Rob Murphy

Christmas Eve went as follows...

Woke up this morning and went with the entire family to see Star Wars at 9 am. Enjoyed it. The Empire suffers from poor leadership, Kylo Ren makes most of his military decisions on emotion rather than sound strategic reasoning. General Leia Organic or whatever her name is isn't much better and tolerates a ridiculous amount of insubordination...

Came home and had lunch and a nap. Then watched A River Runs Through It  and renewed my vow to someday take up fly fishing.

According to Murphy family tradition, had pizza for Christmas Eve dinner. Ann went to work. There are 18 people spending Christmas in the Neuro ICU at the University of Utah and someone has to take care of them. The kids and I went to church. So grateful to Wasatch Presbyterian Church and what the people there have meant to my family over the years.

Came home, poured a glass of decent wine and watched the George C. Scott version of A Christmas Carol. Read a little of Chernow's Grant, went to bed.

12.25 miles around Sugar House Park on slushy/poorly plowed streets. Wet shoes and socks!

39th consecutive Christmas day run going back to 1979. I'll have to come up with a good one for #40 next year.

On the treadmill...

1.5 mile warm-up, stretching.

8 miles in 53:57.Averaged 6:58 pace for the first 4 then worked down to 6:15 pace on the last 4.

1.5 mile cool-down.

Just an easy hour run around the neighborhood.

Crossed the 2,000 mile threshold for the year. Not bad considering I ran a todal of about 500 miles the first four months of 2017. Much of that was cross-training (i.e. not running)

10 miles around the east bench of SLC,UT.

Gaps. While I was running today, I was thinking about the huge gaps in my knowledge. Things I should know and have experienced by 53 but don't or haven't. One of the main reasons for my running gaps is due to the fact that I wasn't coached by runners in either high school or college. Also, when I was a young coach, I didn't have the opportunity to serve as an assistant to a smart head coach.

PM: 2 mile walk. 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups.

I wanted to keep the volume low and the intensity high today.

10 X 200 on the Highland High track. Started at 39 seconds and worked down to 36 on 1-9. For the last one I took a longer break and ran 32.1

Had a hard time deciding what I needed to do today so I didn't get out untill 1 pm. Legs felt heavy. Happy with the workout though. Just following the "something of value" philosophy.

Ran without a shirt in the 50 degree sunshine and got a rare winter dose of Vitamin D. If Donald Trump had seen me he would have concluded that climate change is real.

AM: 11.25 miles at Draper Park/Porter Rockwell trail. Happy to have Blake Bennion join me today.