After a hard week of work and training, most people like to kick back with a beer and some pizza. Or if you’re 29-year-old Michael Miraglia, you deadlift 500 pounds and run one mile in under five minutes. To each their own.
On Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020, Miraglia, with a group of his friends in tow, headed to the Coronado High School track in Coronado, CA, to complete a 500-pound deadlift and a one-mile run in five minutes or less. Miraglia started his warm-up at 8:00 a.m. PST, streamed live on his Instagram, slowly walking around the track and increasing the weight on the barbell. At 9:00 a.m. PST on the dot, he ripped the loaded barbell off of the ground and then dominated his mile run in 4:49. His splits for each lap, in seconds, were: 65, 68, 81, and 76. Miraglia claims to be the first person to complete this feat of strength.
“The 5 & 5 was something I heard about through CrossFit — it’s when you squat 500 pounds and run a sub-five minute mile in the same day,” Miraglia tells BarBend. “I knew my squat wasn’t there yet, but that I could do this with a deadlift.”
In July 2020, CrossFit Games athlete Adam Klink completed the squat version of this challenge by running a 4:56 mile and squatting 500 pounds on the same day. Then, a few days later, Fergus Crawley took it a step further by squatting 501-pounds, running a sub-five minute mile, and then running a marathon in one day.
Miraglia completed the deadlift 5 & 5 in one day — twice, actually — but decided he wanted to do the entire challenge on the same five-minute clock. Of course, Miraglia is fit as heck. You don’t wake up one day and suddenly decide to deadlift two-and-a-half times your bodyweight and run an elite-level mile in less time than it takes to microwave a potato.
Miraglia holds a B.S. in Exercise Science and is a certified Spartan SGX Level 2 Coach. He played rugby in high school and college and then tried his hand at obstacle course racing. He was good at it, too. He logged over 20 professional podium finishes and even earned a spot on Steve Austin’s Broken Skull Challenge — a reality tv show that has ultra-fit folks compete in grueling physical competitions. Then, he moved to San Diego, CA, in 2018 and joined his current gym, Stay Classy CrossFit.
“I was always more attracted to feats of strength over classic competitions,” says Miraglia, who once completed a seven-minute mile while hauling a 70-pound sandbag. To train for this particular feat, Miraglia didn’t change much up actually. He kept up with his CrossFit classes and then maxed out his deadlift once per week to test his strength. Running is a strong suit for Miraglia, so he wasn’t too concerned about his mile time.
Through CrossFit, I was able to keep my speed and build strength to a level that no one has seen before.
With this challenge behind him, Miraglia already has his sights on the next one.
“Now that I have the deadlift under my belt. My next feat is going after the squat and how this challenge was originally intended,” he says. “I’ll be the first person to hit the 500-pound squat and sub-five minute mile all in the same clock.”
Featured image: @michael.sgx on Instagram