Blake Bennions running

Day off completely, I believe this year is going to be ok no matter what happens, I just need to get my grad school checklist in order, nail the gre, and look for good opportunities at school. Tomorrow will be a nice long run and good solid weight lifting day, nothing crazy.

3 sets of pull a ways, 3 sets of pull backs, 1 set weighted rows, 3 sets obliques and abs, 1 set dumbell rows @65. 1x10 dumbell bench press wit 2 55s,then 2x10/9@185, my hands/wrists felt it a little on the last two of the 2nd set so I just finished. Want to be extra careful this week. Then finished with a set of 15@155. 2x10@40 hammer curls in between bench sets, don't dare do other forms of curls with my wrists right now. 3x10@60 dumbell rows in between each bench. Then I did overhead press@35(2), and various shoulder lifts with 20 pound dumbells.

Ran the first 2 miles with my brother and did some monkey bars and handles. Then I ran 6 more miles and did another obstacle thing and bear crawls, rolls. Then finished home. There a few obstacles I haven't really been able to prepare for in the Spartan race but I Wil have to trust my fitness and just go after them. Getting kind of nervous, first race I've felt like this about since high school! Abs and back workout.

Ran up at lake Blanche today, ran for about 50-55 minutes. I twisted my ankle near the top and was worried it had sprained, I felt/heard a pop and it hurt to run and felt weird. I pulled over in a shady area and examined it, wrote the alphabet with it, it seemed alright after that. But I decided I needed to be more careful the week of the race, still a good final mountain run before Spartan. And I always have a weird but insignificant injury leading up to a really good race, like when I ran into the rail outside the gym going for a cool down the day before my massive pr at byu my junior year. It's a good omen if anything. Tomorrow will be a fast but short day, nothing too intense, likely just a couple fast miles during a 4/5 mile run. I will also do a decent strength workout, easier than usual but enough to get a good workout. Then Thursday will be 3 miles easy, maybe some pick ups, and some light strength. Then Friday I will do another easy 3, the only strength training I will do will be at the open house for the course if I go.

Will fill in previous days later. Today I ran 3 miles in 20 mins on treadmill and checked out the course. I really tore up my hands sliding down the rope climb, so I've been tending to that. Nothing I can do now but put some mole skin on tomorrow morning under my gloves and go at this race with reinvigorated intensity.

Started off really strong, I made a move into the lead 20 seconds into the race and held onto it for a few minutes, I held onto it up the hill after the first obstacle, then we took a dive into the barbed wire crawl. They had artificially created a muddy area to crawl through by spraying water all over, I let one of the pros ahead of me so I could follow his lead and take a better route. That was a mistake, people began passing and I had a knee thrust into my side and someone swiped out my arm and I ended up with a face and mouth full of mud. I exited the barbed wire in about 20th/25th and started picking people off again but the trail suddenly got really narrow making it very difficult to get ahead of anyone, I made small progress here and there but it was taking me a long time to get back up to the lead pack. My gloves got ruined in the muddy crawl and my rope burns opened back up pretty early on in the race, wasn't gonna let that hold me back though. Unfortunately in mile 5 just as the trail started opening up again I sprained my ankle, it twisted and popped and I felt a tear as i went down. My race was over, nothing I could do now. As the pain began to subside I lay there watching the field pass my by, knowing there was no way I was going to run anymore that day. It was a frustrating moment, all the summers training had built up to this. I was going to fail, not only not take top 10 but not finish the race.

I remembered why I was doing Spartan in the first place,I got up as soon as my ankle calmed down enough for me to feel what was going on with it, I couldn't move it around much but it supported my weight alright. I decided to make my way through however much of the last 3 or 4 miles of the course as I could. As many of the remaining obstacles couldn't be done with a sprained ankle, I had to do over 200 burpees. It was really frustrating and annoying, my hands and leg were in really bad shape and the rest of my body was cut up everywhere. It took a long time to get through the last few miles of that course on a sprained ankle but eventually it happened. It wasn't what I was hoping for, but it was an exceptionally difficult race with some very crappy and unexpected difficulties, and I got through it. I can't control everything that happens in a race, but I can control my attitude and the effort I give. Today might not have been as fast a race as my body is capable of when healthy, but I did my best and when the goal switched from qualify for worlds to finish, I accomplished that goal. And in the end pushing through all that physical torment was a rewarding experience, I didn't have to look back on the race with regret and disappointment afterwards, I can say I'm proud of my effort and proud of not quitting when it may have been far easier to have done so.