Blake Bennions running

3 nile warm up and then did 3x(4 on, 2 off, 2 on, 1 off, 1 on, 1 off) in the mud and rain. Felt tough, I averaged 5:30-5:40 or so for the 21 minutes of fartleks. 25 minutes of sauna at 175-180 or so afterwards.

Need to get used to this distance for my easy days. Felt good today, just rather time consuming especially with sauna at the end. Very enjoyable though.

25 minute sauna at 180-185 right after.

With Henry and Jake. Did a 5k progressive tempo towards the end with splits of 5:50, 5:46, 5:41. Felt good today but a marathon at that pace will indeed be a beast to attempt.

30 min sauna at 180-185ish afterwards.

Easy run in the rain + 30 mins sauna at 180-190

Warmed up a couple miles and then did 12x400 and an 800m. Workout was 16 400s but I ran out of time. Rest was 1 minute between each with 3 minutes rest after every 4th rep.

Splits were 75, 72, 72, 73, 71, 71, 70, 70, 70, 69, 72, 72, and 2:33 for the 800m. So an average of 71 for the 400m and sub 16 5k pace for the 800m. Not a bad day. Sub 4:50 pace feels rough, but it will only get tougher if I don't work on it

I've also been doing this set of exercises after most runs, especially hard workouts-

20 step ups

20 step downs

20 calf raises

20 single leg dead lifts

30 lunges

10 reverse lunges

20 squats

My yoga/core routine right now is typically:

Windshield wipers

Laying on back, twist hips and do leg drives on each side

Figure 4 sterch

Clam shells

Side laying leg lifts

Bridges

Leg lifts

Figure 8s

Updog and twist to each side

Childs pose

Cat cows

Bird dogs

Down dog and kicks

Lizard or pigeon pose

Push ups

Standing forward and side bends

Supplements I've been taking:

Collagen protein

Multivitamin

Recovery drink:

1-2 ounces cacao paste

2 cups milk

Collagen protein (2-4 tbsp)

Honey

Supplements I'm adding:

Ashwaganda

Beta alanine

Vitamin C

Fish oil

Flaxseed oil

I had started using beta alanine and ashwaganda over the summer before my injury but stopped as I figured it was somewhat pointless while out of shape. Vitamin C helps with collagen production. I'm starting to take fish oil and flaxseed oil because omega 3s are super important and very hard to get enough of naturally in my diet... also trying to eat more fish, but the nice thing about fish oil is that it's screened for mercury.

Also trying to sauna 5x per week post runs.

I think my current set up is pretty much ideal for achieving my running goals and staying healthy. I'm optimistic about this year.

Am- jogged home from dropping mkz off.

Pm- 2x5k. First one I just ran by feel and the second I slowed down to goal marathon pace and tried to keep it more controlled. First was 17:11 (5:22, 5:30, 5:40), 2nd was 17:52 (5:44, 5:47, 5:45). I didn't fall off quite as bad as it looks on the first rep- I jumped up onto millennium park at the beginning of mile 3 and there's an awkward transition followed by a really steep ramp up to the park loop.

Definitely in better shape from a month ago, and in colder weather on wet slippery pavement. Felt like I could have done another 3 mile rep at 5:45 pace at the end. Feeling great for 60 miles in the first 7 days of the year, but I should be cautious and ease up on the mileage a bit. I averaged 51 over 5 weeks before my down week to close out 2025, so it would be prudent to keep my average at 52-56 over these next 3-4 weeks before my next down week.

Cold snowy windy run @ 15° followed by 25 min sauna at 185ish. I prefer the 185.

Not sure if it's the sub 20 degree weather and snow everywhere or perhaps I'm feeling the mileage, but it didn't feel super enjoyable.

30 minute sauna at 185ish afterwards, much more enjoyable.

Easy run with Jake Kolten Henry and Wyatt. Did a half mile at 4:50 pace around mile 10 and then another half mile at 5:30 pace to end. I could run another 10 miles right now... not sure how fast though.

25 min sauna at 185 afterwards. Nice change of pace from the 12° my run started out at.

Easy run followed by 25-30 min sauna at 190. Felt alright. Might go for 3x3 miles at marathon pace tomorrow.

Might have to take my easy week early, air quality has been horrific this week. If air quality is good tomorrow I'm going to do 3x3 miles at marathon pace, if it's bad I'm going to go up to wheeler canyon for 10-12 miles.

25 mins sauna as well, ran my Austin air purifier next to the sauna while I ran.

Ran in wheeler canyon to escape the crappy air. Beautiful to run up there and I felt good today. I ended up doing a downhill 5k tempo at an average of 5:25 pace. It felt pretty easy, heart rate was about 160. I think if I was in endorphins instead of my nimbus I could have averaged sub 5:10 without pushing at all. So on a half marathon course averaging 270 feet downhill I'm pretty confident I could run like a 66 minute half. Ogden half doesn't have quite that much downhill though.

33 minute workout of 300 lunges, 200 backwards lunges, 200 squats, 60 burpees, 60 pushups, 30 jump squats, 40 figure 8s, 50 sit ups, 50 leg lifts, several minutes continuous jumping as active recovery between exercises- these were the total numbers from 3 sets in an attempt to preserve form... I think that was everything.

Average heart rate of 138, legs are going to be feeling it tomorrow. Much prefer sore legs over wrecked lungs.

Really hope air quality starts improving soon.

Easy with a couple strides. I do a 2-4 strides on most of my easy runs and forget to log it- need to do a better job of that so I can look back and see when I was/wasn't doing strides in past years.

Sauna at 190ish for 25 mins.

Air quality is finally improving. My legs are pretty sore. I think I'll just do 11 miles tomorrow to cap off my easy week and then get a jump on next week's mileage with 10 on Sunday.

With Jake and Wyatt. Felt sore but had fun. 25 minute sauna afterwards.

20 minute night sauna.

Ran up Wasatch boulevard and back while my dad biked and then did a few more on my own. Did a few downhill pickups and also closed with a half mile at goal marathon pace.

Warmed up a couple miles and then ran a 5k tempo followed by the last two 400ms of Wyatt's workout. Ended up being about

16:48 (5:21, 5:28, 5:23)

3 min rest

67

70 seconds rest

66

400ms were faster and felt more doable than I would have expected. Maybe I could just in a 1500m this spring and try to run around 4:10. The 5k tempo also felt really good, that pace is too easy for a 10k but probably a stretch to keep quite that speed for a half marathon. Based off how it felt today I could probably run somewhere in the 32 minute range for a track 10k and about 72 minutes for a half marathon... I should probably actually go do that now. I think after a couple months at 60-70 now I could potentially break 70 on a flat half marathon based off how today felt. I want to race a lot this year.

I applied to get free entry to salt lake marathon over the weekend because I figure it will be valuable experience to go out and see how it feels in real race conditions. If I'm feeling good and am in the top 3 at a 10k I'll try and pull off finishing top 3 at that race, otherwise I'll just take the last 20 miles as a mix of easy and tempo. That way I get a marathon experience before Des news and either have a really good result or don't go all out and recover a bit faster but still know what to expect.

I also want to race a 5k, 10k, and half marathon before that. Going to get all the prs this year.

Run plus 25 minute sauna. Legs felt good!

Warmed up about 3 miles and then ran 2 mile tempo and 10 hill sprints. Amazing how much worse 5:45 pace feels at 20° on hilly roads compared to 5:25 pace on the track at 40°. Hill sprints weren't really sprints. I took them a bit easy out of some combo of my neck not being back to 100%, not wanting to aggravate asthma, and being lazy.

Easy run, bad air quality is really getting old.

25 min sauna after

Am- 12.6 with Jake on the trails, got some solid elevation gain.

Pm- 2.4, all I had time for

Feeling way better after my long runs lately. Might be due to the sauna, or maybe just getting in better shape. Didn't have time to sauna today unfortunately.

Warmed up a mile then 8 power miles at 6:15 average (was a little faster than I'd planned, especially given hilly nature of the route) and then close in 3 marathon pace miles at 5:45 average. Marathon pace miles were downhill but I was in my gel nimbus and not endorphins so I think it's a wash. Actually I need to remember to never run faster than 6:00 pace in gel nimbus because they felt kind of awkward at that pace. Total elevation gain of 875 for the run so not bad today. For my route I ran up to the rec center and did 2 of the 5k course laps and then went home. Cooled down a mile. I might do 4 miles and sauna when I get home tonight. Gotta start having bigger mileage days.

Warmed up 1.7 and then did 3 mile repeats in the dark... Lacrosse team showed up at like 6:45- seems really late for practice. Splits were 5:07, 5:05, 5;02. I jogged a lap for recovery, but also took off clothes and retied shoes between both so rest was probably a bit over 4 mins.

The pace did not feel as easy as I'd hoped but it also wasn't wrecking me, probably thanks to the mileage I've been doing. Running fast always feel harder when you can't see well too. I could have done a 4th but I'm easing into 5k pace and my foot is still a bit sore from sunday.

This is exactly what I wanted out of this workout, perhaps a little shorter rest would have been ideal- but I just wanted to be under 5:08 pace and I was, and I was ready for a 4th at that pace. Feels good to know I'm where I thought I was.

25 min sauna afterwards

Easy run. Foot soreness still isn't completely gone. It's worse in my gel nimbus than my endorphins do at least tomorrow workout shouldn't be effected. It's pretty minor but I've considered taking an extra day or two off just to be safe.

2 easy miles and then 5 miles averaging 6:15. Felt nice and easy. It was really foggy today, could see no more than about 30-50 feet ahead.

Easy run. I figured a 12 mile 2x4 @ mp run followed by another 12 mile run and then an 18 mile run on Sunday might be a bit much. Better to prioritize a quality high mileage weekend and just accept I missed my Thursday workout- or at least downgraded it. That's okay though, my plan was to have this week be more about easing into my new solo grind anyways. Hopefully Jake regains the fire in the spring- but for now it's probably good I'll be doing marathon specific workouts instead of miler workouts.

I also need to do 2 more hard weeks before my next down week in order to perfectly sync up my down weeks with tapering for the UVU 5k and the salt lake marathon, so this is good. Although my participation in the salt lake marathon in entirely dependent on whether they accept my elite athlete application... which is not that strong for the marathon at the moment given that I bombed the Huntsville half and my good races last year were trail races and a local 5k.

Easy with Jake Sammy and Wyatt. Did 3 miles at 6:45 but was tracking with my phone so didn't get hr data. Pretty relaxed week of training. Big day tomorrow and I'm feeling confident.

Warmed up 1 mile

Then 12 miles at averaging about 6:20

3.5 miles at just under 5:40

A little under 2 miles cool down with some pushes to keep the legs used to moving fast while tired, averaged about 6:35.

The 3.5 miles at marathon pace felt like I was pushing it. I settled into a good rhythm and didn't actively have to fight to keep the pace but I felt stretched to maintain it. The last mile or two especially my legs were ready to be done running. Not sure if that's how this is supposed to feel, but I got it done. I think I need to ease up a bit on the pace for those first 12 miles, my heart rate was hovering around low 160s for most of that and then went up to 170-180 for the marathon pace.

Really solid first marathon training long run. With good fueling I'm 90% confident I could sub 2:40 on a flat course right now- especially in my endorphin pros. Today was split between gel nimbus and endorphin pros.

I want run sub 2:30 12 weeks from now at salt lake- and that seems achievable if I stick to my plan, especially after 8-10 more runs like this. Also might run like 74 first half and then 80-85 2nd half if I've been dropped by the leaders in order to get back to the grind quicker after the race for des news. If I can run that fast for the first half I should be in 1st or 2nd based off past years but you never know. 4th place and 2:32 vs 6th place and 2:39 wouldn't make a huge difference for my satisfaction with the race but coasting in might get me back to training hard a few days early and give me a bit more time for my Des news block (which is only like 12 weeks after salt lake)- but ideally 2:28-2:32 and a podium is the goal.

Evening- 2 miles with a couple strides followed by 25 minute sauna. Feel pretty good honestly. Very grateful to be in this shape.

Warmed up 1.5 and ran 2x4 mile at mp. First one averaged 5:43 (5:39, 5,:47, 5:44, 5:43), second one averaged 5:38 (5:37, 5:37, 5:41, 5:36). I might have let myself run faster than I should have on the 2nd one- the last mile especially I was feeling good and pick it up a little. Although my heart rate was steady at about 172 for the last 3 miles of the 2nd rep, given that I'm not fully recovered from Sunday that seems about where I should be. I sure hope that's a sustainable marathon pace, that would be awesome.

I just felt good today. I felt like I could have absolutely do another 4 mile rep and I wanted to or just continue on for additional miles at the end of the 2nd rep. My legs were tired from Sunday but the pace didn't feel uncomfortable, it did feel like I was running fast and I had to throw in a couple surges when I drifted off pace a couple times but overall great day.

Easy with a couple strides. Legs felt tired and I didn't feel like running for most of it, felt good towards the end though. Tomorrow morning I have a 2/3x2 mile at half marathon pace planned but might adjust based on feel. I still have another week until my down week and I don't want to overreach this early in the process.

Easy run with 8 extended strides/pushes at about 5k pace. 5 minutes total of about 5:10 pace. Was feeling like a hard workout this morning might be a little aggressive. This week is already a step up from what I've been doing in volume and quality and I thought another huge workout like 4xmile @5:05 or even 2x2 mile at 10:30 might risk overreaching. Better to get my legs moving at that pace but not risk wrecking myself.

Tomorrow I might add a few power miles and/or hill repeats. I kind of like the idea of some lighter stuff thursdays and Fridays. Might do some weeks with 5k mile repeats/half marathon pace 2 mile repeats and some weeks like this depending on how I'm feeling.

All I had time for.

Easy with Henry and Jake, good time indeed.

20 minute sauna. Ready for another big one tomorrow.

Pm- 1 mile trying out the 1080 x v14. I like them so far but need to be careful and make sure I massage out my calves and wear compression socks with them while I get used to the slightly reduced heel to toe drop compared to what I'm used to. I think I'll do the first half of tomorrow's run in these and the 2nd half in the endorphins

Need to bring more fuel next time.

Warmed up 2-3 miles and then did 11-12 focusing on heart rate- staying around 155-165. Ran up and down Weber drive twice for this route. Averaged 6:10 on the downhills and 7:10 on the uphills.

Then 4 miles at marathon pace: 5:32, 5:29, 5:38, 5:45. Mostly downhill on the tempo which is why average was 5:36.

Only ate a banana before and a banana at 10.7 miles so I really need to work on feeling because I was suffering by the end today. Tomorrow is an easy week so my long run 2 weeks from now I need to bring energy gels.

Ended with 20 minute sauna.

Some pros from today:

-Climbed more in this 20 miler (1250) than in all of SLC marathon (900ish)

-Good fast marathon pace miles from 14-18

-Made it through my first 20 mile run

Things to work on:

-Heart rate was too high for marathon pace miles climbing from 167 on the first mile to 179 on thr last one. Ideally that would have stayed in the low 170s.

-Fueling, which may have contributed to having to work harder during marathon pace miles.

In the middle:

-Kinda needed to poop for like the last 12 miles of this run but it never became an emergency... not ideal though. Would have stopped to poop but they took away the only porta potty on this road.

Had time for a shorter run than I'd planned before going to Wyatt's mission call opening. He's going to Maryland, where I lived growing up from grades 5-9.

Probably good today was shorter, tomorrow will be a really good opportunity to rip a fast hard workout and my legs should be feeling fresh.

Way too aggressive in my plan for today during my 4th week of hard training and consistent mileage building. Should have stuck with my plan of 2x4 at marathon pace. Instead I decided to go for 3x5k at half marathon pace because I wanted to get my legs used to running faster.

This was not the way, nor was it the day.

I should have switched to 4 x 2 mile repeats on the track to train my legs at the faster pace. It was also rainy today which is my running kryptonite.

My 5k pace averages were 5:29 (5:28, 5:26, 5:34) 5:44 (5:30, 5:48, 5:55), 5:45 (5:48, 5:46, 5:42). So 5:39 for the 9 miles of reps altogether.

I realized my legs were super flat during the first rep, felt like I was constantly in kick mode trying to stay faster than marathon pace. Marathon pace felt comfortable and 5:30 pace didn't hurt- it was just really hard to keep pushing that pace.

Rep 2 was even harder and I figured 9 miles at half marathon pace was just not in the cards today and tried to hold on for marathon pace the rest of the workout. Overcorrected a bit and was also just bummed I had to adjust the workout. Rep 3 I adjusted my mindset and pulled through- although it was weird because the uphill were way easier to go sub 6 pace than the downhills. Downhills I kept slowing to 5:55-6:00 pace and uphills I'd feel good surging to 5:35.

I think my legs are just shot and I've put off my down week too long. Easy tomorrow and then something fast at mile-5k pace but not too strenuous Friday to work on that turnover.

25 minute sauna afterwards

Easy today with a couple miles on the grass.

Easy with 6 30-60 second slightly uphill pushes. 2-3 miles on grass.

25 min sauna

Easy with Kolten Henry for the first half and Jake for the last 8 miles. Very solid week of mileage. Ready for an easy week. Think I'll go

Sunday- easy 10-13

Monday- 6x800m at 5k pace

Tuesday- rest

Wednesday- 4-6 easy

Thursday- 6-8 with 4 mp

Friday- 4-6 easy

Saturday- Easy 8

With a goal of limiting to 40-45 miles next week. Might also experiment doing a two a day Thursday and extra day off off Friday.

25 minute sauna

Decided to do my long run tomorrow because it got dark before I could get out to run and I didn't want to be stuck on the pavement. Not that I was today, I did most of today's run on the fields behind Orion. But tomorrow I'm looking forward to some trails and trying to stave off the temptation of segment hunting. I think I'll have tomorrow be 10-12 miles and just go however fast I want to go and then I'll do 1 other workout like 6x800m or 4 mile mp on Thursday.

Gully run. I love running there so much, I've gotta make these runs happen more often than a couple times per year.

I did the gully long run with an uphill pickup and a couple steady miles and then 4 miles in the lower gully.

I got the segment record on shut up hill which was really fun, .34 miles 8.1% grade in 1:53 (5:30 pace). GAP is 3:57 so according to that this was about the equivalent of a sub 2:00 800m. Idk about that but I'll take the optimism.

Easy run in the snow. Would have done another couple miles if I had time also would have liked to sauna. Nice to have the storm hit during recovery week.

Cold and easy.

25 min sauna

Ran up to Weber drive and back. Felt good today, although there's still a little bit of lingering leg fatigue. Probably just nature of marathon training that legs take a little longer to adapt to high volume of quality miles.

25 min sauna

Easy with Wyatt and Henry. Went a little longer than planned but felt nice and ready to get back to work.

Frustrating today. Started my run too late and ended up in the dark on busy roads for the marathon pace miles and kind of tanked them.

Ran in pleasent view and parked my car with Gus and water at shady lane park. I took gu at 40 and 80 minutes and I wish I had taken some around mile 17 as well because I was feeling on top of the world at mile 16 and drained at mile 19. Good news is that I like gu a lot and if anything I think it prevented GI issues.

After a mile warm up I did a mile steady, then 2 mile uphill at marathon pace, then 10 more steady, then 5 that were supposed to be marathon pace but kinda dropped between that and steady. It's harder to run fast and stay on pace when it's dark, especially with all the cars driving by so my eyes never adjusted. Oh well. I was going to do 6 and ended up doing 5 in 5:40, 5:37, 5:54, 6:09, 6:10. I'd be concerned about my fitness except my heart rate never rose above mid 160s for that entire 5 mile mp effort. I think I was just drained and the poor visibility was screwing with me.

Turned the last mile into a cool down and then cooled down another mile at home.

20 min sauna.

Next week I'm going to do a workout I saw cam levins do recently. 10x2k with 1k recovery at steady pace. I'll do 5:40-5:45 on the ons and 6:20-6:30 on the offs, maybe a little faster on tbr last two reps if I'm feeling good. I think that will have be a huge confidence builder if I can do that. I'm also going to stop going to pleasant view for these and just use my neighborhood.

20 minute sauna. Legs feeling pretty good today. Sauna plus leg recovery system massage post run is a great combo.

Easy in the rain. Actually didn't mind the rain today.

Not well planned or executed, but confidence building. To be fair the goal today was just to get a feel for pace and what I could handle on flat selections of Ogden half marathon.

Ran 3x2 miles at goal half marathon pace. Went out top hot and had to reel it back in. Fortunately I'd planned to give myself like 4-5 mins rest between reps and that turned into a mile easy. Goal today was just to get the legs moving faster and see what sub 70 half pace would feel like.

Splits were

5:10, 5:22

5:24, 5:23

5:22, 5:19

Low 5:20s on the roads felt pretty sustainable. Definitely had to throw in some surges now and then to keep the pace from dropping to where I'm more comfortable around 5:40, but I wasn't suffering on the last 2 reps. I think my actual half marathon pace rn is probably closer to 5:30, hopefully a little under that. But with Ogdens course being net 600 foot drop I think sub 70 is possible in May.

My main takeaway from today is that 5:24 pace on a flat hm course would be doable with a little work.

Salt lake Marathon declined my elite application which is fair considering I've never run a marathon and I ran a 77 in my only road half. But between that and some friends signing up for the Ogden half recently I'm tempted to go back to my original plan of sub 70 at ogden half and then sub 2:30 at Des news marathon. I think I might make my goal at Des news a little more aggressive, like 2:27.

I also feel my salt lake training plan has been a little rushed. I'm trying to squeeze in a lot of high intensity and high volume into a short window and between taper and recovery running SLC would take out like 5-6 weeks of quality training.. . Would be frustrating if I end up missing my goal and lowering my potential for Des news. It would probably be smarter to give myself time for plenty of good quality targeted weeks... but I also think I really could hold 5:40s pace for a marathon and it's only 2 months away And there's no guarantee I'm in this shape again next year... Hard to decide but I'm leaning towards skipping salt lake.

Low on time today. Legs felt tired and sore.

Easy with Kolten and Jake. Felt good today, legs are sore but not feeling bad.

I think I'm going to adjust my training plan to long runs of 16-20 miles with a 20+ mile day once or twice per month instead of trying to hit 4-5 22-24 mile runs before I would start tapering in April. I think skipping salt lake and going for Des news gives me the best chance at healthy successful year of running.

Easy with Jake. I have decided to let my legs get back to 100% before doing any long runs or speed work beyond strides. My legs even felt sore or at least never felt 100% even at the end of my recovery week, and with targeting a marathon 5 months out, a half marathon in May and a trail race 4 weeks from now there's no reason to be pushing the edge of over training. Legs felt good today, I think they'll be 100% by Tuesday/Wednesday. I've been wanting to do a fast mile repeats workout on for a long time now.

25 min sauna with a minute break after the first 15. Felt hot today.

Ran on canal road, with Jake for the first 5. Just went by feel after he was done. Glad I'm not doing 10x2k today. Legs were feeling achy.

Sauna. Planning on rest days and hard or long days for Suana.

Overall enjoyable run but my legs are still feeling a little tired and sore. Might just do some strides tomorrow if they're not 100%, I'm committed to getting them to feeling no soreness/fatigue before going back to hard workouts. Been working on hip mobility and glut/hamstring drills lately.

Easy run with 1 minute push. Legs generally feel good and ready to go but my calves are still tight and sore. I'm hoping Friday they'll feel 100% and I'll do 6x800m.

Extra recovery day. No core or anything that could get any muscles sore. I decided the best option is to take an extra day off, bathe legs, Suana, yoga, recovery drink. My legs are very close to 100% and just have some really stubborn tightness and sensitivity, if this doesn't get me to 100% then I'm just going to call it good enough and go for 6x800m at 5k pace tomorrow regardless.

I think it's really important to be conservative and stay on the safe side of overreaching but I am ready to do something fast.

Perfect sauna weather today.

Was going to do 6x1000m at hm pace with 400m jog recovery. Lacrosse team showed up right after my warm up. Someone waved me over going into the last lap of the 2nd and I guess I subconsciously through in a surge because I was right on pace at 600 (1:59) and then I ran a 73 last lap to finish in 3:12. Very confidence building, those 1000ms were feeling really easy.

Turned out it was Eric that waved at me but I didn't recognize him because he was wearing a hood. Turned out he'd brought his son and daughter there for a track workout. I adjusted my workout and ran 3x600m with Phillip in 2:06, 2:14, 2:13. Cooled down about a mile. Was very windy today but I felt great, nice to just get a little faster stuff on the track done. Next week I'll do a 5k pace workout and a tempo.

20 minute sauna.

Easy with Jake Kolten and Henry. I think this was the perfect week for where I'm at and allowing my body to catch up with recovery. Planning on 13-16 easy tomorrow and then getting back into actual workouts again next week.

12 miles with Jake on the canal road, was going to do a few more after but GI issues tanked me. Might do another 4 miler later tonight.

20 min sauna

A few hours of yard work in the pm.

Hour or two of yardwork and easy run with 2 strides. Rocks are harder to shovel than dirt. Might skip a day off this week since I took two day last week, on the other hand I've got a lot of yardwork this week so we'll see how it goes.

Felt great on the run, best I've felt since before I started doing 20 milers. I'll do a fartlek workout with Jake on Wednesday and then either 6xk or 4xmile on Friday.

Am- Easy with Jake.

Pm- a couple hours of yard work followed by 2 easy miles and 25 min sauna. Feeling good. I'll do a real workout tomorrow but I have to decided what that will be. Ideally I'd do a fast workout on the track but between that taking longer to do and not wanting to run during lacrosse practice I'll probably do some sort of hm pace workout. Maybe 5k repeats starting at marathon pace and progressing to hm pace, maybe 2 mile repeats. We shall see.

Warmed up a couple miles and then did about 6.5 tempo and then cooled down. 20 minute sauna afterwards. Felt really good the first mile and opened in 5:43 uphill, I slowed down down to 5:50s because heart rate was high, felt kinda rough by the end.

Canal run, left calf is a little tight.

Antelope Island is super pretty, my calf is super wrecked. Might have to take a couple days off or at minimum very easy and flat. I think I could run really fast if my body gets out of this funk.

Easy 3 miles and 20 min sauna. Calf was a little tight/sensitive since but coming back pretty good.

On the track with Jake, calf felt pretty good today. Just a bit tingly/sore. We also did about 400m of lunges and some squats. 25 min sauna after broken up with a 5 minute ice session.

I skipped yesterdays run because I tripped over some toys and caught myself hard on my injured leg. Went from about 95% healed to about how it felt Monday... today felt a little better than Tuesday but not as good as yesterday before the set back... If I can avoid aggravating it like that again I think I'll be 100% by next week. Probably fine for me to take half a week off anyways- just need to sharpen a little bit before the race.

Felt really good for 2.5 miles and then my calf started complaining. I ended up walking home and icing it. Feels more tight than weak today.

Easy with Jake Kolten and Henry. Calf felt pretty good, we kept it slow so that helped. But it even kept up on the uphills just fine.

Canal road with Jake. Easy 6.5 miles or so and then a 2 mile tempo at 5:50- I slowed down to easy pace on the hills and then caught back up after them to be a little careful on my soleus.

According to garmin my vo2 max has dropped 5 points in the past week, I'm pretty sure because I've adjusted my form for most of my running this week to avoid stressing the soleus. Really need to break that habit and get my old form back and then I think I'll be just about 100%. My calf was feeling weak and just a hint of sore/achy after the 2 mile tempo so I kept it really easy on the way back to the car.

Overall huge success.

In other news the biting gnats at antelope island might be hatching early this year and if they do my race this weekend will be cancelled so that would suck.

Easy miles with Jake, I ended with a little over a mile at 6:15 pace. Felt great, heart rate peaked at 150. Today was mostly about getting my form back to normal, and my calf had no problems. I think everything is sorted out and I'm ready to do some fast running after a rest day tomorrow.

Track with Kolten Henry and Jake, lots of fun despite being a little sick and calf not f great.

Plan was 6xmile with 2 min recovery and I got through half before my calf was complaining too much, hopefully I didn't overdue it. Calf is pretty sore now, got worse during cool down and after I stopped running.

Splits were 5:16, 5:18, 5:19. Outside of my calf and a bit my lungs I felt great, definitely could have finished this workout if my calf was healthy and maybe even averaging like 5:15 pace. I think sub 33 at salt lake 10k is very doable.

Easy on canal road during the sunset followed by 20 minute sauna.

Still feeling sick but calf felt totally fine today.

The race this weekend got cancelled because the biting gnats have hatched at antelope island... probably for the best not to push my calf that hard yet anyways.

Easy with 2 strides, the 2nd stride was more like a quarter mile push. Still a little sick and also didn't get out until 9 so I felt drained today- calf was complaining just a little so I decided to cut it short. It felt fine on the strides.

It's weird that I think a 9pm run is too late nowadays, having a kid really changes your life. I'm also a lot faster as a dad than I was as a childless adult.

Easy with Jake and Henry. Barely felt my calf today but glad I wasn't risking a 16 mile trail race, and I definitely would have succumbed to the temptation of racing it if it hadn't been cancelled. I do feel like it's been way too long since I've raced and I think finally being at 100% is just around the corner. I should probably just focus on getting a few good weeks at 55-60 mpw without pushing too hard and keep focused on SL10k and crossover/Ogden but I also really want to get racing and I don't really want to have to wait another 4 weeks. Maybe the answer is to try to finish a suu progression run next weekend on the track.

5 87 laps, 6 85 laps, 4 80 laps, 79, 78, 77, 76, all out mile. I know I can make it to the mile cutting down from 79-76 but I should also be able to do that mile and then stay around 5:20 if I'm going to be running sub 70 at Ogden half.

Afternoon

Mile home from dropping off my car

Mile back to the shop to pick it up

Big o did my maintenance inspection for free so that was nice.

8 miles on canal road and then 3 miles at half marathon pace with Jake. Mile cool down.

Hmp splits were 5:13, 5:18, 5:29. First two miles were about 150 ft downhill each and the last mile was rolling hills. I felt 0 discomfort outside of a little bit my calf until half way through and then my calf started increasingly complaining from them on. The 2nd half didn't feel great mostly because of the calf and then we walk jogged the cool down because my calf was pretty depleted.

It's not as bad as Wednesday though and it's clearly just sore/depleted and not a set back. Just iced it and I think I'll be fine to go tomorrow for an easy day before day off Tuesday. I'm getting close to 100% back.

I think for Ogden if raced in current fitness I could do downhill miles at 5:10 or so and the flat miles about 5:25. So it would be tight but that would put me at 69 mid.

Felt pretty good today, but calf wasn't feeling as good as I'd hoped. It wasn't really hurting but felt sensitive. Might skip tomorrows workout, really want to get it fully healthy and it's been at like 98% for like over a week now.

Am- Muddy canal with Jake Kolten and Henry. Warmed up a few miles and then ran a 5 on 2 off fartlek workout until my calf started hurting. I got through 4 reps and then decided to call it because my calf was starting to complain a bit. I think I stopped at the perfect time, no limp and calf doesn't really even feel aggravated post run.

Pm- 4 miles with 6 20-30 second strides. Just trying to get my form feeling normal again, feels like I'm striking the ground with stilts or chopsticks.

25 minute sauna

Felt pretty good. 4 20-30 second strides, calf felt just a bit sore during the last one where I sped up pretty close to a sprint so I stopped there.

Hopefully last cold morning run of the year. Ran 5 miles and then did 3 miles in 18 minutes. Didn't feel great on the tempo, calf was a little irritated. To be honest for 28 miles with a fair amount of quality over the last 3 days it's doing pretty well. I won't do anything fast tomorrow and probably only run 8 miles and then Sunday will be a big test trying to do 15 miles with another 3 mile tempo. Quite the nagging injury.

Easy with Henry Kolten Jake and Joe. We did a 3 mile pickup at Kolten and joes half marathon pace towards the end at about 6:40/mile. Felt pretty good today.

9 miles and then 3 mile tempo at 5:25. Really smooth today, calf complained just a little at the end but the pace felt good. Ogdens going to be a really interesting test, I'm probably in about 70-71 shape but I'm the endorphin pros I think there's a chance I could get under 70.

Felt great today but started my run a little late and decided to cut it a bit short, big workout in the morning.

Warmed up 2 miles and then did 2x3 miles at goal half marathon pace. First was 16:19 (5:22, 5:27, 5:30) and second was 16:40 (5:31, 5:36, ,5:33).

Calf started hurting by the last mile of the first rep, not sure how much it effected my ability to hold goal pace. The 2nd rep my calf was at a pretty steady sore but not that bad level but I had to work on not limping, so it probably was causing some inefficiency. Definitely wasn't all out today, but calf was limiting my ability to throw in surges throughout the 2 reps so it felt more like steadily grinding slower as the reps wore on and I couldn't adjust faster as well as normal. Been a frustrating injury and makes it hard to know exactly where I'm at vs how much is the calf limiting me.

5:33 pace felt pretty good for the last rep even with my calf complaining. I think that's my floor for Ogden is 72 range, I think sub 70 is unlikely to happen so I should go ahead and enjoy the crossover half the week before as a workout but not all out race and then just go for sub 72.

4 weeks of dealing with my calf strain now, but there's been a clear trajectory in the right direction. 6 miles averaging 5:29 is not bad. I think I'll also adjust my salt lake 10k goal down slightly. Probably start at 5:25 pace and speed up if feeling good.

Pm- Mile and 20 minute sauna

Got out late for the 2nd time this week. Felt great today, I need to get back to doing more stroller runs- I think averaging over 60 miles per week is sustainable going forward as long as I limit myself to a reasonable volume of hard effort miles.

Morning- 1.2 miles dropping the car off

Afternoon- 3.9 miles to the park and then picking up the car

Ended up being busy and missing my run tonight so glad I got something in for the day. Every single solo day I had this week I was under mileage so that's rough, at least I'll still hit 50 total.

Also had an interior back knee tendon start bothering me today, AI said it's probably my semimembranosus. It doesn't hurt while running at all, but it does when I lean forward really far while only standing on my right leg. Which I hadn't noticed doing before, but apparently I do that a ton. I am mildly concerned it will bug me more at faster paces because my stride is super hamstring heavy. Hopefully it just disappears before I find out.

Whitney ran her first race at the Weber State Spring Classic today. There were a ton of kids and she fearlessly charged the full 100m without stopping. Her race review was very positive, she noted that she didn't run as fast as she could have because she was busy smiling. She got a medal at the end, not sure I've ever seen her more excited. She wants to do more races so I'll have to keep my eyes out for more of these, excited to introduce her to soccer in the fall as well.

Easy with Jake Kolten and Kyler in South Ogden. Pretty route!

Then went to baby animal days in Logan. It's beautiful up there and we had a great time. Watched a lady punch a horse in the kidneys to get keep it in line in the pony mill mill thing, not sure tbe animals enjoyed the event as much as the people did.

Long run with Jake, 3 mile tempo from 11-13. Watched Jackson Spencers 8:31 3200m at Arcadia before we ran, that kid is insane. I also dropped my hat off at the car after 6 miles of overcast and then the sun came out and burned me.

Tempo went pretty well, averaged 5:25 (5:23, 5:32, 5:20) in my new balance 1080 v12s, which are definitely harder to do tempos in than the endorphin speeds- which are several seconds per mile slower than the pros. The last mile in 5:20 felt better than the 5:32, really kinda felt better as the tempo went on. Definitely could have done another 2 miles at that pace. I think sub 5:20 on the downhill miles at Ogden is realistic, I'm just not sure I can keep the flat miles close enough to 5:20 to get under 70. Calf didn't start complaining today until the cool down.

22 minute sauna afterwards. Feel like I could go do another 8-10 miles. Taking a gu and drinking some water water mid run is life changing.

Met up with Jake at the dirt loop. Felt good today, getting close to 100% for the first time since like early February. Perfect timing with my first race next week.