Rob Murphy

15.5 miles in 1:56 up and down City Creek Canyon. The first half of the run is consistently, sometimes brutally, uphill. Difficult to maintain an 8 minute pace. In fact, at 8 minute pace I feel like I'm running at threshold pace - about what I feel like racing a 15k.

Coming down I was able to easily run 6:30 miles.

Zero today.

10.5 miles in 1:16. Very Hot - 94 I think.

I'm having a problem with lingering soreness in my quads and hamstrings that won't go away. Makes me wonder if I boosted the mileage up too quickly following the month off. I'm not 25 any more.

10.25 miles in 1:21:50 (7:59 pace) at Alta Ski Area.

While running up the Summer Road and on the uphill trail portions in the Albion Basin campground I paid closer attention to my Garmin that I usually do. On the Summer Road I was averaging about 8:45 pace. On the steeper uphill portions in the campground it was more like 9:25 pace. My heart rate was in the stratosphere so I classified these as threshold pace. That's what uphills at 9000 to 10000 feet will do.

I felt tired and beat up. Took an iron supplement along with my normal multi vitamin and will try to rest some today.

am: Easy five miles around the neighborhood. 39:15

Now off to cross country practice and swimming for the kids. 

pm: Two easy miles on the treadmill. Hoisted some weights, did some push-ups, pull-ups, sit-ups and some other stuff in the gym. Also did some plyos for the first time in a couple months on account of the achilles.

12.25 miles in 1:30 (7:21 pace) around the wood chip path in Liberty Park. I drove to Liberty because I wanted to avoid hills today, both up and down. I just wanted to get in some decent miles at a steady pace without too much impact.

Hot. 91 at the end of the run. I was looking back over some of my entries from March and April and I can't believe how much complaining I was doing about the weather. 35 with some light snow sounds like heaven now!

The "Treadmill Special".

The goal was to run hard for 60 minutes and then do a 5 minute cool down. Ran 9.65 miles in 60 minutes and 10.25 for 65. I feel pretty good about this workout since I was sore going in (I've had this chronic, low grade soreness for the last couple weeks) and I didn't get started until around noon after a morning of lawn mowing and yard work

The Plan: I've got three more races on the agenda for this year. The Minuteman 5k next Saturday. The Pocatello Half Marathon the first Saturday in Sept, and the Fabulous Alta Peruvian Downhill Dash and Bar-B-Q Bash (8k) the week after that. I am considering doing a new race called the "Sinner Six" which is a six mile race in Park City the Sunday after the Park City Marathon. I believe this will be Utah's only Sunday road race and I feel I should do it out of principle. Maybe some would say lack of principle. But I believe the commandment is "honor the Sabbath and keep it holy", and since I find nothing unholy about running, I'll go ahead and race.

After that I will rest and take it easy for a few weeks. Try to focus on having fun and coaching my cross country team. I have already registered for the Austin 3M Half Marathon in Austin, Texas in late January so that will be the kick off for 2011.

***UPDATE ON THE SINNER SIX FROM THE PC MARATHON WEBSITE***

"This inaugural costume-encouraged race starts at 7 am from the Newpark Plaza. Dress up as your idea of a sinner (Please, No Nudity!) and have some fun.

How can anyone pass this up?