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.