Great Running Week!

Wow, it's been a week since we updated! So sorry, I (Lacey) have been bombarded with school and Lance has been in meetings, class, and healing a injury. This past Tuesday, we had a great 13.1 mile run around Auburn. We knew there was a huge chance of rain while we would be out running, but we decided to get tough and go for it. Well, we got soaked! But it was a great run. We both averaged a little over an 8 min/mile pace. I think it made us a little stronger :) Lance did this run in his new Vibram Five Finger "shoes". When we got home, Lance had severe pain in his foot. After talking with another runner, he diagnosed himself with a form of tendonitis. We hoped a few days rest would help ease the severe pain so he could go on the 20 miler we had scheduled for today. So, Lance took off Wednesday-Friday. I went for another run on Thursday. I got 11.2 in, but had DEAD legs. I was a little worried that the run today would be really tough!
So that brings us to today- Saturday. We have had this 20 miler on the training schedule since August, and I have been fearing it since then. Lance has ran a marathon and ultra so it probably seemed like a piece of cake to him. I never have good long training runs, and I have really been hoping today would be better. Our goal for the Atlanta marathon is 3:30. That is about an 8 min/mile average. That was our goal for today's run also. I tend to go out too fast, so Lance was continuously slowing me down the first 3-4 miles, but in the end it was completely worth it. I kept waiting to run out of energy, but it never happened. Lance and I had an amazing run! Every mile we hit 8 minutes perfectly! We used a new energy gel, called e-gel, and I am on the e-gel bandwagon now. They are incredible. We each took 2, one around mile 8 and the other around mile 15. We both stayed strong the entire run (oh yeah, and we got rained on again today! We are rain running pros now!), and finished our 20 miles in 2:40:00. Right on track for our 3:30:00 goal in Atlanta. Today's run is the best training run I have ever had. I still had plenty left at the end- I know we both could've stayed on pace for another 6.2 miles. I am more excited than ever for Atlanta, and can't wait to see how we perform on race day!! Only 3 1/2 weeks left.... and we are almost to the 4 month mark for the wedding countdown! WOW!!! Now, we are icing, stretching, wearing compression socks, and hanging out (with the Christmas tree lights on) watching football :) Could life get any better? Hope everyone has a great weekend! War Eagle!
Lacey

Long Run and Christmas Tree Saturday

Today, we had scheduled 18 miles. Some of our fellow runners were wanting to do 20 but start at 7am but we had to start at 6am to get all the miles in before Lacey had to teach RPM at the gym. We figured we could do 6 miles and then meet up with the rest of the group to do 12 more. I decided to run the first 6 miles in his new Vibrum Five Finger KSO “shoes” (in the picture above). They are basically just a piece of leather with a strap to keep it attached to the feet, with no padding at all and are the closest one can come to barefoot running without actually running barefoot. They were rough on my calves and I actually tripped twice while running because my feet and leg muscles were tiring much quicker than usual. Once meeting up with the group, I changed shoes into my Nike Frees but the damage to the feet and legs were already done. In yet another show of how much Lacey loves me, a rather nice blood blister formed on my foot during the run and Lacey popped it and cleaned it up nicely.

In addition to the tired legs from the Vibrum Five Fingers, we had worked out legs on Thursday and both Lacey and I had dead legs so the 12 miles with the group were rather grueling. The route was challenging with some significant climbs, which included the biggest hill in Auburn, the Moore’s Mill Hill. Even though our average pace was slower than desired, it was still well within our goal pace for the upcoming Atlanta Marathon and thus an overall success. For long runs, you never really know how the body is going to respond but finishing a long run provides a good sense of accomplishment, not to mention allows you to eat as much and pretty much anything you want for the rest of the day. We were satisfied with the long run results especially considering the way our bodies felt before the run. I ended with 18.26 miles at an 8:00/mile pace and Lacey got to 18.3 miles at an 8:10/mile pace. To qualify Lacey for Boston-well, to set her PR and hit her goal time- we need to run 8:00/mile pace for 26.2, which seems well within reach and the overall time of 3:30 will be a personal best for both of us.

In other news, we put up our Christmas tree and stockings for us as well as “the kids”, Maximus and Popcorn. Yes, we know it is early but it really makes everyone in the house even happier and we get to enjoy it even longer.

Monday, Monday

Yes, another Monday has come and Lance and I made the best of it with sleeping in and having an amazing run. We normally start around 6:30/7 but we couldn't bear the chilly air that early this morning, so instead we began our run at 9:30 and it was PERFECT. The weather was absolutely beautiful. We had a great 12.5 mile run. I averaged 7:45 min/mile and Lance, of course, was faster with 7:40 min/miles. We got brave and went down and UP the horrible, awful, terrible Moore's Mill hill. Climbing the hill, for me, was more of a fast walk than a run, but I didn't stop so that's a success.
We are taking tomorrow off so we can do a lactic threshold 10 mile run on Wednesday with our running group. I am very excited about it! Now, if we can just figure out our threshold times. I am trying to get Lance to enter in my slowest race time so my min/mile can be slow (yes, I can be a wimp) but he is taking my best time ever... It should be a great, challenging run. Happy Monday!!!

Our weekend

Well, normally after a weekend of football like the one we just had, I would say it was an unsuccessful weekend; however, after all the dress drama that has surrounded our house this weekend, we are just glad THE DRESS FITS! :)
The drama began Thursday morning. I was suppossed to have bridal portraits made this past Friday, and I got an e-mail early Thursday morning saying the photographer had hurt her back and was having emergency back surgery, therefore no bridal portraits for a LONG time. The day got progressively worse after that, and finally my mom got to Auburn that evening with THE DRESS. I knew the day would finally get better and all would be made up when I got in my beautiful dress and knew it fit.... well, that could not be the case- too easy. The dress would not zip, actually very far from zipping. Then, not only was I frantic but mom also got the frantic bug. I resorted to tears :( The next morning mom called the lady at the dress shop to see when we could meet with the seamstress ASAP. The lady was shocked the dress was so small, so she offered some advice, to try and pull the top down some and try to zip it again. We figured there was no way a little tug would make such a difference, nonetheless we tried it. To our amazement, THE DRESS FIT! It zipped all the way up! And after a few minutes in the dress, I could breathe again :) It looked amazing, looked like it was made exactly for me. It fit like a glove. So, that was the only success we cared about this weekend!
Our running was a little impaired also. Our goal was to get 16 in Saturday, but that didnt quite happen. I wanted to start at 5 Saturday morning, but Lance insisted on 6. I had to be at the gym for our new pump and rpm release at 8, so I knew we would be have to be booking it to be done in time. We finished in plenty of time with the first 11, then we had a friend who got locked out of his car so we helped him which took way longer than expected because apparently every locksmith is too busy on gamedays to do their job. Anyways, I got lost on the route and jogged a little later, ending up with 13, Lance got 12.
The football game was a disaster, it was cold AND it rained AND Lance and I got stuck in the student section- but I just kept reminding myself the dress zipped!
I am extremely excited about the cold weather! I LOVE to run in this weather, but Lance hates it- this should be an interesting fall/winter :)

Finally Feeling like Fall :)

Lance and I went for a 12 mile run this morning, and the weather was AMAZING! It was cool, and we had some rain sprinkles for the first few miles. Fall has finally found Auburn! Lance had an amazing run, he wanted to see how hard he could push himself coming off a marathon, and he did GREAT! He had around 7:30 min/miles. I was a little (well, a lot) slower with 8:00 averages. I felt good,though. I think I could have pushed a little harder, but I found myself just wanting to enjoy this beautiful town and perfect weather :)
Well, it's Tuesday... my favorite day of the week.. BIGGEST LOSER tonight! I'm so excited!
My family is coming to Auburn Thursday evening- I can't wait to see them :) And I have bridal portraits Friday morning-SO EXCITING! Lance's family is coming to the game Saturday, so we will have a fun family-filled weekend! We are both very excited to spend time with our wonderful families!!!
Hope everyone has a wonderful Tuesday! The only thing that could make it better is a quick run (hurry, you've got 40 minutes!) Then, curl up and watch the Biggest Loser :) That combination can make the worst day turn perfect :)

Lacey

Lance's Mystery Mountain Marathon recap

This picture is Lance right after he crossed the finish line! YAY Lance :)

First off, if you ever get the opportunity to run this race, take it! The views from the tops of the mountain are amazing and unforgettable. This race embodies all that is wonderful about running, especially trail running.

From the start of the race, I wanted to make sure I did not go out too fast. This was made more difficult by having the 12-mile racers run the first 11 miles with the marathoners. Instead of racing people, I took the approach to just race the course, push my body the way I thought it would respond the best, and to use ultra running logic where if you cannot see the top of the hill then walk up it. The first 11 miles were rather effortless, I tried to focus on putting in enough fluids, and taking gels at regular time intervals so that I would have plenty of energy for the second portion of the race that I knew would be more demanding.

As we broke off from the 12- mile racers, there were some significant climbs, but the most demanding part was a steep, rocky descent that took all the strength out of my quads that lasted from around mile 16 to mile 18. After that, there was another climb back up the mountain around the most relaxing waterfall. After reaching the top one more time, a steep but short power line descent was waiting. I knew if I could make it down without falling, that for the remainder of the race I could run and finish under 6 hours.

After reaching an aid station at 22 miles and eating some real food (PB&J squares) that tasted so good after eating gels all afternoon, I knew I was just about finished. I took off down the trail and before I knew it, I had finished my second marathon distance race. This one was nothing like the first marathon I ran (Country Music Marathon in Nashville) and my time was significant slower as one would expect when climbing mountains but I felt crossing the finish line that it was my best overall race to date. This was the first race farther than a half marathon that I felt as though I competed to the best of my abilities. By not going out too fast and taking food and water at very regular intervals, my body did not crash as it has done in long races in the past. It was nice to have enough energy left to run the later stages of a trail race and finish with a respectable time. It was a wonderful day with my 29^th place finish in a time of 5:47 and the guy I went with, Eric who I thought had a good chance to win, finished 2^nd with a time of 4:15. I will definitely try to get up there and run this race again next year. Now it is time to focus on the next six weeks of training for the Atlanta Marathon where I hope to run with Lacey the entire way and for both of to set personal best of 3:30.

Tough 10/Mystery Mountain Weekend

It's a busy race weekend for Lance and myself. I ran the Tough 10 here in Auburn this morning. My goal was to run the 10 miles in 1:15 which would be a 7:30 average pace. I was shocked to cross the finish line at 1:14:20! It was pretty warm and humid for my race preferences :) Pretty hilly course, but overall great race. I came in 2nd overall female and was extremely happy. The girl who beat me was one heck of a runner and deserved 1st place a lot more than I did!
Lance left after my race this morning to go to Georgia and prepare for his race tomorrow morning, the Mystery Mountain Marathon! It is a trail marathon, and supposed to be a very tough course. A couple of days ago, Lance was reading me some information on the race that warned the runners not to feed the bears!!! Oh dear, please say special prayers of safety for Lance, I will appreciate it very much :) I have a feeling he will do great, he deserves an amazing race!
Next week we start increasing all of our daily runs, so I'm relaxing for the remainder of the day, although 10 miles is a pretty wimpy run at this point of our training, and I'm kind of jealous Lance is getting a marathon in, although he is Superman :) I'll take an easy day, though and catch up on some school work~
GOOD LUCK LANCE!!!!!

And So Our Weekend Begins....

Yes, our weekends come early! We are getting spoiled. Lance and I went out for another 10 mile run this morning- next week we are increasing all our normal 10 mile days to 12-Yay!!! I had sore, dead, heavy legs from taking a bodypump class yesterday so my run was hard. (OUCH, they are still very sore!)I still managed to average a 7:52 pace and Lance was superman, of course, with a 7:39 average pace. I am getting ready for the Tough 10 race here in Auburn in Saturday and Super Lance has a trail marathon on Sunday. The new Fall weather is wonderful to run in, hopefully it will stick around :)
Some mornings, like today, are hard. It's hard to get up, even harder to stay up, and the hardest to actually lace up my running shoes and leave the house. However, the harder it is to get going, the better it feels once the run is completed and you feel so accomplished. I just LOVE it :)
On to wedding news, my dress and veil are in and I have a silk bouquet all ready for my bridal portraits next Friday! I am very excited. Monday we will be exactly 5 months from our BIG DAY!!! I'm hoping time will start speeding by soon :)
Hope everyone has a great day- go for a run and it may even get better :)

10 mile Tuesday

Lance and I went out this morning for our regular Tuesday 10 miler. Yes, Lance went, too- 2 days after barely surviving his ultra- and he STILL beat me :) We both had good runs. It was a nice morning, pretty cool but a good bit of humidity. We came home and both made sprints to the freezer to get the ice packs out, we are up to 7 now and some days that still isn't enough! One day, maybe one us will be good enough to get those cool ice bath machines like Ryan Hall gets :) Overall, Tuesday has started out well and will end wonderfully with our favorite- BIGGEST LOSER!!! Hope everyone has a wonderful day!

Lance's StumpJump 50K report

Going into the race, I felt as though I was in the best shape of my life. I had completed a 50k in May and had run some training runs on the trails around Auburn, so I was feeling prepared. As I soon learned though, you can never be fully prepared for what was in store. The race started well and my goal was to break the race up into five individual 10k races. I wanted to complete each 10k portion less than 1 hour so that I could come close to my goal time of 5:10. The first 10k went well, close to 0:50, I was still very satisfied with the second 10k being around 1:10, and even with the third 10k being 1:30 I was still very satisfied with my progress. After that point though, things started to go bad both mentally and physically. I was 3:30 into the race and still had 20k left to go but I drag myself up the “Rock Garden”, sit down on a cooler at an aid station, and say that I want to quit the race. My mind and body had completely given out of me and I just wanted out of the race. Luckily, the aid station workers were very supportive, put some cold towels on my neck, and provided me with some snacks and water with an electrolyte tablet. I sat there for about 5 minutes just watching the time tick away on my watch and finally just got up, thanked the aid station workers, and just started putting one foot in front of the other. The next 3-4 miles went really well and I thought I could still finish with a respectable time. The body though started to give out though on a tough climb where I must have taken too large of a step. My hamstring tightened into a ball and did not loosen up the rest of the day. I just keep pushing and would run when I could, finally finishing the race 7:48 after I had started. It was a very long day! I was very disappointed in the time but very proud of myself for not stopping the many times I felt like stopping. In training for the Atlanta Marathon on Thanksgiving Day, I know I need to train my mind as much as my body and this race really helped with that. I know I can keep going even when everything in my mind and body are saying I should stop. With more practice, I should become a stronger trail runner but for now, I am very happy with the way the trail races toughen me mentally and make me a stronger road race runner.

-Lance

Happy Saturday!

Lance finished his 50K race and I was beyond thrilled when I finally heard his voice. He has a long update to give later :) I had a very hard, long 17 mile run this morning. I was hoping to go for 20 but I just could not do it, so I listened to my body for once, packed it up, and came home. My sweet, wonderful mother is in town this weekend so I have spent a wonderful day with her :)
Mom did bring my bouquet for my bridal portraits and my pretty wedding shoes :) So exciting! The wedding is only a short 160 days away!!! We looked for dresses today for the rehearsal and my bridal shower without luck, but we had a good time shopping together. Auburn is about to spank UT- hope everyone is enjoying their weekend :)

StumpJump 50K

Lance is off to Chattanooga to run his second 50K! He and another runner friend who is running the race tomorrow, Eric, left Auburn around 12:30. I will make sure and update tomorrow as soon as I hear from him. I'll be praying hard until I get the call that he is finished. For those of you unfamiliar with trail running (and I am very inexperienced) it's HARD. I can't do it, I get angry, but Lance loves it. You climb mountains and cross rivers and get really dirty. From what Lance has gathered, this should be an amazing race. Dean Karnazes who is an ultramarathon superstar will be running this race tomorrow morning, which is huge in itself. Maybe Lance can bring back some advice from Dean :)
I have a 20-22 miler planned for tomorrow morning and I am VERY excited. Training this time around has been the best yet. Everything has gone very smoothly so far and I feel amazing, I think Lance and I both are in the best shape of our lives. The weather should be perfect in the morning, which is the most exciting part of the whole run! I'm planning to wear my long sleeved Boston marathon shirt, I think I run better when I run in Boston attire :) Ok, maybe that is completely mental. Hopefully next time I post- we will have a new PR from Lance :)

“The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him and I am helped; therefore my heart exults, and with my song I shall thank Him.” Psalm 28:7

Welcome!

Lance and I decided to create a blog together after rereading my Boston blog. We wanted to have a way to share our running experiences as well as our new life together with everyone. It is such an exciting time for us! The wedding is only 161 days away and our first marathon together is less than 2 months away! We are running the Thanksgiving Day marathon together in Atlanta, GA, and we are so excited! Lance is the overachiever and has a 50K this weekend (October 3rd) in Chattanooga and a trail marathon next weekend (October 11) in North Georgia. I am running a 10 mile race next weekend, I'm not near as ambitious as Lance :) We hope to have a lot to share, but goodnight for now!