Sunday, April 20, 2014

Family Weekends!

Well, we've all had a busy couple of weekends!

Last weekend, my parents (also known as Nana and Grandad) came to visit, along with my sister. The babies had a fantastic time, with lots of cuddles, play time and even a trip to the park! They were completely exhausted by the end of the visit, but they sure had a great time!

Lots of cuddles and playtime!
This weekend, we had the chance to catch up with a couple of our college professors, who are actually the reason hubby and I are together.  We got to meet up with them for brunch on Saturday, and the babies got their first trip downtown! They both did well, but Thing 2 was the life of the party! She flirted with the table next to us, blew raspberries at everyone (we teach our kids to be mature), and showed off all of her other entertaining tricks.

And today was the babies' first Easter. I can't believe how much they've grown! And, to think: last Easter we were telling hubby's grandmother that she would be getting two more great-grandbabies! We spent the afternoon with her, and the Things behaved themselves very well. There's something about babies that makes everyone smile, and that goes double for twins!

It was another busy weekend, and the babies crashed hard tonight, but it's great to see how well they do when we take them out. It makes me really look forward to the adventures we'll have this summer!

Aren't we cute?

In between all the craziness, I also managed to keep up with my 3 runs per week (including one with my dad while he was here), and I'm now up to a 3.5 mile long run. Still nowhere near my old distances or speeds, but I'm getting there! Slowly, but surely, I'm getting myself back!

Thursday, April 10, 2014

National Sibling Day

Apparently, today is National Sibling Day! Up until last year, I had absolutely no idea that this day existed, but when I started seeing posts on Facebook about it, I thought it was too big a coincidence to ignore. Hubby and I had been looking for a time to go public with our news about the Things, and National Sibling Day seemed like the perfect time! After all, our babies would have instant siblings! We put together a quick little announcement, and then we were finally Facebook official!
In other news, the Things are 7 months old today! It's really crazy to think that one year ago today, we were telling (almost) everyone we know the big news, and today our babies are 7 months old. They've really changed a lot in the past few weeks, and it's incredible to watch them grow and learn new things every day. They're both rolling all over the place (it's Thing 1's preferred mode of transportation), and doing a good job sitting up, and this morning it looked like Thing 2 is giving some serious thought to crawling. These are some busy babies!

Aren't we cute?
And, what have I been up to? I'm working on getting my mileage up to a good base level before I start training for the half marathon. I've got plenty of time before I need to start, so it's nice to be able to relax and enjoy myself and add distance gradually. I've also run a 5k as my long run the past two weekends, and they have felt great!!! I'm still slow, but I think I'm getting stronger and faster every week! And, we've officially ordered our running stroller, so Hubby and I are both really excited to start bringing the Things on runs with us!

It's such a relief to think that maybe we're finally seeing the end of winter. I'm really starting to have fun on my runs, and I know the weather is a big part of that. I can't wait for spring to really hit us, so we can finally take the things outside and have some real adventures with them!

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

199 Days and Counting!

It's official! I've signed up for my first post-babies half marathon! In 199 days, I will be running in the 19th Annual Indianapolis Half Marathon!

I ran the half marathon in 2012, and had an amazing time. It was my second half marathon, and I set a new PR by almost 10 minutes. This feels like such an appropriate race to have as my inaugural mommy-thon, since it's in my hometown, so I'll get to have my own little cheering section! My two littlest fans (who will be over a year old by then!!!) might even be able to make it out to cheer on mommy!

I have to admit: I'm a nervous racer. Instead of enjoying the morning of the race, I usually find myself  stressing out about whether or not I've trained enough, whether I tapered to early, whether I did enough speedwork, whether I'll be able to handle the hill that I know is hiding late on this course....and everything else. It got so bad that my dad actually had to pull the car over on our way to the race so that I could throw up. Yup. That's a great way to start a race, isn't it?

I'm hoping that it will be easier this time around. Sure, it's going to feel like a big deal, as my first half marathon back, but my BFF promises that all PRs are re-set after babies. So, I get an automatic PR on this race, right? Right?

Since I'll be starting my training from a very different place physically, I'm going to try my best to make this experience as fun and non-stressful as possible. I've really been enjoying my runs recently (Who would have guessed? I kinda like morning runs!), and I don't want to lose that. My goal is to make it through the training and the race with a focus on running smart and happy. To borrow my dad's tagline from he wrote for his local running group: "Stride and glide, stride and glide."

Action shot from the 2012 half marathon. Look at me go!