Kathleen's Adventures

Not sure if you noticed my new tri shorts in my pictures below (how could you NOT notice them?), but they are definitely here to stay. You don't see too many pink floraled (is that even a word?) butts at tri races, but you'll be seeing mine for many races to come! They got me my first hardware, so surely they are lucky! Oh, and here's an updated view of my tattoo from IMAZ. It is still going strong, and turns purple when I am cold.

My first triathlon was supposed to be five years ago today. I was signed up for the super sprint distance at the CapTex triathlon in Austin. However, five years ago yesterday my best friend's mom died. Kelly and I were sitting on her couch in Austin that Sunday morning, being lazy after celebrating her 21st birthday the night before. I got a phone call that I will never forget - Mike telling me his mom had just passed away. I was in utter shock. She had ovarian cancer, but had been doing fine. She had even gone to her youngest daughter's high school graduation the night before. Still in shock and disbelief, Kelly and I packed up our things and headed to Beaumont to be with Mike. On my way out of town, I picked up my CapTex race packet, but informed them I would not be there to race. It is funny how May 24, 25, and 26 are so vivid in my mind each year they roll around. May 24 is Kelly's birthday and my sister's anniversary, May 25th is the day Mike's mom died, and Ma...

I went to Beaumont Saturday after the race and had some quality bonding time with Scout, my dog (well, not really mine, but I claim her when she's being socially acceptable):

We had our monthly club happy hour Thursday night and had a grand old time. Someone, who will remain nameless, was super excited about the prospect of having her picture in my blog, so here are some pics from the night:

So I donned my hot pants for the first time in a while before I headed out the door to my track workout. It was to be my first real track workout in quite a while. Only issue was that it was a record high temp day (95 degrees) and I'm not so much motivated to kill myself right now. I thought the hot pants might help. No such luck. My workout turned into more of a social hour with some walking, running, and sitting in the bleachers and talking (kind of reminiscent of middle school PE). But no worries, I still got in over 4 miles and am in good spirits!

Ugh. I think I'm finally facing the post-Ironman blues. I miss everyone. I miss planning the weekend training events and I miss planning our group social events. I always had something to look forward to. Most of our group put some aspect of their life "on hold" to do Ironman and looked forward to getting back to that part of life once the race was over. They put husbands, wives, girlfriends, boyfriends, friends, and family on hold. The only thing I put on hold to train for Ironman was cleaning my apartment. I feel like everyone had something to "go back to" after the race, yet I just came back to my teddy bear whose head is about to fall off. Oh, and apparently I came back to food too since I managed to gain 6 lbs in 6 weeks. I'm feeling pretty lost right now and am not sure where to go from here. Normally I don't feel very lonely, but I do right now. Hopefully this will pass soon.

My body is amazing. Literally amazing. Wednesday AM weight: 127.6 (this is the weight that caused the alarms to go off) Wednesday: ate well, ran 3 whole miles Thursday AM weight: 126.2 (ah, maybe Wed was just weird, I like this direction) Thursday: didn't eat great, but I think around 1800 calories for the day, including one vodka drink at dinner) Friday AM weight: 128.4 (WHAT THE HELL???????) So, I decided I'm putting the numbers out there for all to see, to maybe hold myself more accountable. I know I don't have much to lose at all, but I'm just shocked I let it creep up soooo fast. I want to be back to 122-123 ASAP. I'm not all crazy or anything and don't have any aspirations of looking like an anorexic distance runner. I'd just like to be comfortable in my own skin, and perhaps just some little shorts and a sports bra when I run. It is Houston after all. I know all you boys are out there saying "6 lbs...what is the big deal? I can lose that in a w...

I got on the scale this morning. Wow. I knew I was feeling super frumpy lately and didn't like seeing myself in the mirror, but now I know why. I've gained 5-6 lbs! Gross! My clothes which were all pretty lose are fitting now or are tight! Ugh. I weigh more now than I have since October. The sad thing is it probably took me at least 6 weeks to put this weight on, so it will probably take twice as long to come back off, if I'm even that lucky. I dieted for 2 months last summer and lost 1 whole lb. Yes, one pound. I'm not going to be smashing PR's left and right anymore if I have to carry an extra bowling ball around while I'm trying to race. Even sadder is that I read in Runners World last night that after people take a break from running and gain weight, men have to average 15.5 miles per week of running to start to lose weight again and women have to average THIRTY freakin ' miles per week! DOUBLE what men have to do! I won't be running 30 mpw until J...

I forgot to post that in the midst of all the craziness of the weekend, I found out that I got into the St. George Marathon ! Entry is via lottery and I hate lotteries. I think people who are on top of things and register early should be rewarded, not people whose names are drawn out of a hat! I'm never lucky. But, apparently my luck may be changing. Not only did I get in, but 10 others in my group did too. You had the option to enter the lottery as an individual or as a group of up to 5 people (when entering as a group, the whole group either gets in or they don't, and if your group does not get in, you cannot get in as an individual). Well, we originally had 8 people who wanted to enter. After some debate, we decided to enter as two groups of 4 (eventually 5 each), divided basically among the slow people and the fast people. We also had 1-2 more people enter individually and they got in as well. The race is October 4 th , so that means another summer of brutal long ...

Cameron, Michelle, and I signed up for this race back in January or February. I did this race as my first half ironman in 2006 and enjoyed it then. I knew racing this 4 weeks after IMAZ might not have been the brightest idea, but I thought it sounded like fun. I was right. The weekend was awesome and I had a pretty good race as well. We packed up my huge car and headed out around noon on Thursday. The drive was pretty uneventful except for hitting traffic at 4:30 in Baton Rouge. It took us about an hour to get through. I drove to Biloxi where we ate dinner and I made Cameron drive the rest of the way to Pensacola, where we stayed for the night. Friday morning we got up and drove the rest of the way to Panama City Beach, arriving just before noon. We checked into our condo and I was very pleased. It was awesome, on the 18th floor, overlooking the beach. We then went to packet pickup and registration which took way too long. We waited in line for over an hour and decided next time we...

Don't watch it right before bed. It is a documentary type show on TLC about the maternity ward at a hospital. I had the worst nitemare ever that I was pregnant. It was also basically an overnight condition, as in I woke up very pregnant one day. I was trying to hide it from people and people found out that I didn't want knowing. I decided I was going to have to put the baby up for adoption, but wanted to take care of everything as fast as possible so most people would never have known I was pregnant. Apparently I was going to be able to have the baby the day or 2 after realizing I was pregnant. Also the hospital was kind of a pseudo hospital, restaurant, and bar. People were hanging out all over the place. Two or 3 girls I knew were in there having babies, but they were all happy about it because they did it the right way and were supposed to be pregnant. It was almost like an assembly line with babies popping out left and right! So yes, very weird, but I learned a ve...

Looks like this: And then this:

My DVR sucks. I have a memory full of silent TV shows now. Namely those on ABC. It still manages to record sound on MTV, but not ABC. How sad is that? Even sadder is that I realized this issue at least a week ago and haven't really had time to do anything about it! The stupid Comcast store closest to me isn't open on weekends and the last time I tried the other location that was open on Saturday, it was a 2+ hour wait to get helped. I may be watching silent TV shows a bit longer.

I raced this race last year (also 3 weeks after IMAZ ) and it was a breakthrough for me at the sprint distance. I was worried that I wouldn't have my legs back for this race and that I wouldn't be able to beat my performance from this race last year. I was also worried that it would essentially be the end of my PR streak. Well, I was wrong! 2007 Results: 500m swim: 10:27, 2:05/100m, 7/23 ag T1: 1:51 15m bike : 48:40, 18.5 mph, 10/23 ag T 2: 1:52 3.1m run: 29:05, 9:19 min/mile, 14/23 ag Overall : 1:31:57, 9/23 ag , 357/731 oa (48% ahead of me) 2008 Results: 500m swim: 9:58, 2:00/100m, 12/51 ag T1: 1:12 15m bike : 46:09, 19.5 mph, 6/51 ag T2 : 1:08 3.1m run : 26:56, 8:38 min/mile, 22/51 ag Overall: 1:25:24, 11/51 ag , 287/836 oa (34% ahead of me) A few interesting observations: - I think the swim is long. Safe to say my pace at a 500m swim should be faster than my pace at the ironman ... - This is the first time I have ever placed highest in the bike respective to my age...

I feel a bit like yellow starburst right now. The new chapter in my life has already been presented with some challenges and it is only 48 hours old! I guess I need to remember "life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it." My feelings get hurt pretty easily when people don't return phone calls and text messages. If it is just one, I am usually ok, but when it is multiple people in the same day it is kind of easy to start feeling like a yellow starburst. Hopefully tomorrow I will start feeling more like a pink or red starburst.

Seriously. Apparently I managed to put my foot, leg, and whatever else that would fit in my mouth last night. I'd love to pull the drunk card and blame it on alcohol, but that is something I doubt I can ever do when I drink 1 whole beer over the course of 2 hours when I go out. I think I probably made someone feel pretty damn bad about themselves who certainly didn't deserve it. I barely even know this person, and they surely didn't deserve to be judged the way I did. Safe to say there is at least one person out there now who isn't so impressed with the new Kathleen. The new Kathleen did at least learn a lesson though and will hopefully never make someone feel that way again. I'm not Catholic, but I may need to go to confession. Well, I guess this is my confession instead. I'm airing my dirty laundry for all of you to read.

She likes to eat sweets in her bed at night (and during the day). Starburst Jelly Beans, Zoe's Chocolate Cake, Blue Bell Cookies 'n Cream Ice Cream...you get the idea. This is a new habit that just started a few months ago, but gees!

A new chapter in my life began yesterday. The new Kathleen is stepping out and going to leave her mark...or maybe not much of a mark, but whatever, you get what I mean. I was in my PJ's ready for last night when I got a call to meet a few friends out for dinner/drinks. It was 8:30, I had to get up at 5am for my race, and I'd already had dinner. The Kathleen that is just going to sit around content by herself would have stayed home. The new and improved Kathleen thew on some clothes, never bothered to tell her friends she was already in her PJ's and headed out the door. I'm surrounded by awesome people, but if I just sit at home alone all the time, I can't really take full advantage of them. There are also new people out there to meet every day. I can't meet them if I don't put myself out there. I am moving on to a new part of my life. It is time once and for all to close the door on the last stage of my life. It was great while it lasted, and I have...

It has been a while since I have posted. I feel like I don't have much exciting going on to talk about these days! First and foremost though, I guess I do have news. Ugh. After being peer pressured into too many drinks last night at our post IM happy hour, somehow I was convinced to set up a new yahoo group. Do you now what that means? It means I think we are all going to Ironman Florida in November 2009. Gees. Wow. At least I have 1.5 years to get ready for it. The sick, or great, thing is how many people have already jumped on the bandwagon with me! I think it may end up being an even bigger and more exciting group than we had in AZ this year. In other life events, I raced last weekend at the Old College Tri in Dallas. My performance was less than stellar, but still one I would have been very proud of not too long ago. My legs just don't seem like they are really working yet. The pictures aren't too bad though...except my face shows my disgust in a few of them! My frien...