Murph Test

Last weekend I did my “A Race” of the season.  The focus of my training this summer has not been a glamorous Ironman-branded triathlon a famous big-city marathon or an impressively long ultra-distance trail race, but rather a series of basic exercises on a quiet morning at a nearby track  — a series of calisthenics known as the Murph Test

The Murph Test is comprised

of a one mile run followed by 100 chin-ups, 200 push-ups, 300 squats and then another 1-mile run.  The idea is to test yourself by doing the Murph as fast as you can.  There is an elite version entailing wearing a 20-pound weight vest and doing each set of calisthenics consecutively.  I do a more normal version and break up my sets into rounds of 10 pull-ups, 15 push-ups and 20 squats.  

I was originally inspired to do the Murph Training about a year ago after listening to an episode of the Endurance Planet podcast and hearing the podcast host, a burned out runner/triathlete, talk glowingly of having just accomplished a Murph.  I have long been very keen on maintaining strength through goal-oriented calisthenics and I was seeking some sort of incentive to do strength work outside of the gym.  The Murph Training inspired me to find chin-up bars on my running routes and power through long sets of pull-ups. .  The 4-year old children were delighted to see me jump on their monkey bars and start doing sets of 10 pull-ups, but I got strange looks from the fathers accompanying them to the playground.  

I would encourage everyone to train for the Murph Test.  Unlike the Spartan Races, the Murph poses limited risk of injuring oneself, which is the excuse other aging triathletes and runners keep giving me when I try to persuade them to join me for obstacle races.    But I seriously doubt I will convince many of my endurance sports teammates to embark on something so unglamorous, painful, and tainted by its association with Crossfit.  In fact I was very surprised that I was even able to talk a half dozen of my obstacle course teammates into joining me.  Their presence proved a big help versus trying to do it all on my own. 

We started together, and thanks to the group dynamics I go out briskly on the run and complete my mile in just over 6-minutes, not wildly fast, but fast enough to leave me with an elevated heart rate and out of breath on my early rounds of calisthenics.  I have to think that maybe 30 seconds slower on the first mile would have resulted in more than 30-seconds of gains on the pull-ups and push-ups.   Still I am able to maintain the pace of 10/15/25 reps until I hit 80 pull-ups at which point my arm strength suddenly fades and I can only manage to finish off the pull-ups with sets of 6 reps, 6 reps and then a last gasp 8 reps.   My arms feel too tired and heavy to swing as I start my second mile, and I am surprised I am even able to hit 98 seconds on first lap and 6:40 total for the second mile with a big finishing kick.  

I complete the Murph Test in 38 minutes 40 seconds.  I understand this is a respectable time -- according to some unofficial Murph websites, beginners should try to break one hour and breaking 40 minutes represents an "advanced" effort.  Now I just need to do the Murph Test in the same time wearing a 20-pound weighted vest (which typically adds ten to twenty minutes to the time) and my mark would rank among the top in the world on the Murph Challenge Leaderboard.     

And presumably in my advanced age group I would rank ever higher. I am not aware of any age-adjusted Murph Test ranking, but according to an informal survey on Bodybuilding.com roughly a quarter of all US males could do 10 pull-ups. The President’s Council on Physical Fitness recommends men be able to complete 8 pull-ups and the minimum pull-up threshold for Marines is 3 reps.

Not that I am competitive of course....  I just like having benchmarks as I train for another Murph Test next month.