Rob Murphy

8.25 mile treadmill run in 62 minutes. Chilly and heavy rain this morning and I just didn't feel like going outside.

1 mile on the ellipticle afterwards. Just burning calories. I know that I should weigh in the 140-142 range to race my best instead of 146-148 where I am now.I need to drop a few puunds before my next race - the Gary Bjorklund Half Marathon in Minnesota in three week. I'm running the Heart of Holladay 5k in two weeks but mostly for the training value.

Last night around 9:30 I got a call from Steve Anderson. Turns out he was flying from Denver to Salt Lake and wasn't getting in until late so he would be staying at the posh Red Lion Hotel downtown. So that meant I'd have company for my Memorial Day run.

Planned to meat Steve at the hotel at 7:15 this morning. Bad omen when I had to scrape snow off my car windshield before leaving. It was 38 degrees when we started our run up City Creek Canyon. We had a great run up the canyon, thankfully the rain/snow let up for most of the run. We had to turn around about six and a half miles up the canyon when the slushy snow in the road became too much of a pain and we got tired of weaving around downed tree limbs. It was beautiful up there though - looked just like January except for the leaves on all the trees.

Steve, whom I've decided to nickname "Mr. Contradiction", tells me while we're running that he doesn't feel like he will be recovered fully from the Ogden Marathon last weekend to race well at the Grandma's Marathon in Minnesota in June. Then,  like two sentences later he tells me how he's thinking of running the Utah Valley Marathon (a week BEFORE Grandma's!) "as a workout". He's just a crazy man and a little unbalanced.

Went by the gym on the way home and did two miles on the Elipptikal and then soaked in the hot tub for a while. Sitting around the house now with a cup of coffee and that happy tired but not too tired feeling.

Fabulous 6.5 miles in the gully at lunchtime. First day of cross country practice today after school. Fun.

June 1 - first what I would call comfortable morning run of the year where shorts and short sleeves don't feel cold. Just a nice easy seven past the Blue Plate and around the Foothill loop.

Had a nice walk around the neighborhood with Abby after the run. Might not make it to school technically on time this morning.

Fourteen miles up and down City Creek Canyon. Ran 9 to 11 in 11:16. Ran 13 in 5:25.

My dog Ollie died today and we just got in from the funeral in our backyard. Ann and I got Ollie in 1996 so we had him for almost five years before either of our kids were born. We'll really miss him. Ollie (1995-2011 R.I.P)

Unplanned day off. Couldn't work a run in around my work, Abby's swim meet, and Ann's work and lack of a babysitter.

Finally summoned the will to do an for real interval workout not on a treadmill!

4.25 mile warm-up that included a handful of striders. Then 6 X 800 meters with a 400 meter recovery.

2:39, 2:44, 2:41, 2:42, 2:42, 2:35 - the plan was to start out around 5k pace and drop a second or so on each one but my feel for pace on the track ain't what it used to be.

Finished with a short cool down jog back home through Sugarhouse Park., I was really glad to get this workout in. It's pretty warm today, about 80, and quite humid for Utah in June and I was glad to be able to work on getting used to running hard in the heat.

Spent all of last night and most of today at Abby's swim meet. She's pretty excited about winning her heat in 3 of her 5 races. She lowered her time in the 50 meter freestyle to 49 seconds from her previous best of 1:02. Wish I could still do that.