Rob Murphy

Week starting Dec 23, 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

Click to donate
to Ukraine's Armed Forces
Miles:This week: 31.75 Month: 142.00 Year: 396.22
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
51.250.000.000.0051.25
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
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
51.250.000.000.0051.25
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
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