Rob Murphy

I ran the Gully Long Run today a bit quicker than I have in the past few weeks. 46:50.

Beautiful day today for early November. Sunny, clear, close to 60.

Today I ran the "Extreme Gully" run - a route I discovered earlier this year with Garrett Jones. It's 13 miles, very hilly, about half road and half trail. I generally took it easy today with most of the miles between 7:20 and 8:00. I did decide to open it up a little bit between mile 10 and 11 and ran 5:42.

1:39 total for 13 miles.

Off to vote now... 

Is it ok to give yourself credit for a half mile of running?

I was feeling pretty pounded today after yesterday's run and three hardish days in the last four. So I just went for a walk while Abby was swimming. Jogged a little bit.

There's a great article in the New Yorker (not the place you usually find great running articles) about Alberto Salazar and his efforts to transform Dathan Ritzenheim. I Highly reccoment it.

The article has a great description of Salazar these days...

Despite his injuries, Salazar still runs, and when we meet him one morning early this fall he arrived in a turquoise Livestrong T-shirt and old gray shorts. With his long legs and short hair, he retains an intimidating lankiness, though he moves stiffly, with a lock-jointed gait like the canter of an elderly racehorse.

I don't think I want to be described that way when I'm fifty-two. That's only six years from now. I bet I might have as many miles on my legs as Salazar, having run my first race in1978, and being at this fairly consistently for over thirty years.I think about this a lot. The thing is, this sport means a lot to me. It's not just the ability to run either, it's the ability to compete at a relatively high level. I hope I can remain healthy enough to do it for decades to come. Unfortunately, there are many days when I feel like Salazar is described in the article.

am: Two mile walk followed by some stretching and  breakfast on the couch in the basement with Abby while watching Sponge Bob. Oatmeal with strawberries..

pm: Great run after my second period class. Ambled over to the gully for the Gully Long Run in 49 minutes. Ran without a shirt in November! Nice Vitamin D boost.

Sat in the sauna for 15 minutes after to sweat. Now I'm back at my desk feeling happy and content. Time now to focus on the societal and cultural changes of the 1840s 

This race was the best of times and the worst of times for me.

It started out really well. I moved into the lead at around 6 miles and ran by myself for the next 5.5 miles. I'm not completely sure why, but I really felt good. I came through 10 miles in 55:50. At 11 miles I looked back and couldn't see anybody which kind of surprised me since Jeff Shadley was in the race and also Rob Rhode who I knew had run a 2:51 this summer at the Deseret News Marathon and is improving rapidly.

At this point I decided to relax a bit in case Jeff or Rob closed the gap I would have something in the tank. But mostly I wanted to enjoy the last couple miles of what I thought would be my first race win in many years. And at 46, maybe my last?

Then it all fell apart. I missed a crucial turn just after the 11 mile point - actually the only turn on the entire course. Maybe they could have had someone at that turn just in case the first place runner happened to be a moron? When I finally realised something was wrong about a half mile later, I slowed down and walked a bit. Then I stood by the side of the road looking very confused I'm sure, then I doubled back at about a 7 minute pace. Eventually I came to where I should have turned and finished the race. But I wasn't running very hard as I was thouroughly depressed and couldn't see anyone ahead of me or behind me.

I hit the split button on my Garmin at 13:1 - 1:15:30. But I'm pretty sure I would have run around 1:14 if I hadn't screwed up which would have been a PR. Even so, it was only 3 seconds slower than my pr which was pretty good considering all the time I wasted deciding whether I should double back or not.

Rob, Jeff, and another guy passed me when I was running my bonus mile and so I finished 4th, running 13.9 miles in 1:20ish. Great day for Rob running 1:17.

And now, the Utes are getting crushed by TCU.

Oh, and one more thing... this race had stew, chili, and cornbread at the finish, and basically all you could eat, which was awesome. I was thinking how great a certain sudsy, grain based beverage would go with my Chili. Pocatello may be in Idaho, but it ain't that far into Idaho. I ate my fill and regretted it several times on the 2 1/2 hour drive home. I suspect there's a reason most races opt for bananas and other "gentle" things.

A BIG HUGE HEARTY CONGRATULATIONS TO MY BUDDY BRET (BRET.FASTRUNNINGBLOG.COM) FOR HIS 3:01:17 AT THE NEW YORK MARATHON TODAY!!!! THIS IS A SEVERAL MINUTE PR FOR HIM MANY, MANY YEARS AFTER HIS LAST PR.

Bret and I were high school teammates in Dunedin Florida back in the early 1980s. He doesn't know it, but he will be running 2:50 or faster within a year.

I'm really sore today and my right hammy is really tight today, so I just went for a three mile walk.Still bummed about yesterdays race, but I'm really encouraged by what I would have run. The more I think about it, the more certain I am that I would have run a 1:14 or faster. I think now that I can run a 1:13 at Austin in January so I'm going to make that the focus of my training.

Continuing my week of taking it easy and cross training.

4 miles on the eliptical and then walked a fast mile on the treadmill. Burned about 750 calories according to the, no doubt, perfectly accurate machines.

3.5 miles early this morning in the snow. Alternated walking and "Yogging" as Ron Burgundy would say.

Managed to avoid running for yet another day. I think it takes almost as much willpower to take a week off as it does to train hard. I did 5.25 miles on the elipticccl device and walked another mile on the treadmill at 4.2 mph and 5 % elevation.

Ann and I are going out to dinner tonight. Our regular babysitter grew up and got a career and we haven't found a replacement. But my mother-in law is in town so we're taking advantage of that. It's been a long, long time since we had a date.

Gully Long Run in 50 minutes.

Complete rest day

am: Went to the gym at 8 am and did three miles easy on the treadmill followed by a strength workout - about 2/3 of normal since I haven't done any lifting for a couple weeks and didn't want to be too sore.

pm: Great run this afternoon with Steve Anderson. Steve brought his girls down from Logan to go to my daughter Abby's 10th birthday party. Steve and I were able to squeeze in a 7 mile run around Sugarhouse Park. First time I ever ran with Steve outside of a race. Felt wierd to not be desperately trying to at least keep him in view.

10.25 miles in 1:21:38 (7:58). For an easy 10 mile run at 8 minute pace, I feel a little too achy right now. Knees, shins, left hamstring, lower quads all have what I would call "low grade pain" - not injury type pain, but still a concern. I'll have to remember that rest and recovery should be more important now than any mileage or race goals.

I've been thinking a lot over the weekend about how I can continue improving as a runner as I approach my late 40s. In your 20s and 30s, the formula is pretty simple - train harder. At my age you will, of course, improve with more consistent training. However, the need to balance hard training with rest and recovery becomes more crucial and finding that balance can be troublesome.

For me, the issue comes down to weight. In 2009 I ran a 2:52 marathon and a 1:18 half marathon with a typical race day weight of 153 pounds. In 2010 I ran a 2:43 and a 1:15 and I weighed 145 on race day. For 2011, I have set a goal of 1:13 for the half marathon (either in Austin or Salt Lake) and sub 2:40 for the marathon (at Ogden hopefully). I think I'll have to weigh around 138 to 140 to accomplish that.

 I've made quite a few positive changes to my diet in the past few years which have helped me improve as a runner. However, as I think about my diet, I can still see plenty of room for improvement. So I've decided to use this blog to record what I eat every day as well as my training activities. I'm going to be completely honest and I think writing it down will help me get rid of some embarrassing  habits.

So, here we go.

Breakfast - at 6 am I had two pieces of peanut butter toast on honey whole wheat bread, a glass of OJ, multi-vitamin, 2 fish oil tablets. Two cups of coffee.

Mid morning: One big banana

Lunch - A pile of pasta-noodle stuff with cauliflower, carrots and Swedish meatballs from IKEA. They sell more than furniture!  Lots of water.

Afternoon snack: Cliff Bar and a few handfuls of peanuts!

 Dinner: Stuffed Chicken and Rice with a sourdough roll. Water

Today's Run: 7.5 miles on the treadmill generally between 8 and 9 mph.

I give up after one day. No more blogging about what I eat. It bores me. Although tonight I had some pretty good meat loaf.

Ran 1.5 miles on the treadmill at the gym before the tm broke and all the other ones were taken. Then did 4 miles on the eliptical machine. 

Two thing I highly reccomend everybody buy...

1. The new Bruce Springsteen album (that's right, I still say album) called The Promise that came out today.They are all songs he wrote in the late 70s when Springsteen was being sued by his record company and prohibited by court order from recording. So he amassed a huge pile of great songs he never released - until now. The E Street band never sounded better. If you don't like Springsteen I don't know what to say to you.

2. A great new book by Laura Hillenbrand (author of Seabiscuit) called Unbroken. It's the story of Lou Zamperini, one of the great American distance runners of the 1930s and 40s who became an Army Air Corps bomber pilot in World War II. He was shot down over the Pacific and spent days on a flimsy raft in shark infested waters before being captured by the Japanese and then enduring years of torture and mental cruelty. Zamperini is still alive in his mid 90s. The book looks like a great mix of running and history - obviously something I can't resist. This will be a huge bestseller and, no doubt, a movie as well.

Great run tonight. I got a late start because of an after school AP review and so was racing the sundown. I ended up doing nine very hilly miles mostly on trails but was running out of daylight. The temperature also dropped substantially after the sun dropped behind the mountains and so I kept picking up the pace in order to stay warm. Ran the last 2 miles in 11:50 and felt really good.

Read Unbroken whenever I got a spare minute today. Dude ran the 5000 at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and ran the last 400 in 56 seconds en route to a 14:12. The coach in me suspects he had some pacing issues.

am: five miles on the treadmill in 37:30. Followed that with a shortened strength/core workout - push-ups, sit-ups, crunches, dips, pull-ups, lower back extensions etc. Ran out of time, had to make it back to school to teach some kids some stuff. 

pm: 7.25 miles in 49 minutes on treadmill. Started at 8.1 mph and went up .1 every 2 minutes until I ran 10.1 mph from 40 to 42 minutes. Ran a 7 minute cool down.

Today was pretty much a planned day off since I am off all next week. I figured that since I had 9 straight days off I'd want to run on all of them since I'll have few distractions.

Fairly hard treadmill workout today.

1.25 mile warm-up

9.52 miles in 60 minutes - average of 6:17. Started at 9.1 mph and worked up to 10.2 for the last 5 minutes. 10k split was 39:52.

half mile cool down.

First real winter run of the season. I measured 8 inches of snow on top of my car this morning. We had a busy morning in church with the kiddos singing in both services so I didn't get going on my run until after noon. Ran 11.5 through Sugarhouse and had to endure some heavy eye-stinging pellet snow and high winds. Actually sort of enjoyed it.

A Deseret News photographer took my picture running  in the park and then flagged me down to ask me my name. So If you see a crazy man in the paper running through a blizzard - that's me.

am: Six cold miles around Sugarhouse Park. 48:50

I had to get to the gym early this morning because, if you listen to the Weather Channel, we are about to experience a blizzard that will bring an end to civilization in the Salt Lake Valley. So, I needed to get in a quality workout before that happenes.

1.25 mile warm-up, 8.6 miles in one hour, a little over a mile cool down.

Took a while to get into the run. I have a pretty bad cold.

Cold - 20 degrees and sunny, wind finally stopped after 3 days. So it felt great to be outside.

12.5 miles in 1:39. I felt pretty good today, so it was hard to keep the pace at 8 minutes. But I'm doing a hard 15 tomorrow so I had to.

I had a great run today with Jon Kotter, one of my former runners at Alta who now runs for BYU. Jon is a 28:48 10k guy on the track, so I felt really self conscious about my pathetic pace the entire run. But I'm glad he humored me.

We ended up running 15.5 miles in 1:58:22 (7:38). We meandered up through the University of Utah campus, down along the D-News 10k route into downtown, through the Gateway and then back to my house via Liberty Park.

According to my Garmin I burned 1,777 calories. How many pieces of pumpkin pie is that?

One mile on the elliptical, four miles easy on the treadmill.

I wanted to do 20 today but questioned my motivation. So I did what I always do in that case and did an out and back run up Emigration Canyon.Once you get 10 miles out, you pretty much have to run 20 right?

Time was 2:33:20. 23 degrees at the start, cloudy.

Hope to devote the rest of the day to football. I'll try to force my kids to watch with me so I can call it family time.

Planned day off.

Does snow shoveling count as cross training? Also made a bunch of Christmas cookies thanks to the Shadley family. 

9.25 miles in 1:09:29 (7:30). Hilly run around the Sugarhouse Park road.

Felt great this afternoon. Had to fight the urge to really open it up, but I have a hard day planned for tomorrow.

am: Easy 6.25 around Sugarhouse. Cold - 5 degrees, lightweight cotton gloves not cutting it.

pm: 8 miles on treadmill in 57 minutes. Also did some core exercises, push-ups and sit-ups while watching Rudolph the Red Nosed Raindeer.