Hurt so good.

Great group for a Monday run. Dave, Ken, Matty, Jason, Jared, and Henry met at Smith's off of 42nd and Harrison. Majority of the group did 8-10 miles while Ken and did the typical 15 mile Monday route.

Today officially marks the 1st day back into Marathon training. Looking forward to the longer miles, workouts, and hill repeats. Hoping I can nail my full potential in a fall marathon.

PM

4.51 miles after work around the Layton area. 

Nice interesting run with Jared, Dave, Henry and Jake. Always fun times in the morning.

At the end of the run I did 6X8 second hill sprints with Jake and Henry.

Workout Wednesday

Met Ken and Kneaders left my car and headed to his office to start our warm. Good group this morning. Dave, Jared, Jason, Ken and I. This week we started our workout by Bues trailhead. Gave us an extra half mile before we hit some the rollers at the start. Helped alot to get into some type of pace before those hills came.

Workout was 7X2K @ 5:15 with 1K recovery @ 6:20.

Was on pace thru 3 sets then legs decided that they wanted to go at Marathon pace. Which is okay I guess. I will get quicker as these workouts progress, so I am not worried.  At the same time this is my first workout in over 3 weeks, felt good to get the legs spinning.

Overall avg pace on 2K was 5:25 min/miles, overall pace was 5:53 min/miles.

PM

4.11 miles on the Riverdale Parkway after work. 

Solo Recovery run on the canal Rd 

Had a solid group run down Monte this morning. My plan was to hit 6:20 pace for 22 miles. I got sucked in and went out quicker. Had 16 miles around 5:45 pace then jogged the last 4.5 miles at 7 min/pace. 

Overall run was great but legs felt like garbage the entire time

Nice tired Monday run. Legs felt okay this morning, thought I was going to be alot worse. Hopefully they are coming around and will get some bounce back in them. Mornings are getting darker though. Looking like head lamps in the next couple weeks.

PM

4.11 miles on the Treadmill at work.

avg pace 7:19 min/miles

Fun group this morning. Had to newbies today, welcomed Addison and Brayden today. Still havent initiated them yet but that will come shortly, didnt want to scare them off after their first run with us.

Uintah Loop was the route, another warm morning, but I feel like I am finally getting used to the morning heat. Also legs finally feel normal, its only taken 2 weeks since DesNews.

avg pace 7:05 min/miles

Had a solid group of guys this morning for a workout. Riley, Ken, Jason, Jared, Dave, Henry, and myself. Think this is the biggest group we've had for a  Wednesday workout.

Ken, Riley, and I  did 6X3K with 1K active recovery, while the others did some tempo simulation.

Splits for my 3K were- 9:55; 9:47; 10:16; 9:57; 10:32; 10:51

I did this workout back in March and here are the results for that day.

Splits for my 3K were- 10:17; 10:19; 10:18; 10:25; 10:35; 10:23

On the last rep today my legs were done and it really felt like the last mile of a marathon. So I feel that this great to experience this in training so I can mentally fight through it on race day if I have the same sensations.

Total mileage- 18.2 miles

Hit the trails up above my house. Saw 2 snakes, easily 50+ lizards, and too many grasshoppers to count. 

Legs were destroyed which meant a lot of walking which I'm okay with for a recovery day. 

Easy with Ken and Matty 

Monte run again. 4 mile warm, 14 mile tempo run @ 5:28 min/avg. 4 mile cool to Huntsville park. 

Felt really good today. Excited with the direction things are going. 

Easy 15 on our normal Ogden Loop. Pretty big fire on the Ogden Parkway this morning, was cool to see driving by it but also pretty sad, looked like a couple homes mightve caught fire. Hoping not. Legs were pretty heavy for the entire run today. Just the norm of marathon training.

PM

4.31 miles after work around Layton.

avg pace 7:13 min/miles

Sluggish run today. Legs never responded the entire run. Just felt exhausted and just wanted to lie down and take a nap for a couple minutes. I didnt think it was to much to ask for.

avg pace 7:42 min/miles

Workout|Wednesday

Another workout, another day. Met up Ken, Riley, Matty, Jason, Dave and Jared at Ken's office to do a workout.

Warm was 2.70 miles with 4X20 second strides

Workout was 5X4K with 1K active recovery

Splits 13:16: 13:29; 13:13; 14:18; 14:10

Lost pace for the last 6K of the workout. We hit the road by the canyon and the wind is super strong in the mornings. With the combination of a slight uphill, killer headwind, it puts me into threshold and its hard to recover for the rest of the workout.

Though its tough I like to fight through the pain a little bit. Also overall I was 10 seconds faster for this workout then I was when I did the same workout back in April.

1.44 cool down with Ken and Riley

Overall mileage- 19.00

A.M.

8.21 miles easy on the Canal Rd. Legs felt actually somewhat decent this morning. Better than I expected for a recovery day. About 2 miles in a saw a coyote which was pretty cool. I hear them all the time from my house but have never seen one. Then about 4 miles in I ran into Brayden Youngberg and joined him for about 3 miles or so. Nice to run with him made my recovery run go by just a tad quicker.

avg pace 7:35 min/miles

nothing fancy. Just some easy miles on the treadmill. 

4 mile warm

16 mile tempo @ 5:40 avg/pace

.60 cool

Solid run this morning with Riley. Met the guys at Ogden high and warmed up to the top of 46th st. Had a great tempo this morning. Pace was honest and nailed a solid split up the toll road. Ready for a little down week, then back at it again for a couple more weeks for STG 

Race week and down week.

Had a solid couple weeks of mileage in the low 90s. Excited to drop the mileage this week, recoup. and mentally prepare for the next 3 weeks. If all goes as planned should be close to 100 miles per.

Good easy run this morning with group. Pace was relaxed and legs felt pretty good today.

Not sure what happened this morning. Alarm was set to run with the guys, but ended up waking up right when I needed to meet the guys.

Anyway, ended up driving to Layton anyway and ran solo. Ran to Valley View Golf Course then headed North back to Antelope.

avg pace 7:02 min/miles

Workout|Wednesday

4.40 mile warm with 3X15 second strides

4 mile Fartlek alternating quarters at 75/90

avg pace 5:35 min/miles

Nailed the 75 portion of the workout. But on the 90 portion I didnt do as well as I thought I did at keeping the pace. Lost about 20 seconds total. Still a great workout.

2 mile cool

Easy recovery run with Matty and Henry. Probably bored Henry for most of the run getting on my Astronomy and deep space kicks. Haha. Glad he was a great listener though.

avg pace 7:48 min/miles

Easy run in the N.O. Looped pass Jonny's place and picked him up. He ran the last 3.5 miles with me.

avg pace 8:03 min/miles

Top Of Utah Half Marathon

Warmed 2.6 miles with Riley.

Headed to the start and did some strides. Talked to the guys that were running the race and we headed on our way.

My goal for the race was to hit around 5-5:04 pace for the race. So as the gun went off I jumped out to a quick start, which also might've been to quick and maybe it cost me in the later miles, but maybe it didnt either. Anyway hit mile 1 around 5:01 and Riley was right there. I continued to run with Riley for the next couple miles, then around miles 4 and 5 he gained a slight gap on me and it pretty much maintained the same gap til about mile 9. He took a look back and just increased the lead from there and went on to win the race. I started feeling a little fatigued around mile 10 though I still hit a 5:11 split. At this point I thought I was solo, though I knew I still needed to finish strong. I saw Bryants wife and she yelled nice job Ben, also nice job Bryant! I was like WHAT!?! Bryant! I looked back and he was tucked right on my shoulder! I had no clue he was even there. He pushed and gapped me on the hill and managed to get me by 10 seconds.

I was super frustrated at the end of the race, not by how I ran but, how did I not know that Bryant was right there? Guess that's what running up front does sometimes, if you arent aware of your surroundings then it can be taken away quick if you get to comfortable. But also I way happy because this was over a minute PR for me on the course, so that tells me that I am sitting in a good spot and have the potential to nail a solid fall marathon.

Hats off to Bryant. He ran a great race, started conservative, and finished strong.

Congrats to my buddy Riley for taking the title again this year. I know he was frustrated with his time. But its like our crazy Irish Coach said, He would've been frustrated with us if we were happy with our times and ran well. Riley and I are both funneling from half marathon training to marathon training. Best way to describe the race was that we were able to push the pace, but felt like that extra gear, or something was missing. So now that this race is over, I hope that the next couple of weeks of training will bring some good vibes. STG is getting close.

Congrats to Nate and Fritz for rounding out the top 5. Two great guys that should live up in the Ogden area and join the crew!

Cooled a little over 4 miles at a snails pace to get over 20 for the day.

Splits- 501;504;506;510;456;458;457;500;511;512;522;541;517.

Man fantastic Monday showing for the Crew. We had Riley, Ken, Dave, Jason, Matty, Manny, Henry and myself. Biggest group we've had in awhile for Monday.

Did the Ogden Big Loop today. Legs felt pretty good for the most part, just a little issue going on with my right hammy, but should be fine when it meets up with the foam roller.

Found out today that Henry really loves fruit snacks and won't share with anyone. He's sort've like a dog with a bone. When you try to grab the bone, the dog will show his teeth and growl at ya. Ya thats what Henry does. Then to top things off, I literally got slapped in the face by Dave, because I hate Nutella! Mind blown!

Met in Davis County today, and ran with Dave, Riley, and Bryant.

Legs are feeling good, not as sore as I thought I would be. Was hoping I can meet the stare down guy today, but didnt happen.

PM

4 miles on the canal. Almost stepped on a rattlesnake, the snake was curled and rattling and ready to strike. My headlamp saved my life tonight also first time I've seen a rattler on the canal.

Tired legs this morning with Riley. Warmed up with the group that was working out then went on our way.

PM

4.20 miles around Layton. Legs felt alot better tonight.