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.