Ben Light 7 posts 0 comments

Have you ever wished for a life instruction manual, only to realize it never existed? As a father of three, including a son at Wasatch High School, I often imagined how useful it would be to have one for parenting. Without it, I relied on mentors, trial and error, and the valuable input of my children. The same is true for fitness journeys. If you’re like me, you want to be healthy and fit but don’t always know how to get there. Years ago, as a young father focused on providing for my family, I slipped out of shape. My…

What’s a goal without a destination in mind? That’s the question I’ve often asked myself, and, as an extension, my clients. Hi, I’m Ben Light, a fitness trainer right here in Heber Valley. As a coach who works with endurance athletes from all walks of life, I’ve found that while goals and destinations are often synonymous, those who make their goals tangible, have higher success rates. About a year and a half ago, I started training Kristin Bunnell, who just so happens to be the creative director here at Heber Valley Life.…

Wouldn’t it be nice if we were all born ready to take on the world 100 miles at a time and never got tired? Wouldn’t it be nice if our muscle mass and stamina were always on par and it didn’t matter our season of life (young, middle-aged, old, tired, mid-life-crisis), we would always be race-ready? The truth of the matter is that life isn’t like that for 100% of the population. This means that we must start somewhere and find ways to maintain and improve our fitness levels with significant life hurdles ready and willing to…

Have you ever participated in an athletic endurance event? If so, you’ve likely experienced the aches, pains, muscle and joint fatigue — and perhaps even mental exhaustion — that follows. Due to that, you’ve probably had to allow your body time to normalize before resuming your training regimen. As an aging ultra runner who specializes in 200-plus-mile events, I know firsthand what it’s like to have to recover from endurance events, and how crucial it is to allow my body and mind recovery time. Over the years, I’ve come to…

Have you ever ‘bonked’ during a workout or felt an imbalance in your body during exercise or even in your daily life routine? If so, there’s a chance that you may have an electrolyte imbalance (low electrolytes). For many, when you hear the term electrolytes, your mind may immediately go to popular sports drinks because these products have all but claimed this term as their own. The image of a pro athlete taking a gulp of colorful juice and sweating out that same color has long been cemented in the minds of millions as the…

Have you ever wanted to go out and run 200 miles of mountain terrain just because you could? This is a question that not a lot of people ask themselves, but what if you could? What if you could just go and do because you were physically and mentally prepared to do so? My name is Ben Light, and I am a husband, father, ultrarunner, coach, and overall life-liver from Heber City. For the past decade, my second home has been the mountains here along the Wasatch Front. If you have had the chance to spend even a few minutes…

Written by Ben Light with contributing editor Julie Moulton You might know Ben Light from throwing down at 200-mile races; he completed the Triple Crown of 200s in 2017 and has paced, volunteered or ran all three races every year since their debut in the ultra-running scene six years ago. You might have heard about Ben tackling the Spine® Race, a brutal 268-mile winter ultra in the United Kingdom with a notoriously-low finisher rate. He was one of the first Americans to take on the race, and when the…