Blake Bennions running

I was more sick today than yesterday, but I ended up going on a run to see if it would make anything better. The first mile or two were pretty awful, my lungs were dead. But by the last mile I was feeling really good, and now my lungs are feeling stronger than they have since the sickness began. I think I just needed to get my body working. I'm still coughing quite a bit, but tomorrow I think I will go for a gully run, maybe Wasatch pepperwood. I love the gully, I wish it was bigger!

My throat is still sore, but my lungs are feeling stronger. I ran the gully longer run, I didn't feel great but I feel a lot better afterwards. Hopefully I will be able to run sub 2:00 this week.

Woke up with a sore throat and a bad bloody nose, but it went away after a while, my throat still is having problems, so with the workout today my throat started getting in the way of my breathing and so mt lungs weren't getting enough oxygen, but when I tried coughing the mucous out of my throat, I lost even more oxygen and had to keep breathing through the mucous, so as a result, the more I tried to clear it up, the worse it got. I ran 6 400s of the 8-10 I was supposed to do and then didn't finish the 7th. I nailed my splits up to the 6th one, 70, 68, 66, 65, 65, they were starting to get unusually hard, I'd been feeling quite a bit worse than usual since the start but at that point it was feeling really bad, on the 6th I really started having some problems, I ran the lap perfect until I slowed before the line so it ended up being 67 or 68 even though I'd been on 66 or 65 pace the whole lap. I had started having a lot of trouble on the last couple and I just wasn't getting oxygen during the reps or recovery, I felt like I was going to suffocate after every rep, but I pushed through up until the 7th rep, I started it out but after only 150 meters I was out, no oxygen, so I went off the the side and hacked up for a while before walking back to the start. After resting 5 minutes or so I joined Zach and chase for the last 5 minutes of their 20 minute run, it wasn't super easy but wasn't that hard either, I was still having trouble breathing, and my calves were starting to cramp up because there wasn't enough oxygen, but I got through it and then ran a few hundred meters to my car. I'm proud of my effort though, I didn't finish, but for being sick I pushed through well and gave the limit that my body could give today. I think I overestimated my health, but I am feeling a lot better than I was earlier, hopefully by Friday I will be back to full health for an 800m.

Also Coach Murphy told me about the Leadville Marathon yesterday, I am so excited!!! Its such an awesome race, and its such an extreme marathon, the elevation and elevation gain make it a highly difficult trail race, its like Jupiter Peak Steeplechase but bigger! So I'm really excited about getting to run that, looking at past results I know its an ambitious goal but I want to break 4 hours, and hopefully be up near the leaders! I'm in better shape than I was last August, and although I've never run that long, I'm going to try and get as close to winning it as I can! I'm grateful that Murphy introduced me to mountain running, its a lot of fun and its one of the things I'm better at in running!

4 miles with Pulpy, and chase mikey and austin for the first 20 minutes. It rained quite a bit during the first half mile so I felt wet and uncomfortable the rest of the run. Pretty congested today, maybe I will do 20 more minutes was tonight if my nose starts clearing up.

Easy 30 minute run and 4 striders, also some core. Hopefully I'm all better tomorrow, I really want that sub 2:00 800m. I need to be a able to breathe though haha. Played in the Alta ping pong tournament, won the first round and then I lost to the guy who won the whole thing in the 2nd round, same as last time!

Made an attempt at sub 2:00 today, but was too sick. I decided to run it anyway because I've been doing premeet for a while and haven't raced in 2 weeks and I wanted to stay sharp. Pulpy, Austin, cubby, and Mikey paced me, each paced me for a 200m. I started feeling really bad at the 2nd lap, I ran a great 58 for the first lap, but the second lap I started having trouble with my lungs, each breathe kind of rattled my lungs, kind of like wheezing, breathing through mucous. I kept going hard, I didn't think I was on pace but I kept pushing, on the home stretch I thought I heard someone yell 1:55 with about over 50 meters left and I kind of thought I was done, I still strided in strong, but when I realized how close I was it was just a little too late and I didn't get it. After I finished, breathing started hurting, normal breaths hurt just a little, but when I breathed in deep it hurt quite a bit. So for being this far off of 100% and running my PR, I am going to rip that sub 2:00 barrier apart next week once im healthy, I know I can get 1:58, maybe 1:57. So im excited about that. I was planning on running once I got up to the cabin... But from the way it looks, not tonight. I will run tomorrow, and try to go home tomorrow night instead of Sunday morning. I think the only thing here that I dont feel horrible about eating are bananas, I think pizza is the next healthiest thing haha. I guess I will find a trail to run tomorrow, im going to try for 10-14 miles tomorrow. Then Sunday will either be full rest or a few easy miles, and then I want to race the 800m on Tuesday again, but I need to talk to Coach Murphy and see when I should race, how much rest I should give myself.

80 minute run in the mountains. I need to do more mileage for Leadville, I should be able to do a 2 hour run of 16 miles comfortably. Haven't run that long in a while, mile and marathon training are quite different! Good run today, this will be a tough race!