diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 8c754c8..349b62f 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 target/
-*/target/
-*/*/target/
+benches/target/
+benches/Cargo.lock
diff --git a/benches/Cargo.toml b/benches/Cargo.toml
index 384e2da..2555235 100644
--- a/benches/Cargo.toml
+++ b/benches/Cargo.toml
@@ -2,10 +2,7 @@
 name = "benches"
 version = "0.0.0"
 description = "Criteration benchmarks of the sponges crates"
-authors = [
-    "Sebastian Ramacher <sebastian.ramacher@ait.ac.at>",
-    "RustCrypto Developers",
-]
+authors = ["RustCrypto Developers"]
 edition = "2024"
 rust-version = "1.85"
 publish = false
@@ -14,14 +11,7 @@ publish = false
 
 [dev-dependencies]
 ascon = { path = "../ascon" }
-criterion = "0.4"
-rand = { version = "0.8", default-features = false, features = [
-    "std_rng",
-    "getrandom",
-] }
-
-[features]
-no_unroll = ["ascon/no_unroll"]
+criterion = "0.7"
 
 [[bench]]
 name = "ascon"
diff --git a/benches/src/ascon.rs b/benches/src/ascon.rs
index 03c1cce..1a84434 100644
--- a/benches/src/ascon.rs
+++ b/benches/src/ascon.rs
@@ -1,44 +1,24 @@
-// Copyright 2022 Sebastian Ramacher
-// SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0 OR MIT
-
 use ascon::State;
 use criterion::{criterion_group, criterion_main, Criterion};
-use rand::{rngs::StdRng, RngCore, SeedableRng};
 
 fn criterion_bench_permutation(c: &mut Criterion) {
-    let mut rng = StdRng::from_entropy();
-    let mut state = State::new(
-        rng.next_u64(),
-        rng.next_u64(),
-        rng.next_u64(),
-        rng.next_u64(),
-        rng.next_u64(),
-    );
+    let mut state = core::hint::black_box(State::new(
+        0xd0764d4f4476689f,
+        0x519e4174576f3791,
+        0xfbe07cfb0c24ed8c,
+        0xb37d9f600cd835b8,
+        0xcb231c3874846a73,
+    ));
 
     let mut c = c.benchmark_group("Permutation");
-    c.bench_function("1 round", |b| {
-        b.iter(|| {
-            state.permute_1();
-        })
-    });
 
-    c.bench_function("6 rounds", |b| {
-        b.iter(|| {
-            state.permute_6();
-        })
-    });
+    c.bench_function("1 round", |b| b.iter(|| state.permute_1()));
+    c.bench_function("6 rounds", |b| b.iter(|| state.permute_6()));
+    c.bench_function("8 rounds", |b| b.iter(|| state.permute_8()));
+    c.bench_function("12 rounds", |b| b.iter(|| state.permute_12()));
 
-    c.bench_function("8 rounds", |b| {
-        b.iter(|| {
-            state.permute_8();
-        })
-    });
+    core::hint::black_box(state);
 
-    c.bench_function("12 rounds", |b| {
-        b.iter(|| {
-            state.permute_12();
-        })
-    });
     c.finish();
 }