Rob Murphy

September 2018

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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
131.990.000.000.00131.99
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
6.000.000.000.006.00

6 miles on the treadmill after the meet.

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
6.240.000.000.006.24

AM: Up and down Grandeur Peak. Much needed.

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
8.000.000.000.008.00

AM: 8 miles on the Jeremy Ranch Road.

PM: 5 mile walk around Liberty Park.

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
0.000.000.000.000.00

No running. Attended a rock and roll concert inthe PM.

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
0.000.000.000.000.00

Nothing

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
0.000.000.000.000.00

Zero...

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
0.000.000.000.000.00

Another zero...2 mile walk.

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
6.000.000.000.006.00

Six miles.

"If that's the kind of quitter you are".

That's what my 10th grade cross country coach said to me in Apple Valley, Ca in the fall of 1980 when I told him I needed to cut a workout short due to my sore achilles tendon. I walked to the edge of the track crying and after sitting out one rep I rejoined the team and finished the workout. "What about your achilles" my coach asked. I told him that I rubbed it some and did a little stretching and it felt better. The truth is there was nothing wrong with my achiiles. It was hot, I felt like crap, and I was getting my ass kicked by the older guys on the team. Turns out what he said was exactly what I needed to hear.

I had a lot of admiration for Coach Lonsinger. He was a successful coach nearing the end of his career, a World War II veteran. I did not want him to think me a quitter.

But what if he had made the wrong call? What if I really had been injured and had ruptured my achilles? Then he would have just been a jerk. I wonder if there are guys out there who had the love of training and competition drummed out of them by the callous and insensitive Coach Lonsinger?

It's hard being a coach and trying to motivate dozens of different athletes. When to employ a little tough love and when a more compassionate approach is needed. Shifting gears from 14 year-old newbies to 18 year-old state champions. Adapting to the different natures of boys and girls. We all need to be sports psychologists.  

I always go back to why we even bother to have high school athletics in the United States. Most countries don't. Presumably its because we believe that there are some lessons that can be learned through competition that can't be learned in the classroom. I actually believe this but only if we train and compete a certain way. That scene in Without Limits comes to mind when Bowermann says "If you can find meaning in the kind of running you'll have to do to remain on this team, chances are you'll be able to find meaning in that other absurd passtime - life".

We want our runners to approach it that way. We want them all to develop a little more grit. We want them to learn to pull things out of themselves they never thought were in them. We know this isn't easy and that a couple tears might have to be shed and some aches and pains dealt with along the way. I'm thankful to have had a couple coaches that taught me that.

We coaches make mistakes working with other peoples children. I know I have. We feel the same range of emotions our athletes do. We feel the triumph and the frustration, the anger and the elation. Sometimes we end up dealing with athletes at the same time we're dealing with those negative emotions. We make the wrong call. We have to remind ourselves that our interactions and decisions with our runners need to be guided by love and compassion even when we may come across as cranky and frustrated. Our runners need to sense this. I hope they're thinking, "man, Coach Murphy seems really pissed off now and is kind of being a jerk but I know he cares about me and has my best interest in his heart". Hopefully they will if we've taken the necessary time to build relationships with them.

But even with knowing all this and after 23 years under my belt, sometimes I fall short.

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
6.500.000.000.006.50

AM: Easy spin around the Foothill Loop before sunup.

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
4.000.000.000.004.00

PM: 4 miles around Liberty Park.

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
6.000.000.000.006.00

PM: 6 miles at Jeremy Ranch. 

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
0.000.000.000.000.00

PM: Walked 4 miles plus some push-ups, step-ups and such assorted calisthenics.

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
7.250.000.000.007.25

PM: 7.25 miles on the Pipeline. It's been a few weeks since I've been up there and I dare say it was lovely.

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
3.500.000.000.003.50

PM: I jogged home from Andy's baseball game.

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
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AM: 5 mile hike at Alta Ski Area.

PM: Walked to the gym. Lifted weights. Swam. Hot tubbed.

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

PM: Up and down Grandeur Peak.

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
10.000.000.000.0010.00

PM: The team took a bus up to Jeremy Ranch for practice today. I ran 10 miles on the road plus a little out and back on the Pony Express Trail. 

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
2.000.000.000.002.00

PM: Jogged 2 miles.

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

PM: The hilly rout on the Pipeline Trail to Elbow Fork. Perfect Fall day. Had a low key family birthday for Andy tonight. 13 years old.

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
4.750.000.000.004.75

AM: 4.75 miles around Sandy.

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

AM: 6.25 miles around Liberty Park while Andy was at batting practice. 

Hats off to my #1 runner, Ian Valentine, who ran 15:26 yesterday at the Salt Lake XC Classic which was only good for 11th place. I remember when 15:26 would win races!

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

AM: Grandeur Peak run pretty hard. Got going before 7 am.

Time to find a winter racing goal. 

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
7.250.000.000.007.25

PM: Gully running at XC practice. Bordered on cool today. Sitting at parent teacher conferences now until 8 pm. 

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
0.000.000.000.000.00

PM: No running today, just a 2 mile walk at xc practice...

Ann got in a wreck today so I had to leave school for a while to pick her up, rent a car, doctor etc. Not her fault and the other driver was insured. Just a bit of whiplash and a totaled 2007 Hyundai SUV with 200,000 miles.

Parent teacher conferences again tonight until 8 pm.

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Comments(6)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
3.000.000.000.003.00

PM: 3 mile run home from Andy's baseball game.

I spent another day battling those who would fix what ain't broken in education.

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
10.000.000.000.0010.00

AM: 2 mile walk

PM: 10 mile trail run on the Pipeline

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
4.000.000.000.004.00

4 miles in Park City. Lots of back and forth at the Park City Invitational.

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

Ran to the gym - 4.25 miles of helixing and weights - ran home.

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

AM: What is becomming my weekly Sunday run up and down Grandeur Peak.

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
131.990.000.000.00131.99
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
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