Rob Murphy

4.5 miles in 37 minutes mostly around the HH track. Knee hurt, muscles sore. Grrrrr.....

Easy run in the gully with Jake and Kramer.

Back to what I was wondering out loud about a couple days ago...

When I think back on my years coaching at Alta High, it occurs to me that the runners who have the greatest amount of success are the ones with the fewest options and the fewest conflicts. Many of the runners I have coached come from fairly wealthy families and with that wealth comes the opportunity for lots of fun. Lengthy vacations, the house boat at Lake Powell, the "cabin" in the mountains, the cruise to __________ - these things might be lots of fun but they almost always lead to a SLOW RUNNER.

It's also common for kids to be committed to too many activities. If you expect your kid to be an SBO, play an instrument, sing in the choir, try out for the school play, earn his Eagle Scout, attend every church camp, and drag hand carts around Wyoming, then you also have to expect that his progress as a runner might be impeded. 

"But if my son doesn't earn his Eagle, we will be forever stigmatized and we won't be able to show our faces in public for years"!

I would submit to you that running a sub 15 minute 5k and winning a state championship takes at least as much relentless dedication and sacrifice as earning an Eagle Scout award and that if it comes down to a choice between the two and your son wants to focus on running, you should respect that. Plus, he actually has to run the race and do the training himself. His mother can't do it for him. Running, if done the right way, can build more character than scouting.

Understand that I'm not saying that it always, or even usually, comes down to a choice between the two. But if it does...

It basically boils down to this. If you give a sixteen year old the choice between the cruise, the trip to Disneyland, the week at Lake Powell, or a week of hard cross country workouts, cross country is usually going to loose. On the other hand, if the kid doesn't have the first options to begin with, he just might win a state championship and a full scholarship.

Show me a kid that achieves great things in running and I'll show you a kid who sacrificed a lot of options or never had those options in the first place. 

My point is, kids can have too many options. 

AM: 3 mile walk.

Had my cross country team over to the house for breakfast after. Lots of fun. 

PM: 2 mile jog 

13 miles up at Alta. Felt good to be up there but I'm definitely not recovered. Coming down from Albion Basin was rough.

Jake and Kramer ran 15. It's really helping Kramer to have a training partner.

I'm heading over to Boulder tomorrow for a coaching clinic this weekend with Jay Johnson (coachjayjohnson.com). I've never been to Boulder and there's nothing I like more than a weekend hanging out with running geeks and gurus in the Mecca of distance running. 

Three new Dos Equis "Most interesting man in the world" lines...

He once parallel parked a train.

His two cents is worth thirty-seven dollars and fifty cents.

It has never been "his bad". 

AM: Easy treadmill run. Topped out at 7:30 pace.

AM: Two mile walk around our hotel with Abby in Laramie. Plan to do a longer run this afternoon either at my sister's house or in Boulder.

PM: Difficult 9.25 miles in the hills above my sister's house in Larkspur, Co, Hotter than the Weather Channel said it was gonna be. 

PPM: Couple more miles walking around the CU campus here in Boulder.

An observation.... Boulder is different from Utah. So close, yet so far. 

"I have very little time to get to the gym so I have to sculpt my guns at the office"

Been thinking about adding Ron Burgundy quotes. They're more funny than running. 

No running today but I did spend the entire day at the Boulder Running Clinic hosted by Jay Johnson. Really valuable presentations but, as always, I learned a lot more at the post seminar social. It's amazing how many top coaches go to this sort of thing. Coincidence?

For those of you who don't know, Jay Johnson is one of the most valuable resources in this sport. Jay was an above average high school runner who walked on at the University of Colorado and became part of its' first NCAA championship in cross country. In baseball there's an old adage that great players rarely make great managers. The great managers usually turn out to be the guys who topped out at AAA or managed a few years in the majors as a utility infielder. These are the guys who had to work hard to maximize every shred of their ability and so they mastered the nuances of the game. When it comes to managing and coaching, these guys have the edge over guys that the game came a little easier to. I think of Jay as this kind of guy in running.

Jay runs a series of camps for high school runners, coaches, and adults who's focus is road racing and marathons. I recommend checking it out.

Some take-aways

1. Ice baths - no evidence that they do anything and they might be harmful

2. Chocolate milk after workouts has real, measurable benefits both for short-term recovery and long-term adaptations 

3. Static stretching is NOT bad. The studies that claim it is are BS.

4. 20 mile runs are critical for marathoners no matter what the Hanson's say.

5. If periodization isn't dead, it is definitely dying. Every relevant performance quality must be worked year around.

6. You must challenge the nervous system during the entire year.

7. Cross county and track and field distance training should be the same.

8. General strength and mobility training should not be viewed as an afterthought, but as an essential part of most workout sessions. 

Tomorrow morning I'm heading up to Magnolia Road for a 14.5 mile run.