Total time of 50:46.
TLDR: 1 mile all out in 7:25 (not a typo), tempo'd last mile of run in 5:43.
Full version: I was inspired by the "grinder" that American Fork High School runs as a workout, so I measured their course (starting at 100 E and 1100 N in Pleasant Grove) using the course tool to determine that they are gaining approximately 432 ft elevation over a distance of 1.27 miles. I set out to find something similar to run here in Alpine. I ended up measuring a 1 mile stretch that ends at the trailhead to the national forest just above the rodeo grounds, and which gains approximately 416 ft of elevation, so all told it is a little shorter but also steeper. As you can see I was shooting to match elevation gain more closely than distance run, and 1 mile even seemed like a good distance considering that the elevation gain was so similar.
I estimated that this mile would be at least 2 minutes slower than a flat mile, so with this in mind I set a goal of sub 8:00 for the mile (if it was harder than I anticipated), but with a real goal to run it in under 7:30 (I just didn't want to be disappointed if I ran slower than 7:30 because of how brutally steep the road is going past the rodeo grounds). First I ran a warm up to my starting point, and added a little extra time/ran a few strides so that I would be over 16 minutes (16:43.52) at the start of the mile. I broke up the mile into two segments, the first 0.4, and the last 0.6. The first 0.4 miles is less steep, only gaining 103 ft, while the last 0.6 miles gains 313 ft.
I started the mile trying to get out hard, while also trying not to burn myself out in the first minute or two of the mile. I felt like I did a pretty good job of this, as the pace felt challenging but not overwhelming. I was surprised at how steep the first 0.4 miles felt as when I run up this road on easy runs it does not seem as challenging as it did today. I hit the 0.4 mile mark in 2:32 (6:20 pace) as the road curved to go up towards the rodeo grounds and the national forest. As I ran up the second 0.6 miles I noticed that I was aerobically limited before my legs were maxed out, as I felt like my legs could do more, but that my heart/breathing could not. I made an effort to pick up the pace a couple times as my legs felt strong, but it was not sustainable. By the time I made it to the 5:00-5:30 mark of the mile my legs were also feeling maxed out. At this point I was just trying to hang on until the end. As I neared the end of the mile I made a half hearted effort to kick the last 50 meters or so, but the steep grade made speeding up more than a small amount very difficult. I finished in 7:25.85 (24:09.37 total for the run thus far), to finish the last 0.6 miles in 4:54 (8:10 pace).
I was happy with how this mile went. I ran faster than my goal of 7:30, when I halfway expected to run closer to 8:00 at the start, while after finishing and resting for a few minutes my legs did not feel too trashed either. I started running back down the mountain and ended up hopping onto some trails and running on those until I got near the stake center, at which point I hopped back onto the roads again. I was feeling good enough at this point in the run that I decided to run a tempo for the last mile of the run even though I had not planned on doing so initially. The last mile drops 73 ft net, with 117 ft down, and 44 ft up. The last half of this mile is much more honest as it has less than 20 ft net drop (iirc) with 35 ft elevation gain at the end. I ended up negative splitting the mile (2:52, 2:51) despite the more honest second half (to be honest I was pushing harder the second half because I felt like the first half was too slow even for a tempo mile) to finish it in 5:43.
During the rest of the week I ran a little over 48 min most days except Tuesday when I ran 47 minutes. Overall I was pretty happy with the week, as I estimate that I ran 37+ miles and I felt pretty good in doing it. While this mileage is nothing special it is still one of the highest mileage weeks that I have had since early 2014 (I think that my highest during this time period was a week last year where I ran 42 miles).
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