Rob Murphy

Seven miles in the gully. Lots of hills.

19 miles in  2:23:27. I classified these as "easy" miles, but they were mostly uphill to the top of Emmigration Canyon and then down to the original Deseret News Marathon starting line at the golf course near I-80. I really pushed it to the summit of Little Mountain.

Mom, who's still visiting from Florida, Ann, and the kids picked me up at the top and I changed clothes in the car and we hung around Park City for the afternoon. Had a Buffalo Burger at Squatters Brew Pub. A good day. Ogden Marathon in 13 days. I'm ready for it, but still uncertain about my schedule that weekend. Bummer, because I'm eager to meet Jeff from Idaho Falls, and also to find some way to at least be in the same neighborhood as Steve Anderson for a few miles.

Just did an easy one mile warm-up on the treadmill before a fairly hard strength/core workout.

I did an easy six miles around Sugarhouse Park. Included six fast striders on the Highland football field barefoot.

7.5 miles in 52 minutes. Ran the middle 3 in 18 minutes.

I had a nice early morning run today. Alta is hosting our region track meet this week, so getting out the door at 4:45 is the only option. I ran a little over nine miles around the Sugarhouse area and the park. The sun was just starting to come up as I finished. Cold for May - 35 degrees.

I ran "extreme gully" today with Garrett Jones. 13 miles in 1:36:09. The run consists of about 7.5 miles of rolling hills on the roads and about 5.5 miles of hilly trail with lots of sand and wood chip. It was a great day for running - sunny, light breeze, about 60.

Well, I won't be running Ogden next weekend which is why I ramped my mileage up again today. Both Garrett and Ryan Fuller qualified for state and so I'll be down in Provo coaching my runners. I'll miss running the race, but would much rather be with "my boys". I'll focus on Utah Valley in June. 

Mile repeats today on the Highland High track. I ran 5:25, 5:20. 5:18 with a 400 meter walk/jog recovery in between. Pretty tough after yesterday's run.

Republicans here in Utah ousted Senator Bob Bennett today essentially for being too liberal. Democrats forced congressman Jim Matheson into a primary because he's too conservative. So we are forcing both parties to the extremes. I may move my family to a state where sanity is more common. Any suggestions?

22 miles in 2:39. It was a hard run today with a lot of hills and I struggled, mentally at least, more than I have in my previous long runs this year. Hopefully it was the hard training on Friday and Saturday. Anyway, it was still nice to get another long run "in the bank".

Finished up at Liberty Park and met mom, Ann, and the kids at the playground. They had the kiddie water fountains and guysers shooting out of the ground on finally and Andy had lots of fun running through them and getting soaked. Had a late lunch/early dinner at the Olive Garden for Mother's Day. The kids made both Ann and grandma breakfast in bed this morning.

Zero miles today. I did go for a leisurely two mile walk.

Another day of no running. First time since December I've missed two consecutive days.

Today I left school a little early and headed to downtown Salt Lake so I could run up City Creek Canyon. I didn't really have a plan for the run - just wanted to get in a few miles with some hard efforts. So I headed up the canyon and about 7 miles up I encountered stinging hail and had to turn around because of ice and snow in the road.

14 miles in  1:42:35. Mile 9 in 5:57, mile 10 in 5:58, mile 12 in 5:36. These were downhill miles so it wasn't too hard, but the fast turnover was good for my legs I think.

I ran an easy six miles today around the neighborhood and Sugarhouse Park.

Also did about an hour of lifting. Included 3 sets of 12 squats with 145 lbs.

At the state track meet at BYU today we had a "coaches run" after the 1600 wrapped up. I went with Timo from American Fork, Tom Porter from Skyline, and Bill Cobbler from East. Really nice run with lots of good conversation up the Provo river trail and back.

Another run with the coaches today, After the 3200 we did an easy 6+ through Provo. I had sort of plannde to take the day off. The 14 miler up and down City Creek Canyon on Wednesday and the heavy squats on Thursday really did a number on my quads. But I couldn't turn down the coaches run.

A good long run today despite still having sore quads before I even started. I left at 5:45 so I could be done in time to sleep through church. Sometimes it's hard to stay awake under the best of circumstances, but after rolling out of bed at 4:30 for 23 miles it's virtually impossible.

Looking foreward to the Bees game this afternoon (the Bees are our baseball team here in Salt Lake - the AAA affiliate of the Los Angeles Angels).

I wasn't sure I was going to run today ot take a rest day. I ended up doing a fairly easy 7 miles on the treadmill. It was a good compromise as I feel the treadmill is a little easier on the legs.

On the treadmill...

1 mile warm-up.

4 X 2 Miles with a 1/4 mile jog interval. Times were 12:20, 12:00, 11:56, 11:56

This is a hard workout to do at my gym which is very warm and it's hard to keep my sweat from flying all over the people on the TM next to me - as there is about one inch of space between the machines. Also, there's the people who want to engage in conversation when you're cruising along at 5:50 pace. Usually after a couple minutes of me responding with short grunts they leave me alone.

AM: Easy 4.75 miles around Sugarhouse Park.

PM: 6.5 mile run - mostly trails, sand, wood chip.

Also did some lifting at the gym. Soaked in the hot tub after.

Really easy 5 miles in Sugarhouse Park.

Today was an interesting workout and I would really appreciate some comments/criticism from anyone who has an opinion.

I have felt a real lack of motivation the last couple days. Yesterday I struggled through 5 miles feeling like a turd most of the way. This afternoon I headed out for my run and it was worse. I just felt slow, lethargic, crappy. Finally, after 6 miles, I bailed on the run and went over to the Highland High track. On the spur of the moment I decided to run 12 X 200 with a 200 walk/jog recovery. This is the type of workout I havent done in decades - but man it felt good. I started out running 35 seconds and worked my way down to 32 at the end.

The bottom line is I was able to salvage a horrible run. At the end, I felt really good about myself as a runner. Somethng just told me, "run fast 200s". I know that no marathon training plans (I'm running one in 4 weeks) proscribe fast 200s, but sometimes its important to just go with your gut.

It will be interesting to see how I feel tomorrow.

AM: Easy 2 miles

PM: 11:25 miles in 1:20. I tacked on the extra .25 to make it an even 80 for the week.

An observation... I was running at Sugarhouse Park where they were holding bicycle races (criteriums I believe they call them) all day. Let me just say that cyclists are much more likely to be extroverted type A types than runners. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing, but as a group, I prefer runners.

Probably the last 20 miler before the marathon June 12th. I ran an even 20 averaging 7:10. I ran the 16th mile in 5:50 and threw in several fast surges in the last mile to hopefully acclimate myself to doing that in the latter stages of a marathon.

I felt good today. The weather was nice - no wind and sunny, just cool enough to wear gloves which made it perfect. Now, how to taper for a couple weeks without getting fat. I know, I could practice not eating everything in sight.

Rest day.

I went for a 3 mile walk.

Five miles on the treadmill.

Also lifted weights at the gym for about an hour.

AM: Left at 4:30 this morning. I ran 11 miles at 7:40 pace. That was pushing it as it's really hard for me to get under eight minute pace that early.

Nice walk around the block with Abby after the run. She is an early riser like me and we've started going for walks around the neighborhood around sun up.  

Just an easy run - except for the 5am part of it.

Today I did the Gully Long Run (very hilly, sand, wood chip trail) in 47 minutes. After that I did six steep hill repeats on a 250 meter hill at close to maximum effort. I ran them hard enough so that I was in extreme distress after each. Good times!

Finished with a weight workout. But fewer sets than I usually do. 

This morning I did a 16 mile run from the I-80 overpass in East Canyon to the summit of Little Mountain and then down Emmigration Canyon to my house. My wife dropped me off at the top of the canyon at 8:30. It was 40 degrees with a steady rain.The rain turned to snow at the top of Little Mountain. Perfect for Memorial Day weekend. I noticed it was 88 degrees today in Minneapolis. I should move to a warm state - like Minne-freakin-sota!!

The first 3.75 miles of this run are all uphill before dropping down into Salt Lake. Here's my splits:

7:42, 8:08, 7:29, 7:37, 6:18, 6:22, 6:02, 6:02, 6:01, 6:04, 5:56, 5:54, 5:53, ( 1:26:07 for 13.1), 6:43, 7:05, 7:19.

Ran by Ruth's Diner in Emmigration Canyon about 10 miles into the run. The smell of bacon while I'm running can drive me insane with hunger. All I can say is it's a good thing I didn't have my credit card with me. I might have had to make a pit stop.

I was going to take the day off, but it was so incredibly nice outside this morning that I just had to run. Went 6.25 in 47:30. Great run.

Took a complete rest day and also ate too much junk. I need to remember to use some discipline the next couple weeks.

4 miles of walking.