Blake Bennions running

Air quality has been awful this weekend, today was supposed to be the worst and I was going to make myself do a treadmill run- but the AQI ended up dropping down into the 50s so I just ran outside. It was pretty hot, high 80s, and with the humidity it felt more like it was in the 90s.

I felt pretty good up until the last couple miles. I ran 3 of the first 5 miles on the grass, which always seems to drain my energy. I've probably been doing about 25% of my overall mileage on the huge field next to the track I run at.

Easy treadmill run with some incline, walked a while as well. Air quality was bad today, treadmill runs a lot easier to get into when it's cold outside and you get to warm up. When it's summer and it's nice out but the air quality is terrible... kinda sucks. I also felt a little ache in my shins today. Had a lot of nights of good sleep lately, hopefully that trend continues.

Half a mile at 12 degree incline at 7mph, then 8xspartan circuit of .4-.6 miles at sub 7 page, 5 pull ups, 10 push ups, 10 squats. For the 4th or 5th rep I picked up two 45 pound dumbbells and lifted them above my shoulders and carried them around the perimeter of my house. I had to drop them into farmers carry position a little over half way because I was already pretty tired. My exercise equipment is in my 3 season room and it gets super hot in there... I like it when I'm just doing pull ups or bent over rows- but when you're in the middle of an aerobic workout it really sucks, I need to install a window ac unit for that room... 3 season rooms are kind of a dumb idea. Who wants a room that doesn't get heated/cooled by your HVAC?

Anyways all the non running was in a room that must have been in the high 90s and it was decently hot outside, so this workout wiped me out pretty good. By next month I'm going to be doing the same thing but a full mile uphill at the start and then I'm going to do 12 circuits and finish with a sub 6 mile... so that's really going to beat me up.

Some good things from today workout are that the pull ups felt really good, I had good form on all of them and from the first to last rep they didn't get that much harder. Another good thing was that I was able to throw in surges and get back down under 7 minute pace even when I was tired. Also the uphill half mile to start definitely took a little out of my legs, but not enough to tank my workout- that's another good sign.

Some bad things. I've been building good upper endurance but my strength is a lot lower than it was last time a ran a spartan. I just haven't been lifting enough, I need to do more diverse upper body exercises and I need to start lifting more. I'll have to bring back some workouts from 2018 summer. Another thing I didn't like was how hard sub 7 was to maintain throughout the workout, I felt kinda gassed early on. I'm happy I was able to push though it well, but I want to be running sub 6:30 on a workout like this by the time the race rolls around.

Easy run, first 2.75 were outside but the air quality was bad so I finished on the treadmill. I felt great today. Track world championships have been a lot of fun to watch this week, and football is just around the corner once they're over.

Warmed up 2 miles and then started doing 6x1000m. I felt drained before I started my run, just wasn't a good day for a hard workout. The first one felt really bad but I ran a 3:21, it took way too much out of me but I decided to continue and keep running the rest. I ran 3:22, 3:22 and 3:23 for the next 3. After the 4th I was feeling completely done and I knew I would blow up on the 5th but I did it anyways and ended up running a 3:36. I cut the workout there because I didn't think a 3:50 or whatever I would have turned in for the 6th would benefit me and it was getting late. I'll just get out the door tomorrow and run whatever feels right. I'll do a long run either tomorrow or Sunday depending on how tomorrow feels.

Easy run. I felt drained by mile 3 but pushed through it and felt better by the end.