Kathleen's Adventures

I guess I should have added this into my post from last night. The doctors still have no idea what is going on with my heart. The most recent test I had done, blood cortisol, came back normal as well. That really surprised me. Cortisol and the other hormones that they tested are about the only thing that I have read about when it comes to overtraining . Elevated levels usually do indicate some sort of overtraining . I'm beyond confused now. In the back of my mind I still thought all along that some of this had to do with overtraining , or that I was at least overtrained in addition to whatever is going on. The doctors have never been willing to just label it as that and tell me to go home and rest (which is a great thing!), but I was pretty sure some sort of additional stress (i.e. too much training) would show up at some point or another in all the testing. So far, nothing. So, the next step is to go to a neurologist for autonomic testing. I'm not sure what all that entails, ...

I *might* be getting better. I have had two good runs and a good spin class in the last 3 days. I am just waiting for an awful workout to come along and smash the tiny bit of confidence I finally have back, but for now, I'll just take it as it is. Sunday morning I ran in San Antonio. I just went 4 miles, but it was hilly, and I averaged 11:31 all in zone 2. That was my fastest Z2 run (except for the 2 miles I have run after biking a few times) yet. The temps were in the upper 40s, so I had that on my side for sure. BUT, I did a repeat on Monday night, when it was 75 degrees. I averaged 11:06 for an entire hour! I got 5.4 miles in during that hour. Just about 8 weeks ago I could only manage ~4.5 miles in an hour keeping my heart rate in zone 2. Tonight I swam for the first time in 6 months...yes...6 months...gees I'm bad. But it wasn't that bad and I didn't die. I was almost scared to get in though because I had no idea what was to come. I managed 1200 yds in about 25 m...

Tuesday night was my first trainer ride in months. I had been left without a trainer since October, when he "borrowed" mine. After shelling out $300, I finally have a new one. At least this one is pink - maybe boys won't want to take this one.

...but don't really need it. At least not right now...

This one was a crazy one. I was part runner/part cruise director for my best friend, her boyfriend, and both of their parents. It was a mad house, but everything went better than planned even, with the help of my parents who came in for the day on Sunday. Jon and I picked Kelly and Noah up at Hobby Friday night and then met his parents downtown for dinner. When Kelly and Noah came back to my apartment, they found out the marathon fairy had been there. Saturday was a full day of food, expo, planning, packing, etc. I am glad I did not run the full because I was very worn out after Saturday and would have been way to stressed out to do everything I needed to do on Saturday to keep everyone happy. Sunday morning we were up bright and early. Kelly's parents took us to the Four Seasons near the start line and traded us for Noah's parents, then they headed off to meet my parents at mile 7.5 to watch us. The weather was not nearly as cold as originally predicted, but still felt cool as...

Here is the HR data from my Half Marathon PR last February, in Austin, where there are HUGE hills. Nice that my average here was 182 and my average yesterday, even after slowing drastically in the second half, was 181. Twenty minutes slower, 1 bpm lower. Something is definitely not right. For more comparison, here is my most recent half, in August, in San Diego. 9 minutes slower than my PR, but a considerably lower HR than the PR and yesterday. (can you tell there was a huge hill from 10.5-12.5 that totally ate this flatlander ?)

More to come later, but for now, here is a look at my lovely heart rate and pace. Can you tell where I let Kelly go?? Sorry it isn't 100% clear, I haven't figured out how to make it better yet. My time was 20 minutes slower than my PR, but also potentially 30 minutes faster than it might have been. I had no idea what to expect and yesterday was about as good as I could have done considering I haven't run one mile faster than 11:00 pace since mid-October.

I lost more weight than I wanted to since our first weigh-in at work for the Biggest Loser challenge. I'm down 6 lbs on the work scale from the 6th, but remember, the starting number was one I'd never admit to! I'm down 4.4 lbs on my home scale from that day, so I'll take that, but I should have padded my weight a bit this week at work because soon enough it is going to be hard to maintain or lose each week, and we have to put more money into the pot if we gain! On my home scale I still have 5-7 more to lose before I'm back at last year's fighting weight...but I'm not sure I can fight anyway, so maybe I'll just have to get good at looking good in a bikini instead. I'll be one of those girls . Update: Results are in...I was the 4th biggest loser out of 37 people. This is probably the only week I will be anywhere near the top, but I will take it. 5 people gained weight. Hmmm....

Can you take the challenge? I did the initial test for both on Monday, and started the "program" last night, both on week 3, day 1. I did 80 total pushups last night and 120 total situps (good ones!). We will see if I stick with this, but I figure putting it on my blog helps hold me a little more accountable at least!

A year ago today, I took 42 minutes off my marathon PR. I had the race of my life, and continued to follow it up with more and more races of my life. Just over a year ago, I could barely sit still as the prospect of smashing my PR danced in and out of my mind day and night. I checked the weather 20 times a day starting 15 days out, and made sure to report it to everyone who cared or did not care. I was as excited as a kid at Christmas . This year things are much different. I am running the half marathon instead. This will be the first time in 5 years I have not run the Houston Marathon. I'm having trouble with this, but at the same time I know I have no business running a full marathon right now and probably could not even make the 6 hour cutoff. Amazing what can happen in a year...or really just a few short months. Just over 3 months ago I set another marathon PR , but since then I have barely been able to run and have been searching for answers to what might be going on with my ...

NOT! In the continuing quest to figure out what is going on with my body, I had a contrast CT scan this morning. I couldn't eat/drink for 4 hours before my 8am appointment, so that really meant no food/drink after I went to bed last night. When I showed up, they greeted me with a lovely banana flavored jug of contrast crap drink. Ooooh fun. Next step, while still drinking the awful stuff, was to start an IV. Simple enough, right? Wrong. I had already had blood drawn from each arm this week (with no issues...) so they were heading back to bruised arms to start with. I chugged most of the banana drink and was almost done when they started digging in my arm with the needle. The nurse almost ended up with banana crap all over her and I was certain it wasn't going to stay down. I ended up soaked in sweat and asked if I could lie down. They brought over a little chair/recliner thing and that helped a little. Then they go to town on the other arm, again completely setting up the line...

Will it be me? I have gained 5.4 lbs in 15 days. I am not kidding. Seriously. I'm having to type it and look at over and over again because even I can't believe it. Wow. The sad thing is it will probably take me three times 15 days to lose those 5.4 lbs. Even scarier was that I gained 7.2 lbs between this morning at home and our first official weigh-in at the Biggest Loser at Work. Yes, we are having a contest at work. Today was the initial weigh-in, and week's 1 weigh-in will be Friday, January 16. The challenge lasts 12 weeks. Yes, I am probably the smallest person in the challenge, but it is % lost, not total lbs, and after my last 2 weeks, I may have some room to actually do some damage...that is if I have any luck losing the weight I have just gained, and then about 5 more lbs. I know my scale at home is probably a bit low, and I'm fine with the idea that I probably weigh 2-3 lbs more than that scale says because I really only care about the change in the ...

Gees, can we get a break? Yesterday was weekend #4 in a row of grossly hot temps just in time for long runs. The good thing is I haven't had to be going as far since I'm only running the half, but still, gees! I ran 13 miles yesterday - 100% by myself. I have never run that far by myself before. The eight mile run I did before Christmas by myself was my previous longest alone. It took forever though - 2:45! I am still very glad I did it and it has broken past some mental barriers I have had for five years in regards to running long by myself. My pace was a whopping 12:45 min/mile, which is still very slow, but oh well, it worked at least. I also was a lot faster on the second half of my run - I guess I settled into a groove staying just under 172 bpm. Six miles into the run, my average was 13:01 min/mile and I was going to be happy enough to hold onto that, so I was very pleased to finish up with a 12:45 average. Now back to that weather. The dork that I am did some research: S...