Rob Murphy

March 28, 2024

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Location:

Salt Lake City,

Member Since:

Feb 11, 2010

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Other

Running Accomplishments:

I had some success in high school and college. Winner 1985 Rod Dixon Run 

Had a fair amount of success as a Masters runner for most of my 40s. 

Short-Term Running Goals:

Have fun with running, explore more trails, stay healthy.

Long-Term Running Goals:

Keep running and racing consistently for as long as I can. Find what is sustainable for me over the long run.

Personal:

I teach AP European History and other courses at Alta High School. I coached the track and cross country teams at Alta for 16 years.

Married, two kids - Abby and Andy

My Twitter  @murphy_rob

Click to donate
to Ukraine's Armed Forces
Miles:This week: 11.50 Month: 121.75 Year: 375.97
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
6.250.000.000.006.25

Planned trail run in the gully this afternoon...

Had to bag the gully this afternoon due to the all-day snow event.

6.25 miles super easy around Sugarhouse. 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups. 

 The #1 mistake most runners on this blog make is neglecting their speed. There is also a tendency to label workouts "speed workouts" that are not speed workouts. Mile repeats are not speed workouts. VO2 max, while critical, is not speed so don't call it that. A good rule of thumb is that true speed is not improved with efforts over one minute in duration. All runners should remember to include a steady diet of fast striders and short hill sprints into their training at every phase of the training cycle. When working on your speed it is critical to recover fully between each effort.  

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Comments
From Rob on Fri, Mar 22, 2013 at 08:23:56 from 206.71.84.68

OK

From Bret on Fri, Mar 22, 2013 at 08:39:46 from 216.234.133.229

Word from the coach...

( are "mort" runners zombies?)

From Jake K on Fri, Mar 22, 2013 at 08:43:14 from 155.100.226.191

Good thoughts Rob. Its something I've been thinking about a lot lately. I'm starting w/ the short hill sprints, and now I'm going to start incorporating more 100-150m strides since the tracks are clear and the weather is so warm.

From Rob on Fri, Mar 22, 2013 at 08:45:37 from 206.71.84.68

I was under the impression the #1 mistake mort runners make is trying to run 140 mpw in hopes of one day being as fast as Jake.

From Jake K on Fri, Mar 22, 2013 at 08:51:19 from 155.100.226.191

I'd be faster if I worked on speed more!

If I start running 140mpw and neglecting sprints and hills again, please call me out and yell at me.

From allie on Fri, Mar 22, 2013 at 09:07:25 from 161.38.221.168

rob - should these be at 100% effort?

From Jake K on Fri, Mar 22, 2013 at 09:19:44 from 155.100.226.191

Rob may disagree, but I don't think everything needs to be at 100% effort. You can build into 150-200m efforts. Same with longer hills. For the really short stuff (10-15 seconds) then its probably at closer to max effort.

From Rob Murphy on Fri, Mar 22, 2013 at 09:23:41 from 163.248.33.220

Allie - Generally yes but you really cant sustain max effort beyond 15-20 seconds. Also, with striders you are gradually building up to max speed for only a short duration before decelerating.

Rob - You've opened the door to "the second biggest mistake many runners on this blog make".

Bret - I don't know what you're talking about. :)

From dugco on Fri, Mar 22, 2013 at 09:32:27 from 69.243.230.118

Good stuff - now, since you fixed you're worstest typo and made Bret look like hes loosing his mind, kindly fix the their/there typo so you dont look like a moron.

From Rob Murphy on Fri, Mar 22, 2013 at 09:34:17 from 163.248.33.220

Doug, Bret - You guys with your fancy Dunedin High educations!

From scottkeate on Fri, Mar 22, 2013 at 11:10:07 from 192.150.9.200

Rob - How often and when would you introduce speed workouts into the routine? I almost never plan a sprint into anything I do--much room for improvement here.

From Jake K on Fri, Mar 22, 2013 at 11:25:20 from 155.100.226.191

There's a huge benefit from adding in some short hills and strides 2-4X week. Maybe just twice if you have several other hard workouts during the week, and up to four times if you are in a base phase and just running mileage.

The problem, especially for morning runners, is that typically you are finishing your run on a very tight time frame and need to get to work, and not just hanging around at the track with nothing to do for an hour afterwards, like in high school and college.

From Rob Murphy on Fri, Mar 22, 2013 at 11:33:25 from 163.248.33.220

Or, if you are time crunched, it could be something as simple as incorporating 6 X 15-20 seconds at max effort into an otherwise easy run with four or five minutes between the hard efforts.

A lot of us are programmed to think that improvement in running only comes from suffering and that surely something as simple as this won't make much difference. But it does.

From Bam on Fri, Mar 22, 2013 at 11:57:38 from 89.126.28.24

So why should marathon runners aiming to run in and around 3hrs do 'pure' speed work? Is it something to do with running economy?

Are short hill blasts (8secs) done for speed purposes or strength? What's the difference between 8 second hill blasts and 10-15 second pure speed stuff? Does one work CP and the other, ATP?

From Jackie82 on Fri, Mar 22, 2013 at 12:09:07 from 18.189.42.191

This is great info! Great lessons learned. Thank you! Now I have to go and back edit all my VO2max entries...

From Jake K on Fri, Mar 22, 2013 at 13:23:35 from 155.100.226.191

Sprinting is all the rage today. From the Oregon Live:

http://goo.gl/lyozj

From scottkeate on Fri, Mar 22, 2013 at 13:49:02 from 192.150.9.200

Good stuff! Thanks!

From emruns on Fri, Mar 22, 2013 at 14:43:28 from 76.27.114.171

Thanks for the info, Rob. I'm going to start adding these in.

From Jon on Fri, Mar 22, 2013 at 18:55:37 from 107.203.52.135

Unless you don't care about speed and can set your 5k PR off ultramarathon training only...

From Jake K on Fri, Mar 22, 2013 at 18:56:54 from 67.177.11.154

5K isn't "speed", see Rob's first paragraph :-)

From Jason D on Fri, Mar 22, 2013 at 20:19:57 from 24.1.80.94

Will this be the start of a series? I say this most seriously. I learn a lot from the blog. How often should someone do strides?

From Rob Murphy on Fri, Mar 22, 2013 at 21:40:12 from 24.10.249.165

Jason - well, it depends on what else you are doing, but most runners should be doing about 6 X 100 strides at least 3X/week. Some good times are after any aerobic recovery run and also before running VO2 max intervals.

Doing them on grass is good and occasionally with bare feet.

From Teena Marie on Fri, Mar 22, 2013 at 22:25:50 from 65.130.11.168

I am loving this post!!

I am presently considering doing my doctoral project on the effects of plyometric training on running economy. I have loved reading all the research on this (old and new). At this time I am convinced that plyometric training as well as other primarily anaerobic training, including honest to goodness sprints, improves running economy.

(And yes I am aware that all plyometric training isn't necessarily considered anaerobic. :))

FYI (totally unrelated): I often frequent your blog when I am looking for a good laugh. Like a week or so ago with your irish/chinese food post! I couldn't stop laughing! There was another one too, what was it? Oh yeah, your family's reassurance of your goodness and decency despite a certain fitness gauging run!!! GEMS, my friend!!! This kind of stuff should be printed out for posterity!!! :)

From Rob Murphy on Sat, Mar 23, 2013 at 09:50:39 from 24.10.249.165

Thanks so much Teena. I look forward to the day when you are through with all this education nonsense and you can get back to what really matters - posting obsessively on this blog.

From Teena Marie on Sat, Mar 23, 2013 at 12:35:56 from 65.130.11.168

Amen, brother. :)

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