Kathleen's Adventures

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)