Clay and Lisa Burnett

Lisa and I went down to River Road to run my favorite course for a 5 mile tempo. We warm up with a downhill mile, do some quick stretching and head out for 5 miles at goal pace (3 out, 2 back), then finish with 2 miles easy recovery.

Mile 1: Gliding. Felt like I was gliding, maybe too relaxed. Came aross the mile mark at 5:45 and felt like I had to pick it up, probably tightened it up more than I picked it up... could have stayed more relaxed.

Mile 2: Working. Felt good, starting to work but still relaxed and focused on pushing the pace. Still trying to loosen up. Hit the 2 mile at 11:22 (5:37 for mile) and was happy that I picked it up.

Mile 3: Pushing. This is where having Macklin really helped. Macklin Chaffee and I ran this same tempo run twice in the past month or so and it was really nice to have a guy who can run a 14:29 5k out to drag me along on tougher runs like this. The imaginary rope tied to his back was gone, I was alone and I had to push it. Mentally I was having a tough time, but I knew Lisa was not too far behind and I would see her soon after I turned at the 3 mile mark. I had to tie my shoe quickly, it really loosened up and became uncomfortable, my fault, need to pay closer attention to details. I held pace at 5:35, it felt labored but I was happy to have sped up, even if only by a couple seconds. I hit the 3 mile mark at 16:57, which was not too bad. I hit it at 16:40 when Macklin and I ran, having him leading was surely worth that 17 second difference over 3 miles.

Mile 4: Heading Home. I passed Lisa only a minute or so on the route back, she was still heading out toward the 3 mile mark and I was inspired by her strong pace. I was becoming a little loose mentally, it was a bit of a struggle to maintain the push. I was focused on completing the run, but not as much on a strong pace. When I hit the 4 mile mark at 22:39, I knew I slowed down to a 5:42 pace, but also knew the end was nigh.

Mile 5: The Home Stretch. OK, the mental struggle was over, the end was within reach and about 90 seconds into the last mile I felt fresh again. I pushed the pace, focused on speed and ran my fastest mile of the workout. It felt awesome. Finishing strong was something I was not able to do on the first tempo run with Macklin, this was was comparable though about 31 seconds slower than my second tempo run with him. Overall, having the pace car is worth 6 seconds a mile, so I was proud to have finished tough and the 2 mile cool down with Lisa was a welcome relief. She ran 31:26 which was a really impressive first tempo run ever. Her goal was sub-6:30 pace, she ran 6:17... she never ceases to impress me.


Type: Tempo/Lactate Threshold
Workout: 28:11 min (Lisa 31:26)
Goal Pace: < 5:40 (Lisa <6:30)
Actual Pace: 5:45, 5:37, 5:35, 5:42, 5:32; AVG: 5:38
(Lisa 6:06, 6:19, 6:19, 6:25, 6:17; AVG: 6:17)
TOD: 7:00am
Warm up: 1mi
Warm down: 2mi
Extra Work: Active Isolation Stretching Zones 1, 5
Total Miles:  8
Weekly Mileage: 50.7