Rob Murphy

Lots of great stuff on lets run this morning. Great link to a Runner's World piece on Debbie Heald who was maybe the greatest high school runner ever. I remember the sports pages in Southern California being full of her exploits back when I was a kid. 

There's also a great documentary on the 1976 Olympic Marathon where the failed East German steeplechaser, Waldemar Cierpinski, beat Frank Shorter. Shorter ran two minutes faster than he ran in Munich to win the gold but it wasn't good enough to defeat the East German doping program. Sad to see Bill Rodgers struggle so much. The marathon humbles everyone eventually. Then there's Kardong in fourth. The golden age of U.S. marathoning and not a Kenyan in sight. Of course they were boycotting in 76 I think.

Then there was Viren, hopped up on his reindeer milk, taking fifth I think after his second consecutive 5k/10k double. Incredible! 

I did a real run this morning.

Easy half mile jog around the block them some stretching.

Drove to Highland to meet a bunch of folks from the blog for an eight mile run that turned out to be almost ten. Definitely pushing the envelope for me.

9.75 miles in  1:12. 

Well, I feel a little soreness from yesterday but not nearly as much as I expected. Probably a short, easy run this afternoon plus some lifting or cross training.

The meaning of life is...... meaning.

Nice after school run with my boys. It's been a while since I've been able to run with them and I think some of my new 9th graders don't really believe I'm a runner. Until I kicked their but today!

Best Buy Loop in 51 minutes. Cold, snowy, felt great to be out on the roads.

Best Buy Loop plus a little extra.

Good day. Short Classes due to an assembly. Gave my kids a quiz, finished up Reconstruction, and watched Chris Farley as "Matt Foley - Motivational Santa". 

First day of vacation. Walked the kids to school this morning and then returned at 11:15 to eat lunch with Andy. He's been asking me to come eat lunch with him all year and we finally had a day where it worked out.

In between I walked to the gym and did a StairMaster workout. 400 floors in 54:30 plus warm-up.  

GREAT NEWS!!!! I just got a free entry into the "Elite Field" at the Gary Bjorklund Half in Minnesota this summer. I knew that 33 minute 10k I ran at Des News this summer (wink, wink) would be be good for something!

A more light-hearted thread on lets run right now...

"Does anyone know exactly what time the world is supposed to end tomorrow? I'm trying to decide whether to run earlier or later." 

Five miles around Sugarhouse in 40 minutes.

Looks like 40 miles plus this week! 

Seven miles on the treadmill. Kept it around 8 mph most of the time but got it up as high as 9.2 for several minutes.

I will do a longish run tomorrow and hopefully be up over 50 miles next week. I'm wondering if a sub-18 minute 5k is possible for me at the end of January at the Winter 5k? Even though I'm feeling better, it's just taking my body so long to come around and so long to recover. I'm trying to learn from this, make allowances, and not get to gloomy. I can't expect to feel the same way at 48 that I did at 28. The problem is, in my mind while I'm running, I'm still 28.

I'll do a couple workouts two or three weeks from now that will let me know.