Saturday, February 12, 2011

12 miles with Clay (1:28:39)

Clay told me on Friday he was going to run 12 on the aqueduct on Saturday morning. His plan was 3 warm up, then alternating a sub 7min mile with a "recovery mile" for the next 9 miles. This way he would run a total of 5 miles at a sub 7 minute pace (around his 10k pace).

I met him at 7am and we headed east. The weather was AWESOME, cool and calm. We set a good pace right away and ran the first 3 mines in just under 24 minutes (8:08, 7:52, 7:46). Then we started alternating miles 6:55, 7:53, 6:54, then his son Zac jointed us for the next 6 miles 7:43, 6:48, 8:23, 6:40, 7:54, 5:32. On the last mile Clay said, "give me a minute head start." I negotiated to 45 seconds but right before we started I changed my mind and only gave him 30 seconds. My thinking was that he would run around 6:30 and I would be close to 6:00. Zac and I ran the first quarter mile in 85 seconds and we still had some ground to make up so we picked up the pace a little and I caught Clay with a quarter mile to go. I never thought I could have run 5:32! He was right, if I had given him a minute we would have finished very close...actually I think he would have held me off. I was feeling the burn the entire last quarter mile. I don't think I have run a mile under six minutes since the Newhall ID 5k last July. I was suprised. And to do it after 11 miles, even better.

2 comments:

Chuck said...

Great job! Your 5:32 last mile was awesome! How did your right calf feel?

Karl Stutelberg said...

Chuck, it was a little tight the entire run. It seemed to get better during the run and the last mile was great. Both legs are sore today. The right a little more than the left.