2019 Murph

Signed up for the 9am heat with a bench of friends. Nice cool morning for it.

“Murph”

• 1 Mile Run
• 100 Pull-ups
• 200 Push-ups
• 300 Air Squats
• 1 Mile Run

**Partition the pull-ups, push-ups, and air squats as needed.

I haven’t done a real Murph since 2016. In 2017 I was traveling back from attending Regionals and didn’t do it at all. Last year my shoulder was messed up so I did ring rows. Here’s my Murph history:

• 2012 – 44:26
• 2013 – 39:41
• 2014 – 40:17
• 2015 – 37:18
• 2016 – 37:11
• 2018 – 43:10 (ring rows)

I’ve run less than 13 miles in 2019, with only two runs longer than 400m, and a good chunk being warm-ups for class. I just finished 12 weeks of Year of the Engine though, so my conditioning has been feeling great. My pull-ups and push-ups have also been really good this year, so I was looking forward to testing out this workout.

I ran the first mile in between 8-8:30 and got right on the pull-up bar when I found a spot (gym was packed!) I broke it up by doing 20 rounds of “Cindy” (5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, and 15 squats), but didn’t wear any grips. I like to wear my Garmin watch for this to help pace the runs, so I took advantage of the lap feature to keep track of rounds. It worked great and kept me moving.

• 1 Mile – 8:26.4 (after getting in the gym and finding a spot)
• Round 1 – 43.4
• Round 2 – 43.9
• Round 3 – 46.4
• Round 4 – 48.1
• Round 5 – 50.2
• Round 6 – 51.5
• Round 7 – 53.1
• Round 8 – 52.1
• Round 9 – 51.6
• Round 10 – 55.8
• Round 11 – 54.6
• Round 12 – 53.9
• Round 13 – 55.8
• Round 14 – 56.5
• Round 15 – 58.5
• Round 16 – 1:00.7
• Round 17 – 55.8
• Round 18 – 1:03.0
• Round 19 – 59.7
• Round 20 – 1:22.9 (After telling someone about the blood on my bar and leaving the gym)
• 400m – 2:00.6
• 400m – 2:31.3
• 400m – 2:17.7
• 400m – 1:54.6 (8:44.2 mile)

I think my watch said about 8:06 when I finished the first mile, but I didn’t hit the lap button until I found a spot to do my pull-ups. I was able to do all of the pull-ups and push-ups unbroken. I tried not to stop during the squats or pause at the top of reps; just keep moving. With about 5 rounds left I ripped my right hand a little bit and was really starting to slip on the bar. So it was a constant adjustment to finish. It took me just over 18 minutes to finish the 20 rounds, which only 2 of them being over a minute. Felt decent when I headed out for the run, but I guess I slowed over the middle 800 meters. Good enough for a time of 35:28 to PR by 1:43! Really happy with that.