Rob Murphy

Twelve miles in 1:33 on the Jordan River Parkway.

Abby and I were driving to Einstein Bagels this morning and she told me "I still want to be a veterinarian, but on my days off from being a veterinarian I want to have a mobile cupcake truck that drives around selling cupcakes. And in the time I have left over I'll still train for the Olympics in swimming".

I need to get me some big goals. 

PM: Swam one mile at the gym. I'm going to count it as a mile of running. 

 I have a question. I was just scanning the Olympic 100 meter results, including the preliminary heats, and I was amazed at the number of guys running in the mid 11 seconds to 12 seconds range. A guy from New Zealand ran 11.72. Seriously? That's the best New Zealand can do? I teach at a high school that has 2500 students, 99 percent of them white, and we have plenty of guys that can run that.

Of course if you want to endure some real pain you can attend any high school track meet and watch heat 32 of the 100 and watch guys run 19 seconds. Our sprint coach used to like to send those guys over to me saying "they must be distance runners". As if I could take a 19 second 100 meter runner and turn him into a star in the 1600! 

AM: 7.5 miles in the gully at cross country practice.

I highly recommend an article in the recent Olympic edition of The New Yorker called "Marathon Man". It's about the famed running cheater Kip Litton who will be familiar to those of you who regularly visit the letsrun message board. I'd post a link to it, but it's not available online so you'll have to pick up the magazine. Twelve pages long about how this 40 something year old dentist from Michigan has been cheating in marathons for years. 

Nine miles on the treadmill. Some of it as fast as 9 mph!

Here's another question. Why is the United States so horrible at the triathlon? This is a sport we invented and we don't have to compete with Kenyans and Ethiopians. Yet in the four Olympic games in which it has been contested, the U.S. has one paltry bronze medal. 

Super duper run up at Alta this morning. Up to the Albion Basin campground and around the loop several times. Ended up running 12.25 in 1:39.

We moved the run from our usual 6 PM because of the ridiculous amount of traffic up at the top the past couple weeks. The town of Alta needs to do something about that because it's ruining the whole area. 

PM: One mile of swimming in a local swimming pool. 

AM: 4.5 mile walk around Sugarhouse Park.

What a difference four years makes...

 In Beijing the men's 800 was won in 1:44:65. That would have earned last place in this year's final. Both Solomon and Symmonds ran 1:42 and failed to medal. 

10.25 miles on the treadmill. On one of these miles I achieved a time of six minutes!

Averaged 8.4 mph. 

Took Abby to the "Kid's Club" at the gym which she is getting kind of old for at eleven. When I checked her in the next oldest kid there was three. Had to bribe her with lunch afterwards. 

I wanted to watch the men's 800 again but can't find it on the internet. So I watched Dave Wottle win the gold in 1972 about five times on youtube. I was seven but I vividly remember it because of Wottle's golf cap. I think that's the same Olympics where Dwight Stones caused a stink for wanting to high jump in a Mickey Mouse t-shirt. That may have been '76 though. 

15 miles in 1:55 around Sugarhouse/Foothill.

PM: Walked three miles.