Rob Murphy

Ridiculously easy four miles in the snow.

am: 8.5 miles on the treadmill in 60 minutes.

pm: Worked on being speedy again...

1.75 mile warm-up

5 x 1/2 mile in 2:36 with 1/4 mile recovery jog

Cool down

Now off to TCBY to celebrate George Washington's and Abraham Lincoln's birthdays. The kids wanted Ann to make a cake but she refused to do so for "dead presidents". So we're going to TCBY instead.

Just read an interesting post on the letsrun.com message board from Renato Canova, the famous Italian coach of Kenyan runners. Said one of their favorite marathon workouts is 5 x 5000 meters at pace with a 1000 meter recovery. Might have to try that one...

Ran 6.25 miles on the treadmill today with a short, but pretty hard strength/plyo workout after. Tired now. Need to focus on getting 7 to 8 hours sleep every now and then instead of my normal 6.

9 x 1/4 mile in 75 seconds (12 mph) on the treadmill. 2% elevation on the first 5, 2.5% on the last 4.

1/4 mile jog recovery.

Warm-up and cool-down was a total of 7.5 miles.

Why nine quarters? Because I didn't feel like doing ten and I try not to be obsessed with round numbers.

Rested. Hung out with the family. Didn't run.

TEN THINGS I MOST LIKE ABOUT UTAH (IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER)

10. Close driving proximity to about 15 National Parks.

9. Fish tacos at Lone Star on Fort Union Blvd.

8. The Red Iguana (rediguana.com)

7. Jerry Sloan. I've decided to replace the coach with the new Epic Brewery downtown.

6. Trail running at Alta.

5. The Fabulous Alta Peruvian Lodge.

4. Train stuff - Heber Valley Railroad, Golden Spike National Monument.

3. The Utah running scene and people.

2. City Creek Canyon.

1. "Quirky" state history. 

I posted this list because I have had several conversations lately with friends from out of state where the "why do you live in Utah" question came up. I would say that these are the little things (except #3 and #10 - those are pretty big for me) I like most about Utah. 

Oh yeah, my run. Just an easy seven with six 1 minute efforts at about 5:30 pace to loosen up a bit for the SLTC Winter 15k tomorrow.

Only one week until the USATF Masters Indoor T&F Championships in Albuquerque. I'll be running the mile and the 3000. A huge change from my normal routine! I'll probably reduce my mileage down to 30 or 40, focusing on rest and speed.

Steve Anderson will be joining me as well along with my good high school friend and Best Man at my wedding, Doug Covert from Tallahassee Fl. dugco.fastrunningblog.com. Doug is a sprinter and will be running the 200 and 400. It will be fun seeing all us old guys trying to run fast. And, believe it or not, I haven't seen Doug since July 2, 1994 - the day I got married. Although we have kept in touch it will be great to reacquaint in person.

Wrapped up the Salt Lake Track Club Winter Series today with the 15k. When I went to bed last night I was doubtful that I would run today. Lots of snow and very windy and I didn't want to race if it wasn't possible to get a quality time that I could compare to previous efforts. When I woke up this morning it was still snowing but the wind had calmed down quite a bit.

Met Steve Anderson at the start and warmed up with him. Also saw Dennis Simonaitis once again so it was a loaded masters field. OK, the race...

My time was 54:50 which was 29 seconds faster than last year with this years race being run in vastly inferior conditions. The course is out and back and there was a strong headwind the first half and I was, as usual, all alone. I was pretty fired up about having the wind at my back for the last half of the race though. But when I hit the turn-around I was bummed to discover that it was more of a right to left crosswind. Oh well.

Splits: 5:46, 5:54, 5:56, 5:52, 5:54, 5:59, 5:58, 5:51, 5:53, 1:47 (5:36 pace).

Enjoyed a nice 4 mile jog after with Dennis and Bill Cobler. Always nice to talk shop with a guy like Dennis. The snow and wind really picked up during our cool down jog and, as bad as the conditions were during the race, we were all happy that the race didn't start an hour later when it would have been way worse! 

Times for the last 3 years in this race:

2009 - 56:48

2010 - 55:19

2011 - 54:50