Well, at least I'm properly tappered

My 24 day training plan for Sunday's half marathon was a bit of a mixed bag.  I ran an 8 miler that seriously kicked my ass.  Granted it was a freak day that was easily 25 degrees warmer than any run this year, but bad things happened. It was one of those runs where everything, aside from injury, that can go wrong, does.  ::shudder:: 

I rallied the next weekend for an amazing 10 miler though.  Everything was perfect, and I was flying.

Aside from that run, well, it's been pretty sparse.  Blah blah blah, don't want to take the boys in the wind/rain, blah blah blah, easter travels, blah blah blah.  My legs will be fresh on Sunday, if nothing else. That and I've lost five pounds to get back down to my training weight.  Holla for a free 2:18!

So instead of stressing over how under-trained I am for this, I've elected to obsess over other things.

1. The weather- 40s at race start, sunny, minimal wind- YES PLEASE
2. My outfit- Tank?  Maybe?  I need to take note of the weather some morning at 6:00-7:00ish because god knows I'll be up. FYI: babies get up at the same damn time every morning. 
3. Will the new shoes I've ordered arrive in time- Smart, no?  I even called the company to see how long shipping would take (usually 3 days) and the cost of changing to overnight ($20+).  I opted to roll the dice on the original shipping method.  Diapers and daycare ain't cheap.

I don't have any specific goals in mind, but I would like to beat my last half marathon time. That's my only post-babies half.  Since I don't feel like I can use "pregnancy recovery" as an excuse, I need to keep improving every race.  (Although, I'll sandbag that I was running a ton more back then.)

Good luck to everyone else racing this weekend.  Woo hoo!  Yay spring!

Oh, and here's some cutie Easter pics.

The was the extent of our egg hunt.

Our little one was all about it, but his brother forgot he hates grass.  Poor peanut.

24 days until race day

24 days.  That's it.  24 days until I line up for my first serious race since October 2009.  I'm no longer "trying to get pregnant", and I'm no longer "recovering from being pregnant."  No more excuses.  I'm a busy mom now, but so are most of the women who line up on race day. 

The upside is this race is the Lincoln half marathon.  Hands down the best race in the area.  The downside is I'm not exactly in half marathon shape.  I only found out yesterday that I'm doing it, so I'm scrambling a bit to get in shape fast.  Half-assing this is not an option either. It's too early, too far, and too expensive to run for fun.  If I'm doing it, I'm doing it.

Do I have a training plan?  Hell no!  (Although, I never do.)  Well, technically I have a plan: run more.  It's pretty simple.  And so far, so good.  I went twice this weekend solo and twice with the boys this week.  They even rolled in style:   

Do I expect to PR?  No.  Do I expect to work hard for the next 24 days and give it a shot?  Absolutely.

In nino news, these boys are endlessly entertaining.  They crawl everywhere and climb on everything.  They also steal toys from each other constantly.  This is my favorite picture after quite the fight over the coaster.  (Never mind the fact that we have a whole stack of them.)  Sam is picking his nose in victory, and Luke is flinging himself over in a dramatic fit of defeat.

Race pic (and the post-baby body analysis that follows...)

(Warning: This post gets a little real. It's not bragging, it's not any serious issues, it's just me honestly babbling about me on my blog so I remember this time in my life. You can skip down to the cute baby pictures if you want.)

Here's the one decent pic from the Leprechaun Chase race. Scrolling through them all was a hoot. Some people took the costume assignment very serious.
Overall, I think it looks pretty cute. The horizontal socks were not kind to my giant calves, but I've taken much worse. It's better than when I wore this shirt five months pregnant last year. As I started combing over all the parts of my body that I liked and didn't like in the picture (you do it too, don't lie), I realize I'm coming up on nine months post-babies. They say "nine months on and nine months off" for baby weight, so I figured I'd report on my journey since I scoured the internet before and during pregnancy to get an idea of what would happen.

I've been active and thin my whole life, so "getting fat" was a major concern about pregnancy. It was okay since I had visions of being one of those tiny basketball-belly women who gain 20lbs, wear their regular clothes most of the way, never get a stretch mark, and lose it all right away. Finding out you're having twins is a mix of emotions. I cried one overwhelmed night early on that I didn't want to be a gigantic blimp.

I posted about my pregnancy journey from January to July last year including my "running pregnant philosophy". It was strange watching my weight go up and not be able to make it go back down. I was surprised how okay I was with it though. I was running as much as I could and eating as well as I could, so there was nothing more I could do about it. The bottom line is I ran until 33 weeks, started running 2.5 weeks post c/s, gained 34 pounds, never got a single stretch mark, and lost my goal before returning to work at 12 weeks. I intentionally held onto about 3-4 pounds while I was still nursing through the end of the year. My normal weight is on the low end of BMI normal, and I had enough supply issues as it was. They easily fell off once I stopped.

Would I wear a bikini today? Yes. Well, give me an hour to get a wax, shave my legs, and find a spray tan, but THEN, yes. I'm not as strong as I was before, but I will be this summer. I'm about the same size and shape though. Flat stomach, strong(ish) legs, and killer baby carrying arms. There's a number of factors that led to this.

Dumb luck

1. Time of year- I was pregnant and gave birth the perfect season for being active. No clue what I would have done had I had them in December.

 2. Retired mom- My mom would happily watch the boys while I ran in the middle of the day.

3. Genetics- I'm tall, fast metabolism, with stretchy skin, apparently.

4. Extremely easy babies- Well, I'm taking partial credit for this. I believe baby personalities are somewhat reflective of their parents. They never had colic or reflux or anything like that though.

 "Luck"... but not really

1. I only carried to 34.5 weeks before a false alarm IUGR c-section- Bad for my NICU babies, but it meant I didn't gain as much weight as full term.

2. Minimal chest growth- My small B's grew to small C's. I know some women get really big and painful while nursing. I struggled with production for two, but at least nothing leaked or hurt. (They've also shrunk back down to A's now. Not that I mind.)

 Things I earned

 1. I was extremely conscious what I ate before, during, and after pregnancy. Aside from the occasional cake craving, I'm very healthy. I don't do fast food. Ever.

2. I ran- It's my break. I don't need a glass of wine or a pedicure or a new pair of shoes as a treat. Running is my me time. All moms need something for themselves and that's mine. I'm still not running as much as I'd like, but I'm going enough. What I'm not running is because I "won't", not because I "can't".

3. I had a very easy pregnancy. Some of this was dumb luck, but I know a large part was because of 1 and 2 above.

I'm at my natural weight right now. Minus four pounds is my in-training weight. Minus five pounds is my marathon weight. Marathon weight was the skinniest I've ever been. Per everyone (including medical professionals), I was too skinny. But had I not been trying to get pregnant, I'd have stayed that size. I loved fitting into size 0 pants.

Baby weight and a post baby body is a very real struggle for many women. It was a huge source of anxiety for me. But every story is different. Maybe I was just really lucky or maybe I earned it. Probably a combination of both. We aren't having any more kids, so my pregnancy story has come to an end. A happy end.

 A large part of that is because of the motivation, support, and encouragement from blog land. Thank you all. And even if I wasn't the size I am today, these little peanuts would make very single ounce worth it.  
They're so much fun these days. Both are crawling and climbing on everything right now. It's wonderful to see them growing, but we had to get a new play yard. Apparently our house is a death trap. We call it baby jail. They are clearly not fans of baby jail.