have been a 5:30s average for the tempo run. I even averaged faster per mile than in my mile repeats workout last week on the grass field next to my house. Big day!

Stroller miles

Workout with Jake today. We warmed up and then did a 5 minute tempo followed by 4x 600m, 200m with 30 seconds after the 600m And 3 minutes after the 200m. Goal pace was brutal. 1:45 for the 600ms and 32 seconds for the 200m.

We ran the tempo just under 5:40 pace and the workout splits were 1:46, 33, 1:49, 34, 1:50, 37, 1:53, 34. I was pretty wrecked after the 3rd 600m as displayed by only being able to muster a 37 second 200m after that one. I'm pretty proud of the 1:53 considering how I was feeling.

Stroller miles

Cold long run with Jake. Legs were getting tired the last few miles. My knee hurt during the first mile or so and I stopped to stretch it out, hopefully that was just a weird one off thing, didn't bother me after that.

16x400m with Jake and Kolten with 60 seconds rest. Averaged 75. It was snowy and cold.

Pretty good workout today. I think I could have gone a little harder for the first 10-12. I started with a 79 and then was hitting a lot of 76s with a few 75s and 74s and my last 4 were 74, 74, 73, 72. I was pretty exhausted after the last one so really I think it was pretty good. More than anything I need to get my reps more consistent, I always start faster than I finish. I think my 2nd 200m of most the reps were like 39s.

Tomorrow I'm going to double with a stroller run and then easy 7 with 2 miles at about 6:00 pace. Wednesday will be easy stroller. Thursday will be another workout with Jake and then another easy run Friday and long run Saturday. Should easily get over 50 again this week.

I'm going to try and be consistently around 40-55 miles over the winter and then in March/April I'll start getting some weeks over 60.

5 stroller miles. Then is took a short break and went back out on my own, warmed back up a bit for a mile and then did 2 miles in 12:30. Felt really good and loose today. 6:15 pace felt really easy which is a good sign. I felt like I could maybe do that pace for a full marathon.

Workout with Jake. 2.5 miles warm up and then 6x3 minutes on with 2 minutes at sub 7 pace between each rep. Average paces for the 3 minutes went 5:50, 5:45, 5:41, 5:37, 5:32, 5:25. I forgot my watch so I had to extra motivation to keep with Jake for the full workout and I did. The last rep was really hard but overall felt great!

Had to take yesterday off because I strained my coccyx or something doing bridges during my yoga session. Not sure exactly what it is but my tail bone hurts when I bend down. Running felt fine today but I shall proceed with caution.

Long run with Jake. Took Friday off as well and now my tailbone feels 100% better, as does my throat. I think cutting out 2 runs runs totalling 10 miles to preserve my health was the right choice. Now I'm entering a long weekend feeling ready to go and ready for some big miles. Planning to do 10 tomorrow and then whatever workout Jake has on the schedule on Monday.

I ran the fastest mile I've run since I was at suu today by a wide margin. We ran up big rock (was a mistake, very icy) and then around the city for a while and spontaneously decided to do a hard downhill mile. Jake finished maybe 1 second ahead of me but our watches got very different splits for our mile times, his was 4:33 and mine was 4:42. So we ran somewhere between those numbers. I felt great though, pretty sure I could go 20 seconds faster in a race down that street. Was highly enjoyable. We'll find out if I'm sore tomorrow I guess but I feel great, think I could go for another 13 miles now. I've got the Saint George Marathon in my sights for this fall, would like to go sub 2:40. Lots of fun races to focus on before then starting in March though.

Didn't mean to go quite this far today with a track workout tomorrow but got lost in the canal roads. Felt good!

2 mile warm up and then 5x800, 300 with a minute after the 800m and 3 minutes after the 300m.

Splits were 2:29, 51, 2:29, 54, 2:30, 54, 2:33, 57, 2:36, 52.

Overall a pretty awesome workout. 300ms didn't go great besides the first and last reps and I fell off a bit on the last two 800ms. But I fought through the pain pretty well and averaged 2:31 and 53.

Easy run, 4.4 were stroller miles.

Workout with Jake. 3x 4 minutes, 2 minutes with a minute jog between each. Paces were 5:57, 5:45, 5:58, 5:58, 5:55, 5:45. Then did 4x200m in 31, 33, 31, 30.

Legs were sore and the canal road we did the first part of the workout on was hilly and had some gates on it. Our goal was just to stay under 6:00 for the workout, though it was harder to do than it should be.

Easy run primarily on the grass. Hoping it helps my legs recover for tomorrow.

Very windy cold run with Jake, too fast and too many hills. I need a hot bath and an easy run tomorrow. We're doing a mile time trial this coming Friday, ideally I can go mid to low 4:40s.

I'm thinking 4-8 easy tomorrow, workout Monday for 8-9, Tuesday rest, Wednesday 6-8 easy, Thursday 4-5 easy, Friday race and 7-8.

Already hit the highest month of mileage I've had since 2017, only 30 more miles to reach 200 for the first time since then. Feels good to finally be back.

Warmed up and then did a 20 minute progressive tempo and then 6x400m.

20 minute tempo was clockwise on the track in lane 5. My watch said we ran 3.7 miles and averaged 5:25, watch might be a little generous on this one. According to Strava I ran a 16:48 5k during this. Regardless of whether the germin was a little quick, I felt great and am 100% confident I can break 17 rn. I could have kept going another mile.

400s were rough, goal was 65-67 and I averaged 70. Splits were 67, 68, 73, 71, 72, 69. Seems like my legs have constantly felt sore this month.

21 miles over the next 4 days to get to 200 miles this month!

Easy run mostly on grass. 4 strides at the end. So many races I want to run this year. I'll do a few track races with Jake but I'm mostly excited for trail races and road races this summer. I'll do a 1500m but I think the big goal I have is to go sub 9:00 in the 3k, that would be awesome but I have a ways to go before I'm there. I think I'd be lucky to break 9:30 right now. 3 more months of 40-55 mile weeks and good speed workouts might get me there... perhaps I'll also invest in some super shoes.

Warmed up 1.5 then did a 5 minute tempo, 4x800m (2 mins rest), 4x400m (1 min rest). Ran at millennium park.

5 minute tempo was about 5:55 pace, I took 3 minutes recovery before 800ms. 800ms were 2:37, 2:41, 2:29, 2:29. I switched from the direction to the fast direction after 2. I got through 2 400ms in 69 each and then about 300m through my 3rd one I ran out of time because Beccas lunch break was over. Planning to do 4x400m tonight and then take tomorrow off.

Later did 1.5 mile warm up and then 4x400 with 1 minute rest, went 72, 70, 64, 65 on the 350 meter track next to my house. Switched directions on the last two. So an average of just under 68... obviously kind of inaccurate.

So 800ms averaged 2:34 and 400ms averaged 68. If that had been on the track I'd be fairly happy, I also have a feeling that on the track the same effort would have yielded slightly faster times.

Legs felt drained today. Did 1 mile with Whitney and 3.25 on my own. 200 for the month!

Long run with Jake. Rainy today. We're both feeling the mileage. I'm just going to try and stay above 40 now this next week. Maybe do some marathon pace runs and hills if we take a break from track workouts.

Warmed up and ran a mile time trial with Jake. He killed it, ran a 4:24! I had a less successful attempt, ran a 4:50. I started with a 68 and then kind of just cruised and couldn't get back in gear. Laps 2 and 3 felt too easy and lap 4 hurt but I think could definitely have ran it harder. Splits were approximately 68, 74, 75, 73. I feel like I could have gone a lot faster. Good to get a race in though. I really need to get some new spikes.

1.1 miles at home

Easy stroller miles, felt really good. Nice to have some warm weather.

Warmed up a couple miles and then did 1600, 4 mins rest, then 8x600m with 2 mins rest.

Splits were 5:12, 1:54, 1:55, 1:58, 1:59, 1:59, 2:00, 1:59, 1:55. Averaged of 1:57. So about the same pace for the mile and 600s. If this is indicative of 5k pace then I'm very happy, if it's more of a 2 mile pace workout then that's not quite as exciting.

Either way, it was a good tough workout on sore legs in the wind.

Easy stroller miles. Also walked about half an hour. Good core and yoga session tonight, have been slacking on these lately.

Ran with Jake the first 11 miles or so, lots of technical hills and off trail exploration. Very fun day. After he had to go I ran up 500 and did a downhill mile at half marathon pace, I just let gravity pull me along- I could have gone faster without trying any harder if I'd just leaned into the downhill more but for some reason I thought that if I ran the downhill a little slower it would take longer distance wise and I wouldn't have to run back uphill as far. Obviously I knew that wasn't true but it was hard to convince my legs. Ended up being 5:42 over 230 feet elevation loss, felt super easy which is encouraging. I need 13 of those downhill miles at 5:34 pace to get a free entrance to Saint George, I think I could do that this month honestly.

Tempted to run a few more miles today, if I hadn't burned a hole in my sock and worked up a need to poo I would have kept going on the canal road for a few miles.

1.6 with a similar amount of walking with Becca and Whitney over to the park. Mostly on flat grass. Legs are tired. Considering trying for my all time high monthly mileage of 250 in March and try to do my first 20 mile run as well.

Easy run on the grass

Very cold today, too cold. 8° with wind-chill. Also very windy. According to our AI overlords 10° makes you run about 27 seconds slower per mile. Averaged 5:57 on the 5 mile tempo and that makes me feel a little better about having to take a second to loosen up and relax and recover after mile 3. Couldn't get into a good smooth rhythm at all today, just a continuous fight against the elements. Not really even my legs or lungs, just my whole body felt tight and seized up the whole run.

Another run in the cold. Good I'm getting better at forcing myself to go run when it's like this outside or I just don't feel like it or it's dark and feels too late... just a couple more weeks of February.

Also Monday's post was actually Tuesday's run. On Monday we met up with my parents at the natural History museum for their state legislature and families night. Whitney loves dinosaurs so she had a lot of fun. We also went to the same kind of thing for the draper aquarium a couple weeks ago, I gotta say the aquarium had much better catering- but both were highly enjoyable.

Little under 3 with Whitney and the rest on my own. Very snowy today, new levels of respect for Whitneys chariot- that thing is amazing.

Short shake out. Hate these conditions.

Ran with Jake. Started with an uphill mile and 2 of the first 5 miles were through like 10 inches of snow. Hopefully it clears up soon.

Treadmill today. Warmed up a couple miles and then did 5 miles at 10.1 miles per hour. Felt hard. Need to get more used to this pace. I also need to work on not overstriding when I speed up and increasing my turnover instead.

Gully long run in somewhere between 42:55 and 43:15, I can't remember what the marker for the end was. It was fairly icy/slushy today, I had to go pretty slow down at the bottom of the gully. I sped up the last couple miles and closed in 5:35 for the last mile. Felt pretty good today, pretty sure I could break 40 in good weather at a race effort right now.

Did 4 hill repeats afterwards and then cooled down a bit after those.

Felt great today and this was pretty confidence building. It was a fairly spontaneous gully run, pleasant view/harrisville area has like 8/10 inches of snow all over but my parents neighborhood has pretty much no snow... I figured I'd take advantage of conditions down there when I went over to visit my parents.

Didn't have much time today. I ran up as far as the roads would let me go in pleasent view and then I bombed down a 5k. Tried working on a little higher turnover and shorter strides. Ran 16:47 for the 5k, my goal was to average sub 5:35 so 5:24 was great. Got some work to do before my quads will be able to handle that for 13 miles.

I haven't done a true easy run in too long, I'll take the rest of the week easy. Might do a shake out tonight. Tomorrow will be hard to get out to run.

Kind of a funky down week but I enjoyed it. Time to get back into middle distance workouts.

Haven't signed up for Saint George or the drop 13 yet and am now considering doing big bear and a trail race instead. Been addicted to finding bargains on shoes lately, got a pair of new balance ld-x spikes for $30 and I'm going to get some $140 Adidas trainers for $60.

Easy run with a couple minutes at marathon pace. Felt good.

8x3 mins on 1 min off with Jake. Sped up throughout the workout and averaged somewhere between 5:29-5:32 depending on who's watching was more accurate. It really does make such a huge difference to stay loose and relaxed when running at that pace. Ordered some new trainers that I'm hoping will help me prepare to run in the endorphin pros.

24 minutes at about 34 minute 10k pace felt pretty good, I'm confident I could break 34 at Des news rn. I think my goal will be sub 33 and then however far below that I can get the better.

Ran over to the park with Whitney and helped her do all the stuff on the playground. Was just going to run home because I was feeling kinda pooped from yesterday but ran into Jake on the way back. I accompanied him for the next 2-3 miles and then went home and dropped Whitney off with Becca.

I did the last 2.75 miles on my own in my new Saucony tempus shoes. Felt really good, I'm a big fan. They have some of the super foam stuff and it definitely makes a difference. I sped up for a mile at estimated marathon effort and ran a 5:57.

Ramping mileage back up for a big mileage month in March.

Easy stroller miles. Big workout tomorrow.

Warmed up a little over 2.3 and then ran

4x800 with 1 minute rest

4 mins rest

4x 400m, 30 seconds recovery, 400m

800s went 2:39, 2:35, 2:38, 2:36

400s went 69, 70. 69, 71. 73, 73. 71, 69.

So I averaged 2:37 for the 800ms and 70.5 for the 400ms. Honestly pretty good.

The tempus shoes feel amazing, 5:15 pace for those 800ms felt super good. I think I could have done over 10 reps at that pace with a minute rest. Very confident I could run low 16s for a track 5k right now.

Bad news on the ld-x spikes front. They felt super awkward not great for a heel striker. I'm not sure the carbon plated spikes are for me, good thing I only had to spend $30 on them. I switched into them before the 400s and switched back out after the first rep. Maybe I just need to spend more time trying to make them work for me.

I think I'm in like low 4:40s mile shape and low 16s 5k shape right now. I'm not feeling super excited about running a 1500m but I think I'll at least try to break 4:20 for a 1500... Just not sure what shoes I should even wear for that because track spikes feel so awkward for me nowadays.

Long run with Jake. Feeling strong today, I even considered doing a double today but I think I'll take it easy.

A little quick for a recovery day with a 6:50 average pace, just felt good when I started going and I was short on time and wanted to get the right mileage.

Off to a good start for my 250 miles in March goal.

Tough workout today, and Thursdays is going to be even harder. Today was really windy though, hopeful Thursday won't be.

Started with a 2 mile tempo in 11:08 (5:35, 5:33)

Then ran 8x300 in 50, 51, 50, 49, 50, 50, 49, 49. So an average of about 4:25 pace. I need to do more of these kind of workouts.

Hoping to get through 8-10 easy miles tomorrow. I'm a little concerned about what kind of shoes I'm gonna wear for track races, as much as I love the super shoes for road shoes I really hate them for spikes. I'll have to try them again.

6.2 stroller miles with Whitney

7 miles on my own. Busy day but it felt good to get the mileage in. My legs and my energy level felt fine, felt like I could have kept going for who knows how long.

Plan is 5 tomorrow, 10ish Thursday, Friday off, over 15 on Saturday. Might get 60 this week.

Stroller miles in the rain. Feeling good but Tomorrows workout is going to hurt.

Warmed up a couple miles and then did

5:19 1600

3 mins rest

5:18 1600

3 mins rest

3:30 1000, was off pace and hoping I could jump back into the 2nd 1200 and hit my goal

2 mins rest

4:15 1200... oof, did not work

2 mins rest

2:38 800m

2 mins rest

2:38 800m

2 mins rest

73s 400m

2 mins rest

70s 400m

Didn't track recovery but added on

30s 200m

29s 200m

Added on the 200ms because the 1200ms went so poorly.

It was raining and my legs have a lot of mileage in them. I thought the 1600s went well, obviously 1200s sucked, 800ms were okay, 400ms were fine, 200ms went well. Considering I'm on day 6 of 60 miles in 6 days to open up the month I can't complain too much- over 5 miles of reps at an average of 5:17 pace. I think on a good day on fresh legs I could do 3-4 mile repeats at 5:15 with 3 mins recovery.

I estimate my 5k time on a track right now would be somewhere in the mid 16 minute range. I'd like to get sub 16 for the byu meet at the end of April. I think 6-7 more weeks of training and a taper could get me there.

Felt great today! Considered going a few more to make it 20 for today but thought better of it. It's good I'm feeling fine but shouldn't push it when I'm already at 60 miles including some hard track workouts. One more 60 mile week And then it's all downhill from there, I'll pull back the mileage a bit before the first track meet at the end of the month.

Missed yesterday's run because Whitney had to go to the ER. She fell from sitting in a dining chair and broke her collarbone... She's doing fine but scary that can happen just while she's sitting up to the table and falling like 18 inches.

Today we did 400, 9x200, 400. 2 mins recovery for the 400s and 1 minute for the 200s. I didn't have my watch but I ran about 60-61 for the first 400 and then averaged about 31 or 32 for the 200s (going off Jake's times). I used my phone to time the last 400m and and I was at 31 at the 200m but accidentally paused it on the last turn. I'm guessing it was a 64-65.

About 4 on my own and 6 with Jake.

5.4 miles with Jake and Kolten and then 2.6 on my own. Going to miss the warm weather.

5x 3 on 2 off with Jake. Precipitation felt like someone was blowing ice shards in my face, very windy and wet. We averaged high 5:30s for the ones and 6:40 for the offs. Was supposed to be 5:30/6:30 but given the conditions this was solid.

Snowy cold long run with Jake... time for spring now?

Really nice run today. Just ran up and along pleasent view drive. Turning into my route for every Sunday.

4x1000, 4x600. 2 minutes rest between them all. Went 3:12, 3:15, 3:17, 3:19, 1:58, 1:56, 1:55, 1:54. The original purpose of the workout was to cut down from 40 second 200m to 39, 38, 37, 36.. by rep 3 or so I was just trying to hang on.

Good to get the workout done, but not exactly confidence inspiring in terms of going sub 16. To be fair my legs and lungs felt pretty wrecked today going into it. A good taper will do me a lot of good, and if I can go sub 16:30 at the u invite I'll order the endorphin pros early, between those and a good taper anything is possible. Well maybe sub 16 is possible, probably not "anything".

Little over half with Jake, had a Reuben and a bunch of cabbage immediately before running. Homemade Reuben turned out surprisingly well, like I'd rather make that again than have probably 80% of the Reubens I've had at restaurants... I've had too many Reubens over the last few years, there's only so many unique things about Columbus though, and Germantown was one of them.

I need a good tempo run on Thursday to restore my confidence after yesterdays workout. Not so much the pace as the feel. If I can average sub 5:50 for 5 miles and feel good doing it on Thursday that will be huge.

Easy stroller run

2 mile warm up and then 5 mile tempo and 6 30 second strides. Didn't feel amazing but got through it. Phone also died so I'm unsure of pace. I stuck with Jake the first 3 miles average mid 5:50s and then he pulled away with the last two miles in 5:35 and 5:13. I'd estimate I stayed around 5:50s.

Feeling the mileage and heavy workload in my legs.

Little shake out. Legs have been awfully beat up this month, and honestly last month too. Next week will be easier. I probably was a little ambitious jumping up to a goal of 250 miles in March, but I am on pace and there's only 10 days left. I'm am feeling pretty run down on days where I'm supposed to be running fast. But I think I'll get a big fitness boost after the next couple weeks have a little less intensity and mileage.

Long run with Jake. I am am definitely feeling the mileage. In some ways this was the hardest long run in a while. Somewhat considering pulling back from my goal of 250 miles since it seems like I'm overtraining, but I'm also so close and I don't really have to push to finish out. I just need 50 this week and then my normal days next Sunday and Monday.

I think I'm starting to get a little overtrained, leaning towards taking tomorrow off.

Decided to take a couple days rest rather than push to 250 miles. I was still sore today so I think it's good I'm giving my body some time to repair and get the gains of the work I've been doing, I was definitely struggling to recover after each big workout before the next one for a little there. I'll do a some strides tomorrow. I'm not planning to race at UVU but Jake is trying to convince me to jump in the mile and feel out the first 800m at least.

Easy stroller run. Just played a little over an hour of tennis with my brother yesterday.

Easy run, great weather

Getting back into the mountains

Ran home after dropping car off for an oil change, added on a bit to get to 30 minutes.

Part of a mile repeat workout before the soccer kids showed up for practice, averaged 5:18 for 2.5 reps.

Stroller miles along Virgin river trail

2x 800m, 4x200m. I ran 2:24, 2:21 for the 800ms and 33-35 on the 200s. Pretty squarely in 4:40s shape based off that workout, maybe could get under 4:40 with spikes.

Busy weekend. Got in a few miles and 90 mins of tennis.

Neck got strained while sleeping over the weekend, I guess I slept on it funny. Kept spasming whenever I moved wrong for a couple days and had slowly been getting better.

Felt alright today, legs felt heavy and rough and my neck was tight and sore. Did some slow strides getting up to maybe high 5 minute pace.

I'm supposed to be racing a mile this weekend, we'll see how it goes.

4:47 mile at the Weber state classic. I was in the slowest heat and there were 20 runners and they put 8 of us in the 2nd row which kinda sucked. My plan had been to go out hard and try to take the lead or close to it and then hang onto lane 1 and see how long I could hold on. But starting in row 2 I had to start in the back and pick people off. I prioritized staying in lane 1 which killed my momentum on numerous occasions.

Painful race but I pushed through pretty well. My goals were pretty much run 4:40s and not embarrass myself and I feel pretty good. I took 12th in my heat and beat a UVU guy. I think I actually enjoy track more now in some ways, I don't take the races as seriously as I used to and there's not nearly as much pressure as I used to feel... track lung definitely sucks though. I'll definitely do some more of these and try out some different strategies. Fun to do a track race again!

Gully long run with a bit of warm up and cool down. I ran it pretty close to max effort, probably like 80-90% of a race effort. Finished 6.4 miles in 41:30, averaged 6:29/mile. My goal was just to go out and have a fast fun gully run and keep under 7 minutes for every mile, I ended up running 7:02 for mile 4 but overall it went well and I enjoyed it a lot. I'm happy I'm getting back into pretty good shape, the numbers and specific goals I set for myself would be nice to hit but the real thing I want is what I have- being able to run fast on a challenging course and feel good.

Also I thought the gully long run was only 6.25 miles so I might have started or finished at the wrong point. Either way, beautiful run and great time!

Feeling very grateful to be where I am and doing what I'm doing these days, life is good. Lots of stuff coming up that I'd really like to knock out of the park!

5 min tempo, 400, 8x200m with Jake and Whitney. I ran 62/63 for the 400 and averaged about 31 on the 200s. Not sure I could actually run 2:05ish in the 800m rn and I don't think I'll bother finding out anytime soon.

Got some really fun races coming up. Goals are to

Win Coldwater Traverse

Sub 4:40 at BYU

1, 2 Crossover Half with Jake or win it if he doesn't enter.

All those races within the next 26 days!

Then I'll have twisted fork, founders day 5k, and Des news this summer. Goals there will be win twisted fork, sub 16 at founders day, sub 33 at Des news 10k.

Either big bear or Huntsville marathon this fall and maybe some cross races.

Stroller miles and barefoot strides

Stroller miles and some barefoot running.

Insane how much different I feel at 5:40 pace and 5:20 pace.

Based off today I'm feeling pretty confident about running 5:40-5:50 pace for a half marathon, and I also think I'd struggle to break 16:30 in a track 5k.

Workout was

3 min tempo

Mile

5 min tempo

Mile

7 min tempo.

2 mins rest between each.

Paces/times were 5:45, 5:17, 5:50, 5:25, 5:40. It's so strange because the 7 minutes at 5:40 felt really good and only felt uncomfortable when we picked it up the last lap. I felt like I could have done 30 minutes of I'd had to. But the 5:25 mile just before it I felt like I was about to die for pretty much the last 3 laps.

Ran the crossover half backwards with Jake. Did 2 tempo miles on the way down average a little under 5:30 pace. Also did just a half mile on the way back up at 6:55 pace. I think both of those paces are fairly sustainable for the race. The turnaround mile is easily going to be the slowest/hardest section. It's steep technical and was very muddy today.

Boston Marathon watch party at Jakes house before a workout on the track. So much fun watching those BYU guys finish close to the top, Mantz is getting incredibly fast.

Then we ran up to the track and did a 5 minute tempo, some 600s and 200s, and then we did another 5 minute tempo. Then I did added 5 more minutes of tempo. Tempos were around 5:35-5:50 pace.

Honestly 5:40 pace was feeling better than the warmup. I could definitely break 35 in a 10k right now. In fact I think I might be able hold that pace for a nice flat half marathon. It's just too bad everything under like 5:20 pace feels horrible... Good thing Des news has a lot of nice downhill to start.

Easy run with Jake and Whitney

Easy run while my dad biked

Run/bike with my dad.

Warmed up a little over a half mile and then won the Coldwater Traverse 11 miler! Well my Strava said it was 11.75 and the 3rd place guy had 12.2 for distance. Regardless, it was a fun race!

I averaged 8:20 pace the first few miles during the ascent, about 400 feet of elevation gain per mile. Then I averaged low 6 minute pace on some rolling hills. I was averaging 7:30 when I hit mile 5 and had like the entire descent to go so I was thinking I'd average sub 7 for the run... then I hit the technical section. Like miles 6 to 9 were super technical. No one went with me at the start of the race so I was more focused on time and running a course record, which I think I might have done if the course wasn't long this year, my average pace was 7:27 per mile and Jake's was 7:29 when he set the record. Guess I'll have to run it again next year!

Becca and Whitney met me at the finish line, Whitney got to see some puppies and drink all of my chocolate milk- twice. I also got $75 to Ogden running center which is cool. Very fun race!

Nice to get a win in before I go get wrecked at the BYU meet next week.

Last track workout of the season, been feeling pretty sore from the race this weekend. Just had a pre meet 4x400 at mile pace with 2 mins recovery between reps. I ran 70, 69, 68, 66. They didn't feel easy but I could have done 4-6 more reps if I had to.

Stroller and barefoot miles

7 miles with Jake at BYU and then 7.5 approximately with my dad.

Ran while my dad biked up to the golf course

3.5 stroller and half a mile barefoot grass running including strides. Nothing better than running barefoot in the grass, unless there's weeds. Time to ramp the mileage back up.

Stroller miles and barefoot running with Whitney.

Ran 7 miles averaging 6:00 pace including a 36:45 10k and a 17:55 5k. Closed the last two miles in 11:15. Felt pretty good today. Initially I just had intended to run sub 7 pace, I just went out at a quick pace that felt good and by mile 2 I looked at the pace and it was sub 6. I'm pretty confident I could go sub 18 minute 5k pace for a flat marathon on enough mileage.

Felt pretty good today. Excited to race on Saturday.

Am: Easy stroller miles with Jake and Whitney. Talked about doing rim to rim this fall with Kolten.

Pm: Short stroller run plus some barefoot running with strides.

Shakeout barefoot running before the race.

What a fun day, took first place at the crossover half marathon! Pretty happy with 1:26 on a trail half marathon course with over 1400 feet elevation gain. Google maps took me on a route that ended 2.5 miles up the course at a closed road and I wasn't sure how long it would take to re-route so I ran downhill at 6:30 pace for 2.5 miles to warm up... definitely paid for that later.

I had planned to just stick with the lead pack on the way up and hammer the downhills back but that's not at all how it went. I took off when they blew the horn and ran a sub 6:30 opening mile and stayed sub 7 pace all the way up until mile 6 where there's almost 400 feet of elevation gain, was 8:55 for that.

I had hoped to go sub 5:30 pace the last 6 miles but my legs just did not have it today, partially because of my pre-race blunders. Instead I averaged about 5:45-5:50 on the way down. My legs were tired and it was a mental battle to keep sub 6 pace. Jeremy Tolman had been about 70-80 seconds back from me at the turnaround and with a little less than a mile to go I looked back and saw him gaining ground so I unleashed whatever kick I had left which was good for about a 5:10 pace last half mile, not bad considering most of that was flat. I ended up beating him by 35 seconds.

That late challenge really made the race thrilling for me, and I'm really happy that despite the fatigue and my legs being dead I was able to push that hard to close.

Awards ceremony was an hour and a half after we finished so I got some time to chat with the other finishers. I also got a free massage which was divine, very grateful for that. My legs were cramping up a bit before the massage and it fixed them. I talked a lot with Jon, who had also fallen into the closed road trap and had to run down to the start. He was a cool guy and a very experienced trail runner, and quite fast - he ran a 1:15 flat half earlier this year and is a low 16 minute guy. Adam Hendrickson took 3rd or 4th, he was a USU guy when I was a SUU guy and apparently has run the Des news half in 64 minutes since then... not sure how I beat him... so there were a lot of fast dudes in this race and I am feeling really good about winning today and generally having a phenomenal morning.

Bonus cool thing: Around mile 2 I was in the lead and ran past a pack of horses that were on the other side of the fence next to the road and they all started running with me for a few hundred meters. Was surreal.

Also got a new Strava 10k or of 35:50

Good day

Nothing like a windy stroller run while listening to the rigged NBA lottery. I haven't been following the NBA that closely since the Rudy/don trades but the whole situation with the Mavs has revealed that league to be about as legitimate as the WWE.

Somehow got through my jump roping at the park despite the 20 mpw winds. Just a quarter mile of barefoot running, most of which being short strides.

Still sore from Saturday and felt a little heavy and slow, nice run though.

Ran up to the top of 500 and then a little further, then went back home. Started raining on me pretty hard the last couple miles.

Ran up to the top of 500 and back while my dad biked.

Went with Jake and parked on and ran part of Bonneville shoreline trail over to the ogden half/marathon course and

ran the last 4 miles or so of Koltens race with him. The ran back up to where we parked. Felt pretty good until about mile 9/10. I've got a lot of work to do before I'm ready for a full marathon.

Set of tennis with Adam later on.

Short jog to the park... they really need to spray the weeds there.

Ran up to the top of pleasent view and then got on the canal road for a few miles on the way back down. Ran about 5:25 pace on the way down and it felt easy except for on the steepest sections... need to find a more gradual route for coming down the hill.

Ran with Jake from his new house up to big rock and back. Tempo effort up from the start of the trail to big rock but my Strava messed up the segment, Jake was about 20 seconds off Riley Cooks course record. We'll get it in a few weeks. My legs were pretty sore today. Tomorrow will be a much needed easy run and then thrusday we'll do a 3 mile tempo in sub 16.

Easy stroller run with some jump roping and barefoot strides. Feeling achy and sore.

Warmed up from Jakes house up to the canal road and then did a 3 mile tempo at a little over 5:30 pace. After that we ran up to the track and did some 200s but I was running like 5:40 pace and then speeding up to maybe like mile race pace for them, my legs are very sore. Generally felt awful today, my legs are in need of a break... we'll see if they get it. At least tomorrow will be easy or off.

Set of tennis with Adam later. I'm going to start logging tennis as running 1.5 miles, I run quite a bit when I play- I'd say 1.5 is pretty conservative for the actual amount of running I do and even more so when you consider the total cross training benefit.

Rest plus 2 sets of tennis in my first match in the mountain valley clay court tournament in smithfield. I played a guy on a high school team. I've never played on a clay court before today so it was a bit of an adjustment and I dropped the first two games before coming back to win the match 6-4, 6-1. Had a lot of fun.

A guy named Leland puts the tournament on and I like his style a lot, building a couple of clay tennis courts on your ranch is pretty high up there on my list of awesome set ups I've seen... and he's even done a 100 miler before. Seems like an interesting guy.

Stroller run to get the mail and then ran to the park and ran the millennium park loop 4x each way while Becca watched Whitney at the playground. Then I ran around the middle school park while Becca walked Whitney over there, ran around more with Whitney for a while there and then went home.

Set of tennis later with Adam.

Ran over to shady lane park and did 2x4 minute tempo followed by 5x1000m, some reps on the grass and some on the sidewalk/road. Then cooled down 3 miles. Tempo was at like 5:30-5:40 and the ks averaged 5:25 pace.

Ran with Joah around sugarhouse. Got to see Rob and Ann as well!

Tennis with Adam for about an hour

Ran with Jake and Kolten at 6:30am and did 18 minute tempo, 2 min recovery, 16 minute tempo. Was not feeling it today. I averaged 5:50 for the 18 minute and then I had to duck out during the 16 minute tempo to go meet Becca and ran down some mining road from the canal road, it was a little too steep to run optimally fast and I averaged maybe like 6:30 for the 2nd tempo... just good to get mileage really. Then after meeting and swapping cars with Becca I drove over and cooled down for a mile of stroller running.

Also had to run a stroller mile home from dropping my car off at the shop, and then the same thing back to pick it up a couple hours later.

Ran home from dropping car at the shop

Ran with Jake and Kolten and then added an extra mile to pick up my car from the shop.

First day of summer practice. Some hill sprints and easy running.

Longest stroller run yet (I think).

Warm up and then 1.5 miles hard, 8 minute jog, 12 minutes hard up. Averaged 5:38 for the 1.5 and 5:28 for the 12 minutes.

Also ran home from the shop for my car and then back over there a couple hours later... one more round of that and then hopefully done for a while.

Also ran about half a mile on our evening walk to go back to the house to get a ball for Whitney to play with at the park, plus some barefoot strides on the grass. Also 100 jump ropes.

Easy stroller miles. Legs felt heavy and tired.

Ran with Jake, felt tired and heavy.

Finally tracked distance for a tennis set. 10 games took 64 minutes and my Garmin measured 2.12.

Warmed up 1.5 miles and then ran a 5 mile tempo with Garry and Jake. Averaged 5:25, the first 5k was 5:20 pace for 16:35 and then I fell off pace a bit the last mile or two with a 5:28 and 5:34 to close. To be fair the original goal pace was 5:30 and those guys averaged 5:19. I'm pretty happy with this, I'm not too far off of being able to keep with them for the whole thing. Big confidence booster that I can go sub 33 at Des news 10k.

Cooled down running with the Weber team, also did a 5 minute plank which was pretty solid considering I haven't tried a plank in years.

Another mile run to big O... hopefully the last for a while. Also my left IT band has been acting up recently, was feeling pretty sore this morning but after some stretching and massage gun it felt mostly better for this short run. Gotta keep up with the injury prevention exercises and stretches.

Evening run, felt kinda crappy and heavy

Stroller run over to the harrisville Park and ran the loop there for the first time, it's a half mile loop and then also runs out another third of a mile or so to a splash pad, pretty cool. Ran 4 miles and then Whitney played for 45 minutes and then I ran the loop one more time and continued on home. I notice that if I go to the park exactly at the right time there's like an hour window where the shade covers one of the play structures perfectly so I've been trying to make it there for that each day this week. M

Sandbagged a 12x400m workout with Jake and Garry. My IT band has been having a rough time and I didn't want to take it too hard. So I did the first 4 and then I did every other rep for the last 8. Splits were 69, 67, 69, 68, 69, 66, 65, 66. Then we did a mile tempo in 5:27.

Felt pretty good really, especially considering I haven't ran the pace of those 400s in a couple months. My knee/IT band was feeling a little tight the first couple but felt good the rest of the time.

Then we drove over to Weber county fair grounds for practice and ran with the kids, I felt pretty drained for that part and my it band/knee started hurting after we finished or maybe like in the last mile or so.

I think I'll probably skip out on the twisted fork 30k this weekend in favor of staying healthy. I suppose I could just take it as an easy run but even an easy 18 miles would probably be too much. Much better to get healed up and run a lot of fast races this summer and fall than wreck myself this weekend.

Easy run with Jake and Kolten. No knee/IT pain.

Set of tennis with Adam followed by a bit over a 4 mile run- first 1.5 were with Adam.

My knee felt tingly and weird when we started playing and I stretched it out for a few minutes and made sure not to run too hard the rest of the set, had no further problems during tennis or the run. I need to make sure I stretch out before each run.

Ran the first mile and then the last 2 tempo miles of Jakes Michigan workout. Garry ran the fast parts and I ran the slow parts of it. First mile was 4:57 (74, 76, 74, 73) and felt really good. 5 seconds seems like an undersell on these super shoes, today was my first day running in the endorphin pros and they felt incredible. Like really no pain, I was pushing but comfortablely so. Like going much faster might have gotten me into trouble but I definitely felt like I could race a sub 10 two mile right now and even sub 5 pace for 5k with some more training is on the table after this.

The two tempo miles were like 5:30 and 5:40. They felt good, slower than 10k pace but half marathon pace seems like a stretch. Somewhere in that range. Garmin increased my VO2 max by 3 points so I'd say those endorphin pros are a great fit and I'm excited to do more in them. IT band/knee felt totally fine today, I'm tempted to do the full 5 mile tempo and stay with Garry and Jake on Thursday... we'll see how Tuesday and Wednesday go.

4.3 with with the Weber team and 3.2 stroller miles to the park and back.

Stroller miles, took Whitney to the park. Haven't had any problems with my it band or really felt it at all this week, I'm thinking I'll give the tempo run tomorrow a go.

Great day today. Did an out and back 5 miler, first 2.5 miles was 360 feet uphill and the 2nd half was back down. Mile splits were 5:51, 5:55, 6:05, 5:25, 5:40. I felt good the last mile but in kind of let off the gas. Averaged 5:48 and it was the first workout where I dropped Jake in... maybe ever. Uphill is definitely my strength. In fact I beat Christian Allen's time to get the segment record for a mile segment in the first half.

Easy stroller miles

Ran up to the big rock trail and made a hard effort about a mile up the switchbacks and then made a wrong turn. I decided to go back home so I could get Whitney to the park for the best shade hour. I ran about 3 miles at 5:40 pace on the way back. Then I ran over to the park and played watched Whitney. I segment hunted a record for the loop at the park and ran a bit over half a mile at 4:50 pace to get it.

Easy stroller run over to the park with Whitney. Tomorrow should be about a 10-12 mile day doing 12x400 and a short tempo and then I think the rest of the week will be 4-7 mile easy runs with a easy pre race workout on Thursday. Maybe I'll take Wednesday off.

I think my IT band is pretty much healed, I haven't felt it in a full week now and have done some pretty intense workouts. I think I'll try and hit 50 miles again this week and then in July my weekly format is going to be

Sunday- 8-10

Monday- 10-12

Tuesday- 8-10

Wednesday- 4-7

Thursday- 10-12

Friday- rest-4

Saturday- Long run starting at 15 and building to 22 by August

So that will get me 55-75, obviously I'll start at the lighter end of that. I'm starting the long run build a little late for a marathon in September but I think my base is sufficient. I still haven't signed up for the Huntsville marathon quite yet because I want to get some longer long runs in and get a feel for like a 20 miler first.

I'm trying to decide between running the USA trail half marathon championships in Moab or the big bear marathon for my final and biggest race of 2025.

1.5 warm up with Garry and Jake

12x400 @75 with 80 seconds rest. We alternated leading this one, it's nice having a 3 person squad for these. Gonna be sad when Garry leaves for his mission. We also averaged 73 instead of 75.

3ish miles with the team

With the Weber team. Sped up a bit the last mile to make it home in time. Considered running to the park with Whitney to get 7 today but I'm a little tired from not getting enough sleep lately and decided between that and the big face for June being Saturday, taking it easy doesn't hurt. I've run every day for 11 days in a row now so I might take tomorrow off, or I might do an easy 4.

Easy day with a few 200s

Pre race shakeout

Really fun race today. Course is a bit short at 3.06 but sub 16 feels equally good. Splits were 5:22, 4:59, 5:16. I was running with Wyatt for the first 2 miles and then he dropped me by 12 seconds the last mile. I just couldn't get back into rhythm after the hill up to the high school. Jake has been killing it and broke 15 on this course, Garry and Wyatt were both about 15:40.

Also a kinda crazy stat, I dropped from 166 to 158 between last night and post race. Des news is in 26 days I'm hoping to drop a few more pounds before then.

Jake says his first 5k of Des news is consistently faster than his time on this course. If I can run 15:30 for the first 5k there I should definitely be able to run in the 32 minute range. Sub 32:30 there would be awesome.

Wrecked my ankle on the canal road during a 4 on 2 off workout... not sure if it's a moderate to severe sprain or dislocated/broken. Going to the doctor now.

It's broken, recovery will be 4-8 weeks... that sucks. Not even sure what to do for cross training these first couple weeks, sounds like I can start biking by mid July. Knowing I'm about to lose a lot of fitness hurts a lot more than the ankle, was really looking forward to Des news. Really felt like I was approaching the best shape of my life... oh well, I'll be back to where I am now by this fall at latest.

Bought a hydraulic rowing machine off Facebook marketplace and gave it a go tonight. I went about as hard as the machine would let me go and worked up buckets of sweat but my heart rate apparently only averaged 119 with a max of 150... I think that seems too low for how hard it felt but who knows. Machine is nice because I can do modified rows where I don't use my legs at all while my ankle is healing... wish the resistance went a little higher.

40 minutes of rowing. PA at the sports medicine/orthopedist office says it's most likely broken but it's possible what they're seeing on the x ray is scar tissue from previous injuries to this ankle. He said it doesn't really matter for recovery, best case scenario I'm back to running in 4-6 weeks. I assume that means like baby jogging with an ankle brace for a mile at first- but if I could be there by the end of July that would be incredible.

Got a somewhat beat up 21 gear bike for $40 on Facebook marketplace today and found a free training block. I can bike and swim and walk in my boot, which is a lot better than waiting 6 weeks to do anything but rowing like I'd feared.

30 minutes of rowing.

31 minutes of biking. Felt good but I kept my broken ankle flexed the whole time to avoid any sudden movements or flipping of the pedal which made my ankle pretty sore.

I actually consistently got up to aerobic heart rate level for most of the bike. It's really hard to get above even 120 on the rowing machine. I'm thinking I'll do 15-20 minute warm up rowing and then 30-45 minutes biking most days. I think I'll preserve a lot of my fitness and be back in at least as good of shape by September.

15 minutes row warm up

47 minutes on the bike averaging heart rate of 146

Ankle definitely seems broken, I can feel it more clearly now that the inflammation has gone down a bit.

10 minute row 118 hr

39 minute bike 124 hr (seems low)

36 minute bike 146 hr

11-12 minute row at apparently 140 hr

50 minute bike at 144 hr

15 minutes Rowing at 134 hr

47 minutes biking at 144 hr

About 100 minutes biking, actually went up to the canal road and rode while Kolten and Jake ran.

30 minutes rowing and core.

32 minutes biking at 139 average heart rate. I broke the big gear shifter on my bike trying to get it back to a lower gear... the smaller one still works and I was still able to get a solid workout.

My ankle is feeling really good, I'm hoping they misdiagnosed the break... twice lol. The PA at the last appointment did say there was a chance the misty stuff was just scar tissue. Either way my ankle is feeling like 90% better. I can walk without a brace, each day this past week was like a new milestone of ankle progress. Getting back to running 2 weeks after the injury would be an amazing outcome... Running at Des news feels possible but I won't push it unless I'm feeling virtually 100% and even then will probably wear some form of support.

I've decided long term I need to replace the crappy cross training equipment with decent stuff and make that part of my training schedule.

Doctor said I'm recovering super quickly and can start running this week.

Mile with Jake at the track. Went pretty well, split it up into 2 quarter miles and a half mile. The brace sucks to run with and I think I'll just tape it up tonight and try another mile to see how that feels, it hurts my Achilles to run in the brace because it restricts back and forth ankle movement too much and cuts into my upper ankle with the supports.

35 minutes biking, 138 average heart rate.

Felt pretty good today once that I readjusted my new brace so it wasn't squeezing my metatarsal. Still doesn't feel as good as before the injury of course, especially with a brace- but it was a big improvement from yesterday. I'll try out the kt tape once I get to runs of 4+ miles, I think that will feel much better to run on.

The other thing that's been interesting to me is that I've had a bit of shit splint type pain for my non injured leg come up during my recovery, especially when I was in crutches and had hard landings on my foot. Maybe why this happens (which it hasn't for a long time) is because when I'm standing around I generally shift my weight to my right foot and that probably results in a lot more stress on those bones... I'm going to try and balance that out more and hopefully those shin splints go away with the sprain.

35 minutes biking after the run

Felt better than yesterday. Even went sub 8 for mile 3. All miles on the track, I'm going to stay in the track tomorrow and probably for most of Saturday and Sunday as well just to be safe. I think I'll do one more day in the brace and then Saturday I'll try running with tape.

I'm think I'll at least jog the Des News 10k so that's exciting. Planning to just go by feel for all my runs until my ankle 100%, I'll start throwing in strides once it doesn't feel weak in the back of my ankle- which might just be once I take off the brace. I can't tell.

PM:

10 minutes rowing at 110 hr

32 minutes biking at 135 hr

Think I'll take tomorrow off from cross training and only do my run. I also did a 30 minute contrast therapy thing for my ankles after cross training. 10 mins hot water in a bath, 1-2 minutes cold water, and then 3x switching off between 4-5 minutes hot and 1 minute cold. Actually felt amazing and left my legs feeling incredibly smooth. Gonna try doing a full body version of this some day.

Felt great today. Averaged 7:44 and got up to 6:45 pace for a lap. About an hour or two after my run I felt a little pain in the back right of my ankle. I was thinking I'd take Sunday as a rest day but I might move that up to Saturday because my Asics nimbus 27s are arriving Sunday and I'm excited to try those out. I went way over mileage on the current pair of adrenalines and have been running in my tempus 2s this week- which aren't ideal recovery shoes.

Some running while I walked with Becca and Whitney. I did a stride and got down to sub 6 pace for a bit. Ankles felt a little off today, I'm going to try kt tape instead of the compression sleeve/brace tomorrow.

Warmed up with Landon and Jake and then did 5x2 minutes on 2 minutes off on the track. Well they did 6 but I took the 5th one off to stretch out my ankle. Paces were 5:34, 5:27, 5:21, 5:18, 5:13. So overall I guess close to 2 miles at goal 10k pace. Not that I will be racing that pace on Thursday haha, especially with how that pace felt today in terms of my fitness. I'm sure all the biking and rowing has helped preserve some fitness but nothing fully replaced running. I think it will take another 2-3 weeks to get back to normal. I'll try some downhill road running tomorrow and Wednesday and if that feels good I'll run the 10k but I'm not planning to race it.

I tried the kt tape today and my ankle felt pretty good, a lot better than yesterday. It's really just the back of my ankle that's still bothering me a bit and that comes and goes.

Easy run with 4 strides. Felt increasingly good on each stride, but not to the point that the pace felt smooth or easy. I've been doing almost all of my miles on the track so far, so tomorrow I'll test out doing a couple of downhill road miles. Worst case scenario if my ankle starts hurting during Des news I can just go over to 700 east and walk jog over to liberty park.

Ran up and down shady lane a couple times. Warm up felt a little stiff and my ankle felt a little weak, not painful.

Once I'd warmed up 1.5 miles I put on my race shoes to see how those felt and they felt better than my trainers- like about 100%. I ran a quarter mile downhill on shady lane in 77 seconds and it felt great. No pain and the pace felt easy and very sustainable. There's a reasonable chance I could actually race tomorrow. I will just go by feel tomorrow, if I'm feeling good and no pain maybe I'll try a couple of fast miles. If I'm feeling some ankle pain I'll slow down or stop altogether.

Came in today open to racing for a pr or stopping early on in the race and walking to liberty park. I'd give this outcome an A-. I felt perfect warming up and doing strides so I decided to give it a shot today. My one big misstep pre-race was that without thinking I tried jumping hard as part of my pre-race dynamics and that hurt my ankle a bit. No lingering pain though so I decided to test it out.

First two miles were 10:06 and I felt really good, but my ankle started hurting so I backed off to a pace where it felt better- happened to be about 5:50. I stayed there for most the rest of the run. My quads still got absolutely destroyed from this run, I haven't done any downhill in a month and the bike does not work your quads that way. The people I was around at mile 2 ended up finishing just over or under 32:00 so I'm excited for peach days when I'm fully healthy and have more workout in me. Obviously it's a much slower course, but the upside of running a relatively slow time today is that I can almost definitely PR my 10k at Peach days with hopefully a sub 34.

Unfortunately tripped on a stick walking out of liberty park and hurt my ankle a bit after the race was over so its a little sore now, but pretty minor setback. I think I'll be fine to run tomorrow honestly but will take it off if it's hurting in the morning.

Legs were so sore, slow jog around Lora and Georges neighborhood.

Legs probably weren't recovered enough for this. I did half the workout today, was supposed to be 2x 6 mins, 4 mins, 2 mins with 2 minutes recovery between each. I ran high 5 minute pace for each rep and felt very sore afterwards. I think a bath tonight will make everything feel much better.

Easy run. Tried road running with no brace/tape. Not ready for that quite yet, the back inside of my ankle kept bugging me. My ankle generally still feels fairly loose but that is the only part of it that still hurts.

Warmed up a little over a mile and did 25 minutes of Jake's 28 minute tempo at like marathon pace in the wind. Was a slow tempo but felt rough. Had to stop a couple of times to stretch my ankle, not a great tape job today.

Really hoping that by the end of August I'll be feeling 100% and as fast as I was in June.

Ran into Jake and Kolten on my way to the track, ran with them over to Koltens house and did a short lifting session with front squats, split squats, calf raises, weighted one legged deadlifts. Then I ran over to the park with Whitney.

Ankle felt good today, no pain. Felt a little unstable on the split squats and single legged deadlifts but it's certainly improving.

I think I'll go for 8 miles tomorrow to get to 30 for the week and if that feels good I'll try to hit 6-8 every day next week and do 10-12 miles next Saturday. Hopefully I can get back to doing some downhill tempos, only 3 months out from big bear so if I'm going to race that I need 10 weeks at 50 mpw+ and start building up my long runs.

Long run with Jake, ran into Kolten for the last couple miles. I felt pretty sore from lifting yesterday and also generally fatigued from staying up way too late last night.

Ankle felt good during the run but not while carrying a vanity upstairs.

Didn't get much time to run at practice and decided to not run after doing yardwork tonight. Haven't been getting enough sleep lately and I'm hoping to get 8 hours of sleep and run 8 miles in the morning.

Ran with Jake around North Ogden

3.2 at practice and finished up to 4 with Whitney

Workout was 6x800 but my calf betrayed me. I did 2 800ms at 2:43 and then my ankle was hurting a bit so I skipped the next rep to stretch it out. Then I did another 800m in 2:45 but my calf was cramping up a bunch. My injured ankle calf has been cramping up even on easy runs this week. I'm not sure if it's overcompensating for the ankle or what, but it's been very annoying.

Looks like I accidentally entered Tuesday's workout for Wednesday and have been a day ahead all week, I'm not going to adjust all of that rn... so I'll do Fridays and Saturdays for this.

Friday: super packed day... Didn't get a chance to run much at practice. Then took Whitney to the park and burley Burger with my mom Stella and Ashlynn. Then we went to the fair with Jake's family and I rode a mechanical bull for the first time, it was pretty fun. Then we had our Weber xc time trial event, Zach's son and Whitney hit it off really well after the races were over and were having a lot of fun chasing each other around the track playing tag, it was a really nice sunset and the scoreboard provided really good shade. They had snow cones too. It was a really nice evening.

Nice easy early afternoon run with lots of grass running.

Warmed up about 5k and then did 2x2 mile, the first 2 mile was on the track in 10:59. 2nd 2 mile was up and down a hill on the road, I ran 5:56 up and then about 5:40-5:45 back down. Only had time for about a quarter-half mile cool down but the downhill mile wasn't that strenuous.

Stroller miles, took Tuesday off and then missed Wednesday because of the fire.

2.5 with the team for premeet

4 later, felt alright.

Spectating Freber invitational

Easy evening run

Warmed up and then did 6x800m with 1 minute rest and then a mile. It was actually 8x800 but I skipped the last two because my outside calf on my injured ankle leg was cramping up.

Splits were 2:43, 2:40, 2:39, 2:41, 2:42, 2:42, 5:24.

Not bad considering July was pretty much a wash from the injury and I've been at 30 miles with little speed work so far in August. I have a bunch of 5ks coming up.

Great weather tonight and I ran at the perfect time during the sunset while there's no sun in your face but it's still bright enough that you can run in the grass. Felt very smooth and comfortable and like my body wanted to run.

Rough tempo

Stroller run with the team

Easy run

Ran to the top of 500 and then ran on to the dirt road a took some ATV trails down to the canal road and then back home. Big fan of this route. I ran with my shirt off and definitely got sunburned a bit on my back.

Warmed up about 1.5 miles and then did 6x1000m with 1 minute rest. I ran 3:21, 3:19, 3:19, 3:25, 3:25, 3:23.

Rainy and felt drained. Need to get to bed earlier.

Fartlek turned into segment hunting with Jake.

Some more running at the runathon, did a Twinkie and 4 for 4 4x4. Twas fun!

Easy run

10 miles with Jake including a 4x 4 on 3 off, 4x 2 on 2 off.

Paces for the 4 minutes were: 5:49, 5:36, 5:21, 5:27.

Paces for the 2 minutes were: 5:26, 5:23, 5:32, 5:49. That last 2 minutes that we did at 5:49 pace was all uphill and easily the hardest effort but felt really good.

After the run I drove up north and played 80 minutes of tennis with Adam, I'm counting that as 2 miles but it definitely felt more like 5-6 in terms of energy spent.

After all that I stopped by starbucks and got my free venti pumpkin spice latte breve... only day of the year I'll willingly go to Starbucks. It's a little scary I'm officially to my last year before 30, but this was a perfect start to the first day of 29.

Was already dark at 8:30 tonight when I started my run

Premeet with Jake. He is only racing peach days and did 8x400 at 79-80. I did every other 400 with him. Felt pretty good. Hoping to win both park city open race and peach days 5k tomorrow and Saturday!

Warmed up and then left to find a toilet and unfortunately missed the start of the race. I thought it was at 8:30 and apparently it was 8:10. So I started on the course around the 10 minute mark, so I finished like 21st of 27 competitors in the coaches race with a time of like 26 minutes and I caught Joy right at before the line. Was a fun meet!

Course record for the peach days 5k! Most years it's won in like 16:30-17:30 and this year there were 7 people sub 17 and 2nd place was also sub 16. So a little harder to win than I'd expected.

I went out with Jake and Spencer before they continued on to the 10k route and I turned off for the 5k, and to my surprise like the entire pack of guys that were right behind us all followed me for the 5k. I kept hoping to drop them but just managed to put a few seconds of distance on 2nd place per mile, which did the trick.

I've now won 3 races this year which has been a lot of fun. Probably would have been 4 if I'd made it to the starting line yesterday... I'll get it next year haha.

Ran up to the golf course and back while my dad biked.

Am- 4.5 with Jake and Henry, we did 12 30 second hill sprints

Afternoon- 20 minutes of hourglass strides on the grass with Jake. Basically stride 100-150 meters jog 40-50 on repeat for 20 minutes. Hurt quite a bit.

Evening- real fun began when my top soil delivery guy told me he couldn't dump the top soil in my yard without cracking my concrete. So I had somewhere between 50,000 and 100,000 pounds of dirt dumped in the street in front of my house and was also notified by the city that I needed to move it out of the street by Wednesday morning.

Spent 5 hours tonight moving the dirt throughout the yard. 53x loading the 8 cubic foot capacity wheelbarrow with 500 pounds of dirt, pushing the wheelbarrow around the yard and then dumping it.

Ouch

Not sure how much mileage to count this for

Am- 1 hour 45 minutes doing 18 loads of dirt

Afternoon- About an hour doing 10 more loads of dirt

Evening- 2 hours 45 minutes with the help of Jake and Paul. I must have done an additional 30-40 loads but I didn't keep track. Those guys really saved our butts.

So incredibly tired and sore.

Technically took 4 days off from running, but the first of those days I burned about 2500 calories moving dirt and the day before that I burned over 3000 calories between running and diet moving. My lungs were absolutely shredded after the first day of moving the dirt because I didn't wear a mask, mostly over that today but I didn't want to upset my throat and lungs by running too early.

Anyways, we had a great group out today. I ran 6 with Jake Paul Henry Kolten and Sammy. Then I ran an additional 3.5 with Jake after that.

Tennis with Adam

Warmed up 2 miles and then did a 2 miles in 11:06 (5:31, 5:35), 3-4 minute rest, 1 mile in 5:25.

Lungs still aren't feeling great but they're improving.

Easy run with 1 downhill mile at 5:40 pace. I'm thinking I'll jump into the Huntsville half marathon this weekend, not sure what to expect. I think I'll just go out with the whoever takes the lead and either hang on as long as I can or make a move a few miles in if I feel like I can run faster. I think 72-75 minutes is realistic right now. Before my ankle injury I think I was getting to the point I'd want to take a crack at sub 70 on a course like this but that's will have to wait for next year.

Warmed up with Jake and then ran back to my car. Picked up to 5:36 pace for a out a kilometer.

Shake out

Most painful race of my life by a wide margin. I started having to poop around mile 5 and it just got worse. I started pulling off at every porta potty I could find, I should have just called it a day and relaxed in hindsight but I didn't realize just how bad it would get.

I spent the next 2 hours after the race in a porta potty and eventually started puking and feeling nauseous. Ouch.

The first 5k felt pretty good, ran 16:40 and was feeling it a little in my quads but overall pretty great. First place opened in a sub 5 mile so I just let him go, but he slowed down to finish in 1:11. I think I could have made it pretty close on a better day.

Warmed up 1 mile, did a 10 minute tempo at 5:50 pace with Jake before he did the rest of his workout. Cooled down to 4.

Still not in the clear from whatever but has been wrecking me but things are improving. I think I was going to get a 73 minute finish at huntsville had things gone smoothly. If I can put in a winter at 50-60 mpw I think I'll have a strong chance at sub 70 at the Ogden Half.

Ran into Henry at millennium Park and finished my run with him

Easy miles

Warmed up and did dynamics with Jake, did a 10 minute tempo at 5:40ish pace on the canal road and then headed home because I ran out of time.

Ran with Jake and Henry. Felt tired today but twas fun.

Easy with Jake and Henry

Typical Sunday route. Felt pretty good, quads are somehow still a little sore from last weeks half marathon. I need to start getting getting higher mileage and doing a better job with core and yoga, also should include a couple cross training sessions each week.

Am- Phone is dying out and didn't charge overnight so I slept in to 7 and missed most of my run with Jake. Got the last 3.8.

Pm- 4.4 circling the track while cheering on the team, plus some hill sprints chasing Whitney.

Warmed up a little over a mile and ran the founders day course hard with the team. Pretty much race effort outside of cheering on the kids, I ran 16:38 and I think maybe I could have run 16:20-16:25 if I'd raced all out. So I'm a out 30 seconds slower than I was in June, which sucks a little because in June I'd been taking it easy for like a month due to my it band acting up. But I suppose that what I get for 3 months of averaging 35 mpw or the equivalent.

Still, I'm in far better shape than I was in this time last year. Not a bad spot to be at and I know my body will respond quickly to the mileage increase I'm about to do.

Warmed up 2.25 or so and then did 6 strides, a mile tempo in 5:30, 1000m in 3:13, 600 in about 1:55. Felt pretty good but ran out of time, had to get home early.

11 games of tennis with my dad

Then ran while my dad biked up to the cottonwood heights Thanksgiving course, did most of the course, finished up back home. Got some faster surges in on the downhills.

Ran up wheeler canyon with Jake and Andrew. Very wet and muddy. Took 2 hours, was a fun time though!

Warmed up 2 miles with 6 strides

Workout was 14x500m with 1 minute rest, I had to leave after 11.5. I averaged 1:36 for the 500m which is exactly 16:00 for a 5k. Felt pretty good, I could have finished the last couple in low 1:30s.

Had to skip the cool down so I just jogged with Whitney around my house for 20 minutes. She had a lot of fun.

Pm- 2 miles with the team

Easy run and a lot of cookies. Whitney has enjoyed watching our Roomba a lot lately, she used to be very afraid of vacuums but she thinks "rosey" is cute. She says the Roomba we get for the main floor is going to be called Fire. She started by sitting on the top stair, her baby recliner, or her bed and peaking at the Roomba. Now she's gained the courage to go run past the Roomba and back occasionally and even dance around it. I suppose it's the next best thing to having a pet.

Easy miles mostly on canal.

Easy miles with Jake with a few strides. Potentially running up Ben Lomond on Saturday if the weather clears up so I'm easing up on the mileage today and tomorrow.

Found a black widow outside my yard next to my trash cans when I went to take out my trash... so that's rough. Downside of living next to a giant unkept field.

Ran with Whitney to the elk farm to show her those creatures, unfortunately none of them were up next to the fence today but we still got to see plenty and hear their weird noises. Then we stopped at an old mining road and we walked up the mountain until she got tired. She made it pretty far and climbed off trail up two little rock formations. She said it was a good adventure so we shall do it again soon.

Peaked Ben Lomond with Jake today. Way more technical than I had expected. My size 13 Solomon trail shoes weren't a great fit, but they got the job done. Amazing the difference in how clunky shoes feel just half a size up.

The peak was covered in a cloud so that was spooky. Next year we might start at big rock and make it a 21 mile ordeal... or maybe we'll race it to get all the Strava segment records.

Easy recovery run to millennium park

2 mile warm up, 2 mile canal road tempo, 14x 30 seconds on 30 seconds off.

Afternoon- 2 miles running around spectating Region. Girls took 2nd and boys took 3rd.

Evening- 5 miles over to millennium park. Felt alright

Running up and down 500 for some mile repeats in the rain. Ready for it to stop raining.

Easy miles.

Ran a ways up to Lewis peak from big rock but turned back because it was super windy and like 20 degrees and already snowy up there. Ran on the canal road to get to 12.

I'm really good at running uphill when the grade is under 15% and there aren't a ton of turns... switchbacks and 20%+ grade kill me. I'm confident I could get the KOM from big rock to skyline from Riley cook, in fact I was tempted to go back and try it today when I saw the segment when I uploaded it to Strava. But the first mile up skyline that has over 1000 ft elevation gain on switchbacks... my legs are just not ready to beat any records on that atm.

Am- 1 set of tennis with Adam

Pm- 7.25 miles. Ran up to the canal road and back plus about a mile on the trail. Legs felt a little tired but it was perfect running weather and I felt good.

AM- Easy miles with Henry and Jake

PM- Easy miles with Josh during practice, talked about ultras. I guess for marathons the best strategy is to take a gu right before, at 50 minutes, and 1:40. Was fun to hear about the Moab 240, sounds brutal.

Gully long run, always nice to come back and run here. Looks like they're refilling the wood chips this week. Hopefully I'll get another run in here this fall while t shirt and shorts weather is still around.

Warmed up a couple miles and then did 2 x 6-4-2 mins with 2 min jog between each. Started at 5:35 pace and sped up throughout the workout, ending with the last 2 mins sub 4:50 pace. Averaged about 5:20 total.

Felt really good today. I think on a track 5k I'd be mid-low 16s right now. I'd like to run either the Dixie state or uvu 5k this spring before it gets hot. I'd like to run mid 15 minutes after a good winter of training. My lifetime PR goals are sub 15 5k, sub 70 half marathon, sub 2:30 marathon. That and winning Des news marathon and I would be 100% satisfied with my running accomplishments as I start to get older and slower in another 6-10 years. I think if I could run sub 2:30 at 5 Des news marathons there's a good chance I win at least once... that's a tall order and we'll see if I can get there.

With Jake and Josh

Was going to do a progression run with Jake today but he was sick so I decided to do a tempo on the track. I warmed up 3 miles and then figured I'd do 4-5 miles at 5:45 pace. I figured that's about my current half marathon pace and goal marathon pace. I ended up running 10k at 5:38 pace and I felt really good, was starting to have to push a little harder towards the end but the first 5k or so felt super comfortable and fun, the laps felt like they were going by really fast despite being out in lane 6.

Splits were 5:37, 5:37, 5:33, 5:34, 5:42, 5:38. I actually checked my Garmin by counting my laps and asking AI to calculate just under 23 laps in lane 6 into meters and it was indeed 10,000 meters. So that feels pretty good, I think in a flat half marathon I could go 73-74 minutes right now. 5:38 pace is 73:51, and I could definitely keep that pace up for 10 miles. If I was totally fresh and wearing my super shoes I think I could get 13 miles at that pace on a flat course.

Easy miles. Been trying to keep my posterior tibial tendonitis at bay with hot baths and running on soft surfaces. I might take my recovery day on Monday rather than Tuesday.

I'd like to do some 800ms at like 4:55 pace sometime this week and then probably a relaxed tempo run or whatever Jake is doing on Thursday. I think 4x2 miles getting faster every rep would be fun.

Starting to get cold but surprisingly I enjoyed the weather today. It was mid-high 30s when I ran and it felt pretty comfortable in running shorts and a hoodie. Ran a couple miles at 5:55 pace and felt pretty good.

Easy and the track during practice

Spectating at state plus a couple laps around sugarhouse, might have run more but I kept accidently pausing my watch before running. Really is a nice park. Girls took 5th and boys took 10th! Was a lot of fun to watch the kids run. A few of them were disappointed with their individual results but both boys and girls improved as a team from last year and the girls beat Davis which was their big goal. Good day! Also watching Jackson Spencer was insane. Either the new course is really fast or he is the fastest high schooler in Utah cross country history by like 20 seconds.

Similar workout to earlier this week. 2 miles at 5:49 pace and easy besides that. Legs felt kinda tired today, I guess I did a lot of strides and hills yesterday. I'm pretty reliant on running with Jake to get real workouts in, hopefully he stops being sick soon. Nice to hit 200 miles for October.

I missed my long run yesterday because I was out buying my car to replace the Altima that died. We got an ioniq 5, which is really fun to drive and suits our need well. It's MSRP was 53,000 when it was sold last summer and we bought it for about half that, it only has 12000 miles on it. Big fan of Hyundai warranty as well, we were deciding between this and a new equinox ev and one of the deciding factors was that even at 15 months old this car has 9 more months and 12,000 more miles of basic warranty than a brand new Chevy vehicle would have.

Might double today to make up for yesterday, but I also think when I'm building mileage sometimes it's good to take a spontaneous rest day to keep from overtraining. I was feeling a little worn out towards the end of this week but I felt great today. Really depends on whether I can sneak off to the gully at some point before or after seeing all my extended family while Becca shops with Whitney.

Felt really good today. Pretty sure I could have done 20 and felt good at the end. Perhaps I should have, but I need more miles on softer surfaces and it was already dark by the time I started running.

Mostly zone 2, felt a little tired towards the end. I need to start practicing fueling on long runs, I guess a gu every 50 minutes is the way to go.

This was more like 3.2 miles but still a pretty slow time. Mile splits were 5:19, 5:38, 5:50. I ran in my endorphin speeds and I think I would have been closer to 17:20 in xc spikes but I didn't want to spend $100 for one random xc race.

Had a bunch of fun today. Got to race with Henry Jake and Simon and Jon, I also met Tyler who is a fellow hobbyjogger and Hyrum who is a quick guy. We did a nice 5 mile cool down and then I met Becca and Whitney for some teriyaki.

Some more late tonight parking and retrieving the car downtown.

Felt some aches and pains around my knees. Mostly in one of the back tendons of my right knee. I need to do canal or grass tomorrow.

Tendon in the back of my knee is still sore. Gonna have to figure out some stretches/exercises to fix it.

Tennis and pickleball with Adam and Johnny. Got a solid amount of running around in. Fun day!

Canal road fartlek of 1-2-3-3-2-1 with equal recovery. At about 5:30 average ending sub 5 on the last one.

Easy run

Another easy run, pretty much all on grass. Amazing weather today. My legs have felt surprisingly beat since Wednesday's workout.

With Jake and Sammy on canal road

Warmed up 3 miles and then a 3 mile tempo. Canal road was wet and we averaged 6:00/mile at a pretty hard effort.

Mostly circling the temporary lake at harrisville Park. A few strides at the end.

Just over 5 stroller miles with Whitney after lunch over to the park.

6.25 miles in the evening. Felt amazing today, less effort than walking. I'm really enjoying this November weather, 40 degrees is kind of perfect for easy runs.

Ran while my dad biked. Got some good uphill running and some downhill tempo. Quads felt a bit tired after the first couple miles but felt better by the end.

Went back out just before lunch and reclaimed a segment record going up a .21 mile 9% grade hill. I ran it at 5:12 pace which is a grade adjusted pace of 3:37. Not bad!

Stroller miles

Warmed up 3.5 miles and then ran 4 miles in 22:20. Cooled down a little under 4 miles. Did a hilly 2 mile loop twice for the hard 4. Splits were 5:06, 5:55, 5:35, 5:54.

20-30 minutes sauna

20-30 minutes swimming

Ran around Marion county park lake.

Stopped in Hillsboro Kansas on the way home from seeing some buffalo to get some coffee and a segment record.

Ran from Jill and Ryan's lake house to their house house, kinda windy.

Two laps around the lake, ran while Whitney rode in the golf cart with Jill, Addie, and Kaitlyn. Wish I'd brought my endorphins- I've been doing a lot more fast running than I'd anticipated.

3.5 in Manchester after watching the k state volleyball game.

One lap around the lake while everybody rode the golf cart, lap the opposite way checking out all the little trails on the inside of Lakeshore drive.

I've enjoyed running around the lake the last few days, it's scenic with nice rolling hills. There's hundreds if not thousands of little unheralded spots like this in the USA alone that I could get used to running around all the time- and I'll never see most of them.

Ran while my dad biked. Woke up at 3:30 this morning to catch our flight. I think tomorrow's long run will be on the shorter end.

Easy with Jake. Very solid week of mileage, but I don't think I'm going to push myself through 10 more tomorrow to get to the arbitrary goal of 200 for the month. Probably another 5-8 easy tomorrow.

Easy miles in the cold. Lungs felt rough afterwards. Can't wait for the sauna to arrive.

Running in the snow sucks

AM- 6.8 stroller miles with Jake. I wonder if and when my lungs will adjust to the cold. Maybe part of it was spending a week at sea level too.

PM- 4.4 easy miles. Legs could use another hot bath tonight.

Warmed up a couple miles and then 25 minutes of 130 meter strides, 70 meter jogs. Started with Xs on the field but the snow sucked to run on.

Didn't think I'd have time to get this in. It's exactly mile up to the end of the road and back next to my house. Just did that 4x and it was glorious.

With Jake and Kolten. Ate a pumpkin muffin before and two rice krispies during. Felt amazing at 10 miles, legs were feeling it a bit by the end. To be fair, from my understanding I should be having like 3x that many carbs per hour. I think I should be starting to be regularly over 50 miles per week again now. I got over 50 the last two weeks and 45 this week as somewhat of a down week. I think I'll try to do 2-3 weeks at 50-60 followed by a week at 40-50 this winter.

My ideal week by like February is going to be

Sunday- 10

Monday- 8 mile (workout)

Tuesday- rest

Wednesday- 12 mile (4 stroller, 8 easy)

Thursday- 8 mile (workout)

Friday- 4-8 easy

Saturday- 13-22

So total mileage will be 55-68 by the end of winter. And then at some point in the spring I'll just add an extra stroller run Mondays or Thursdays and I'll be at 60-75 per week. That plus sauna core and maybe some rowing is about the highest volume I think I'll be able to handle before Des news. I also need to start doing my long runs faster.

Also ran a mile later on to break in new gel nimbus.