Hill Valley Half Marathon Recap

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Last week I completed the Hill Valley Half Virtual Half Marathon over the course of four days- Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. I'd have preferred to spread it out a bit more and have Saturday as a run day, but we were busy so Saturday wasn't an option.

I split the distance fairly evenly and the distances came in at 3.41 miles, 3.50 miles, 3.20 miles, and 3.20 miles. I ended up running a slightly long half at 13.31 miles in 3 hours and 43 minutes. It was my slowest half by 44 minutes, but I wasn't trying to go fast - just complete it. At just under 3 months postpartum I have not had time to properly train for a half marathon and my mileage is nowhere near where it should be for running a half marathon. Which I could tell. It felt good to push myself, but I do not have the endurance to run even a 5k at one go. Especially since I was on the treadmill. I find it easier to run outside than on the treadmill, and this entire race was run and walked on the treadmill. All told,  I was able to run just under half the distance and I walked the rest.

So why did I run this race? To add a virtual half to my 40 by 40 tally.

Part of the 40 by 40 goal is to complete a variety of races and distances, and a virtual half fits the bill, and the cumulative distance feature made it doable at my current fitness level. Plus I need to add in races where I can so I can catch up to where I should be since I got a slow start. I was about 36 weeks pregnant when I had my 38th birthday and started my 40 by 40 goal. Not exactly the best situation to be starting an ambitious goal, but I'll take what I can get.

The Hill Valley Half is the 4th race towards that goal. I have two more planned for this month, two in November, and one or two in December. That will bring my total to 9, possibly 10, races by the end of the year. Add in the New Year's Day 5k, and I'll be at 10 or 11 races at just over 6 months in. 10 races will put me at quarter of my goal in about a quarter of the time allotted. Not bad when you consider my slow start that had me at only 3 races completed at the 3 month mark.

40 by 40

	Date	Event	Distance	Event Type
1.	July	4th of July 5k	5k	Pregnant
2.	August	4 Mile Fun Run	4 miles	Road Race
3.	September	All Terrain	5k	Mixed surface
4.	October	Hill Valley Half	13.1 miles	Cumulative virtual

2015 Races

Month	Race Time
Hill Valley Virtual Half Marathon	3:43:00
September 5k	37:36	Almost 10 weeks postpartum
August 4 mile	1:00:18	almost 6 weeks postpartum
July 5k	47:44	38 weeks pregnant
June 5k	41:19	34 weeks pregnant
May 5k	40:05	29 weeks pregnant pushed River in the jogger
April 5k	42:36	28 weeks pregnant pushed River in the jogger
March 5k	35:32	22 weeks pregnant
February 5k	33:55	20 weeks pregnant
January 5k	33:25	12 weeks pregnant

Have You Heard of the Hill Valley Half Marathon?

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Last week's mileage: 5.84 miles, which is slightly more than the week before. I did three days on the treadmill, and they were three in a row again. This week it was Wed-Thurs-Fri since we had a super busy Saturday planned and I knew I wouldn't have time to hit the treadmill that day.

This week I'm running the Hill Valley Half Marathon, which is a virtual race. Virtual races are races where you run the distance on your own time, then report your time. This particular virtual race also allows you to take as many days as you need to accumulate the mileage, as long as you finish by Oct 31. You can link a fitness watch to automatically report your mileage or you can manually enter the info. As your mileage is reported, you are sent emails with various locations from the movies. For example, the race starts at Marty's house and the 5k marker is at Doc's house. Pretty fun!

This race commemorates the day that Doc and Marty visit in Back to the Future: October 21, 2015.

I thought it was a fun idea, and definitely the only way I'm doing a half marathon less than three months after giving birth :) You don't get a t-shirt, but you do get a finisher's medal, and the entry fee is much more affordable than most half marathons.

My goal is to run and walk 13.1 miles over four days this week. It's increasing my daily and weekly mileage much quicker than I should or normally would, so I'll be paying attention to how everything's feeling and doing more walking than running if necessary. And next week I'll let my mileage drop down again to let my body rest.

If you want to join me in running this race, there's still time: you can register here by October 21.

Sunday Funny

I was on the front porch, cutting some wood for a project, and found this little guy crawling around. Sunshine and I both thought it was pretty cool, but River was a little freaked out by it. He went to the other end of the porch and stayed there- as far from the caterpillar as possible. I'm not sure if it was the weird antenna thingies, how fast it moved (it was speedy), or what, but he wanted nothing to do with it. In general bugs don't worry him too much so I was surprised at his reaction to this fuzzy little guy.

2 Years

River recently celebrated his second birthday, which is just crazy, in my opinion. There's no way it's already been two years since this happened:

And it was just one year ago that he transformed from a shaggy-haired baby to a little boy when we gave him his first haircut shortly after his first birthday.

These days River likes to do what Sunshine does, so we find him here a lot:

He thinks he's one of the big kids and likes to tag along at park days.

playing in the rain- everyone was soaking wet and having a blast

wanting to join in on whatever game the big boys were playing

River loves his baby brother and is always giving him hugs and kisses. He started out just wanting to hold Ocean for a second or two at a time, but now will sit and hold him for longer than that.

We're transitioning him from his crib to a twin size bed, but it's proving rougher than we anticipated. Sunshine went from her crib to what we later called her "Harry Potter room", and it was fairly easy. This time around we haven't yet moved the crib into Sunshine's room for Ocean, so River kept wanting to sleep in that rather than his bed. He was excited about the idea of the bed, but not so much the reality of it. He's coming around though and is staying in his bed and sleeping better.

excited about the big boy bed in his room, right after we set it up

Back in July I mentioned that River was in speech therapy. He continues to progress, but we're not sure if it's because he's maturing or if the therapy is working, or a combination of the two. Probably the latter. He is saying more words, though they're not clearly enunciated. He randomly busts out with words, but he only says them once- if we try to get him to repeat it, he refuses. He does not perform for us or anyone. He does have a few 2-3 word phrases that he uses infrequently. One of these days he'll skip straight to talking in full sentences. In the meantime, we're continuing to teach him new signs and he knows a lot more than Sunshine ever did. Being able to figure out what he needs is actually a downside at this point. He knows we know what he wants/needs, so there's very little incentive for him to communicate verbally. We're now working on changing that thought process and habit.

River isn't as fond of stuffed animals as Sunshine is, but she's rubbing off on him and he does have a couple stuffed animals he likes. A little stuffed dog is his favorite, mostly because he also really likes dogs. "Dog" and "woof" are two of his most often used words.

snuggling the giant dog (bigger than him!) at Costco. no, we did not take it home with us :)

I made gluten free carrot cake cupcakes for River's birthday cake. As I frosted them I realized I totally slacked off- Sunshine got a super-cool Nemo cake for her 2nd birthday. But she didn't have a 2 month old younger sibling draining mommy's brain cells. We had lots of cousins around for Sunshine's 2nd birthday, but it was just us for River's. I do enjoy making the more elaborate cakes, so I just need to plan ahead to make it happen next year. The planning will be key: September and October are when I work on Halloween costumes, so having a plan in place before then will make it a lot easier for me to quickly and efficiently make a fancy cake in the middle of sewing costumes.

River might be a lefty- if you look at the picture of him eating ice cream and the one of him writing at the school table you'll see that he's holding the spoon and the pencil in his left hand. That's a normal occurrence, though he does occasionally use his right hand for those tasks.

River is a sweet, happy little boy that we're blessed to have in our family!

The LEGO Habitat is Finally Painted

You can find my first basement progress post here, and the second here.

About two years ago I built a LEGO habitat to corral Sunshine's LEGOs in the living room. It worked well, until I rearranged the couches in the living room. I'd been feeling the table was just too large, I didn't want the LEGOs upstairs, and I wanted to move the couches around. We moved the table downstairs, moved the couches around, and I brought in the tufted bench that's moved around the house.            

the LEGO table's place of honor when I first built it

where it's lived for the last year

I've been gradually painting all those projects I built when I was pregnant with River. (sofa table, dining table and benches, homeschool cupboard) I think this is the last unpainted piece. I left it till last since it's in the basement and not nearly as visible as the other pieces I built.

We're still on a tight budget, so I wanted to use paint we had rather than buying new paint. I also wanted to use chalk paint, which narrowed my options to three: the country gray I used on the shredder cover, the napoleon blue I used on the sofa table, or the old violet I used on the sideboard in our room. The country gray is more brown than gray and there's already a lot of brown in the basement, so that was out. I just painted the tufted bench in our bedroom with old violet and while I like it, the color really changes depending on the lighting, so I didn't think it would do well in the basement. Given the color of the basement walls (a rather bright turquoise) I wasn't sure if the napoleon blue would work, but I figured it would be the best fit.

First I painted a corner of the table to see how I liked it, but I didn't take a picture of that.

A week or so later after I'd finished some other projects I filled the nail holes and sanded them, but I didn't take a picture of that either.

I did take a picture after I stained most of the table. I didn't bother staining the surfaces that wouldn't see much wear.

Another week passed before I got around to painting the table. Two weeks after that I finally gave the table a light sanding, then rubbed dark wax over the paint.

I really do like this shade of blue- it's so pretty. We have a lot of tan in the basement- the floor, carpet, couch, and curtains are varying shades of brown, so the blue is a nice pop of color in the sea of tan. And it doesn't clash with the walls, so I'm happy.

I'm so glad I can finally cross this off my to-do list. It finally looks polished and finished. This project coincides with my efforts to complete other projects in the basement (artwork, curtains) and I have a couple more posts about the basement planned, but I need to finish up some things first.

The Corn Maze 5k Non-Report

misty spiderwebs

I had planned on running the corn maze 5k that I mentioned last week, but it got postponed a few weeks because of all the rain we've gotten this week. So I hit the treadmill instead - I wanted to run outside, but it rained most of the day and I just wasn't feeling like getting soaked.

Last week I ran and walked 7.31 miles between my time on the treadmill and the 5k I ran. This past week I ran and walked 5.63 miles on the treadmill. The main issue I had was that I ended up on the treadmill Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. By Saturday my muscles were definitely feeling fatigued, so this week I will try to space out my workouts a bit better.

Oh, and I managed to get poison ivy on my right ankle at the race last week. I'm quite disgusted since I managed to go all spring and summer without getting it, even with all my work on the treehouse (which has poison ivy growing near it). I didn't see the poison ivy during the race, but it sure saw me. I've managed to keep it from spreading too much though and it's almost out of the itchy stage.

I've hit my postpartum food issue point. It happened with River and it's happening again. At least I expected it this time around, though that doesn't make it any more welcome. Now it's time to figure out what my body can tolerate while still giving me enough energy to breastfeed Ocean, walk/run on a regular basis, keep up with all the usual mommy tasks that go along with having three kiddos, sew elaborate Halloween costumes (they're turning out great and I can't wait to share them!), and finish up random projects around the house. I was able to do those things and more while pregnant, so not being able to do fewer things while not pregnant can be discouraging at times.

Energy levels are huge for me- not having energy takes me back to the years I spent barely scraping through each day, doing just the minimum that needed to get done. That's not somewhere I want to go back to, and it's difficult trying to balance everything when I'm not feeling well. I know everything will balance out eventually and I'll figure out what foods work for me now, but it's frustrating in the meantime.

I remember reading some time ago that pregnancy changes/turns off your autoimmune system- hence the reason life is easier in the food department for me when I'm pregnant. My over-active autoimmune system calms down and I can almost be normal. Not that I'm stupid enough to eat gluten or anything, but I do tolerate more starches than when I'm not pregnant and I feel better in general. My sister was in a study that involved tricking the body into thinking it's pregnant to see if it helped with her MS symptoms - I believe it did help her, but the study ended and she wasn't able to continue with the meds.

I will admit that I enjoy the hiatus in food issues (or at least the lessening of them) that occurs while I'm pregnant and for the first two months or so after giving birth. I don't think staying pregnant for the rest of my life is a good way (or a practical one) to manage my food issues though :)

Sunday Funny

Sunshine and her BFFEAE (best friends for ever and ever- their acronym :)

Me: Pull your pants up.

Sunshine: "Gotta pull your pants up, ooooh, gotta keep your pants up, ye-ah." {sung to the tune of the song "Keep your head up"}

Mr M and I burst out laughing- there was no hesitation on her part- she just busted out with the lyrics. She has since added a couple more lines, following the original tune and wording, that all revolve around keeping your pants up. A good goal in life, right? :)

2 Months Old

Ocean passed the 2 month mark two weeks ago, so it's about time I got this post finished and posted. Finding time to take and then edit the photos seems to be what slows me down the most.

isn't this the cutest shirt? of course, the baby's pretty cute too :)

At his 2 month checkup he weighed 13 pounds, 11ounces and measured 23". This puts him at about the 85th percentile for weight and about 50th for height, but his height/weight proportions are holding steady. He's a chunky little guy who really enjoys eating. Though he does still gulp a lot of air while nursing, which results in some really impressive burps. Belches are a better name for what comes out of him :)

look at those chubby cheeks!

The big news this month has to do with his hearing. His left ear passed the newborn hearing screening, but his right ear flunked. It wasn't until we took him for a followup appointment that we realized that he'd failed the test- the hospital nurse had just said "he hadn't cooperated" despite two tries. In any case, at his followup audiology appointment at the pediatrician's office (at about 4 weeks old) his right ear failed again and his left ear barely failed. They could see fluid, which was probably causing the problems, but it wasn't infected. Since he failed the test again, they referred us to the audiology department at the university hospital, where they have more sensitive equipment.

We went in for that appointment just before he turned two months old and re-tested both ears. His tympanic membranes are stiff and not moving and there's still fluid in both ears. His left ear is still borderline, with mild hearing loss. His right ear is worse, with moderate hearing loss. At this point the audiologist recommended we wait and see what happens- she thinks the fluid will drain and the issues resolve on their own in the next couple months (we have another followup in two months, just before he turns four months old). As his neck muscles strengthen and he spends more time sitting up his ears should be better able to drain. At six months if he's still having problems with fluid they can put tubes in to help with drainage. A big point in our favor is that the fluid is not infected and he's not exposed to a lot of germs through daycare, preschool, school, etc, so hopefully he won't get any ear infections.  The audiologist has fitted 3 month olds with hearing aids, but she said she didn't feel that we needed to go that route, but obviously we'll keep an eye on things. Since he can hear (which we already knew, since he reacts to noises), we can afford to hold off on anything too drastic. If he couldn't hear, we'd definitely need to go the hearing aid route so as not to affect his speech development. As it is, the audiologist thinks the hearing loss is only temporary and should return fully once the fluid drains.

So we're still in a holding/waiting pattern for another 2 months (well, a month and a half at this point), but I'm sure he'll be fine.

he still has a receding hairline, now supplemented with a comb-over

We were worried about his hair falling out, but it's started re-growing, so at least he won't be bald. It does seem to be lighter than River's hair, and in the right light it looks reddish. While he has short re-growth coming in, he has longer hair that hasn't fallen out that is thinning and looks like a bad baby comb-over :)

selfie snuggle?  snuggle selfie?

He still prefers to be held while sleeping, though I am working on transitioning him to napping on the couch or in the co-sleeper. He still sleeps 4-6 hours at a time at night, but usually only after midnight. He occasionally falls asleep earlier than that, but it's not consistent, so I'm still trying to convince him to move up his bedtime.

He's still a smiley baby, but now it's a reaction to us, not just an involuntary expression. He's also gotten a couple giggles out when we've tickled him. Towards the end of the month he started being more alert (sleeping a little less) and has gotten quite talkative and has a wide range of noises he makes.

such a handsome little guy

Ocean was blessed over Labor Day weekend. You can read more about it here.

He occasionally finds his fingers, and a couple times he's found his thumb, but he's not as single minded as River was. Ocean will take the pacifier, but he doesn't love it like Sunshine did. I'm curious to see which way he ends up going.

River was sitting in the stroller at Sunshine's fiddle lesson (the only way to keep him stationary right now) and he really wanted to hold Ocean

Ocean still gets upset when he gets the hiccups. He doesn't enjoy them at all, but it's funny for us to see his expression of disgust.

Ocean tolerates River's snuggles and kisses

Like many younger siblings, Ocean is going to grow up tough after putting up with/surviving his older brother and sister. They mean well, but aren't always as gentle as they could be, River in particular. He's strangely fascinated with Ocean's eyes and keeps pointing at them, only his little finger is so close to Ocean's eyes that he's poking him in the eye. River does love Ocean, though, and is more generous with his hugs and kisses with him than with the rest of us :)

I pulled out the highchair a few weeks ago. I feel much safer with Ocean sitting up high rather than sitting low to the floor in the bouncer. There's just too many things in the kitchen that could fall on him when he's in the bouncer. The picture above was one of the first occasions he'd sat in it and he wasn't too sure about it. He doesn't mind it now and I think he likes being a part of the family at meal times.