Yea climate change is a lie

Neighbor's yard, 3 inches of snow, 10/29

St Louis Rock and Roll Half Marathon

I went into this race with a good deal of trepidation. I was not well trained. My last half was more or less a tear jerker (also not well trained, but with unreasonable expectations). But, I went into this with a better attitude and a goal of finishing in 2:15, which isn't bad for my very minimal training.

The race started on a good note with a nice, well organized, uncrowded and excellent vendor-ed expo. Love.

Sunday morning, the temperature was perfect, and the weather was beautiful.  I was dropped off at the start(ish) at 7:05 and had EXACTLY enough time to gear check and pee. EXACTLY. I could not have planned it better. I was still in line for the potties when the wheelchairs took off. By that point, I also needed to do more - thanks AM caffeine! - so there was no leaving the line. Thankfully, it moved pretty fast and I got to my corral right as it was walking up to the start. I ditched my throw-away tee, and off we went.

Since I like to go out too fast, I hung with the 2 hr pace team for the first 5 miles. There was talk about this being a hilly course, but it really wasn't. There were a couple in the first few miles, and a few minor ups and major downs at the end, but nothing serious. AND I love end-of-race downhills. After I let the 2 hr pacers slip away, I just tried to keep it up. My plan was to walk water stops, and I managed to stick to it except two brief walks around miles 10 and 12. There was water an average of every 1.5 miles, so that helped a lot. I had some Gu Chomps around mile 8, and shortly there after put in my headphones. There WERE lots of bands and a reasonable number of spectators on the course, but I was pretty spent by this point and needed more distraction.

Overall, I felt pretty good the whole race, considering how little I trained. My left calf was tight for a few miles in the beginning - likely due to my scraped up knee from a fall on Thursday changing my stride - but it stopped bothering my around mile 9, mostly because my right calf was also burning by then :) There was only one time I got upset - when the 2:05 pacer chugged by me at mile 12 telling his group to pick it up till the end. I had no pick up. In fact, I kind of wanted to puke around here and teared up. Once we got off the bridge and there were people again I got over it though.

I finished around 2:07, I think about a minute less than at the MORE in April (which I was slightly - slightly - better trained for) so I think that's a win. And the medal was terrific. I need to get a picture. The arch is a little glittery, and it is a heavy medal. I hate cheapy race medals, so this was a bonus. The finish area and gear check/pickup was also fabulously well organized as well.

I had to walk a few blocks up the street to meet up with my family, so I stopped to see (I was crossing around mile 12.75/26 or so) the elite finishers of the marathon and some more of the half runners. I saw the lead female just behind her pace car - that was pretty cool. She had a good few minutes lead on the next woman. I could almost see her thinking "don't look back don't look back I'm behind the PACE CAR don't stop".

While I am still a little sad about my training, I've done ok writing it off to newborns and construction, and I hope to run this race again (for time perhaps).

you've got to be f-ing kidding me.

IT IS OCTOBER.

And if its snowing I can't bring our 13 week old babies to see the team we used to coach play :(

Rolling rolling

Ok we're not that advanced. But we are flying in style.

and how about this?

Also in the kitchen photos....the back of the medicine cabinet...

 Its still a little hard to see here, but those little gray shards under the cabinet are razor blades.

did you catch that?

In the kitchen photos of my last post, you might have seen this gem.

progress

Changes to the house have begun.

In no particular order...(disclaimer: I didn't take good post-purchase pre-reno photos, so all of my befores are from house hunting. Lots of random poses!)

Front porch before

it's hard to see here, but that's faux tile.

Front porch (floor) after

almost all the laminate is up! and aside from the rust line from the nails, the wood is in nice shape!

Nursery before

(I'm scoping out the prescriptions/doctors stuff hanging on the wall)

development

Look how giant they are. Seriously. I know they're still small (8 and 9 lbs at this photo), but they've nearly doubled in size since they came home and they don't look nearly as silly in their car seats.

also, can we discuss how "boy's" Carter's sleepers seem to be an inch longer than "girls"? wtf?

But, being 5 weeks early (and gestationaly disadvantaged in Quinn's case, thanks to IUGR), they're not quite up with their 2 month old peers. I know all babies develop differently, blah blah blah, and we're no where near 2 mo adjusted, but its still a bit of a drag to have them be tiny newborns for what feels like forever (they ARE damned cute though).

And I was pretty bummed when a facebook friend from HS posted a picture of her daughter - who is three days younger- with a big gummy grin. I know it'll come in time.

They are getting cuter by the day though  :)

technology

Sometimes we forget how far we've come.

This charmer also came out of our new kitchen (screwed into the wall in giant metal box as this is clearly the inside). My amateur eye thinks it dates to the 60s (and, ok, that's about when it was last remodeled).

That's my Droid X hanging out there for comparison.

exhaustion, part 2

My disclaimer is the babies are not bad sleepers for their adjusted age.  And I do not spend 3 hrs a day pumping like my poor wife.

But I am tired.

We half abandoned the shift schedule. Sort of. We try to get Chris to bed by 9 and I take the babies, then she's the primary overnight since I have to go to work. When they're both up, we both feed them (then - or before- she pumps, oye). Its not a bad deal most nights since we can do the whole thing in 30ish minutes....most nights anyway. Sometimes one (::coughusuallyaverycough::) is up and screaming or insisting on being held for a few hours. Then it doesn't work so well. But it is improving.

I am crossing my fingers though that they're sleeping through the night (at least 11-5) by the time Chris goes back to work in 4 weeks.

Debut

At 22 inches, Avery was really pushing the limits of NB clothes.  As an aside, we have mostly Carters and Target stuff...a quick browse online of holiday stuff shows the recommended lengths on these clothes to be bigger than those at Gymboree, which limits 0-3 to 23". wtf? Avery is below 50% for actual age in length...

But I digress.

The little dolls in their first

I hope this isn't a sign.

We started demo-ing the kitchen.

I took off a wall plate with 4 slots (one of which was empty).

For bonus points, lets note those 3 switches were replaced around 2 years ago when the prior owner had some work done to spiff the place up enough to get a live-in nurse to come (per the neighbor, said owner passed a year ago).

I'd also like to point out it was a crummy electrician. The three way switch (middle) is wired wrong. I can't wait to fix that...

2 months old!

I'm undecided if I'm going to keep a separate blog for the babies. I was thinking I would use it for family/milestones etc, but really, I am making them photo albums and such as baby books and I have a shutterfly site...so...for now, its on hold. Besides, they're still newborns so we don't really have any fun activities to write about yet.

In the meanwhile...

The babies are 2 months old now (4w adjusted). At their last appointment, they were both officially on the charts!  Quinn weighed in at 7lbs 13 oz and 20.5 inches (that's 2 lbs in 3 weeks) and Avery was 8lbs 14 oz and 22 inches. They're both on the chart now (just barely for Quinn, and around 10-15th percentile for Avery). For their adjusted age, they're around 25th percentile (with Avery being 75th or so for length). So far so good!

And the little dolls are getting big so freaking fast. Here they are in BumGenius XS AIOs (with the lil'joeys, BG Ss (which fit), and a BG 4.0 pocket (which we haven't tried, though Avery is starting to fit into some of the smaller One Size pockets now).

running

So my new goal for my fall half is to beat my spring performance. A 2:08 isn't exactly spectacular, and is 15 minutes off my PR from 2008 (15lbs lighter and running, oh, 20 miles more/week than I am now). That said, my training has been spotty, with spotty midweek runs and roughly every other weekend long runs. I MUST get 10 mile+ runs in this Saturday and next though...A look back at my training log shows 3 10 miles within the 5 weeks pre-race, and fairly similar (though slightly higher) midweek mileage (though I am doing Crossfit twice a week now, so I think it balances out), so I think I can do this. This week and next (and the week of taper) I will focus!!!! haha. (AND I will not beat myself up...I have newborns at home! I am doing a good job here, right?)

Last night was our first true fall evening and it was spectacular, if overcast. I ran 6.3 miles after work.  I ran 30 minutes IN A ROW (I cannot tell you the last time I did that), then 3 10 minute periods. I felt good. I feel good today! I am going to try to squeeze in 3 miles tonight but we'll see.

At this point, weekend long runs aside, I'm shifting my focus to my Thanksgiving Turkey Trot. My 5k times have always been dismal, so a PR  IS in my future.