Kathleen's Adventures

Jon and I took the 4.5 hour route to Beaumont on Saturday...via Galveston, the ferry, and Bolivar Peninsula. The devastation on Bolivar was absolutely awful. I knew it would be, but you just can't comprehend it until you go yourself...even then it is still hard to fathom. Here are pictures we took along the way:

My family and I had a great Christmas in San Antonio. Santa came in a huge way and left everyone with way more presents than we need. Molly, Bennett, and Kate made Reindeer Food then put it outside for the reindeer...I think Major ate most of it. Then it was time to make cookies for Santa. And time to be silly. This is as close as a picture as I can get with Bennett. Kate's collage from her tri this summer. She had been waiting for this since last Christmas when I made one for Molly. I told her I'd make her one when she did her first triathlon, which she did in September. Santa came in a BIG way Waiting for the "all clear" to come down the hall to see if Santa came Bennett loves her new big pink puppy Kate with her new Longhorn hat Bennett with her new laptop, Elmo, and awesome shoes from Aunt Kathleen Molly and Kate on their way to ride around the block a few times, with their camelbacks One hell of a bike gang...steer clear if you see them out on the streets E...

Last Monday I had an awesome run. It was 43 degrees outside and I ran exactly 5 miles in 1 hour (12:00 min/mile pace). I was surprised because I was pretty tired and not sure if I had done too much the week before. As I was going, I felt like I was actually running again for the first time in forever, not just bouncing up and down basically in place. I did hit 171 a few times and slowed down to walk each time it happened, and decided I would run again when I got below 140. Each walk break was around 1:30, so not too long. My previous fastest pace staying under 171 was over 12:50, so this was quite a breakthrough run. ...then Wednesday happened. In just 36 short hours, temps were up 30 degrees, and it seemed my HR was up 30 bpm as well! I was planning to do an hour run through River Oaks from my apartment before my dad came to pick me up to go to San Antonio. It was raining when I started, but not too bad. After about 3 minutes I decided my hour run was going to be about a 30 minute ru...

My Aunt Linda died five years ago today. I had completely forgotten about it until Augie posted this . I am in disbelief the day almost came and went without me even acknowledging it. I was on a high because I broke 12 min/miles tonight on my run, completely self-consumed, oblivious about what day it was. I always get it mixed up though and think it was the 23rd, but that was the day she was buried; she died on the 22. December 22, 2003. I will never forget that phone call, or the long, dark, silent car ride with my dad that night to Waco. Aunt Linda was my mom's only sister and her life-long best friend. My mom said for the longest time after she died she would walk in the house and pick up the phone to call her to tell her some good news or just to talk, and would then remember that Linda wouldn't be at the other end of that phone line. I hate cancer. It sucks. I do love my family and friends dearly and than God each night for all the wonderful things I have in my lif...

...my first in quite a long time! I wasn't used to getting up at 5:15 to run! Houston Fit was doing their 21 miler Saturday morning, so I decided I would jump in and run 10 miles somewhere in the midst of the crowd. A few of the group who were also running shorter distances met at Luke's Locker beforehand and it felt great to be back in the company of my old running buddies. It didn't feel great 20 minutes into my run when my heart rate monitor was screaming at me because I couldn't even keep my heart rate down running their run 5 minutes/walk 2 minutes pattern. I had to stay with them until Rice though because it was dark and I didn't feel safe being alone. Houston Fit had aid stations setup at Luke's and at Rice, so I had "social stations" which we all know I need, especially when I'm running so much by myself these days. The run was mostly uneventful, boring if nothing else, but a few notable things did happen. First, it was like I was a ghost o...

Santa's elves have been hard at work in my apartment over the last few days/weeks. First, they have done way too much Christmas shopping, but have made the place feel very cheery and put lots of presents under my ghetto tree: Second, they have gone through my closets clearing out things to take to Goodwill and the Women's shelter. The sad thing is you wouldn't even notice anything is gone. I have too much stuff! Lots of clothes!! All packed and ready to go...wonder if the elves will carry the stuff to my car now?

Seriously. Someone borrowed it in October and I don't think I am ever going to see it again. How crappy, especially since I'm trying to actually do a little training now and December isn't exactly the time to take my bike outside...neither is January/February really, for that matter. They aren't cheap and I certainly don't have $350 to just go hop out and buy another one, especially when my car got broken into AGAIN Saturday night and that will be a nice $400 drop in the bucket to get fixed. Merry freakin' Christmas. (actually life isn't all that bad, but these two things are just really, really frustrating me right now...apparently I went a little crazy Christmas shopping for everyone...but got some pretty awesome gifts for people, that I am very, very excited about...but now I don't exactly have money just lying around to throw at new bike trainers and getting my car fixed) ...I would love if my grey trainer somehow magically reappeared on my doorstep ...

I ran 8 whole miles last night, and it went very well. The only issue is that it took half the night to do it! I broke the 13:00 min/mile barrier for the first time last night too! My official pace was 12:52/mile for the whole run, but that should really be like 12:59 because I took off and "stretched my legs" for the last 1/4 mile at a 9:15 pace so that brought it way down. 8 miles is the furthest I have ever run by myself too. Isn't that sad? I'm proud of myself for sticking it out yesterday though. At the start I was not the least bit excited about the run and had no idea how far I was going to actually go. We had our work Christmas lunch a few hours earlier and I stuffed my face, to say the least. But by about 2 miles into the run I was good to go and kept right at same pace the entire run. I guess I'm learning some of the "benefit" or whatever of HR training - when they say "easy," they really do mean easy. I think I could run forever in z...

What kind of pattern is that? The weather on my runs over the last 9 days! Welcome to Texas!

Wednesday night I went on the best run of my life. No lie. I was excited about it, looking forward to it, and it far exceeded my expectations. It again was just to be a one hour run, my second on my "comeback," but this time in the snow. It was more like freezing rain with a few tiny snow flakes when I got to the park, but it was full-on bona fide snow less than half way through my run. When I got to the park I got a bit nervous because NO ONE was there. It was only 5:30, but still dark. I know it isn't totally safe to run alone, especially when the park appeared so empty, but I was not going to let that deter my snow run. There ended up being a handful of people around, so I never felt unsafe, and it was still almost like I got to enjoy this little secret wonderland all to my self. I immediately reverted back to a small child when I got out of my car and giggled with each snow flake that landed on my jacket or head. Within a few minutes of running, a snow flake landed on...

Baby Bella needs your prayers. She was born 16 weeks early to the best friend of one of my very good friends. She and her family are in Virginia, way too far away from their Texas home, and will be there for quite a while. Please keep her and her family in your prayers - they are going to need them for a long, long time.

Seriously. I think last night was the first time I have ever gone out for an hour long run, no matter how far the distance was. I was to run (and walk) for an hour. Plain and simple. I know it isn't exactly rocket science, but I have always run for distance, even when I was sort-of "just running for time." Last night was my first official training run on my IMCDA '09 schedule, mostly from the book Be Iron Fit. The schedule has 10 weeks of base training before moving onto 20 weeks of build and peak training. I missed the first 2 weeks because CDA is in 28 weeks, but I think I will be just fine considering I only trained for IMAZ for 13 weeks each time. The great thing about the schedule is that the first 10 weeks are strictly aerobic training - nothing anaerobic, meaning basically nothing strenuous on my very-weak system. This works out as a win/win situation for me because right now I need to make sure I only stay aerobic to make sure I successfully get myself out ...

This was me a year ago, on my way to a HUGE PR somewhere around mile 29 at Sunmart , and in a picture that went on to grace the cover of Inside Texas Running . This year, I was elated to walk/run 4 whole miles (at a whopping 13:50 pace) in Huntsville State Park while cheering on a dozen or so of my friends racing. Crazy how things happen and how things can change, but I am ok with it. Of course this year was perfect weather compared to last year's record high temps, but I cannot do anything about that. This year I also got to spend time with some very special people in my life and I cherish the time we got to spend together. Sunmart is not going away, and I will be back for sure, not necessarily as a cover girl again, but for sure ready to take another huge chunk off my PR there. (I was bummed to find out last night when looking through the results that I was completely oblivious there was a celebrity amongst the crowd on Saturday...but that is probably the way it should have be...

It has been a while since I have posted anything meaningful, but I feel like I haven't really done anything meaningful lately to post about, but I guess I have done a few noteworthy things. Let's see...going back to Thanksgiving week. I had just posted how boring walking was. I guess I shouldn't have done that, because then I got sick and couldn't even walk. By the time I got home from San Antonio and Waco last Sunday, I had a full blown sinus infection and another nice bout with bronchitis. I'm learning that asthma really makes those things fun. Good news is I think I'm back to the living and feeling halfway decent again. I did happen to accomplish two somewhat important things while in bed at the beginning of this week: finalizing a training schedule for IMCDA , and switching from the full marathon at Houston to the half. Both things have left me feeling much more sound and at peace with the way things are going right now. I had been very torn on what to do ab...

Houston, TX Christmas traffic SUCKS. It can easily leave one suicidal. Wednesday evening I decided to head out and take care of a few errands since I was starting to feel a tiny bit better and I knew I'd feel better getting some of the stuff done that I needed to. I was going to head to the Container Store and Marshall's by the Galleria, and then wherever else. I live 3.0 miles from Marshall's. Yes, I measured it...only after it took me FORTY FREAKIN ' MINUTES to get there. I live in Greenway . I went straight down Richmond towards 610. The light at Richmond and 610 took 20 minutes alone to get through. RIDICULOUS. There were no wrecks, no construction, no obvious issues, other than the fact that it is Christmas shopping season. After some retail therapy at those stores and Target, I got home in no time because it was then 8:30. So that was one thing, heading towards the Galleria. Last night though, was a whole ' nother awful experience. This time I hea...

I stole this one off my sister's computer over Thanksgiving. It is my 7 yr old niece (Kate)'s letter to Santa for this year. All I can say when I read it is "wow," while shaking my head. Just not too sure what else to say! Hopefully it brings a smile to your face like it did mine. Dear Santa, Christmas is right around the corner. I can’t wait till it happens. I know there are a lot of things on my wish list but don’t worry because that is for this year and next the next and the next. One of the most wanted things is the Nintendo DS because it is very cool and the games for it are very fun. I’m not saying I need it I’d just like it. The games I want are Nintendogs (not the same as Molly’s), Mario boys 5, and the M&M game. I would also like the new 39 clues book. The first one was amazing! That’s why I’d like the 2nd one. The books tell you a lot of stuff. This one I would really like. It even tells you about Benjamin Franklin. The books tell you to get into readin...

...call you from Target on their lunch break to tell you they found gold sparkle flip flops in the shoe isle, after knowing you lost yours and were devastated.

So I've started back on my "road to recovery" (more like my "road to I don't know where, but hopefully it is at least pointed somewhere good") and have now done 2 whole walks - watch out! I walked 3.5 miles Saturday morning and 3 miles last night, both at the 3 mile jogging path around Rice. Both beautiful weather days, and great to be outside again, but... GEES!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is soooooooooo boring. It takes a looooong time to walk 3 miles! The whole time I'm telling myself "hello!! you'd get there faster if you were freakin' running!" Once I get half way or so, I'm a bit better, but it doesn't help that half of the jogging trail runs along mile 9.5-11 or so of the Houston Marathon...one of my favorite parts of the marathon route. I start daydreaming and imagining my best friend and I chatting the miles away on a georgous January morning on our way to her first marathon finish. Then reality snaps back in quite rudely reminding...

Well, I don't feel like I'm really making any progress as far as recovery goes, but then again I guess it is hard to know one way or the other. My resting HR was down to 53 Saturday morning, but back up to 61 this week. I think this weekend took everything out of me, which is sad. I was sick on Monday and stayed in bed most of the day. I didn't get a lot of sleep Fri, Sat, or Sun, and by Monday, I was done. I feel like some feeble old lady who can't handle the slightest change or I will go down. I have also started to gain weight. Not cool. I was planning to start walking and doing light weights this week, but I feel no where near back in the game yet, so I will put it off a few more days. I think I may go on a walk Saturday morning though, just to test the waters and get out to do something. I have my VO 2 Max testing on Thursday. That will be very interesting. I may die considering I've done nothing for what seems like forever now. I'm looking forward to Thank...

This weekend was the first race I have ever signed up for and not participated in. I thought it was going to be pretty rough, but actually I had a blast and never really felt sad that I was not running - I think there was too much other stuff going on to even dwell on the fact that I was supposed to be out there. My brother-in-law, Sean, and his friend Adam, had been training for a few months to run their first half. They were both a bit worried as 11 miles was the furthest they had run, but I assured them they would be just fine. Adam had lost 30 lbs in the process of training. He looked great! Saturday afternoon we went to the expo to pick up packets and I went ahead and picked mine up - not exactly sure why I did, but it didn't feel right just leaving it there! The expo was not so great. We had to wait in lines forever to even get in - it is like we were livestock being corralled into the Alamodome. Once we got in, I was not very impressed and it was crowded. I don't do crow...

...unfortunately not yet available.

...and I shall treat it like one! How? Clearly I'm not so sure as I have not done a very good job of it in the past. I have read more about overtraining than I thought humanly possible over the last week or so, yet have come up with no real conclusion on what to do from here. Most research has at least identified the symptoms, but nothing really exists (other than a few personal stories) about what to do going forward to ensure I fully recover and to ensure it does not happen again. I'm struggling though with all the feedback I get when I say "I'm overtrained." It is hard enough for me to admit there is a problem, a BIG problem, but then people respond with "oh, what is wrong with you?" Or "what does that mean?" Or just give you a look of "whatever, you just want an excuse to sit out of PE class for a while" or "you just have your nose out of joint because you aren't running as fast as you were in the Spring." From every...

I had a great time yesterday morning. We had 6 people in my car and I saw about 10 old friends when we got to the park, so I was very, very excited about the company for the morning. My race did not go that well, but I was not expecting it to. I ran exactly 15 minutes slower this year than I did last year, and I couldn't have run any faster yesterday. I needed yesterday's run as a temporary goodbye to running and racing. As bad of an idea as it might have been to "race" after deciding I was in trouble, it was a good idea, for me. I was pretty sad Friday night when I was picking out my race outfit because I knew in the back of my head it would be a long time before I'd be doing that again. The worst part is I don't even know how long it will be. I ran by myself for a majority of the race, and I think I needed that too. It gave me some time to really come to terms with my present state of health, and the fact that I am going to have to back off, no matter what. ...

I'm way too excited about the possibility of a fun show tomorrow. I can't really say more, except that I hope to have a good seat and some good popcorn for this show-watching. Tee hee hee.

It is highly possible that after 3.5 years without much of a break, I'm broken. Tomorrow will be a big "test" to see how I handle running 15.5 miles in the woods. I have run 43 miles total in the 5 weeks since St. George and I am still having awful heart rate issues. I hit 194 last night on a 3 mile run at 10:40 pace. I was planning to do two loops of the park, but called it quits after one because I didn't see any advantage to continuing at that heart rate. I'm slated to do the San Antonio 1/2 marathon next weekend, then the Sunmart 50k in December and the Houston Marathon in January. I am not sure how any of those will go, if any of them even get to happen. I am beyond sad to even think about not being able to do these races. Sunmart is probably my all-time favorite race ever. Kelly, my best friend of 26 years, my best friend in the whole wide world, is coming to Houston in January to run her first marathon, with me. What if I can't be there? The thought ...

So, I signed up. For IM #2 in 2009. We will see how that goes. What will be more interesting is training and racing with this character:

I got a call from an unknown number Friday morning when I was in the car on the way to Florida. Who does that number belong to? Mindy from the Bachelorette. Turns out I have been nominated to be the next Bachelorette. Yes, please just start laughing immediately. (Must edit to add...it ain't happening)

Take that you stupid scale!! I have finally broken 125 for the first time since IMAZ! Of course I'm not even trying nearly as hard to lose weight now and it is coming off. I try for 5 months and nothing. Then, after my marathon, when I'm not doing much at all, it starts to slowly go away. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, but gees. I just wish I had a little more control over these things! I should have taken a picture of that # on the scale because I might not see it again for a while after our trip this weekend. I see lots of food and not lots of exercise invovled!

I spent most of the last weekend on the sidelines and loved it. I'll be doing more of the same this weekend at Ironman Florida. Maybe I'm better at being a cheerleader than a competitor. Saturday morning Shellie, LaErica , and I ran 8 miles and ended up at the start/finish line downtown of the Pumpkin Run 5k. It was fun to watch and there were quite a few people in costumes. Most memorable was the guy dressed as Mark Spitz wearing a wig, mustache, medals, a speedo , and flip flops. Augie, Jon, and Jen all had an awesome race too. Augie won her age group, Jon got second in his, and Jen got a PR. The only downside to running to watch a race means you get pretty cold before it is all said and done. I was blue for about an hour, but soy hot chocolate at Onion Creek afterwards took care of that. Saturday afternoon, Shellie and I visited the sidelines of Lisa's house...or more like we dove straight into the war zone! Sarah and Jessica have grown a lot since I saw them last and ...

This is what I did at work today: And this is what my co-workers did: Yes, we are having a pumpkin coloring contest at work. We used to decorate and trick-or-treat my department, but this year we are in a "cost savings mode" so we are scaling down the operations a bit. Good thing my department keeps a good amount of glitter on hand at all times.

I know some of you have questioned it, but I really do have a good heart, as confirmed by a cardiologist this morning. EKG and stress test showed nothing abnormal. BUT, I'm so NOT impressed with my treadmill stress test. I was hoping I would at least find out my true max heart rate through all of this so I would at least have a reference point of some sort. The lady got me all hooked up and showed me where my HR was on the screen and said "now, you are at 60-something right now, you can stop whenever you want, but we'd really like to see that HR get to at least 164." I told her that surely wouldn't be a problem. So I start walking. Whopee . Every 3 minutes the incline and speed increases. I asked her after a few minutes if I would get to find out my true max HR. She said "your 100% max? Well, that is 193. Because it is 220 minus your age." GREAT. She knows nothing. I tell her that I could easily get over 193 and that my high heart rate when exercising wa...

I had a bit of a reality check Saturday afternoon when I was minding my own business and came across a post on Facebook with a link to a MSNBC online story. I began to watch the story and already saw that it was called "The Tip of the Spear" - talking about our troops in Afghanistan. Then I realize the commander of the troop (I'm sure that isn't the proper classification of any of this - shows my complete ignorance to anything military) was someone who I went to middle and high school with - someone who is just 2 years older than me and has the lives of so many in his hands. I sit here and complain about my little piddly problems like I need to lose a few lbs, or that I didn't run as fast as I wanted to at a few races, and then I see this. Wow. Jimmy and the rest of our troops are halfway around the world getting shot at on a daily basis, literally risking their lives almost every minute of the day, so we can sit here and worry about our very insignificant...

The good news is that I ran again this morning without any major pain in my foot. I went to the podiatrist after that and I am good at diagnosing myself - I definitely have posterior tibial tendinitis, but he doesn't think there are any tears in the tendon or anything to really be worried about. I have a 6 day steroid dose pack and will be high as a kite for the next few days, but hopefully my foot is on its way back to ok . The bad news is I ran a whopping 3 miles this morning at 11:00 min/mile pace with Augie and had to stop and walk twice because my heart rate was over 190. I also thought at first we were running ~9 something pace, so it was even more disturbing 1.5 miles in when I had to stop and walk and then looked down to not only see 190+ on my garmin , but I also saw 15:50 for the 1.52 miles we had run. Now I am afraid that is just the way I am and that no cardiologist is going to give me any meaningful insight into all of this - basically I'm just stuck. We will see, ...

Ahhhh . Finally. A good kind of pain. I went to abs/back class at TOTR last night and got my abs/butt kicked. I can't laugh and I can't sit down, but it hurts so good! I had let the whole strength training thing go by the wayside during the last ~2 months of marathon training and I need it back. Also, Dr. Doug (Dad's best friend, member of Team W ) told me I felt SOFT the other night!! What?? Mom said I was wearing a big jacket so he couldn't really feel my back (the part of me he way saying felt soft). Well, soft my a$$. No more! See if he ever calls me SOFT again! By the way, I wore my hot pants to class last night and there are mirrors all around and as against sounding over confident as I am, I must say my legs are anything but soft, even after 2 weeks of pretty much no activity. The only downside to my quest to end all softness is that my foot is still mad at me. I'm beginning to think I should have gone straight into the boot when I got home from St. George...

I went home to Beaumont for the weekend to visit my parents and ran a 5k on Saturday morning while I was there. The winning time in my age group was 27:28. My pr set last February was 24:27. The winning time on Saturday did not belong to me. If you had told me all I had to do was run a 27:28 to win my age group I would have told you I could have done that with my hands tied behind my back. WRONG! While I did get 2 nd in my age group (keep in mind this is Beaumont...no one runs there), and have a wonderful trophy to show for it, I ran what I think was my worst 5k ever. You may say "well, that is ok , you probably weren't going all out or anything." Wrong. I gave it my all and 29:30 was all I had. That is like a 9:22 pace or something like that. That is 1:30 min/mile slower than my pr race. I am a bit horrified by my experience on Saturday. My foot also bothered me quite a bit, but it wasn't what slowed me down. Nothing worked. Not my brain, not my lungs, not my heart,...

Oh yeah - I'm starving. Seriously starving. I've been too busy to get any food and have learned the hard way that I can't really get my hands on anything I can eat after 9pm. Even Chipotle closes at 9! Gees. Oh, and today is my dad's birthday. Happy Birthday Dad! I think I'm going home on Friday so we can celebrate his birthday then. That will be fun. Molly's birthday is on Saturday and I have nothing for her...hmm....I gotta figure out what is cool for 11yr olds these days.

Geeeeees . Life has been crazy lately. Good thing I'm still recovering from the marathon and don't have to be training a lot right now. I tried the whole social thing again last weekend and actually had a great time! Thursday night I went to the Texas Exes happy hour with Augie and Shellie and met Leigh and Melissa there. I haven't hung out with Leigh and Melissa in forever, so it was great getting to see them. Friday night we went out for Augie's birthday and again it was fun to go out without having to worry about getting up early to run the next day. Of course at 7:43am I was wide awake. I didn't go to bed until after 2, but nope, can't sleep late. I felt worthless by 7:44am. Augie texted at 8:10 to say she was wide awake too and we were at the park by 8:30. We weren't exactly heroic though - we did a whopping 3 mile walk, but it was probably just what we needed (she did Longhorn 70.3 the weekend we did St. George). Saturday night I went to see Jackopier...