Rob Murphy

I ran Magnolia Road up in the mountains (Flatirons I think) west of Boulder. Magnolia might be familiar to those of you who have read Running With The Buffalos or Running Tough.

The run is exactly (according to my Garmin) 7.5 miles one way. It's at an altitude of about 9400 feet - predominantly downhill out, uphill back. And these are some LONG uphill portions on the way back. Also some of the most beautiful country I've ever run through. Magnolia is an old dirt road that used to lead to the gold fields in the 19th century. Lots of old cabins and foundations of cabins along the way.

My goal was to run this fairly hard, maybe with negative splits. I ended up doing exactly 56 minutes out and 56 minutes back. I was happy with that considering the uphills and the headwind on the way back.

Has to be an all time top 10 run. 

Overnight in Eagle tonight. The hotel has a really nice gym/health club attached that I'll use in the morning. 

8.25 EASY treadmill miles plus some lifting/core exercises.

I did several sets of leg presses because they were mentioned at my clinic Saturday. For almost 49 years old I'm pretty impressionable. 

Should be home mid-afternoon after the required stop in Green River for a burger at Ray's Tavern 

Stair master "tempo run" today.

Walked to the gym

1 mile easy jog on treadmill.

260 floors on the stair master in 30 minutes. Apparently this equals about 5.4 miles if the machine's data is to be trusted.

Walked home.

Ann and I  are headed up to Alta in a bit to stay at the Alta Lodge this evening. We will do a good hike over to Catherine's Pass this afternoon. Practice is up there in the morning so this will work well.

Mom's staying with the kids! Thanks mom. 

Fifteen miles up at Alta with the team. The run kicked my but today. My boys looked good though. They are flying around the campground at the top of Albion Basin. Flying of course being relative at ten thousand feet. They've made a lot of progress over the past few weeks.

To top it off, I ended up spending the day up at Snowbird zip lining, alpine sliding, tram riding, and such when I really just wanted to come home and nap.

AM: Three miles of run-walking timing intervals at Sugar House Park.

That's it for today. I'm running the 15k trail race up in Park City on Saturday.

Just got my new issue of Outside. Park City is apparently the best place to live in the U.S.A.

Number two? My previous hometown of Greenville SC. 

Six treadmill miles with 4 X 1/4 mile at 11 MPH.

A former student/runner of mine, Joah Spearman has an excellent new start-up called Localeur. The main purpose of Localeur is to help travelers experience a city the same way a knowledgeable local would. If you are planning to travel to Austin, Houston, or the San Francisco Bay area, you should check it out. 

So far it's only three cities but New York will be added soon and it's growing fast. If you check the site out you will see that it's much more focused than sites like yelp and trip advisor. If I had a few days to spend in one of these cities, I would find localeur to be a lot more helpful. 

You can also follow localeur on twitter and Facebook. 

Trucked the whole family up to Park City for the third  race in the R-U-N events trail series, the 15k.

The course is laid out on the Quinn's Junction/Round Valley trails. The first couple miles are well groomed trails - almost like dirt roads. Three through seven become a lot more technical, hilly, and challenging. Lots of switchbacks, loose rocks and gravel, more uphill than down including a 1.5 mile climb. The final couple miles are a lot like the first couple with lots of downhill.

I ran 6:10 for the first mile and 6:30 for the second. Then I settled into about a 7 minute pace with mile five, all uphill, close to 8 minutes. I was working hard to catch the guy in front of me and I'd generally close on him on the uphills and he would pull away on the downhills. Unfortunately, the last couple miles were mostly downhill. Still, I'm happy with my 6th place finish.

I really enjoyed this race. Trail racing is a welcome change from road racing. I also like the pint glasses they give out instead of t-shirts.  

PM: Frozen yogurt at TCBY.