half marathon training: 1/2 Murph

For my half marathon training for a race at the beginning of May, I decided to use the Novice 2 plan offered by Hal Higdon instead of the Novice 1. Technically, I have 2 weeks before starting the plan, though I had decided to stretch out the first month. I wanted to be sure my knee and hip were okay (daily PT helps with this), and that I didn’t get sick again. Memories of Covid, multiple colds, and 2 ear infections? No thank you!

In the training plan, Saturdays are a cross-training day. Novice 1 calls for 30 minutes of cross, and Novice 2 calls for 60 minutes. Doing a 1/2 Murph isn’t exactly 60 minutes, but…I’m going to get myself to 60 minutes, one week at a time.

For those not familiar with the Murph workout, it’s named after Lt. Michael Murphy, a Navy Seal who lost his life in Afghanistan in 2005. Murphy along with Petty Officers Danny Dietz, Matthew Axelson, and Marcus Luttrell were dropped into the mountains where they were ambushed by more than 50 militia men after being accidentally found by a local man. Murphy, Dietz, and Axelson, along with 8 Navy Seals and 8 Army Night Stalker service members died that day. Marcus Luttrell barely escaped with his life. The book and film, Lone Survivor, chronicles what happened.

The Murph workout came about 2 years later thanks to Dr. Joshua Appel, the team leader who helped rescue Luttrell and bring Murphy and Axelson’s bodies home. Dr. Appel had kept the body armor he wore during the rescue and used it to do the “Murph” 2 years later at his Crossfit gym on Memorial Day to recognize Lt. Murphy and other fallen servicemen and women. In 2010, the Murph challenge became a national fundraiser for the Lt. Michael P. Murphy Memorial Scholarship Foundation. To join the national challenge on Memorial Day, sign up at themurphchallenge.com.

The Murph Challenge

This workout is a combination of an endurance workout and a calisthenics workout. Lt. Murphy created it to fit in with his job as a Navy Seal which involved being in remote locations without access to exercise equipment. Basically, all one needs is a weighted vest weighing 16.4 lbs. (standard-issue body armor) and something that can function as a pull-up bar. Given that not everyone functions at the elite level of a Navy Seal, this workout can be scaled down to work at your current fitness level.

The workout consists of:

• 1-mile run
• 100 pull-ups
• 200 push-ups
• 300 squats
• 1-mile run

My workout

A few years ago, I ran across a post online about using the Murph workout as a way to assess fitness on a regular basis. The poster did the workout every weekend, focusing on improving different aspects of the workout to reduce their time overall. I tried this in 2020 during the quarantine with some success.

I decided to use the Murph again this year as my cross-training workout. My plan is to use the weighted vest (16 lbs) during the 1-mile walk; my knees are not up for running with a weighted vest. At least not now. I’m starting with 50 pullups, 100 pushups and 150 squats with the plan to add 5/10/15 reps each week all the way to a full Murph.

When I did the Murph in 2020, I had to do a mix of pull-ups and chin-ups with an emphasis on chin-ups. This time, I’ll be doing all pull-ups since I can do 6 to 7 pull-ups in a row. When I can get up to the full Murph for the calisthenics, I’ll start phasing in the weighted vest to challenge myself again.