Rob Murphy

Girls on the Run 5k

Previous MonthRecent EntriesHomeJoin Fast Running Blog Community!PredictorHealthy RecipesRob Murphy's RacesFind BlogsMileage BoardTop Ten Excuses for Missing a RunTop Ten Training MistakesDiscussion ForumRace Reports Send A Private MessageWeek ViewYear View
Graph View
Next Month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
201020112012201320142015201620172018201920202021202220232024
15% off for Fast Running Blog members at St. George Running Center!

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

Click to donate
to Ukraine's Armed Forces
Miles:This week: 6.50 Month: 86.25 Year: 340.47
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
186.100.000.000.00186.10
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Race: Girls on the Run 5k (3.11 Miles) 00:27:45, Place overall: 5
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
9.350.000.000.009.35

This is a race report for my daughter Abby who ran her first solo 5k today. 27:45! She ran the first mile in 9:30 and just kept plugging away. Her third mile was her fastest. I'm so proud of her.

I'm so thrilled to be the coach of a Foot Locker Finalist - Kramer Morton who finished 7th at FL West today in 15:47. 

PM: 6.25 miles on the treadmill 

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
12.000.000.000.0012.00

Hard workout on the stair master judging by the pool of sweat underneath the machine when I finished.

430 floors in 60 minutes. 

PM: 6 mile walk from downtown SLC to my house. I will give myself credit for 3 miles of running for that since I ran some. 

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
0.000.000.000.000.00

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
0.000.000.000.000.00

Well, I've been hugely busy with work the past couple days and preoccupied with getting Kramer ready for Foot Locker this weekend. No other excuses really, just haven't been running.

Will run Wednesday. 

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
7.500.000.000.007.50

7.5 miles on the treadmill. Quite a bit over 8 mph.

Busy, busy, busy day. And another one tomorrow. 

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
1.000.000.000.001.00

I ran 2 times around the block and did some sprints. I am going to school. Today is Dutch Christmas that means Aidan brings treats to class ; ) I have hands on science today yay

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
6.000.000.000.006.00

Six miles here in Coronado CA. Around town, up and down the beach. Abby and I are going to run a couple more now at the beach then some surfing.

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
7.000.000.000.007.00

One mile around the FL course during the race plus a nice 6 miler around Coronado after.

Kramer finished 16th in the U.S.of A. today. Next year he will be the #4 returning runner in the country. I have to admit that I was thrilled to see him cross so soon with forty runners as talented as the ones in this field.

Kramer missed All American (top 15) by 1.1 second. I have to admit that I felt like he should have finished quite a bit higher if he had run a little more aggressively over the second mile. He was 33rd at the 2 mile mark. I'm pretty sure he felt the same way. But I am so proud of everything he has accomplished this year and as a coach I am going to make it his goal to come back next year and win this thing.

Conner Mantz from Sky View finished 12th and Ben Sorrel of Park City finished 4th. The West got edged out by the South for the team title. 

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
1.000.000.000.001.00

Spent the day driving from San Diego to Salt Lake. Jogged some at every rest area with Abby to stay awake.

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
5.250.000.000.005.25

4.25 miles on the treadmill. 1 mile of stair climbing.

Off the get the Christmas tree now. 

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
3.250.000.000.003.25

Today I attempted to teach the Civil War in one 90 minute class period. 

I failed. Even with a nifty video I have called "The Civil War in Four Minutes". 

Short run sandwiched between the time I got home from work and Abby's violin recital. 

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Comments(11)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
6.750.000.000.006.75

AM: 2.25 windy miles around the Alta track. Just keeping the gut at bay.

PM: Ran another 4.5 miles mostly on the track.

I got the annoying news this afternoon that I will have a student teacher next semester. This is a chore I usually avoid because I teach a lot of AP classes and they don't generally let student teachers teach those subjects.

The main problem with having a student teacher is that teaching is a profession, like many others, where there is the by-the-book way of doing things and then there's the way everyone actually does it. Having a student teacher mostly requires you to be a "good example". 

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
8.000.000.000.008.00

Eight miles averaging about 7:45 pace on the treadmill.

You know who I really love? The Black Keys. I know they have been around a while but I just can't get enough of them lately. Driving to and from work I usually shuffle through lots of CD's but lately it's just The Black Keys. They have an album from a couple years ago called "Brothers" that I especially like. I love the Black Keys. Their videos are wickedly awesome too. All people should waste an hour or two just watching Black Keys videos on Youtube. 

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
7.250.000.000.007.25

AM: three easy miles on the track plus a couple faster striders.

Just sitting here in class today feeling sad. You know, no one can do any job well if they don't believe that what they are doing is really important but on days like today it's hard.

Why does this sort of thing happen so often in this country and seemingly never in most other countries? Surely it is a symptom of something? 

PM: 4.25 MILES OF ELIPTICKLINNG 

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
5.500.000.000.005.50

5.5 miles on the treadmill. More or less continuous snow today.

Fun day at Abby's swim meet. She won the 100 breast stroke, set a PR in the 100 back and got her but kicked in the 50 fly. Then we had the WFFM Christmas party in the evening/ 

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
10.250.000.000.0010.25

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. 

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Comments(7)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
0.000.000.000.000.00

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.

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
6.750.000.000.006.75

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.

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
7.000.000.000.007.00

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". 

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
8.750.000.000.008.75

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." 

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Comments(7)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
5.000.000.000.005.00

Five miles around Sugarhouse in 40 minutes.

Looks like 40 miles plus this week! 

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
7.000.000.000.007.00

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. 

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
11.000.000.000.0011.00

Eleven miles in 1:26 around Liberty Park. Nothing like a soft, wood-chip surface for the old legs. Nice and sunny at the beginning of the run but got progressively colder and windier.

Not a bad run.

I feel the urge to weigh in on the whole school safety/gun control debate. I've been teaching in high schools for the past seventeen years so I feel I have something to add to the debate. I have several points.

1. There are about 300 million guns in this nation. No gun control legislation passed by congress will do a single thing to make schools safer in the short term. Those 300 million guns aren't going anywhere anytime soon.

2. At every high school that I have taught at, we have had an armed police officer on duty during the school day. I like this and I think it makes our schools safer. Two armed police officers would make me feel even safer still. The fact that there was an armed police officer at Columbine is NOT an argument against having them. We are all grown-up and realize that nothing is ever going to be 100% effective. To make fun of the NRA's proposal to have an armed police officer in every school is just plain stupid. People who do that are putting their partisan ideology ahead of common sense.

3. Beware of anyone who argues that any one thing is the solution to this problem. We have a gun problem, we have a mental illness problem, we have a parenting problem, and we have a school funding problem that precludes some common-sense solutions.

4. Every high school teacher, if asked to do so, could provide law enforcement and school administration with the names of one or two young men they teach who are the most likely to shoot up a school either now or in the future. We could then monitor their Facebook pages, twitter accounts etc. That is, if we were serious about this problem. 

5. Finally, if all parents would raise children who lived lives of meaning and commitment, who had activities and interests in their lives that enriched their lives and gave them a sense of self worth, we wouldn't have this problem at all.

"I can't wait until Christmas vacation so I can frickin play Assassins Creed all day, every day"

- actual quote heard by me while walking down the hallway at Alta High School last Tuesday. And parents wonder why their kids are screwed up! 

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Comments(13)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
10.500.000.000.0010.50

I was headed out the door for a run this morning for a run when my good amigo, Steve Anderson, called. Said he was going to be in town this afternoon and wanted to run. So I'm meeting him at Liberty Park at 3:30.

So I went to the gym for some cross training and to put my totally out of control 7 year old in the kid's club for a while to get him out of Ann's hair for a couple hours.

Did basically a StairMaster tempo "run". 300 floors in 38:30 which is apparently 6.25 miles. This was hard. Weighed myself after - 156 pounds! About 10 pounds over racing weight.

After showering I bumped into Fritz on the same machine I had been using. Always nice to chat with Mr. Van de Kamp.

PM: 4.25 GRUELING MILES around Liberty Park with Steve. Plowed through the snow at about 9 minute pace. 

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
7.500.000.000.007.50

Merry Christmas to everyone on the FRB.

Books I got that I can't wait to read...

The Old Ways - A Journey on Foot by Robert Macfarlane

The Little Book of Talent by Daniel Coyle.

I also got a Johnny Cash t-shirt from At Folsom Prison. Excellent! Some pajamas, lots of socks, some awesome Dockers, and a couple shirts, a new 2013 Rand McNally road atlas which makes me want to do a road trip, and three bottles of some of Epic Brewing Co's finest wares.

run later... 

Run: 7.5 miles in 60 minutes around Sugarhouse Park. The place was packed with walkers, runners, and sledders. Going to take the kids over now after I fill the old thermos with hot chocolate. 

"Of course I'll be running on Christmas day! I'm going to run twice because my rivals will probably run just once, so I'll have done more than anybody else".

- Mo Farah on his plans for today 

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
0.000.000.000.000.00

Took the day off.

Rode the Heber Valley Railroad. Ate a HUGE dinner at Tarahumara  in Midway.

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
6.250.000.000.006.25

AM: 30 minutes snow shoveling. Holy moly that's a lot of snow. 

PM: Treadmill run between 7.5 and 8.2 mph 

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
7.500.000.000.007.50

More treadmill miles.

Dreadful news today from the fiscal cliff front. Turns out that if we plunge off said cliff in a few days the price of milk in the U.S. will likely double. My kids drink little else besides milk and cutting back would be traumatic. Apparently the reason for the increase would be a sharp reduction in federal subsidies to the dairy industry. Will also impact butter and cheese and all dairy products. 

Might have to just get used to it. I guess the price of most of our food is artificially low due to federal subsidies.  

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
8.500.000.000.008.50

8.5 miles on the treadmill. Varied the pace a lot from 7 mph up to 9.2 mph.

Still assessing my current state of being. I definitely feel better than I did a couple months ago but am not happy with the pace of the progress. I keep reminding myself that being able to train consistently is the most important thing. 

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
10.250.000.000.0010.25

Really cold....like 12 degrees.....plus a bit windy up in Emigration Canyon.

Good run. Ran from my house, around the neighborhood a little, and up the canyon. Ann and the kids picked me up before Little Mountain and we went to Ruth's for breakfast.

Had my usual Banana Walnut French Toast. There was only about a 20 minute wait and they are now giving away free coffee to people waiting outside the restaurant in the frigid temps. That's nice!

I feel good about the run. Almost averaged 8 minute pace for the entire run going uphill, against the wind, in a blizzard. Well, not the blizzard part. Very little foot/heel pain. Plus I crashed through the 2600 mile mark for the year. Not bad considering.

Oh yeah... there's a woman in Running Times this month named Jeanne Daprano who ran a 6:58 mile at the age of 75.  I'm pretty amazed by that. 

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
0.000.000.000.000.00

Sick last night. Went down to the basement to avoid infecting Ann but actually spent most of the night in the bathroom.

Just had a glass of Gatorade. We'll see if I can keep it down.

Happy New Year! 

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
186.100.000.000.00186.10
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Debt Reduction Calculator
Featured Announcements
Lone Faithfuls
(need a comment):
Recent Comments: