Kathleen's Adventures

I'm just plain worried about running the St. George marathon on Saturday. I haven't had a good run in 2 weeks, at least, and I don't feel anywhere close to recovered. If anything, I've been on the light side of training during my taper and I still feel ugh. Everyone else seems to be doing just fine. I am worried I'm not going to meet the expectations I have set for myself. It is so hard to have any gauge of how you are going to run a fall marathon when you've been training in Houston all summer. My only indicator was the half I ran in San Diego which didn't go well at all. The weather also isn't looking great. This race is known for its great weather, until, of course, I show up. The highs there right now are still 90+. Lovely. Why do I do this to myself again? I'm also worried my knees (IT bands) are both going to spontaneously combust during any one of the ~21 miles of downhills. Running downhill is about the worst possible thing for IT ...

Just over 2 months ago, Greg Johnson stood before a few hundred of his closest friends and family and proclaimed that he was the luckiest man on the face of the earth. Why? some may ask - especially considering his wife Stephanie had just died a few days earlier? He proclaimed he was the luckiest man for being married to Stephanie and for being able to live the life he had with her and their 3 wonderful children. I am still in awe of Greg's courage throughout Stephanie's entire battle, and it shone brighter than ever as he stood up in front of the church, proudly dressed in his best pink shirt, to address the mourning audience and ensure them that he would not only be ok , but that he considers himself the luckiest man. Wow. The courage he has shown would not have been out there without the love that they shared for each other. It was that love that was able to let Greg stand up there and say he was the luckiest man in the world. It is that love that will keep his head up throu...

My Jazz Hands almost ended up coming out... And heeee's ALIVE.....

Seriously. I have spent my Saturday night with my DVR and Zoe's chocolate cake. Wow. This sucks. I think I'm going to work tomorrow "for fun." I am definitely looking forward to next weekend as I don't know how many more loser days and nights I can take.

I've used this philosophy many times before, along with the "ignorance is bliss" philosophy. Often on a long run if my knee hurts, I just ignore it and the pain goes away, just like that! Or if I dive headfirst into a race I'm not prepared for (the ignorance part), soon enough it just goes away (or well, mile by mile, but you get my point). However, I do not believe this is a good technique to use with people. I think someone is trying to use it with me right now and I don't appreciate it. What can I do about it though? Going away is about the only solution I've come up with, so I guess it does work. What a crappy game. In other news there isn't much news going on. I did have a good track workout Tuesday night. It was supposed to be 8x400 and 2x800 at marathon pace. Do you know how slow that was? I surely didn't run in the inside lane because I didn't come close to deserving it. My running ADD hit very early on and I decided instead I wo...

So the post about me going private was really all a ploy to get your email addresses so I can spam you with advertisement for my new business (whatever that may be)...NOT. I have talked to a few people and the situation that caused the need to go private has apparently been remedied. I will stay public for now and see how things go, but I am keeping all of the emails you have sent me in the event that I feel that I do need to go private at any point down the road. By the way - thanks for all the emails. Thanks for going to the trouble to email me and thanks for reading my blog. Now I will go back to looneyville because this all makes it sound like that is where I came from!!

No, not talking about Galveston or Bolivar this time...I'm talking about me! Shellie and I ran 14 miles Saturday morning with our new pace buddy Tim (he's stuck whether he likes it or not!) and we had a good run. We ran well under 11:00 pace which is fast for us, but I felt dead the whole time. I'm not surprised though and just kept reminding myself I'm supposed to feel like crap right now. We ran a little over 3 last night and I thought it would help with the soreness, but I'm even more sore today! I may do a very short run with some stretching tonight, or maybe not. I'm just pooped. Life is still getting closer to normal for me while it is anything but for others. Shellie probably won't have power until later in the week so she is still staying with me - it has been super fun though. Randy came over Saturday to do laundry, and we cooked for him and Luke Saturday night. I've had more company through Ike than I have had in months. Jen and Augie a...

ruins my apple pie. It is very unfortunate that one person can cause so much grief for so many other people. I am sorry to say that I'm going to have to take my blog private in the next few days. Hopefully it will just be temporary, but we will see. I no longer feel safe posting the information about my life that I do with this person reading it. If you would like to be added to the reader list, please email me (you can do this from viewing my profile) in the next few days and I will send you an "official invitation" to read my blog once it goes private. I'm not happy about this - because I have received several messages from people I don't know who have found my blog and it has helped them in some way or another. I love that someone can read about something I may have gone through and learn from it or realize they aren't the only one who feels like they do, etc. I am sorry this person is hurting, I really am. They have been in my prayers for months.

Not sure I have tons to update, but things are slowly getting back to normal for me, but not for many, many people. I have a new roommate now - which is quite fun! Shellie is staying with me and probably won't get power until next week. I have organized a group to volunteer at one of the PODs tomorrow - it will definitely be a good glimpse back to the reality of many people still living here without power/food/ice/water. I've been back at work since Wednesday, but we aren't exactly productive here. Here is a post I posted on a tri discussion forum that kind of sums up the last week: I live right in the middle of Houston and didn't lose power until 2:30am Saturday morning. I got it back late Monday night. I am in a 2nd story apartment (3 story building) that was very well protected. My parents live in Beaumont and they flew in from Canada Thursday afternoon and just stayed with me instead of trying to get home. Beaumont was under a mandatory evacuation anyway. I...

Just looked back at some Rita pictures and thought I'd post a few. All of these were taken at least 7 days after the storm. Not totally sure why I'm posting these - probably just to remind us that in Beaumont at least, Ike was not nearly as bad as Rita was. All the pictures below are from my Aunt and Uncle's house in Beaumont. They are the ones who lost their beach house that I posted about below. To say they have had a rough 3 years is an understatement. (notice the guy on the end of the tree...they are in the process of removing it here) The goods new for them is that they lost all their trees in Rita, so there weren't any more to fall on the house during Ike. I think this is the same story for several people in the area.

Wow - it is quiet in my apartment although it is the first time in 4 days I've had the hum of my air conditioner going and the TV on as I'm getting ready to go to bed. My parents and Scout left this morning. Scout has been here since Labor Day weekend and my parents have been here since Thursday. Now no one is here. Thank God I have power - it would be that much more lonely if not! It is crazy to think what a roller coaster the past few days have been and now it is like it is all of a sudden gone. I cleaned for about 4 hours this morning - first it started just cleaning up the huge mess we managed to make when we didn't have power and then it turned into an all out cleaning fest. Then it turned into a decorating fest. Then it turned into a google maps/NOAA before/after comparison fest. Then, of course, a nap fest. My apartment is now cleaner than it has been in forever though. I want someone to come over just so someone else can see how clean it is! I'm so pr...

Ugh - it is just awful. Below is a picture from Crystal Beach after the storm. Click on it and you should be able to zoom in on it. Where the yellow box is drawn is where my Aunt and Uncle's house used to be. For reference, the before image is here . For better news (perhaps), my boss's house is at least still standing in Galveston's West Beach. Before is here .

Ok, so I've come back to the real world...I think. Power came back on at 11:02 last night and my parents were up at 6 getting ready to go back go Beaumont. They were planning to go back anyway - they found out we got power there last night before we went to bed. We were shocked because we had been told it would be weeks before power came back there. I've just cleaned for 3 hours - who knew 3 people and a dog could make such a mess in 3 days without power? Gees. I can say my apartment will probably end up cleaner than ever after this though. I'm still cleaning... I may go to the office this afternoon to start putting my cube back together - I'm afraid that is going to take a few hours. We packed up in such a rush I have no idea where anything is. I assume tomorrow will be close to a normal work day. I'm exhausted though, so hopefully I get some rest later today!

Counting down the moments until we lose power, unfortunately we don't know when that will be. The building next to me has been out for 3 hours now. I just heard 12 houses are on fire in Galveston and they can't do anything about it. I put a glow necklace on Scout so we can find her when the power does go out. We have the AC cranked all the way down and the freezer and fridge are set the same. Bored out of our minds right now, but probably not for long. This storm has the exact same timing as Rita did. We did lose power in Rita around 8 and the storm really started hitting at midnight and the hard stuff lasted until 5 or 6, by 8 we weren't too scared to look outside anymore, and by noon we were walking around outside. I'm not looking forward to the next 15 hours or so if they are going to be like Rita. Text messages will hopefully last longer than phone calls, but I'm not sure we will even have those after a while. Galveston doesn't look so hot. Seriously....

We just heard a transformer blow and looked out my balcony to see the building across the sidewalk lost power. This night may be waaaaay longer than expected. Keeping our fingers crossed as we eat one last meal in the light...

Is what I did this morning. Shellie and I ran 20 miles total...8 of them being in a 12-story parking garage. We did 5 garage repeats (just over 1/2 mile up and 1/2 mile down) in the first half of the run and then 2 near the end of our run. Best weather we've had in ages....that's the good news. The bad news is that while I was out running my mom decided to put a banana peel down my disposal. Apparently hers is more powerful than mine. My kitchen has now turned into a war zone. Skies are turning a bit dark and wind has picked up, but no real bad weather yet... Update: More good news - mom also decided to clean out and organize my guest room closet while I was running - awesome! Dad also managed to fix the disposal, so no more banana war zone. Cookies just came out of the oven, so we are ready to go. For good updates, Carolyn seems to be giving some excellent play-by-play commentary.

Leaning a little to the right...minus a training wheel tire Here she comes! Looks like a natural... We'll call it a smile... I think her seat is a bit low....we forgot to raise it On her way to 4th fastest run in her AG Built like a runner for sure - didn't come from my side of the family

Ike needs to turn around and go back to where he came from. He is ruining a PERFECTLY good weekend for me, already. Shellie and I have been planning our last long run for St. George in Austin for a few weeks now and I've been getting more and more excited about it. Augie was going to come along as well and do a bike ride on the Longhorn 70.3 course while we were running. Now Ike is probably going to prevent us from stepping outside the entire weekend, no matter what part of the state we are in. We were planning to run in Austin to get some much-needed hill work in. Looks like that has gone out the door. The storm is forecast to hit around midnight Friday right now, but people forget when they are looking at those maps that that is the eye of the storm, not the whole storm. Ike is huge right now and is going to start causing problems in Houston and Austin starting Friday and lasting until who knows when. I doubt we would even have much luck getting to Austin any time after Thursday ...

I failed to mention that today is day 1 of no yeast (bread, tortillas, pita, beer, aged cheese, pizza, everything), no dairy (cheese, milk, yogurt, ice cream), and the other stuff that isn't as important to me. It is also day 1 of trying to not eat any sweets before St. George. I have to get rid of the weight I have put on some way or another. In other words, I might bite someone's head off today, but I really don't mean it. I did a good job over the past few days of fully intoxicating myself on everything I'm not supposed to eat. Tuesday: sandwich and cake at dinner Thursday: bread, olive oil, pizza for lunch, free birds burrito and Amy's ice cream for dinner Friday: cinnamon scone for breakfast, ice cream for snack, turkey sandwich for dinner Saturday: Texadelphia cheese steak for dinner Sunday: kolaches for breakfast, grilled cheese, tator totts , and ice cream for lunch, and a kit kat after dinner. I think I have eaten more ice cream in the past few days ...

YOU SUCK!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow - what a day. I will start off by saying I should have volunteered for the adult race, but didn't because I didn't want to go up there by myself early this morning and there was no reason for my sister's family to head up there that early. I was waiting to see if someone would go with me and that was dumb - I should have just gone anyway. I missed the opening ceremony and wished I had been there for that. All that aside, we left my apartment around 7:15 and made the mandatory trip to Kolache Factory before heading up to Spring for Kate and Molly's race. It was supposed to start at 9, but things were running pretty late and they didn't end up starting until after 10. The weather was nice though, so that was ok. Kate approached her first triathlon like a champ. She was so brave beforehand and soooo excited to be there. Molly was a little more reserved, since she is a pro at all of this now. Molly was ahead of Kate in line, so she swam first. She looked strong ...

I ran 15.25 miles this morning as part of my "down week" and it went pretty well. I averaged 10:20 min/mile overall and I'll certainly take that at this point in my training. My body is broken down and exhausted and I'm still sorting out all the asthma and allergy stuff. Today was a bit rough though because I went to see Counting Crows and Maroon 5 with some girlfriends in the Woodlands last night and didn't get home until 12:30 or so. My 4:20am alarm was quite the wake up call. Actually I popped out of bed just fine after 3 whole hours of sleep because it was more of a nap than anything else. I did feel pretty shot the rest of the day though, and had 2 unsuccessful attempts at taking a nap. My sister's family just came in for Kate and Molly to do the Stephanie Johnson Tri in the morning. It will be Molly's 3rd and Kate's first. Kate once again proved to be correctly named in that she has not been on a bike in about a year (following her aunt...

What a difference a crappy night's sleep and a 6 mile parking garage run at 5:30am can make. Actually, I think it is the fact that this morning we had our first minute hint of fall this morning. As in the temp was 77 and the humidity was at 70% instead of 90%. It is amazing how much even that small difference in humidity can make. Last week it was absolutely disgusting in the parking garage with still, humid air. Today there was actually a breeze coming through the garage from the West and it was refreshing. So here's to hoping there is a bit more of that to come between now and St. George. I really need a few good runs as my confidence is non- existent right now. Note to self: don't take new asthma medicine before trying to pluck eyebrows. Your hands shake too much and you may lose an eye instead of a few eyebrows.

I guess I played too hard this weekend because I'm getting serious payback now. Rewind to last Friday morning. I opened my freezer and noticed the ice bin was filling up with water. Lovely. This is the 3rd or 4 th time I've had problems with my ice maker. I dump out the ice bin and head to the doctor and then to work. At 11:30 I put in a service request to have my freezer fixed. We got off work at 3 on Friday and all I wanted to do was go home and take a nap. I get home and walk into my kitchen and what happens? Splash. I step in a huge puddle on my kitchen floor. Clearly no work has been done on my freezer. I call the office and ask if they could get to it first thing in the morning because I really didn't want anyone in my apartment Friday afternoon. They don't work weekend...or on Labor Day...so it was then or Tuesday. So I say fine, please come this afternoon because it was getting way worse (ice bin had completely filled with water again by the time ...

Ugh. That about describes my day. Ugh again. I have just gone through lots and lots of allergy and asthma testing. I did half of it last Friday and half of it today. Both times the allergy testing was done across my entire back and then on my right arm. Friday more things on my back reacted, but today, the grass test on my right arm blew up. It has been 8 hours and I still look like I have a baseball growing out of my tricep . I'm not happy. It hurts, bad. It hurt to even run today. I took a Zyrtec as soon as I got home and they put ice on it at the dr , but it didn't help. So add a bum right arm to my bum left knee, left butt cheek and both hands from my spill on Saturday and I'm doing great. I'm also just plain sick again - especially in my chest. Speaking of chest issues, it turns out I do indeed have asthma, ("uncontrolled asthma" as it was called) and have probably had it since childhood. The dr said my high heart rate when I run just doesn...

That was my excuse for everything this weekend after my dive into an asphalt pit about 2 miles into my 20 mile run Saturday morning. To say it left a mark would be an understatement. I have rocks in the palms of both of my hands, a banged up knee, a really pretty left butt cheek, and a bruised ego! BUT, I did still have a good 20 mile run and averaged under 11:00 pace for the whole thing. Biff ran the last 13 with Shellie and me and he's a good pace car for us. I was pushing it at the end and felt my quads talking to me, but it was still a good run. Saturday afternoon Luke and I went to lunch and we were pretty much worthless the rest of the afternoon until Augie picked us up to go to Onion Creek. We had a great time and I enjoyed living a "normal" life for a day or so this weekend. I didn't know what to do with myself Saturday afternoon without any impending workouts or early morning wake up calls. Sunday I did a quick 3 mile recovery run through River Oaks before he...