Rob Murphy

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.