things that were completed

We had a rather adventurous list of things that needed to be completed for the nursery, and I'm glad to report, most of them were completed. Overall, we accomplised quite a bit, yet it seems like we still have tons more to do.

1. Paint - done. All the painting except the closet doors and window trim has been finished.
2. Crib - assembled.
3. Changing table - assembled.
4. Blinds - replaced and old ones discarded.
5. Fabric - viewed samples and made decisions on templates.
6. Cleaning - steam cleaned the carpets, vacuumed the carpets, scrubbed the baseboards in the kitchen, & mopped said kitchen.
7. Organizing - Sent stuff into the attic to clear the garage a little more. Discarded "stuff" from the garage (and attic) & made more piles for goodwill.
8. Race - did that too

So, another productive weekend. We're in the homestretch and have approximately 3mo left to be completed!!

mileage monday 3.29

This will be a new little addition to the blog, called Mileage Mondays. Feel free to pass over it, or read my recap of the prior week's training and highlights. Seeing as how I have a rather large race (Half Ironman - 1.2mi swim, 56mi bike, 13.1mi run) on the calendar at the later part of the year, this will be a good way for me to stay accountable and you to follow along.

So, here goes last weeks highlights.

22 Monday
4.1mi run during my lunch break

23 Tuesday
5.1mi morning "sunrise" run & a weight routine during lunch break

24 Wednesday
4400yard(2.5mi) swim with the morning "masters" swimmers

25 Thursday
2mi run & 45mins on the rower for my morning workout & a weight routine (incl. 5.5mi on the stationary bike) during lunch break

26 Friday
5600yard(3.1mi) TT swim followed by 30min weights after work

27 Saturday
3.1mi race - See "rumpshaker 5k recap"

28 Sunday
3mi recovery run

And the totals:
Swimming: 10000yard(5.6mi) - 2hrs 57mins
Biking: 5.5mi - 20min
Running: 17.4mi - 2hr 44min
Strength: 2hr 45min

Overall a pretty good week. Now, when all this studying for my upcoming PE exam is over, I'll be able to hit the bike a bit more and start really racking up the miles. As for now, it'll just have to do.

rumpshaker 5k recap

The 5k is over and here's a little tidbit from the race:

It was cold at the start. The temperature has been holding around the mid 60s, and unfortunately, dropped on race day. It wasn't completely unbearable, but standing around in 40* weather, waiting for the race to start was a little cool.

There were 1877 people to cross the finish line at the 5k race, which was quite impressive for a race going that's only been going for 2yrs. The only problem with this many people is the strollers and the walkers that all start at the front.

At the beginning, there was a short slightly steep bridge we had to cross over. Not bad, but it stopped several of the participants, which is where we made a strategic pass:

(right hand side - white shirt (me), blue jacket (Dave))

From there, it was mostly flat and downhill to the finish line

From the results page:
Robert - 28/118 Age Group - 243/1877 Overall - Time: 26:02 - Pace: 8:23/mi
Dave - 12/37 Age Group - 258/1877 Overall - Time 26:14 - Pace 8:27/mi

Overall, it was a pretty good race

upcoming rumpshaker 5k

That's right, I'm running the Rumpshaker 5k again this year..

This time though, seeing that Bethany's got a baby in the belly, she won't be running. Instead, she'll be photographing and cheering us on. I say "us", because it'll be me and her dad hammering down the streets for the race.

Last Years time: 29:28.
This years goal time: 26:30

Let's do this!

(afterwards, all the stuff in the nursery starts)

things left to do

We're nearing the end of our "nursery construction" phase and have the home stretch in sight. This week and weekend, we ought to wrap most of it up, except for the little decorating, which will be huge progress.

For this week:
-shampoo and deep clean the carpets
-hang our newly bought baby clothes

For the weekend:
-final coat of paint on the walls
-build the crib
-build the changing table
-possibly build the window box/bookcase
-replace the current window blinds
-install crown moulding

That sounds like quite a bit, but at least we're going in the right direction and not procrastinating.

Couple that with a 5k race I have on Saturday morning, and it sounds like we have quite the busy weekend...

Tony Kornheiser is an idiot

Nobody should ever be allowed to spew the comments he has.

Mr. Kornheiser, as you may remember, has just been suspened from ESPN for making comments regarding the attire of a fellow coworker. Now, he's started a new argument by encouraging drivers to "run them over" (in reference to bike riders) while riding.

Fresh off his suspension for critiquing the wardrobe of Hannah Storm, ESPN's Tony Kornheiser has a fresh new controversy on his hands, with Lance Armstrong ripping him for urging drivers to run down bicyclists on the road.

Kornheiser was discussing the addition of bicycle lanes to some streets in Washington, D.C., when he said on ESPN Radio 980 that he despises bicyclists and supports drivers intentionally running into them.

"And they all, my God, with their water bottles in the back, and their stupid hats, and their shiny shorts, they're the same kind of disgusting posers that in a snowstorm come out with cross-country skis on your block," Kornheiser said. "Run them down."

Kornheiser twice said, with disgust in his voice, that he thought Washington, D.C. was turning into Beijing. He did, however soften his tone ever so slightly by adding, "So you tap them. I'm not saying kill them."

Continued: Lance Armstrong Rips Tony Kornheiser

If you're interested, the audio is here: http://ow.ly/1nXfQ
 
It's people like him, that require us, as cyclist, to ride 3-4' into the travel lane just to make sure they'll see us. And it's another reason we have to fight to find roads to ride on that won't jeapordize our safety.

25 Weeks

So, I guess my goal of doing this every week isn't turning out the way I hoped :), but I think I might try to keep up with at least once a month of belly pictures. We have been busy with home improvements the past couple of weeks to try and get as many things done with the house before the baby arrives. We decided on paint colors for the nursery and we will need to get the fabric ordered pretty soon. The light blue is one of the colors we are going with. We will update the pictures pretty soon with what has been done in the nursery. It still feels like we have tons of stuff left to do before she gets here though, but we are definitely having fun getting everything together. Oh...and she is about the size of an eggplant this week :). Don't mind the gross hair.....we were up early for Robert's Xterra 10K that morning :).

How far along? 25 weeks

Total weight gain? At least 7 pounds...I'll find out the total this week.
Maternity clothes? Yep...I'm ready to start looking at warm weather clothes though.
Sleep? Definitely not as comfortable as it used to be.
Best moment this month? Robert feeling her kick and making decisions for the nursery.
Movement: Yep...she is definitely getting bigger everyday.
Gender: Girl!
Labor signs? Nope.
Belly button in or out? Basically flat.
What I am looking forward to: Getting the rest of the nursery painted and the crib put together.

xterra 10k and dirty spokes

The Xterra 10k trail run was held Sunday, put on by Dirty Spokes Productions, and it turned out to be a great race weekend.

This was the first time that I've been to a race where you pickup your packet and racer info the morning of the race. Usually it's a week long process, but for this race, it was the morning of. The pickup started 1.5hrs prior to race start, so that's when we arrived. Little did I know, we'd be the first ones there and then have to wait that much longer for race start.

After some stretching, some striding, and getting dressed, it was time to go.

After the first quarter mile or so on the asphalt, it was in the woods we went. On dirt paths littered with down limbs, puddles of water, small rocks, giant boulders, and even some dirt fire road in there a couple times. Basically a good 2-3 ft wide trail that we blazed through on.

After about an hour, and several stream crossing, monster hill climbs, mud gulley runs, and lightning fast descents, I could see the parking lot that we started from. At that point, it was time to go. I got on the solid ground and turned it up to the finish line.

I finished with a time of 1:06:02. That time was good for 10th out 15 in my age group and 87th out of 155 overall. Not too bad for a first time 10k trail run.

Amazing at how comfortable shorts and short sleeve shirt are when it's 40* out and you just ran 6.2mi!

Preliminary results: Xterra 10k & dirty spokes

Back from the Xterrra 10k trail run, put on by dirty spokes. Preliminary results:

6.2mi - 1:06:21

More to come...

they walk among us

Sometimes, people really really amaze me. Here's just a couple examples:

Six women hospitalized after butt enhancements
Six New Jersey women have been hospitalized after receiving buttocks-enhancement injections that contained material used to caulk bathtubs, The Star-Ledger reports.

The newspaper says the women underwent surgery and got antibiotics after receiving a diluted version of nonmedical-grade silicone, apparently administered by unlicensed providers.
 
What made this sounds like a good idea?
 
Woman wrecks while shaving & driving
A woman who shaved her bikini area while driving caused a car crash in Florida Keys, prompting police to issue fresh warnings about safe driving, MyFox National reported Monday.

The woman crashed into another vehicle on Cudjoe Key after giving her ex-husband the wheel as she shaved her private parts. She was driving to meet her boyfriend in Key West and told authorities she wanted to be “ready for the visit,” WJZ.com reported.

Again, how is this a good idea?

Lohan suing over the E-trade baby
Lindsay Lohan is suing the financial company E-Trade, insisting that a boyfriend-stealing, "milkaholic" baby in its latest commercial -- who happens to be named Lindsay -- was modeled after her. And she wants $100 million for her pain and suffering, The Post has learned.

Synonomous w/ Oprah & Madonna - yea, I think NOT.
 
Ok, that's enough. Enjoy the chuckle.

how about that VW beetle

I do belive this video may make you want that old 1974 VW beetle back:

VW Beetle and 5th wheel camper

And it still gets 18-20mpg.

look who came to visit

That's right. We were visited by Hooper the Horse on Friday. Our good friend, who plays the role of Hooper for the Detroit Pistons was in town and paid us a visit. It was a great treat to have him down to spend an evening with us.

We went out to dinner, stayed up late playing wii, and then saw him off to visit some more of his friends. He was in town for a quick wedding this weekend before returning back to Detroit.

Thanks for the visit, Hooper!

things i learned

...on yesterdays run.

1. 28* is great running weather. Light running tights, single long sleeve shirt. Cold enough to be crisp at the start, yet warm enough to not completely freeze. Plus, the cold kept all the "scaredy cats" off the road, which meant I had the outside to myself.

2. 5:30am is a great time for running. I ran through some of the neighborhoods and noticed the occasional flicker of light coming from some of the rooms. Everything is quiet until you start seeing life coming through as it gets closer to 6:30am

3. Early morning runs mean there's very little traffic.

4. I've gotten faster. I ran this same run for the first time Sept. 22. Between the two runs, I've dropped almost 7minutes off of my 5mi time, and have gotten a bit more consistent. Here's my entry from my training calendar for that day:
Run University 102 - 5mi - 53:53 - 10:22avg - 1/10:51, 2/10:09, 3/10:23, 4/10:02, 5/11:09, 6/1:18(.2)
versus yesterday's entry of:
Sunrise-5mi, 28*F - 46:23  - 9:01avg - 1/8:57, 2/8:58, 3/9:09, 4/9:06, 5/9:16, .15/8:06

5. Now that the sun is rising a wee bit earlier, it's completely obvious why it's called the "Sunrise Run". Coming over the hill at the top of Birmingham, seeing the sunrise, is a great way to start the day. Just doesn't get a whole lot better than that.

Just a few random observations. Nothing spectacular.

productivity

Production around the house has been ramping up quite steadily lately. I'm no expert, but I do believe it's in part of "baby girl" getting ready to join us, so we have to finish up some projects.

#1. Garage
We took two trucks off to the Goodwill donation center Saturday. The beds were full, and we had stuff inside too. Lots of just stuff. This included fish tanks, shelving units, old computer parts, clothes, shelving racks, shoes, college room decorations, and just "stuff". But, by doing so, we cleaned a large chunk of stuff off the garage floor.

Then we hung shelving up along the walls of the garage.

We untangled, and hung our fishing rods, up off the floor and out of the way.

Shortly after that, it was time to pull out the saw and start a small construction project. I have a "gear" box that stores 90% of my camping equipment. It's all in one place and stored pretty neatly. The only thing, is that this box is heavy. So, to solve that, we built a small wooden frame, with casters, to hold my gear box and make moving it a wee bit easier.

The box beside it, is Bethany's "tack trunk" which is heavy too. Luckily, it doesn't move.

#2 The Kitchen
We have started slowly replacing the mini blinds in favor of the wood slat blinds. One room at a time. There are two windows in the kitchen that we replaced. The best part, we bought the "cut to size" blinds at the store, so we wouldn't have to special order anything. Unfortunately, she had to cut them 3 times before she finally got it right.

What should have turned into a 15min job (according to the box) turned into over 2hrs each due to the miscutting by the hardware store and the crappy job of the previous owners. They used whatever hardware they had on hand, meaning we had to constantly fight with removing various pieces, just to get a clean window frame.

#3 The Nursery
Bethany and her mother went fabric shopping and bought a majority of what they needed to do their thing with. I removed the shelving units from the closet, and it got a fresh coat of paint. Again, the previous owners used hardware they shouldn't have, so spackling had to come first. And, now that it's painted, a new shelving unit (adjustable) will be installed.

Oh, and that blue, yea, it's coming down too. We won't be painting the nursery that color.

We still need to paint, assemble the crib & changing table, build a window box, rearrange, and decorate. But, at least it's a start.

#4 The Porch

The back porch received a quick cleaning too. The grill's been stashed and the firewood stacked. This weekend, we pulled out the grill, gave it a quick cleaning, removed the firewood, and then cleaned up all of the mess from the winter wood splitting. Rearranged the furniture, put a majority of the stuff in the shed, and started getting it ready for spring.

After all of that, we enjoyed quite a nice dinner.

Steaks, baked potatoes, and salad. It was good. That was definitely the way to end the uber productive weekend.

21 Weeks and the Verdict is....

Our routine wasn't quite the same this past weekend since we were up and out of the house pretty early for Robert's half marathon, so we didn't get a belly picture in this week. But I definitely have better pictures to post this week anyway :).

Meet Baby Girl Harris:

Throughout the ultrasound, she kept putting her hands up by her face and trying to suck her thumb. She was moving a little bit, but mainly just hanging out the whole time which was good because the tech was able to get all of the measurements that she needed. She seems to be breech at the moment, but we still have plenty of time for her to flip around....I guess that's why I can feel lots of kicks pretty low.

How far along? 21 weeks

Total weight gain? 7 pounds total

Maternity clothes? Yep..hoping to have a couple new pairs of pants come in the mail this week.

Sleep? Getting a little less sleep now...

Best moment this week? Finding out that we are having a girl!!

Movement: Some...not very consistent though

Gender: Girl!

Labor signs? Nope.

Belly button in or out? Still in.

What I am looking forward to: Robert being able to feel her move and getting started on the nursery.