Rob Murphy

August 2012

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Location:

Salt Lake City,

Member Since:

Feb 11, 2010

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Other

Running Accomplishments:

I had some success in high school and college. Winner 1985 Rod Dixon Run 

Had a fair amount of success as a Masters runner for most of my 40s. 

Short-Term Running Goals:

Have fun with running, explore more trails, stay healthy.

Long-Term Running Goals:

Keep running and racing consistently for as long as I can. Find what is sustainable for me over the long run.

Personal:

I teach AP European History and other courses at Alta High School. I coached the track and cross country teams at Alta for 16 years.

Married, two kids - Abby and Andy

My Twitter  @murphy_rob

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Miles:This week: 6.50 Month: 86.25 Year: 340.47
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
255.501.000.000.00256.50
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
8.500.000.000.008.50

8.5 miles on the treadmill averaging 8 mph.

Watching the Olympics I just learned that the Brits consume 156 million cups of tea every day. Works out to 3 1/3 cups per person. They interviewed Thomas Twining - the 10th generation in his family to head the Twining's Tea Company. He claimed that tea was "the most healthful and sociable beverage one can consume".

Actually caused me to get up and make a cup of tea. 

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Comments(8)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
0.000.000.000.000.00

No running.

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
11.000.000.000.0011.00

Eleven miles in 1:25 around Sugarhouse.Right knee ached, heel hurt lots despite taking Ibuprofin.

There's a discussion going on on the letsrun message board called "what would Galen Rupp have to do at the Olympics to become a household name in the U.S.

I would say win gold in the women's gymnastics all-around. 

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Comments(2)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
8.500.000.000.008.50

8.5 miles on the treadmill.

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
13.000.000.000.0013.00

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! 

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Comments(4)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
7.500.000.000.007.50

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. 

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Comments(2)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
9.000.000.000.009.00

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. 

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Comments(14)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
13.250.000.000.0013.25

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. 

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Comments(6)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
0.000.000.000.000.00

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. 

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Comments(6)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
9.251.000.000.0010.25

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. 

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Comments(1)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
15.000.000.000.0015.00

15 miles in 1:55 around Sugarhouse/Foothill.

PM: Walked three miles. 

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Comments(3)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
6.250.000.000.006.25

AM: Three mile walk.

My main training goal right now is to lose the gut. The walks are helping with that without the impact. Plus I'm getting old and we old folks like to walk. 

Here's an idea for you who are entrepreneurs. I was talking to my wife about her evening at work last night and she was frustrated because she had this 430 pound patient that she couldn't get a blood pressure for because the entire University of Utah hospital didn't have a cuff big enough to fit around his arm. She also spent most of the night  helping the doc to a lumbar puncture (spinal tap) but they didn't have a needle adequate for the job.

Seems like in this day and age there would be a market for specialty medical devices for the obese. In the past she's had patients she couldn't cram into the CT scanner so the've had to go to vet clinics and use ones designed for horses. 

PM: 6.25 miles on the treadmill. 

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Comments(6)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
12.250.000.000.0012.25

7.25 miles in the gully with my boys. Only twelve days until the first cross country meet.

PM: Pretty hard workout on the Stair Master. 225 floors in 30 minutes plus a warm-up and cool-down. About five miles according to the machine 

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Comments(8)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
8.250.000.000.008.25

8.25 miles in 58 minutes on the treadmill.

Had a good experience today. Back in 1977 when I was your typical awkward 13 year-old in Anaheim, Ca I had a social studies teacher named  Edward Cantu who spent a few seconds in class one day talking to me. He told me that I looked like I could run and said there was this one mile cross country race the next weekend at Eisenhower Park for seventh graders and that I should run it. So I did and I've been hooked ever since.

Turns out he coaches track and cross country at LaCosta Canyon High School near San Diego even though he's retired from teaching. Anyway, I was able to get in touch with him today and thank him for the impact one 30 second conversation had on my life 34 years ago.

Oh... I ran 6:55 and finished second wearing baseball cleats. 

 

PM: Three mile walk. 

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Comments(9)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
14.250.000.000.0014.25

14.25 miles on the trails at Alta and Snowbird. Started at 7 AM so I could be done before my cross country runners arrived at 9.

 We Murphy's are thinking about a quick over night getaway before school starts so I'm checking lodging options. Do any of you find it hilarious the the Ogden Utah Hampton Inn has a "romance package"? 

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Comments(10)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
7.250.000.000.007.25

Probably would have taken a day off today but Jeff Shadley and family are in town to catch an early flight out of Salt Lake this morning. So we couldn't pass up the opportunity to get in a few easy early morning miles.

6.25 easy around the Foothill Loop. 

PM: Walked to the gym. Swam one mile. Walked home. 

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Comments(2)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
16.000.000.000.0016.00

Sixteen miles in 2:02 at Jeremy Ranch. Lots of cows and one very low flying Air Force jet today. Sunny and hotish since I didn't get started until late morning.

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Comments(1)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
6.500.000.000.006.50

One mile on the eliptickle

260 Floors of the Stairmaster in 36 minutes - 5.5 miles. 

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
17.500.000.000.0017.50

Yesterday I got a call from Jake inviting us up to a "cabin" in Heber City that his parents have rented for the week. The place sleeps about 20 people so we mooched our way into staying the night. The kids had a blast feeding the horses and checking out the property.

Went for a 15.5 mile run with Jake this morning in about two hours. Wandered through Heber City to Midway and back. I Did two miles before Jake and I started at my creaky old man pace so I wouldn't slow him down too much. Beautiful cool morning.

Jeff Shadley awesomely got me a free entry in the Pocatello Half Marathon over Labor Day weekend. So I guess I'm committed now.

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Comments(6)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
0.000.000.000.000.00

Resting the achy foot.

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
14.000.000.000.0014.00

Fourteen trail miles at Alta in 1:52. Pretty hard running and now I'm tired. Fortunately it's my last day of summer vacation so I can loll around this afternoon after I get my majorly cracked windshield replaced.

I'm thrilled to be training more or less consistently and hopeful that I can put together a couple decent races in the fall and early winter. 

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Comments(2)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
10.000.000.000.0010.00

Ten treadmill miles.

I got to have lunch today with legendary University of Utah football coach Ron McBride. Great coaching insights. It's amazing how so much of it is transferrable whether you are coaching football players or runners.

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Comments(3)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
10.250.000.000.0010.25

10.25 miles at 9 mph on the treadmill.

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Comments(2)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
0.000.000.000.000.00

Unplanned day off. 

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
10.000.000.000.0010.00

AM: Three miles warming up and cooling down with my team at our first cross country meet. It went pretty well considering we lost our #2 runner due to his boss spilling acid on his leg requiring surgery and also our #3 runner for not coming to practice.

PM: 7 miles around Sugarhouse Park in the hot heat. 

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Comments(3)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
6.250.000.000.006.25

The plan today is to head up to Jeremy Ranch at noon and start a longish run at 12:30. The hourly forecast has it at about 75 degrees. Would rather be running now when it's 55 but it's not in the cards.

So there was another big race yesterday (the TOU Half) that  I didn't run. I have a hard time doing many fall races because I have a job that keeps me busy on Saturday's. It's weird though - at the beginning of my current racing drought that goes back to Boston it was driving me crazy that I wasn't doing any of the big races. But now I don't even care. I still have this compulsion to get out and run. Like today I plan to run close to twenty miles but I'm not sure why other than I feel like running. I have no plans to run a marathon in the foreseeable future.

I also looked back and noticed that the years I was really focusing on my teaching and coaching were the years when I was doing the least amount of running ( I was fat in 2003, 2004, and 2008, my three "state championship years".) and the years I was running my best times I was sort of putting my job on the back burner. It's almost like I can either focus on my own running or someone else's running, but not both. And since coaching and teaching are essentially the same thing, I guess it applies to that too.

Well, no twenty this afternoon. 6.25 instead around the inferno at Sugarhouse Park.

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Comments(3)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
4.250.000.000.004.25

6 AM workout with my xc team: Four easy miles plus six barefoot striders on the football field.

No run yesterday due to the hectic first day of school and my kid's after school activities. 

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
7.000.000.000.007.00

AM: Early seven miles around Foothill.

Afternoon cross country meet today. My boys will be racing in the crisp fall (96 degree) air at 3:30 at Cottonwood Complex. Ideal for fast times. 

There is a great thread going on now on Letsrun called "Nearing 50 and my legs are trashed". Of course this won't apply to those of you who are able to pound out 100 mile weeks with no problem but for me there are some very good insights.  

Pretty decent result this afternoon in our meet. My boys won with 47 points defeating Jordan, Brighton, Copper Hills, West Jordan, and Cottonwood high schools. Hardly dominating, but I'll take it. Our #1 runner, Kramer Morton, took first overall in 16:41. Not bad for a 3:30 PM race at the end of a school day in 95 degree heat. We placed three runners well up in the top ten, but a big gap to 4 and 5 that will kill us in bigger meets with better competition. 

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Comments(14)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
5.500.000.000.005.50

AM: Easy 5.5 miles with my victorious cross country team.

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Comments(5)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
5.000.000.000.005.00

Once again, five easy miles with my team at 6 AM.

Heading up to Pocatello tonight to run the half tomorrow. I've run 1:17 there the past two years. I'll be thrilled if I can break 1:20 tomorrow.

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Comments(5)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
255.501.000.000.00256.50
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
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