Kathleen's Adventures

A few months ago, Greg and Stephanie Johnson had a few of us over to their house for dinner and a planning meeting for the triathlon. After dinner, Stephanie brought out these cookies that I literally could not stop eating. I think Anna and I easily took down a dozen a piece. They melted in your mouth. I emailed Greg for the recipe and Stephanie forwarded it along not long after. I had not yet tried the recipe until last week. I decided to make them the night before Stephanie's funeral. Kind of weird, but maybe my own little way of remembering her. Well, they were even better than I remember! I got to experimenting as well and made a lower-calorie version that is almost as good. The recipe is below: Ingredients: 1 box butter cake mix (Pillsbury has the least # of calories per box) 1 egg (can substitute 2 egg whites or 1/4 cup egg beaters) 1 stick butter, softened (can substitute all or part with applesauce) 1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened (can use reduced fat or fat free) 1...

Tri shorts and bike shorts are not meant to be worn with panties or manpanties. Just sayin'.

I survived the weekend and now I think there is a possibility the race next Saturday might not be quite as ugly as previously thought. It still won't be pretty though. Saturday morning I had a 15 mile run on the schedule. My group was only scheduled to do 10 (thankfully the route turned out to be 11 instead). I set out bright (well, not-so-bright) and early at 5:30 with a big 1 mile run before the group run at 5:45. That first mile hurt, a lot (everything hurt - no specific injury, just overall fatigue). I was a bit worried. No fear - miles 2-12 with the group hurt just as bad. It was beyond humid and hot (thanks Dolly), and no one seemed to be having a good day. I was still able to maintain around a 11:00 pace which isn't awful considering the conditions, but I hurt the entire time. When we finished the 11 mile route, I still had to run a loop of the park to get to 15. Someone was supposed to run those last 3 miles with me, but apparently decided I had taken too long and alr...

Great News!! 1. Little Debbie Nutty Bars now come in 100 calorie portions!! That means I can eat 3 of them before I get to the same calories of a regular pack...that is how it works, right? 2. I just found a $20 bill in a purse I hadn't used in a while! Not-as-great news: 1. One of the 3 buttons on my jeans just popped off...the middle one. Now I'm walking around looking like my fly is undone. No fat comments here, please. 2. My forever-long seeming case of bronchitis may be asthma. Cool. Not. But I have more fun drugs to try out.

Cancer Sucks, Part I Cancer Sucks, Part II It has been a pretty rough week. Last weekend I found out my sister's mother-in-law has been diagnosed with lymphoma. Her father-in-law almost died of cancer 10 years ago, it is a miracle he lived, but today you'd have no idea he ever had cancer. Hopefully Marilyn's story turns out the same way. I also found out yesterday a childhood friend's mom has uterine cancer. It is stage 2, so maybe she will be ok as well. Yesterday I also went to Stephanie's "celebration of life." It was awesome - if that can possibly be said about a funeral. Yet again I am amazed at the courage she showed through the very end and the courage her husband Greg has shown and continues to show. He spoke yesterday at the service and he was amazing. He started by saying he never understood how Lou Gehrig stood up and said he was the luckiest man alive when he was leaving the MLB . Then he spoke of Stephanie and what she was doing in heaven, an...

I was looking online at pictures from the hurricane on chron.com and came across this picture...it happens to be the husband of one of my co-workers...beachcombing in Padre during the storm.

I just found out that Stephanie passed away at 11:05 this morning. Greg says he feels she sent him to work today so he wouldn't have been there at the very end. Please continue to keep their family in your prayers. They have a very tough road ahead, but Stephanie's daughter mentioned that mom was in a better place now so everyone should be happy. Please pray for that thought to remain with the family, always.

My heart and stomach are both turning upside right now, wrung tight in knots. I have been receiving pretty frequent updates on Stephanie Johnson's battle and it appears it is coming to an end very soon. She is in hospice right now and they are now having trouble finding her pulse and her blood pressure is steadily dropping. She hasn't eaten since July 3rd. All of these things bring back way too vivid memories of when my Aunt Linda died 3 days before Christmas in 2003. After she stopped eating, her health rapidly declined, and in her last day or two, they had a hard time waking her up or finding a pulse. It is like I know how people die from cancer. I know what their last few hours are like. Ugh. I want to puke right now. The worst part is Greg Johnson is starting his first day of work at his new job today. Today - knowing it may be his wife's last day of life. Why is he going? Because she wanted him to. Because he wants her to know they will be ok, because they both want th...

Not a whole lot to report other than lots of running and baking. I'm still super tired, which looking back at my recent schedule, can be pretty well explained. Tuesday night I ran a good track workout with the Tri club, Wednesday was a spin class followed by a short run, Thursday night was a swim and a run and then Saturday was my long run at 5:15am! It included running up a 12 story parking garage and back down. I think I ran about 13.5 miles Saturday morning. The route was supposed to be 12.3, but was calculated wrong with the parking garage issue, and my GPS crapped out somewhere around the 2nd floor. Shellie ran with me which was awesome, and we ran an extra 20-30 minutes after the group to hopefully get to 14 miles, but afterwards when I calculated it, I think it was sadly just 13.5, but oh well, that isn't awful, and will still set me up ok for 15 miles next Saturday. As soon as the run was over I headed to the beach for the weekend. I was soooo excited to be heading down...

How could I forget? I found out last week that Jackopierce is back in action! That is about the coolest thing I've heard in a long time!! If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you are missing out. If you are on Facebook, you can find them there and listen to some of their music. They will be in Houston October 11, but I might go to DC to see them there with Mike on September 27. But maybe that is too much traveling...hmm....anyone have any frequent flier miles they just want to give away? (yeah...that's what I thought....)

I'm just now looking back at the results realizing I have done this race 4 years in a row. That is pretty cool! It is one of the few races in the area that hasn't changed its course at all over the past few years so you really can compare your times from year to year. It is a 300m pool swim, 12 mile bike, and 3 mile run. Here is a look back at my JBIT history: 2005 - 1:29:32 2006 - 1:24:52 2007 - 1:20:04 2008 - 1:13:50 By my calculations, I should be able to win sometime around the year 2013. I had a great time at the race and it topped off a great weekend! Miranda rode down there with me which was great - it is never as fun to have to go by yourself. She also happened to kick butt with a 2 nd place win in our age group. I felt sooo much better than I did racing the same distance two weeks ago. I ran 12 miles the day before the race, and swam, but I also took an ice bath and I think that really helped. I ran 11 miles the day before the race last year, so I can compare pretty...

I win. No question about it. I'm also convinced I'm going to have fat ugly boys because my sister used up all the beautiful girl genes.

Somehow I feel like I'm in full Ironman training mode, but I know it is so far from that! I guess the last minute decision to do a half ironman can lead to serious cramming which isn't the best idea. I had a decent week training-wise that looked like this: Monday: 3.7 mile run in the morning, 1 hour strength class in the evening Tuesday: 4.7 mile track workout in the evening Wednesday: :45 minute spin class, :45 minute strength class in the evening Thursday: 3.14 mile run in the evening Friday: off day Saturday: 12 mile long run and 750yd swim (the first in a while...oops) Sunday: Sprint tri (300m swim, 12 mile bike, 3 mile run) in the morning, then a 1 hour ride on the trainer in the evening. I guess that is why I'm tired now. That is certainly the most training I've done in a week since IM trianing. I'm also trying to actually do the running/marathon training thing right this time around, for the first time ever. I am trying to actually follow the "don't ...

No more. Well, not at least until I lose a pound or two. I had told myself I wasn't allowed to have Zoe's Chocolate Cake until the scale said 125.0. It was teasing me for a week or two. It would head that way, and I knew it was coming, and then bam! 125.4. That isn't good enough - it had to be 125.0 for cake. Until last Thursday. The dog food expedition just made me need cake. Ugh. So I had it. Then I had it again last night. And I've had scones from the bakery downstairs for breakfast 2-3 times in the last week or so. Not ok! So I'm starting over and because I cheated the first time, the bar has now been set at 124.0. Once I hit that weight I can treat myself to cake and/or a scone, but then I'll have to be good again after that to lose the last 1-2 lbs that I need to. I really need to lose it now that I have to haul my butt up some monstrous hills (mountains) in California. We also started round 2 of the Summer Slim Down Challenge this week. Friday is our wee...

Well, I got talked into doing Barb's Race in Santa Rosa, CA on August 2. Barb's race is a women's only half ironman. It is the same day as the Vineman Full Ironman, and on the same course. I have no business whatsoever trying to bike 56 miles in 3.5 weeks, not to mention through the hilly wine country!! Oh well. Life is about being adventurous, right? Safe to say this will be the least prepared I have ever been for a race. I will have plenty of time to take in lots of scenery during the race! I can deal with the swim between now and then and my running should be fine at that point...just not so much the bike. I also have no real plans to actually train properly for the bike between now and then either. I'm racing in a sprint this Sunday, so no long ride, and going to the beach next weekend, so again no long ride. I have priorities, you know. The day after the race will be spent touring the wine country and maybe I'll finally learn to like wine (or maybe...

After the dog food project on Thursday, I went for a bike ride at the park at 2pm. Not a good idea when it was nearing 100 degrees, but it needed to be done. That was only training ride #2 since IMAZ . Seriously! Shellie and I went to the Mucky Duck to see Bruce Robison play Thursday night and he was awesome as usual. If you haven't been to the Mucky Duck, you should definitely give it a try. It is a very small, intimate acoustic concert venue/Irish pub and restaurant. You get served dinner and drinks during the show, all while sitting down (not standing up getting knocked over by drunk rowdy people like most concerts). Bruce rocks. He always puts on a good show. Friday morning came too early as many of us headed to Uptown Park to run the Run Wild 5k. My 5k PR (24:27) came on a 45 degree morning, so I certainly wasn't expecting to come near that time, but I was hoping to at least run 25:30-26:00. No such luck! I ran just under 27:00. Oh well. I tried. Shellie, William, and L...

Looks like this: And the 4 of us (note we're all women) loaded it onto the flat bed carts, into 4 SUV's, and unloaded it at Interfaith Ministries to be used as part of their Meals on Wheel's program. Talk about a workout!! My arms still hurt, but it was for a very good cause.

Confused about life. Seriously. Sometimes I wonder what's it all for. Other times I have no question in the world about what it is all for. I tried to sleep tonight and couldn't so I quit trying. After two packages of 100 calories cupcakes, I'm at least not hungry any more, but no less confused. Maybe just that much further from my weight-loss goal. Oh well. The cupcakes tasted good. They don't confuse me. People, on the other hand do. How can nice people get crapped on and mean people seem to just walk through life with no trouble? Is it worth even trying so hard to be nice and caring and to do the right thing? Is life ever going to make total sense? I doubt it. Some mystery or confusion is good - it keeps you thinking and engaged in life, but constant confusion isn't so good either. There is stuff going on all around me with people. Some of those people don't confuse me at all and others confuse the hell out of me. Some treat people terribly, others are gettin...