Blake Bennions running

7 miles of the longer gully run plus a quarter mile waiting at the top of shut up hill. We took shut up hill a little hard, I wasn't really hurting but a lot of people really dropped off. Chase came to practice for the first time today. Davis said Coach Murphy told him we are doing 400s tomorrow, I guess 6. I will ask about it. I have cones so I can set up the course. 3 miles later.

Later- I had decided against doing another run but I ended up running 1.25 to the library and back, I took a shortcut.

We warmed up 3 miles on the region course and then did 8x400m at a fast pace, 400m walk/jog between each rep back to the start. We did 4 up and then 4 down, I made sure the ones going down hurt just as much as the ones going up. It was a good workout, also fun. I think it's a responsibility of mine to run fast, because if I run faster, everyone else will too. That will motivate me in races. I put in a mile from the jogging in between the 400m reps and then I did a two mile cool down to finish. I might do a 4 mile fun tonight, or maybe a bike.

One mile warm up followed by the Alta long run with 8 laps at the campground. Ashton kept up with me the whole time and we picked up Read for the last 4 laps and back to the parking lot. It was a very nice run, about 50 degrees and kind of foggy and it cleared up a bit later. Davis was too sick to run today but he still came and helped carpool. On the way down Ashton, Read and I talked about becoming a better team and increasing our chemistry and closeness. We need to become a team family and run for the team. We will work towards that, I believe that could be the difference between 5th and 3rd place at state this year. And i dont know if theres a point in going to Nike SW unless we take 3rd at state. The Jupiter Peak Steeplechase on Saturday is making me nervous, I've never even run 16 miles so racing it is going to be really intense. I know it will help me improve significantly, I'm excited! I think my plan might be to stick with the leaders until I drop off, I looked at the results and the fastest time last year was at 6:57 pace. So I think Coach Murphy is pretty likely to win. I might do a longer run instead of premeet on Friday, I don't know. 

Flying 40s on the track. Davis and Ashton didn't want to do them for some reason so they took some of the team and did there own thing. This team chemistry thing is going to be very hard and most likely fail. The way I feel about things is that whoevers fastest should be the captain, that's how every team I've been on has done things. That's what makes sense to me. If someone beats me at Highland on our team, they can be the captain. But if Kramer was here, or Andrew Brewer, or someone like that, they would be the undisputed leader. I'm not as fast as those guys but I think if I earn the spot, it should be mine. If I don't, I have no conflict with that. And so far this summer I have won every race/time trial and dominated every workout. Well I will do my best for this team, and I will do my best in every race and I will work with those willing to work with me and highly regard their opinions. And if some refuse to respect me or value my opinions, I'm  sorry they choose to be that way. I might be being selfish or dramatic about this but I feel like its pretty straightforward and some people are just trying to bend it for their own selfish reasons. Whether I'm captain or not, I feel like some people on this team will never listen to or respect me, or at least one. I am very happy that Coach Murphy is coming back.

Later I did 3 easy miles. Tomorrow will be a 5 mile day and then Saturday will be about 18-20 with warm up and cooldown so I will be at 60 for the week.

5 miles wit Matt. We did a run west of Brighton, its a good route! My hamstrings were sore today, flying 40s did their job! The 16 mile race tomorrow will be a new and big challenge to me, I'm very excited to test myself on this course. It's now August which means that Cross Country is about to start, Highland Invitational is in 3 weeks and I have never felt so prepared for something in my life. And I have even more time to improve before the race.

This was completely new to me, it was like nothing I have ever raced or even run before. Coach Murphy saved me from burning out in the first few miles, thank you! Murphy is an awesome coach and he's the reason I am becoming so much of a better runner! I stayed with my Coach for a while, I think mile 5 or something. I had been keeping Adam Jensen in view and he was staring to pass a big group so I followed him from 80m back and started gaining on him, I caught him less than 10 minutes before we for to this crazy hill, so steep and rocky that I had to climb using my hands! I didn't know if I would make it up, but I did and I took a second to drink some water before going into the last half. There was no one to race with going down so I just went at a comfortably fast pace. Eventually I  some people coming up behind me around the 10k left mark and I started really going, I put a lot space on them. With a 5k to go a really fast girl came into view behind me and I had to really kick to keep ahead, I was staying ahead well until the final mile when I twisted my ankle and felt something snap or year or something and I went face first into the dirt, I got back up but I was having a lot of trouble running with that leg, I struggled to jog slowly at first but then I heard someone behind me and I started sprinting with my uninsured leg and doing what I could with my other leg. I finished in 2:02:49 which is fast! I was really close to under 2 hours! I loved the course and I like mountain races, I think all of the changing scenery and sharp turns force me to pay attention! I managed to keep not let anyone else pass me so that's good. After the race a reporter interviewed me and gave me her card, she said I will be in the news! I talked with some people and with Adam and Coach Murphy after the race, I've been icing my ankle a lot to. This will be a fun season, Adams a good competitor and cool guy, it will be fun to race with him more! After that, 5ks are going to be easy! Thank you for inviting me to come run this Coach!!!

turns out I sprained my ankle when I fell, my dad says its a grade 1 sprain so its not bad, hopefully I will be back Monday, he said it could take 2 weeks but I will be back in 2 days, I don't really care if it just hurts, I will just be careful. but I will just go on how it feels. I will be fine though.