Blake Bennions running

Am- good morning run, it felt nice to get out running again after my weekly day off. We mostly ran around the track with a couple laps around the school. I can't remember a lot about it, it seems like it happened a while ago.

Pm-We did a reallly tough workout, the goal for me was 5x1 mile in 5:15 with 3 mins of rest in between each. I did not get this. I warmed up 5 laps and then we started the first one, it was pretty good at 5:13, the 2nd one I was tired and I kept telling myself to just worry about the current mile but part of me was holding back for the next 3, I hit the 2nd mile in 5:28. I was tired going into the 3rd one, I was feeling like giving up for a little on the first lap and I barely held it together for the next 3 to get a 5:47. That is a bad time. I was dissapointed in myself when my Coach told me to not run the 4th one, although I knew it would have been pointless. A 6 minute mile repeat would probably be counter productive.  I ran 4 laps with Conner who also didn't run the 4th mile and then I came back and I asked Coach Murphy if I could run with the remaining 4 guys for the last mile but he said no and we ended up running a max effort 400m, I ran a :59 second 400 which is pretty good. It always feels better for the rest of the day when I end on a high note. We did a 5 lap cooldown. Coach Muphy said if we couldn't hit these times, or close to them, we wouldn't have a shot at nationals. I know Coach Murphy knows what he's talking about, but we arn't going to give up until the race is over! I am going to keep working harder this week, every day still counts, today was an important day, and it doesn't seem like a sub 16:30 on that course is likely after today. 16:30 wouldn't get us to nationals if I was our 5th guy, but I'm not losing hope. I believe in my teamates and I'm going to work my hardest so that if I do end up as our 5th guy, or it comes down to a 6th man tie breaker, I won't let us down. I really wish I had had more of a breakout season, its been tough luck since I've moved to Utah with 2/3 stress fractures and then a dud season. But if I keep working I just know that eventually, all my work will pay off. Who knows, maybe I will strike gold and have a breakout at SouthWest. Oh on the way home I passed by a trash bag in the middle of the road so I drove past to the nearest place I could pull over (which was actually pretty far away) and I ran back to move it, that added on about half a mile. Then I had to run off to work and got there just a couple minutes late but it basically on time. Busy days are the best days!

It was a recovery run in the lower gully today. It was a nice run with plenty of shade and good temperature but a lot of hills and many time I would have to increase speed to catch back up to the group when we had to go single file. Overall it was a pretty nice run, a little uncomfortable. I almost ate a rock at the beginning of the run haha. Tomorrow is another easy day and then thursday is a 5k time trial, I am going to be able to see exactly how fast I can run a 5k on thursday, take 10-20 seconds off of thursdays 5k and thats what I will probably get at SouthWest, so if I can run in the middle 16 range on the track then I will be in great shape for southwest, if I run like a 16:50 thats a problem. I think a 16:40 or a 16:30 will be a time I can be confident in going into SouthWest. In this race 10 seconds in the 16:00-16:30 means 30 points. So if I can run 16:40 on thursday I would still need to go 20 seconds faster or more at Southwest to keep us in the competition for 2nd place if I was our 5th guy or running for 6th man tie breaker. If I get in the top 100 overall then our team will be in great shape, considering how many people run indivisually in that race. I'm going to keep working my hardest, I know the rest of my team is.

Just a morning run today, I didn't get a chance to blog this run the day of the run, so I'm just blogging it the next day. It was a really nice run!

Good day overall but my time was not what it needed to be, something needs to change in the next 9 days. Everyones times were slow, it was weird. We will run faster at SouthWest, but it will need to be a lot faster to get 2nd. I just ran behind Chase until the last 400, it didn't feel like a race. It felt like a mix between a workout and a time trial just because I wasn't running against anyone, I was just running with teammates. I think I should have a lot motivation next saturday, I've been thinking of all the things to be motivated about at SouthWest and there are a lot. I am going to do great at Nike SouthWest.

Am- I came to school at 6 because I thought we had a morning run, I couldn't find anyone. So I went back to my car and slept for half an hour before doing 5.5 miles including the upper loop and the 2 striders. I think I ran a low 7 minute average, I was still sore from the 5k time trial but I felt pretty good overall.

Pm- It turned out I was the only one who did a morning run, we did about 4.5 easy including the lower loop and to this church and back. I felt good on this run for the most part, I was no longer sore and we took it easy. I need to get back on top of blogging my runs, I'm blogging this the day after for the 2nd time this week.

We ran around Draper, a new route that I have never been. We went up to the highway past draper park and just before Draper Temple and we turned left instead of right. We did this loop that included a really big hill and ended up at the roudabout next to draper park. We ran over and looked around Corner Canyon High School and then we ran back to Alta and did a lap on the track. It was a tough run but it felt really good, our pace was 7:17 and we had a few big hills. I felt pretty good on this run, we have been working really hard the past few weeks, we've earned a trip to Nike Nationals. Alta is going to be a huge competitior at Nike Southwest.