Rob Murphy

AM: Three easy miles during cross country practice. I had a ton of kids show up today. Weird because 4th of July week usually equals poor attendance. 

PM: 4.5 easy on the treadmill 

Easy Four miles plus several hours of standing in one place at the side of a swimming pool in American Fork in 100 degree heat timing a kids swim meet.

That's right, I won a race today. Ran the Sandy Classic 10k. This race used to be a big deal and on the circuit and still has a pretty large field. Didn't run the Murray Fun Days 5k because I missed the registration  and there was no race day registration. The city of Sandy was more accommodating than the city of Murray.

Ran without a watch again. Cruised along with a guy in a Southern Utah University singlet (I'm guessing NOT Cam Levins) until he dropped way back. I really enjoyed the police escort - it's been a LONG time! Didn't even really mind the exhaust fumes.

The best thing about this race was that they hand you your prize $ the second you cross the finish line. Seriously, this dude stuffs a $100 dollar bill in my hand as soon as I cross. Talk about instant gratification! The Salt Lake Marathon could learn something from this race...

Now off to march with the kids in our neighborhood 4th of July parade. 

PM: Walked to the gym. Hot! Lifted and did some ploys and core stuff. Walked home. Still hot!

Signed up for a 10k trail race in Park City on Saturday. Third 10k in a week. I guess that's one way to get the tempo runs in. 

Easy recovery run on the treadmill. It rained today in Utah for the first time in forty days - a reverse Noah's Ark situation. So the humidity was 75% when I ran. I actually broke a sweat.

Where to start with this race? Expensive ($40.00 for a local 10K), no POPs so we all had to cram into the park restroom with one stall and no toilet paper, 6.5 miles for the 10K, an awards ceremony 90 minutes after the race, lame age divisions, I was 40-49, and no Masters awards, my award was a pair of socks that won't fit me.

On the plus side, the race organizers, mostly women, tried to mask their incompetence with enthusiasm , good intentions, and cuteness and almost pulled it off, THE COURSE WAS GREAT and well marked and I had a lot of fun racing it, nice pint beer glass instead of another t-shirt I don't need, great location.

The winning time was in the high 39 minute range. The three guys that beat me were 26, 27, and 17. I had a pretty good race with the kid for most of the way - I closed with him on every uphill and he cruised away from me on all the downs. I thought I'd get him in the end but the last quarter mile was downhill and he was faster than me.

Harder course than advertised, some fun downhill switchbacks and lots of uphill and a fair amount of singletrack. I felt like I was flying on the downhills but I'd look at my Garmin and it would be like 6:15 pace. I was breathing harder than my last two races and was actually racing pretty hard despite the time. All in all a fun race and a good workout.

I had to get up and out the door pretty early this morning for this one. Abby woke up early and said she wanted to come with me which was fun. She warmed up with me and was cheering for me at the finish. No extra miles in after the race though because I was hanging out with her and petting all the dogs at the park.

Might bring me in at over 30 miles for the week with three 10K's in the last eight days.

 PM: Two easy miles, weights and iron pumping activities.

I met Jake, Andrea, and Fritz at Jeremy Ranch and 7 am. Ran 14.5 miles in about 1:50. Pretty easy run and lots of yakking. Pace wasn't hard but my legs felt less than zippy.

Saw 2:12 marathoner Patrick Smyth out on the road as well as lots of cows and baby cows.

Heading up to Snowbird now for some alpine sliding, zip lining, and ropes coursing.

Major sweat-fest on the stair master for 330 floors which the machine said was worth seven miles. So I'll go with that.

So I listened to President Obama talk about extending the Bush tax cuts for the virtuous middle class and tightening the screws on those making over $250k. It completely unreasonable how much this country asks of its' citizens - especially compared to previous generations.

In case you all are wondering, I make less than $250k so I'm in the favored group who doesn't need to do any more to help our country. 

Ten miles around Sugarhouse in 1:15. 

96 degrees! 

10.25 miles with my team up at Alta Ski Area.

Today was a very mediocre day for me. I was in this general funk all day and couldn't snap out of it. Not sure why. The run helped a little bit and now I'm having a steak burrito from Barbacoa which is helping a little more.

Stopped on the way up to Alta at 7 Eleven for a free slurpee for Abby and Andy. Something I wouldn't even have known about were it not for Andrea's blog. So I told them to thank Andrea for it next time they see her.

AM: Three easy miles of walking around Sugarhouse Park at XC practice. Had a really good group of kids today. I feel lucky to be their coach.

PM: Went to the gym for a workout on the stair master.

1. Easy warm-up - 25 floors

2. Stretching

3. 459 floors in 60 minutes. Kept the machine between level 9 and 11 most of the time but jacked it up to 14 for a few minutes at the end.

Machine said that was 10 miles total. Pretty fair job channeling my inner Fritz. Although I think Fritz does close  to 600 floors in an hour. It was hard though.

I'm heading to Santa Fe tomorrow morning for a week studying the history of the Indian tribes of the Southwest. Will give me three hours of graduate credit from Adams State College in Colorado. Pretty packed schedule everyday so the running might be hit or miss. 

Easy but achy/creaky/old man run around Sugarhouse before hitting the road this morning.

Fun day of travel and I got to see a new chunk of America.

Got out of the hotel pretty early this morning for the Murphy family - out before 8 AM. Went to the Four Corners and took the obligatory pictures of ourselves in four states. Abby and Andy have been saving money for this trip and they each have (had) about $30.00 so Abby got a Navajo necklace and bracelet and Andy got an arrow which he says he can use to kill a buffalo if we get stranded somewhere. Then we wandered through New Mexico visiting Anasazi ruins and eating a lot of junk food. Made it into our hotel this afternoon for some swimming and an easy four miles on the treadmill.

Lots of push-ups and sit-ups.

I don't have to check in for my class until tomorrow afternoon so I think we're heading up to Taos tomorrow so I can visit Kit Carson's grave and other history geek stuff. 

6.25 miles at 5:30 AM.

6.25 miles at 5:30 AM.

Easy four with some walking.

Don't think I can train and race hard consistently anymore. Haven't had a run without some pain (at least without 800 mg of Ib. ) since February. Not despondent, just need to re-think some things and reevaluate some goals.

Heading to Bandalier National Monument with my class tomorrow. Lots of hiking and meandering through Pueblo ruins. Ann took the kids there today and they feel pretty superior having been their before Dad's "field trip". 

3.25 miles in the early AM.

PM: 2 miles of trail running in Bandalier National Monument. Lots of climbing up and down ladders into Anasazi cliff dwellings and kivas. 

No running.

Class all day. Schmoozing at a fancy wine and cheese museum reception all night. 

Two mile walk/jog with Abby in the trails around our hotel early in the AM.

Five easy trail miles along the Piedras River in southern Colorado - bout 40 miles east of Durango. Staying ant a nifty cabin on national forest land. Have a twelve mile long dirt road in front of my cabin that runs up the Piedras River Valley. Great run planned for the morning before heading back to Salt Lake.

The kids and Ann went horseback riding while I ran. 

We were actually thinking of driving all the way back today but we stumbled on these cabins, probably built in the 20s or 30s, and had to stay. $72.00/night and it's the classic old knotty pine cabin with a full kitchen including 1950s era refrigerator. No TV, no cell phone reception, no wi-fi. We are a few miles down the road now at the Chimney Rock Taven which has free foosball, shuffleboard, and wi-fi.

www.chimneyrockrestaurantandtavern.com

May be a new favorite place. Almost perfect for running. 

Easy trail run in Colorado this morning before heading home. Wanted to go a bit longer but I didn't get started early enough. Great run though.

Good to be home. 

A great new Dos Equis "most interesting man in the world" commercial I saw today...

"His small talk has been known to alter foreign policy"

"He once ran a marathon because it was on his way"

"Sasquatch takes pictures of him"

Stay thirsty my friends! 

Good gully run with my boys - 7.25 miles in 55:30. 

I'm kind of agonizing over whether to run Des News or not. Of course the marathon is out of the question since I only average about 40 miles/week these days and I weigh 155 pounds. If I run the 10k I could probably win$250 since most of the fast guys are running the marathon.

 Then there's the streak. I ran my first Des News in 2002, three weeks after I moved to Utah and haven't missed one since. I've also won the masters division in either the marathon or the 10k six out of the last seven years - partly because I run whatever race Steve Anderson isn't running, but still...

OK, I did it signed up for the 10K. I'm really not sure if my legs are ready for those downhills but I'm going to gulp some vitamin I and go for it. 

Today I set a PR for 5.9 miles as I was part of a large group of runners that took a shortcut. I knew we were following the marathon route and not the 10k route but since everyone in front of me was going the wrong way, I thought what the heck.

I won my age group and finished second behind Walter in the masters race. Came through 5k in 17:00.I'm not unhappy with this considering my lack of running, zero quality running, and excess of abdominal flab.

What I love about this race is the huge number of high school kids that run. They all go out too fast and it gives you a lot of people to pass the last few miles. Better than being passed.

Why are there hundreds of people these days running 10k's who dress like they're running the Hardrock 100 or something? How much fluid and calories does one need to ingest during a 10k?

After the race I walked back along the marathon course and ran some with Fritz (1st), Sasha (3rd), and Steve Anderson (4th) as they finished the marathon. Awesome showing for this here blog.

I just learned that Ryan Hall and I are both 5' 10" tall but that he weighs 134 pounds while I weigh 154 pounds.

I wonder if that is significant? 

AM: Three mile walk around Sugarhouse Park during cross country practice. Legs still sore from the race Tuesday. I'm not as young as some people on this blog or as tough as others.

I'm going to share a simple experience I had today in order to make a semi-profound point. One of the annoying facts about moving to a new town is finding a decent place to get your hair cut. When I lived in South Carolina I went to the McAallister Square Barber Shop for most of fifteen years and the same guy cut my hair the whole time. It was what a man's barber shop is supposed to look like. Barber pole out front, chairs that were from the 1930s or so, plastic combs and Vitalis for sale by the cash register, a baseball or football game on the TV, lots of sports talk. Most importantly, no women, either cutting hair or as customers.

When I moved to Utah in 2002 I took the path of least resistance one day and went to a Supercuts. Big mistake! Problem is I got sucked into it out of convenience - they are everywhere, you don't need an appointment, and it's quick. So for ten years that's what I've been doing. Sometimes I end up with a decent haircut, but generally not.

So I needed to get my haircut today and I was thinking about how I actually used to look forward to getting my hair cut going all the way back to when I was kid with my dad. So while I was at cross country practice this morning I decided that when I got home I would google "best barber shop in Salt Lake" and go there.

So I ended up at Ray's Barbershop on 21st South and it was everything I was looking for. Excellent haircut, lots of autographed Jazz and Ute jerseys on the wall along with framed black and white photos going back years. Extra touches like actually shaving the back of your neck with hot lather and a straight razor, eyebrow trim (important when you get over 40!), and the old school shoulder rub at the end. And no women in sight. I remember back in the 70s and 80s when "unisex" styling salons became popular. It seems to me that "unisex" simply meant that the men were now going to start looking more like women. Probably acting more like women too as the atmosphere of these places is noticeably less masculine than the traditional barber shop.

Now here's where I want to make a larger point. Much has been written lately about how we are becoming more and more stratified and segmented as a society. Income disparity is at an all time high with the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer and a shrinking middle class. Lots of things are status symbols today that didn't used to be. Like getting your haircut. Remember when presidential candidate John Edwards took flak for his $400 haircut a few years ago? Rich people not longer get their hair cut and the same places as everyone else and this is a bad thing. We used to have what sociologists call "leveling" experiences all the time in our daily interactions. In small town America sixty years ago every man got his hair cut at the same barbershop - the doctor in the chair next to the construction worker. Everybody used to shop at the same grocery store too until Whole Foods came along and made that a sign of status as well. So we have fewer places where people of different classes mingle and share conversation and we become more and more polarized as a society. I could go further into the whole concept of gated communities and the like but I'm running out of steam. 

http://raysbarbershopslc.com

Oh, and apologies to Jake and Bret who probably can't relate to any of this :) 

PM: Eight easy miles. Or at least as easy as it can be at 100 degrees. But according to weather.com it only "feels like" 94. Whatever. 

Seven miles at 7:30 pace around the neighborhood and Millcreek. Ran into Jake for a couple miles which helped me break out of my 8 minute pace rut. Hot again.

Good burrito at Chipotle for lunch. Read an article about how they think they are saving the world with their food. 

14.25 miles in 1:48 on the dirt road at Jeremy Ranch. Legs still a little sore and very sluggish. 71 degrees at the start, 81 at the finish. Tough run for me but I'm glad I did it.

Why does this run seem more uphill every time I do it? I actually thought about running that 150 foot drop per mile half marathon down in Utah County today but I'm glad I didn't now.Who knows how long it would have taken me to recover from that!

Jake brought up a good point that I knew but had forgotten about American distance running legend Pat Porter who died this week in a plane crash in Arizona. If you remember the Prefontaine movie Without Limits, it was Porter who played Lasse Viren in the movie. Nothing like getting an 8 time USA cross country champion to make the running scenes look believable. 

Took the kids swimming at the Steiner pool and frozen yogurt after. Another 100 degree day here in Salt Lake. Watching Olympic beach volleyball now. Not a bad Saturday.

Zero running today.Washed some dishes. Did a load of laundry. Watched a lot of Olympics.

8.25 miles in the gully with my team.

PM: Swam one mile at the 24 Hour Fitness Pool. Enjoyed a feeling of general well-being. 

AM: Three mile walk just to get out of the house because the kids were driving me crazy. I had the first inkling that it might be time to go back to work.

PM: 7.5 miles on the treadmill.