Rob Murphy

March 2013

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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

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Miles:This week: 31.75 Month: 142.00 Year: 396.22
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
285.504.006.500.75296.75
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
11.250.000.000.0011.25

Nice, easy morning run. 11.25 miles mostly around Sugarhouse Park. 

Every once in a while I have an "only in Utah moment" that surprises me even after eleven years here. Today I went to this donut shop on 114th South on my way to work because I promised a class donuts because of something good they did. Anyway, this so-called donut shop did not sell coffee. Has anyone heard of a donut shop without coffee?

Fortunately there is a Beans n Brews right next door.

I still love it here though. 

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Comments(5)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
7.000.000.000.007.00

Seven miles around the Sugarhood.

Included 20 X The Highland High stadium steps and 6 X 100 meter striders.

100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups 

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Comments(2)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
12.250.000.000.0012.25

12.25 miles on the treadmill.

I'll get a cross training workout in a couple hours at "Jump Around Utah" with the church kids.  

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
10.250.000.000.0010.25

Out the door at 4:30 this morning for 10.25 miles in 1:22. I did the Foothill Loop plus some extra around Millcreek and Sugarhouse.

I'm going to the doctor this afternoon for a routine physical. Although it's not very routine for me since I haven't had one for seven years. I need to do better at that. 

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Comments(8)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
9.500.000.000.009.50

Treadmillin miles today. Started at 7:30 pace and finished around 6:30.

My niece Elizabeth is wrapping up her Spring Break visit to Utah today. She's thinking of applying the the U for medical school after she graduates from college next year. We crammed a lot of stuff in to just a few days. She got to watch my wife admit a gunshot wound to the head dude on Friday night and hung around the NCC for a few hours. This morning Ann was able to get her into the operating room to watch some brain surgery and Nathan Krah gave her a tour of the medical school this afternoon.

Running will be hit or miss the next couple days with parent-teacher conferences at school. 

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Comments(2)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
0.000.000.000.000.00

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
6.250.000.000.006.25

Managed to squeeze in a quick run plus some push-ups and sit-ups between the end of school and the start of parent-teacher conferences.

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
17.500.000.000.0017.50

No work today so I did a morning run at a sane hour. 9.25 miles in 1:10. 

About six miles into the run I was running by my kids school when I discovered that virtually all the snow is melted from the field behind the school. So I stopped and did 6 striders on the grass at about 90% effort. Running on grass. Pretty cool. 

PM: Went to the gym and did a two mile warm-up jog on the treadmill then a "stair master tempo workout". I did 300 floors (6.25 miles) in 36:50. May have set a personal sweat record. 

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Comments(3)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
12.500.000.000.0012.50

12.5 miles along the Jordan River Parkway. I felt generally crappy, sluggish, lethargic...

Glad to finish off a decent week though. 

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Comments(1)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
7.750.000.000.007.75

7.75 miles around Liberty Park plus a bunch of fast striders on the wood-chip.

I've been having a problem with sluggishness on a lot of my runs lately. Sometimes I'm getting light-headed. I think I might not be getting enough carbs. I'll tweak that and see what happens. 

Must have been an event out at Liberty Park today called "Rednecks With Their Pit Bulls On Parade". Gotta love sunny, warmish weather! 

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Comments(3)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
4.502.002.500.009.00

This qualified as a "workout". Kind of disappointing. More after I eat dinner.

Well, I decided I should do something resembling a workout. I'm a firm believer that all runners need a small handful of staple workouts that they do fairly regularly to gauge their fitness.

I've long had a treadmill workout I do that's sort of a treadmill fartlek. It's a 60 minute run divided into 10 minute increments. I do two minutes at 7 mph, two at 8 mph, two at 9 mph, and four at 10 mph. I try to increase the speed .1 every time so from 50 to 60 minutes I'm doing 7.5, 8.5, 9.5, 10.5.

When I'm really fit this workout is moderately hard. It leaves me feeling confident but not hammered.

I tried to do this today but couldn't. Basically I learned that 6:20 pace is my new 5:55 pace. Kind of depressing. I topped off at about 9.5 mph on this one and only managed 50 minutes for the workout. I did keep close track of the data though and will be able to monitor my improvement.

The thing is, I thought I could basically will myself through the workout the way I used to do it. But I've done this workout so many times that I know exactly how I usually feel running at 10 mph and I was totally bummed to find myself feeling close to the same way at 9 mph. 

On the bright side, I spoke to Ann and the kids about this and they all assure me that they still love me and think I'm mostly a decent person. 

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Comments(13)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
7.500.000.000.007.50

A quote from my favorite TV detective of all time, Jim Rockford...

"I try to keep my virtues to a minimum. That way, they're easier to keep track of." 

I was able to run in the gully today! 7.5 miles of trail running bliss. I was almost warm at the end.

Saw my old buddy Snoopy on top of his dog house. He looked happy but he's getting old. I'm not sure how much longer he will be able to jump up there. It's been about two years since he barked at me. 

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Comments(9)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
10.250.000.000.0010.25

10.25 miles in the gully. Lots of sand, lots of hills.

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Comments(2)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
5.000.000.000.005.00

Today I ran four easy miles. Then I stopped and ran six 15 second hill sprints in Sugarhouse Park on what my kids call "the little sledding hill".

Then I jogged a mile home and decided to call it a day. It was kinda hot out. 

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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
0.000.000.000.000.00

Today was a great day.

Earlier this year I invited the historian David Kennedy from Stanford University to come to Alta High for a day. Kennedy is probably the leading authority on the Great Depression and World War II era, He wrote Freedom From Fear which won the Pulitzer Prize in 2000 and he also writes probably the most used AP U.S. History textbook, The American Pageant.

So I picked him up at the Alta Club downtown at 6:30 this morning. Pretty swanky place. He told me that "The Stanford Club" got him his lodging there. He did three presentations this morning and then met privately with my ten top students after lunch for a question and answer session. The whole day went really well and I was thrilled with the great questions and comments my kids had. Not bad at all for public school students. They actually stayed after school for an hour to continue the discussion with Professor Kennedy with none of them seeming anxious to leave. It was downright heartwarming for a teacher.

We Murphy's decided to celebrate our Irishness this evening by going to MacCools Public House for dinner. Had me some Buffalo Shepherd's pie and a pint of Guinness. Just in case anyone from Ireland reads this and questions whether Buffalo Shepherd's Pie is authentically Irish, just let me say that's what we Americans do - we take other people's stuff and make it better. I know this for a fact because I have tried to find decent Chinese food in Chinatown in San Francisco and found that it paled in comparison to Panda Express.

The only thing that would have made the day better would be if I had been able to get a run in. 

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Comments(3)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
16.000.000.000.0016.00

Heading up to Jeremy Ranch now for a long run. I'm still a little sore from my "hill blasts" a couple days ago. I love getting old.

Sixteen miles in 2:06 up at Jeremy Ranch.

***JEREMY RANCH ROAD CONDITION REPORT***

99% OF THE ROAD WAS SNOW-FREE FOR THE ENTIRE 7.5 MILE LENGTH. THE ROAD WAS QUITE MUDDY IN SOME PLACES ON THE MORGAN COUNTY SIDE NORTH OF MORMON FLATS. COMPLETELY RUNNABLE NOW. YOU'LL GET A LITTLE MUDDY BUT AIN'T NOTHIN WRONG WITH THAT. 

PM: Push-ups, sit-ups, core stuff. 

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Comments(2)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
11.250.000.000.0011.25

Yes! 

I just read on the Running Times website that the number of U.S. marathon finishers declined last year for the first time since 2001. I have been so ready for the current running boom to end. Hopefully we can all look forward to the day when we don't get shut out of our favorite races in favor of the Oprah wannabes and we don't have to commit to a race 12 months in advance just to be assured a spot.

That's my elitist end zone spike for the week.

PM: 11.25 miles on the treadmill. Started slow, worked up to 6 minute pace.

While I was running I was watching this show called Man vs. Food and all I have to say is WTF is wrong with us as a society? I actually could feel my blood pressure rising as I watched. There was this very fat man trying to consume seven pounds of food while a crowd cheered and encouraged him as if he were accomplishing something worth celebrating. I swear it was like watching a guy slowly committing suicide. If we keep on our present de-evolutionary trajectory I wouldn't be surprised if we are soon watching people play Russian Roulette on The Travel Channel. I mean why make it take a couple decades with a stroke or diabetes? Let's have some instant gratification right before our very eyes.

I should add that I did not choose to watch this show. It just happened to be on the TV in front of the treadmill I was running on. 

Happy Sunday! 

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Comments(16)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
7.500.000.000.007.50

Cross training day...

1.25 mile warm-up on the treadmill.

300 floors on the Stair Master in 36:21. This CRUSHED my old 300 floor PR of 36:52. Once again, 300 floors is supposedly the equivalent of 6.25 miles and by the perceived effort I would say that's pretty close. I was breathing like a hard tempo run. 

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Comments(1)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
12.500.000.000.7513.25

6.25 miles around Sugarhouse Park in the early AM.

 

PM: Kind of a workout...

4.25 mile warm-up.

6 X 200 meters on HH track. 36, 36, 35, 34, 32, 31

2 mile cool down. 

I always enjoy 200s. They require zero mental fortitude but they make you feel really good. No one ever wimped out in a 200. 

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Comments(10)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
4.000.000.000.004.00

Four easy miles.

Interesting article in The Atlantic this month entitled "Why the Rich Don't Give". Apparently the rich donate only 1.3% of their incomes to charity whereas the poor donate 3.2%. This is especially interesting since the rich tend to itemize their deductions and can write off their charitable donations while the poor do not.

Interesting theory as to why this might be true from the article... "the personal drive to accumulate wealth may be inconsistent with the idea of communal support". 

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Comments(2)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
5.502.004.000.0011.50

I did it!

My patented treadmill fartlek. 60 minutes divided into 10 minute increments - 2 minutes at 7mph, 2 at 8 mph, 2 at 9 mph, and  4 at 10 mph. Actually worked up to 5:50 pace for the last couple minutes.

I tried to do this last week and failed. 

I'm also down to 147 pounds. Down about 10 pounds from December. 

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Comments(2)
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(25)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
18.000.000.000.0018.00

Eighteen miles through Sugarhouse and Holladay, many of them with guys way more fit than me. Fun though.

I posted a radical idea on here yesterday - that runners should run fast occasionally if they want to maximize their potential and it generated 23 comments. Later today I will post something equally controversial.

Topped 70 miles for the first time in almost a year. I will max out at 80 this year. All my masters PR's were achieved with me running about 70 mpw so I'm not going to push it. 

OK, here we go...

Any running you do in the three or four days following a hard marathon is a waste of time and potentially harmful. You will not be able to accomplish anything that has any positive impact on your fitness and you slow down your recovery time and risk injury.

Go for leisurely walks instead and monitor your diet closely so you don't gain too much weight.

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Comments(11)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
5.000.000.000.005.00

News Flash...

The USA men won the  silver medal at the World Cross Country Championships today. The Americans actually beat the Kenyan team!

PM: Five miles easy on the wood chip at Liberty Park. Felt good. Could have run further, could have run faster, but didn't. 

 Big shout out to my boys at Florida Gulf Coast University who made it to the Sweet 16! According to CBS Sports.com only .5% of those who filled out brackets made this pick. Count me in that group. When I was filling out my brackets I was looking for an upset special and I noticed that they beat Miami by 12 earlier this year and decided to go with them. Honestly, I never even heard of mighty FGCU even though I grew up in Florida!

I now feel ashamed that I have them losing in the Sweet 16. Should have gone with the Final Four. 

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Comments(5)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
13.250.000.000.0013.25

Spring Break Day 1

1. Woke up, made the kids breakfast, walked them to school. Because it would be too much to ask for my spring break to match up with theirs. One way to avoid taking an expensive vacation I guess.

2. Laid around watching golf, fell back to sleep. Tiger won yet again.

3. Went to Liberty Park and did 13.25 miles on the wood chip in 1:40. Felt great. The path is perfect right now but they are getting ready to ruin it by dumping more wood chip on it making it too soft. I saw the mountains of wood chips by the maintenance area.

4. Ate lunch. Nap time now. 

PM: Walked 2 miles. 

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Comments(1)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
7.000.000.000.007.00

Spring Break Day 2

1. Woke up and ate some strawberry pancakes that Abby made.

2. Walked the kids to school.

3. Had some more coffee and watched Zero Dark Thirty  with Ann.

4. Went for a run in Sugarhouse Park. Seven easy miles plus 6 X 15 seconds up a steep hill at maximum effort. Bent over and gasping for oxygen after each one.

These hill sprints are hard if you really do them right. 

Andy has his 1st and 2nd grade book club tonight for I Survived the Sinking of the Titanic. Abby has her annual  fund raising shake-down of the swim team parents ( a "swim-a-thon") for which I am counting laps. 

PM: Walked a couple miles. 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups/crunches. 

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Comments(3)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
9.250.000.000.009.25

Spring Break Day 3

I started this theme for the week, might as well keep going with it...

1. Woke up, watched Morning Joe with my coffee.

2. Had a smoothie for breakfast.

3. Read for two hours.

4. 9.25 mile run at Liberty Park. Planning a long run tomorrow on the roads so I'm sparing my legs.

5. Lunch at Fiddler's Elbow with Ann. 

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Comments(3)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
17.250.000.000.0017.25

15.25 miles in 1:56.

Beautiful day. I didn't feel as strong towards the end of this run as I would have liked. Oh well, It's not like I've done a pile of 20 milers lately. Or any for that matter. So I don't suppose I have the right to feel strong at the end of a 15 miler yet. 

PM: Two easy treadmill miles plus some strength/core training. Included some plyo box jumps. 


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Comments(3)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
6.250.000.000.006.25

6.25 miles on the treadmill.

We are heading down to Goblin Valley State Park for a couple days of hiking, trail running and Yurting.

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Comments(5)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
13.500.000.000.0013.50

AM: Four mile trail run in Capitol Reef National Park. Took a little day trip for an Easter Egg hunt they were having there.

PM: 9.5 miles at Goblin Valley 

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
11.500.000.000.0011.50

11.5 miles on the roads and OHV trails at Goblin Valley. Nice trip. Topped it all off with a stop in at Ray's Tavern in Green River on the way home. Possibly the best burgers in Utah?

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Comments(1)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
285.504.006.500.75296.75
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
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