Well Murph kicked my butt yet once again. This year, I had decided to wear the vest for the workout, since I hadn't in years past.
I have said it before and I will keep saying it: the 20lb vest makes it a whole different workout. It cranks it up to 11. And I felt every little bit of it today.
I have done Murph quite a few times in my training career. I do it every year, usually with my oldest son Sebastien, but I did it solo this year. I went into it today with low expectations on performance, since I haven't been training for it. I just decided to go out and get it done.
There are some wins and losses for today. I got probably the worst time I have ever done Murph, over an hour. Now, I'm 46 so I don't expect to keep up with the younglings, but I was hoping NOT to get over an hour. But I put in the work, I left the vest on the whole time, and got it done. I took a short break after every round, with a longer one after each 5 rounds.
For those of you unfamiliar with Murph, you can see my previous post for more info. But the skinny of it is this:
Run 1 mile
100 pull ups
200 push ups
300 air squats
Run 1 mile
There are a variety of ways to break this up. My favorite one is 25 rounds of 4/8/12; the most popular is probably 20 rounds of 5/10/15. I have seen 100 rounds of 1/2/3 but that seems like too much changing in body position to me.
I went out and got about 9:15 on the first mile. It didn't feel too bad. I then took about 30 seconds and got ready. I had taped my hands up before starting, which later I switched to leather hand grips but still tore a callus. I was able to get through all 25 rounds and then the last mile was awful, around 12 min or so.
I have a lot of excuses I could use. My right shoulder was hurting. I messed it up a few weeks ago doing a heavy lifting program. My left achilles has been bothering me for months, so that was extra sucky today. It was humid out today. I had a t shirt under the vest, making it hotter. I could have just stopped and not completed it. I have gained weight, not running as much as I was. I have been lifting hard and hitting creatine, so I probably am 15 lbs heavier than the last time I did Murph.
But I listened to the LOUDER voice in my head of "Just keep going". "You aren't tired." So I grinded it out. I have a Murph playlist on Apple Music, so that is helpful as well. The vast majority of it is metal, of course.
The wins from today were: I wore the vest. I completed the work. I have been blessed to be able to put in the work. I have a starting point for the next 52 weeks of to only get better.
I am going to do the Murph 52 project again this year. So that means, once a week, I will be doing the program. I will try to use the vest more often than not, but sometimes I will probably just do bodyweight. This is not a redline workout each week. It will be slow and steady, just putting in the work. So by next year on Memorial Day, I will crush it!
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