Kathleen's Adventures

Ouch! Yesterday I let lovely Cheryl Francisco (my masseuse) work exclusively on my buthigh for 30 minutes. Now I can hardly sit down on it! My buthigh (basically where you hamstring and glute meet) started bothering me a bit Sunday towards the very end of our ride. I then went to spin class on Monday night, even though I shouldn't have. I was in a bad mood and exercising always helps, but it didn't so much help my buthigh's mood. So, being the good little triathlete, I took Tuesday and Wednesday completely off. Yesterday I had a great swim in the morning and a decent run around the park last night. The buthigh has not gotten any worse, and if this is as bad as it is going to be, I could live with it forever. I just don't know a lot about buthigh's and don't want to cause any more problems. I have been sitting on ice and heat all week (my co-workers don't even ask questions anymore), and there seems to be some decent improvement. Today is another off da...

Best 100 mile ride...ever. Yesterday was a fabulous day for a fabulous, yet challenging ride. Eight of us set off for the 100 mile journey around 8:15 Sunday morning from the middle of Houston and had quite an adventure. Several more cyclists joined us at the start and peeled off at various points throughout the day. We had a "send-off party" before we left complete with breakfast, a microphone, the national anthem, and popper streamer thingys. It isn't often you get to ride through any part of Houston, especially downtown, without putting your life at extreme risk. We went straight through a virtually empty downtown with no problems (except that we may have woken up anyone that lived there shouting "clear" as we rode through each intersection). There was some weird fog going on between some of the tall reflective buildings and the sun was doing weird things and it looked like the neatest mirage of I don't know what. It was just so cool to look at. We couldn...

Well, I officially have my "racing stripe" back for the season. Oddly, it looks more like a racing V than a stripe, I think because I was bent over in the aero position so much today. The ride was fabulous, but I am absolutely exhausted, so I will write more about it and post more pics tomorrow.

I opted out of the hot pants today, but wore my new favorite hot pink sports bra and apparently it has the same speedy influence on my running as the hot pants. I ran my fastest mile ever today, by a good 40 seconds. I know you are all on the edge of your seat.... wait for it... wait for it... Mile 1: 7:25!!!!!!!!! Mile 2: 8:00 (ugh...) Mile 3: 8:06 (major ugh...) Mile .14: 1:04 Actually, those are all faster miles than I have ever run before! Total time: Well, I'm not exactly sure!! I stopped my watch at 24:34, once I realized I was past the "finish line." It wasn't chipped timed. 24:34 was for 3.14 miles. I'm trying to plug into motion based to get my exact time at 3.1, but I'm not there yet. Anyways, I think it is safe to call it a 24:30. Also, I have no idea what my time will show up as in the results because you cross the finish line, then line up in order of finish and wait for them to scan the bar code on your number. So I assume the ...

I've been looking forward to this weekend for a while now and I'm excited it is finally (almost) here. On Sunday I will be biking 100 miles with Rick Hood as part of his Brick for Women . Rick beats me on the "crazy" scale as he is biking over 500 miles to Little Rock, beginning Sunday, to run the Little Rock Marathon next Sunday. He is doing this brick (brick usually means a workout where you bike and then you run right afterwards) to raise money for the Women's Shelters in both Houston and Little Rock. How cool/crazy is that? Sunday we will take a very "off the beaten path" route to Livingston to complete day 1 of his adventure. However, we are all hopping in a car after that and heading back to Houston! You can follow some of the adventure here at Rick's blog. He has Day 1 all planned out and it looks like it is going to be lots of fun. We are pulling out from the Houston Women's Shelter on Westheimer near Montrose at 8am Sunday mor...

No seriously, guess how fast I am going to run my 5k on Saturday. I have no clue what to expect and I need to make my playlist! It is on a flat course and temps right now are forecasted to be in the lower 50s at race time. Here is some info to help you out: Marathon, 1/13/08: 4:30 (flat ground) 1/2 Marathon 1/27/08: 1:57:51 (point-to-point net downhill) 1/2 Marathon 2/17/08: 1:56:04 (loop course with LOTS of hills in last 4 miles...last 5k of race was 26:44) Previous stand alone 5k PR is 27:56 from mid-September on a pretty flat course in warm, humid temps. Any ideas? One would hope I will beat my stand alone PR, and presumably the one from last weekend as well, but by how much? All I know is it's gonna hurt!!!

So I just looked at my splits from yesterday again, and I ran my fastest 5k ever yesterday from mile 10 to the finish of the half marathon. I ran that 3.1 miles in 26:44. My stand alone 5k pr is 27:56 (PR #1 of the streak, from September), and my 10k pr is comprised of a 27:21 5k and a 27:16 5k. And those were the freakin' hilliest miles of the course. Wow. Thanks Greyhound!

You know, if people hadn't sat around and told me that the AT&T half course is way harder than the 3M course and that it would be nearly impossible to better my 3M time at AT&T, I might not have had to nearly kill myself today to prove them wrong. Today I achieved PR #7 since September. This one rivaled the Houston Marathon in difficulty as the top 2 of my PR list. However, I think the hot pants pulled me through today. This race was pretty neat because the half and the full shared the same start line. I knew a handful of people aiming for 4:00 in the full, so that meant I could run with them for a while - definitely my first time to do so. I started off with my cousin Scott and his friend Charlie. Greyhound was also close by at the start. I introduced him to Scott because they are both doing IMCDA in June. Less than a mile or two into the race, I ran into Clea and we stuck together until mile 6 or 7. It was great to catch up with her and talk about many Sunmarts to c...

...and I'm speechless. Thank you Greyhound - you might have given me the best birthday present yet. "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." It is funny that we are taught that saying growing up, yet words are so, so powerful. Words have recently broken me and taken me to places I never want to go again, yet they have also built me up and taken me to a place I can only hope to be again. People like Greyhound are truly hard to come by, for his words are priceless and I can truly trust in them. I have a few people in my life like him, with only positive and supporting words. My goal for my 27th year of life is to only listen to those people, not the ones who bring me down.

Last night HRTC had its annual race directors meeting. Greg Johnson was there to promote the Stephanie Johnson Tri, a race I did last year and vow to be a part of from here on out. I asked how Stephanie was doing and he said not great, but he somehow manages to still have this incredible attitude about it. Instead of sitting around and feeling sorry for himself and his family, he has gotten out there and done something about it. Last year they raised over $40,000 for cancer research and for families affected by cancer. I hope they can raise even more this year. What would I do in his shoes? Would I have the courage and drive to even get out of bed every morning and face the day? I do not know. He again thanked me for raising money for the American Cancer Society through my IM fundraising , but even that feels so insignificant. I told him Ironman is one of the most selfish things a person can do, and that I'm not sure I could do one without it having a bigger purpose. He said my pa...

This morning our masters workout was pretty good - I got in 3300 (I think...I tried to recount and couldn't come back up with that #, but it is what I had in my head when I got out of the pool, so I'm going with it). Our last big set was 6X100 pull, 6X100 swim with fins, and 6X100 swim. After that I was pretty tired and it was close to getting out time, but the coach decided we were going to finish with a few 25yd sprints. We could even, gasp, dive off the blocks if we wanted. We decided we were in the water already for #1, so we went off the wall. We were to get out at the other end and walk back, so we could dive for #2. I was uneasy about the whole prospect as soon as "dive" was mentioned. I'm a great diver actually - toes pointed and everything. Unfortunately my pointed toes don't help keep my goggles on. I immediately lept back to being 11 year old at the country club summer swim league and being scared then too about diving with my goggles. Well, I crawl...

My parents came over today to celebrate my birthday (early), and they certainly came bearing gifts!! First, I got a new piece of furniture for my living room, and my mom decided it looked too nice to put my old TV on it, so I got a new TV too! Of course this meant some serious rearranging that I took upon myself to do alone last night. It is a miracle I came out alive. I moved 2 huge pieces of furniture that are full of junk and a huge older TV. I almost lost a foot and TV all at the same time, but somehow got everything taken care of. Next, a project that has been in the works for a while. My IM tattoo alternative. It has finally come to fruition and is awesome!! This is my "sport" IM bracelet. It is silver and I have a variety of bands to put it on, but I imagine pink will be the color I sport most. I may get a gold/diamond "dressy" version made down the line, but this one is perfect for now. Next, a present I got for myself - my new wheels! I picked them up on Sa...

Today I did a super brick... 1. Fix flat tire (took 23 minutes...I was not happy...before 6am) 2. Ride trainer 3. Drive to Pearland 4. Bike 64 miles 5. Run 3 miles 6. Eat greasy lunch 7. Drive back to Houston 8. Ride trainer again, this time with new wireless earphones, and watch High School Musical 9. Piddle around 10.Eat way too big dinner Not the most conventional way to get to my first century ride of the season, but it works. It did take course over the span of 10 hours, so I'll call it 10mph average. Actually, I averaged 17.0 mph for the outside part of the ride (64 miles) which was pretty cool. Speaking of outside, it was an absolutely BEAUTIFUL day. Soooo much better than this ride last year when it was cold and raining. The roads got rough towards the end and the wind picked up a little bit, but I was still totally content because the sun was out and the temp was about perfect. I also felt great on our run after the ride, so that is always good too. We all went to lunch af...

So I finally went to the Y to swim on a Saturday, outside of masters. I was interested to "test" my progress to see if I've gotten any faster. I can't really tell at masters because I am just always scrambling to do the workout and don't really pay attention to how fast or slow I'm doing anything. Well, after my short 900 yd swim, I found out that I am, in fact, faster!! I use 300s as my time trial distance and periodically swim one or two here and there just to get an idea of where I am. Last summer or maybe the fall, I had managed to get my 300 yd time down to 4:41. I was pretty happy with that at the time. Well...drum roll please...Saturday I pulled out a 4:31 and then a 4:28. I'm pleased with my progress!

What do they have in common? They both require me to "act the part" when wearing/using them. As I sit here and hear the weather roaring outside, I'm laughing a bit because the storm I prayed would come at or before 6pm (track practice time) is just arriving now. However, I did get my track workout in and I'm very glad I did. I feel great now. We were to do 2-4 sets of 600-400-600 repeats and I was very content only doing 2. But, I wore the hot pants to the track, so that meant I couldn't wuss out and had to at least do two full sets...not just jog a few laps and talk more than I ran. Had I not worn the hot pants, I could have called it quits after just one set, and claimed that I was still recovering from whatever. But, when wearing hot pants, you must do at least the minimum prescribed workout. Even better news is that Shellie talked me into doing a 3rd set when I had no intention of doing it. I was able to make all the intervals and feel great now. So, the next ...

Yesterday's ride ended up being a fabulous one. But, I was cursing my bike, the roads, the weather, my stupid slow legs, and everything else not too far into the ride. A group of about 12 of us set out for a ride Sunday morning in Brookshire. We rode this route which was basically a 17.5 mile stretch of one road, heading south out of the Brookwood Community Center. Most of us had a goal of at least 2 loops, and some of the group were aiming for 3 loops to do their first century. Two loops was 70 miles and I had told myself earlier that I'd like to aim for 75 miles for the day. I was the slowest person there, but knew that would proably be the case heading into the ride. I really don't enjoy riding by myself and always being the last one. So when less than 4 miles into the ride I found myself completely alone, I was again upset. I started to dread the thought of riding every mile over the next 10 weeks completely by myself, thinking this wasn't what I signed up for. Then...