Blake Bennions running

Finally found out why I'm having such a hard time sleeping the past few weeks. I have restless leg syndrome. I thought it sounded kind of silly, but basically my left calf feels very uncomfortable unless I'm moving it, specifically stretching it. Its been bothering me for a long time but I thought it happened to everyone. Especially recently, it has been taking me hours to fall asleep and then I wake up often during the night and usually give up sleeping earlier than I should. I looked on some websites about it and it turns out I probably am not experiencing deep sleep because of it, or stages 3 and 4 of sleep. I learned in AP psych that that's where most physical recovery takes place, so that sucks.

I also learned that it might be caused by and iron deficiency, which makes sense because I've increased my mileage a lot lately, so my body might be low on some stuff, iron in particular. So I should take care of this soon, because sleep is starting to really suck! Which kind of makes things suck in general a little! Right now I'm just eating some chocolate because it has iron in it.

Gully long run with the guys, I ran with cubby, read, mikey, 2 new freshmen and a new sophomore. We stopped at the water thing, and then circled around at the top of the hill while waiting for them. So it took a little longer, but Alta has some good incoming runners! The future is bright for the team! I wish I had another cross country season here, running with these guys is getting me excited about the season they're going into! And the future of Alta xc, there are quite a few freshman that have a lot of potential and it seems like they'll stick with running! I think when I get back from my mission, Alta could have a state champion team, fighting for a NXN spot! I think the last race I will do will be the sandy classic, unless there's a faster course for 4th of July 5k. Im going to enjoy the last two weeks of running before I go on my mission. Im going to miss it here!

I got to practice and finished Reads flying 40s with him, I got a mile with that, and then I did the workout with the team. We did 8 flying 40s, 1 every 2 laps plus some extra laps at the beginning and end to get 5 miles. It felt good, I'm still a little sore in the hamstrings and arms, but my back, gluts, hip flexors, and calves are feeling good now. Tomorrow will be a nice 8 miles in at porter Rockwell with a good fast 2 mile tempo, I haven't done any tempo in a while so I'm excited. And then thursday I will try to wake up at 6:00 and go up to Alta to gets 12-14 mile run in with Coach Murphy. After that I'm off yo Chicago for the weekend to visit my brother, lots of trips the past few weeks! I'm going on my mission in only 15 days! That will be exciting though, I will be able to run a lot in the MTC I think, after that I will have to convince my companions to spend our morning exercise time running.

We ran half a mile to warm up, then did drills. After that we ran 8 miles out and back on the porter Rockwell trail, we ran 2 tempo miles on the way back. The 2 miles didn't feel fast, my hamstrings were still kind of destroyed. My arms aren't sore anymore, now its just my hamstrings that are hurting, and mostly only when its faster running. I ran 11:45 which wasn't great, but it wasn't all out, just a hard effort so it was ok. Then I finished the run with 2 easier miles with Cubby. Our overall pace was about 7:15 which was alright, it was a fun practice! Only 2 weeks until I leave on my mission!

Long day, good run. I ran up at Alta with Murphy, we ran to the top and did 8 campground loops and 2 out and backs on the street. On the way back I started getting that feeling you get after a long long run, but I still had a couple miles to go, so I had to make a couple bathroom stops. It was a good run though. After that I had a doctors appointment where I lear ed that apparently I'm highly allergic to like 20 things that I'm regularly exposed to and feel fine around, so not sure if I trust that skin test anymore haha. Then at the airport I was selected for being pet down by a fat guy which was pretty weird. I will probably take the next two days in Chicago easy, probably 8 miles at most, they're packed days.

Well today's looking unlikely for a real run, been super busy and will be until 10 tonight. Also its raining really hard. Chicago is way cool! My hotel has an open lobby that goes up super high and when I walk out of my room, I can look down over 100 feet to the lobby, it reminds me of pacific rim except its looks really cool. I ran about a half mile fallowing a segway herd, I wanted to see how fast they were and I was taking pictures too, they weren't going that fast, less than 10 miles per hour. Segways are kind of like wheelchairs for people that aren't handicapped I've also walked a lot today around Chicago and the field museum, which has a t-rex amongst many other things, so that was cool.

At the art institute, I think I will be able to run tonight, but its the heart of Chicago so probably not a super long run, so im hoping like 5-8 miles. The art museum is kind of cool and kind of not ok at all. I'm fairly certain I walked into a pedophile exhibition which was really weird like why would anyone want to see completely naked children, and it wasn't old, it was from this century... So I got out of there fast and ended up in the modern art exhibit, which wasn't that much better, there was a VERY weird painting, I mean I think paintings usually have way too much nudity, but this was like over the top not ok to be in a room that doesn't have a giant warning saying "Hey, this room contains paintings inappropriate for literally anyone to view" k maybe that's a little exaggerated, but it was really weird. There was also a sculpture of a male triceratops-bat who may or may not have seen a female triceratops-bat. So yeah, that's art for ya. I think that some art is really cool and impressive, but some of art is just weird crap.

Well at least I've done a lot of walking the past 2 days. I ran 1.5 miles or so back from my brothers apartment to the hotel. I got back even later than last night, I got home after 10, Chicago isn't the greatest place to run either, I kept having to stop to cross the road. Oh well, this will count as my summer break from running, my ankle is hurting on the upper right side, hopefully tendonitis.