Blake Bennions running

Ran with guys from the team for the first, ran with my roommates and 3 really fast guys from the team. My roommates are really good too, on has a 1:53 800m, another has a 8:30 3000m and Sub 4:00 1500m. So they're fast guys! The run was really fun and decently fast, like 7:00 I like it here!

Ran with the whole team after a team meeting, lots of fast guys, I like it. We ran at about 6:50 and I went with the group that went 7-8 instead of 10 because I wanted to take it easy before the progression run. Which apparanatly is a warm up at 7:00 then 6:45 then 3 laps at 6:00 to keep warming up, then 5 at 87 per lap, 6 at 85 per lap, 4 at 80 per lap and then like faster a second each lap until 75-76 and then a mile all out. I just have the mentality that I'm not going to drop off until after the 80s. I know I can make it past the 5:40 pace and then all I need to do is be tough for those next 4 laps.

Progression run today, just got home. I felt good going through the 5 lap first progression, the last 2 laps I started feeling it a bit, the 2nd progression was 6 laps and I was feeling good the first half and the. It started getting harder and harder, when it dropped for the 3rd progression it got really tough haha, I struggled to hang on the first lap and then the 2nd lap everyone behind me had fallen off and the 3 guys in front of me started falling off and I fell with them and I got pulled off at the end of it. So 2 laps away from finishing the 3rd progression. Dang. I still stayed on pretty far, a decent amount of guys fell off before me. Nothing to be embarrassed about, not even that dissapointed. I wish I had made it past the 3rd progression but this is where I'm at and I'm going to build on this until I'm with that very top group that went 4:40s for the last mile.

I made camp!! So I'm leaving in less than an hour, I got all my gear except my uniform this morning haha, I'll have to get that sorted out. Definitely keeping me on my toes, I think I will be able to get in a rhthym after the first week of school, 6:30 practice everyday will be interesting haha

4 miles, hard for a 4 mile run, no such thing as an easy run now a days haha. Also got to hot tub and hang out with the team,awesome lodge we are staying at, got a ton of free gear today!

I feel a little out of league right now haha, so much talent, such high level runners and everyone at this camp is really fast. We did a shake out run this morning, we do a form mile to warm up before every run that doesn't count as official mileage but for fastrunningblog purposes I'm counting it because it kind of throwing me off that the mileage is so hard and the I put in a low mileage day.

I got to meet with my coach today and we discussed what the plan for me is, he said I did great in the progression run and I'm ahead of where I need to be so he's going to have me start speed and everything now and get me racing :). I am redshirting though so I will have to go to races on my own but I'm really excited for that. Coach Houle is amazing, he really believes I can be as great as the best runners on the team and I really want to work hard and eventually I will get there. It can be hard not to let all this struggling get to me, its not been easy to have to try so hard on each run and still just be hanging on the back of the pack haha. Today we ran a shake out run in the morning where i got 3 miles and then I did 10 miles at Navajo lake in the afternoon. I kept with everyone until mile 2-3 and then I had to bowel problems and I had to dart off the course and lost a few minutes, I tried to catch up but eventually I hit a fork and I decided it wouldn't be good if I got lost and made everyone wait my first week so I turned around haha. That place is beautiful though, the valcanic rock and the lake and everything is just great! I just need to keep on trying hard, it just feels like my trying hard is little pathetic right now haha. But I need to remember when I started out at alta I was the slowest kid on the team my first alta run and I didn't do so hot for a little while but I just did what coach Murphy told me to do for a few years and I ended up where I needed to be despite a lot of rough patches and failures. I had some great successes!

Bleh, I ran the full 10 mile run after the warm up and got my butt handed to me, I came in a few minutes after the next to last person. With 4 miles left I felt compeletely dead, like I didn't have half a mile left in me. But I made it through and Hayden came back and finished the last mile with me which was nice. I don't think I've ever felt so wasted after a run, I don't get it, like I was fine at Alta last week. Oh well, these things take time. It was a very hard run but I think I pushed through it well. I just need to trust in the coach's and the veterans and keep believing that if continue working hard and doing everything asked of me then I will get faster and adapt to the collegiate level. Coach said I need to keep it to 6 miles per day the next 2 weeks, which including the warm up is 7 which if I run every day is 49 miles so that's good. I might take tomorrow off from running, actually I will take tomorrow off and then I will do an easiesh run sunday. The other thing I need to remember is that I can't always be at my best, I will have rough patches like this and I just need to get through them. Also since I've been avoiding gluten the past 6 months I haven't eaten the best food for running at camp haha, so there are a lot of factors. I need to get back to cedar and find my groove and just get to work.

We did a shake out run this morning, I turned around with the first group because today is recovery day. Last night was fun!