Rob Murphy

AM: 4.5 miles on the elliptical.

PM: 6.5 miles around Sugarhouse and the HH track.

Spent a good chunk of the afternoon going through my baseball cards from the early 1970s and checking prices on the internet. Nice to know I could pay the mortgage for a month with them if I had to. 

I had my first really great run in weeks this morning.

Headed up to Park City to do the Jeremy Ranch run that Jake and Andrea "discovered" last year. What a beautiful run. Perfect dirt road the whole way, a stream that parallels the road, lots of wildlife, cows, horses, gently rolling hills, no traffic. One of those "why I moved to Utah" runs. I'm pretty sure there is no more beautiful state in the nation.

I'm kind of embarrassed that it took me ten years to get clued into this run. 

Anyway, I ran out a little over six miles and then turned around for 12.25 miles in 1:33:30. I was keeping it right at about 7:40 pace until I bumped into none other than Jake Krong himself on the way back. I was happy that Jake decided to join me at my pedestrian pace which I was forced to ratchet up to a scathing 7:10. I have a little pride.

Soaked my legs in the ice cold creek for 20 minutes after the run waiting for Jake who was running a couple more. Just a little foot pain - very encouraging.

Also was digging my new Montrail Bajada trail running shoes which I was breaking in this morning. Does dirt road count as a trail run? 

Nice afternoon and evening. We went to the Fort Douglas Cemetery. I didn't realize how old it was - dedicated in 1862. Lots of Mexican War and Civil War Veterans buried there. Abby and Andy brought some flowers to place on the graves. Grilled hamburgers and played badminton. Jake came over and was a good sport with Andy as usual. Almost had to quit the badminton when we got all the birdies stuck in our trees plus a racquet thrown up to try to knock the birdies down, plus a small shovel. The tree was pretty well decorated.

Five easy miles plus iron pumping, core, ploys late because I had work, kid's sports, and homework issues.

Met Jake up at Jeremy Ranch this afternoon. I was pretty sore from the weights yesterday, but still a decent run.

I did an easy mile warm-up waiting for Jake and then we did 8.25 miles in 1:01:30. I'm going to be putting a lot of miles on my car driving up there for that run this summer. 

Seven miles on the treadmill at 8.2 mph.

Same thing as yesterday. Seven on the treadmill at 8.2 mph.

15 miles in 1:55 on the road at Jeremy Ranch. I discovered that the dirt road ends at 7.25 miles on the east side of Big Mountain/Des News Marathon starting line. I'm going to drive from the Jeremy Ranch start to Ruth's Diner someday to see how far it is.

It was warm and humid up there today and I was feeling the lack of water at the end. Nice long soak in the river when I finished. 

Read some excerpts from Scott Jurek's book coming out this week. I think I'll pick it up next time I'm at the book store. I can use the motivation.