Kathleen's Adventures

Well, I think I probably lost more weight than anyone else at work this week for the Biggest Loser competition, but the contest is 11 weeks long, not 1!! * * * * Update - just got the results email. So I wasn't the biggest loser - I was the 2 nd biggest loser - only 1 guy ahead of me...out of over 60 people. I drank 2lbs of water before the weigh-in this morning to pad it a bit. Had I not done that I'd been way ahead of everyone. So, my point still stands...losing that much in one week isn't the best way to do it. In other sprint/marathon news, I talked to my mom last night and found out she and Mrs. Clark walked SIX MILES last weekend!!! I'm so proud! She still says she's waiting until the week of the Gusher Half Marathon to decide if she'll actually do it, and so far is just helping Mrs. Clark train (she has already signed up), but that is plenty for me. I'm proud of them for getting out ...

A high school classmate of mine posted this on her facebook page yesterday and I thought I'd share. I don't know if it is a quote by someone else, or paraphrased, or just thinking aloud, but I like it. Perhaps a little (green) food for thought for your Thursday! "If the grass looks greener on the other side, then it's because you haven't been taking care of your grass.....it's amazing what a little fertilizer and TLC can do to change your perspective. On that note, appreciate what you have, take care of what you have.....you'd be suprised how it will resemble what it looked like in the begining!"

The weather in SE Texas really, really needs to make up its mind. I swim in an outdoor pool...or, well, I'm supposed to be swimming. I have barely been to the pool this year because the weather sucks and they have a new rule that it is closed when the temps are below 45 degrees. Any year past, this would have not been an issue, but here it is again, a Tuesday, a masters swim workout day, and they say we may have snow. So, that's my swimming update, or lack of one! Saturday morning I did a nice 10 mile run, part of the way with Shellie and Nicki. My heart rate appeared to be normal during the run, but at one point it was reading in the 130s which I know isn't right either, so I'm confused. I was not watching it very much while I was running - just looked at the info after. I got a new strap too so hmmm .... I also ran in my Newton racers instead of the guidance trainers I'd been using for most of my training and my calves and achilles were pretty sore the next day....

I had a dream last night that I was over halfway through a piece of Zoe's chocolate cake when I remembered I had given it up for Lent...did I stop eating it then? No. Oddly enough I'm not missing much of what I gave up, which is a good thing, but I totally cracked up this morning when I realized what I had dreamed about.

About a boy diagnosed with POTS from the Washington Post, here . His case is obviously way worse than mine, but it good to see maybe people are learning a little more about it.

Diet Dr. Pepper, Zoe's chocolate cake, Sweet Retreat chocolate chip cookies, and Alonti cinnamon scones, it has been nice knowing you. Fast food and candy in general, its been nice knowing you as well. Some of you I have visited more frequently (Diet DP, you were mine twice a day, on average) than others (Zoe's cake, I only saw you maybe once or twice a month, but oh how I loved you still), but you will all be gone for a short while during this time called Lent. Taco Cabana downstairs at work, you are so appealing in that you can feed me an entire meal for $2.59 and you are just too darn convenient, but eating you a handful of times a month has just gotten to be too much! Day 1 of the Biggest Loser challenge at work also conveniently coincided with Ash Wednesday; unfortunately our 11 week challenge extends way beyond Easter, so there may be a bump in the road when Lent is no longer. It is about time for me to start heading back towards race weight, and my A race for the Spring...

Wow - what a weekend! Friday afternoon Mom and Dad came through Houston and picked me up on their way to San Antonio. My nieces' school was doing their first ever production of Beauty and the Beast . Molly was Chip, the teacup, and my sister was the choreographer. I was one proud aunt and sister that night! They did a fabulous job. I was absolutely beaming throughout, and couldn't stop from laughing out loud when Bennett, my 3 yr old niece, was singing along at full volume on some of the songs. She's heard them for months now and saw no reason not to sing along this time since she had every other time they played previously. Saturday Mom and Dad handed me off to Jon in San Marcos at the outlet mall. The place was an absolute zoo - I guess because the sun came out for the first time in ages. I did score a few things at Nike and a little clutch I'd been wanting from Kate Spade for a while. We didn't have tons of time because I still had to get to the expo for packet p...

As you can see I almost got my butt handed to me on the first 10 miles or so, but overall it was a great workout with lots of hard work!

That may be my new HR approach for a while. Today I ran 10 miles - they were all great miles and I did not really have any issues. Hmmm ... I did not know until I got home what my HR was doing over those 10 miles. It spiked in the first mile to 196 (which a very early spike is sometimes normal in "normal" people, so not something to worry too much about), then averaged 166 for the whole run. I had several rises just above 85% of max, but nothing crazy. I did about 5.5 miles with Shellie and we ran 4/1s (run 4 minutes, walk 1 minute) as she is coming back from injury and it was great. That most certainly helped with my heart rate too. I ran most of the last 3.5 miles without the walk breaks and sped up a bit, but my heart rate still did not freak out too much. I "sprinted" the last quarter mile or so and only topped out at 184. I will totally take that. AND it was a morning run. I loaded up on salt Thursday, felt awful Thursday night and didn't sleep, ...

I think last night was officially my worst run yet. I was really hoping my night time runs would at least continue to go well while I figured out what to do about the morning, but not so much. I am still somewhat in denial and hoping my heart rate monitor was just broken, but in the back of my head, I doubt that is the case. It was never sporadic, and when it went up, it steadily went up instead of 120 at one second and 200 at the next. So I topped out at 207 last night and could not run more than 20-30 seconds at a time without hitting 173. I did finally get mad enough I stopped a few times to manually take my pulse, but just over 6 seconds, and that is never super exact. I got anywhere from 16-18 beats for that time...multiply by 10 to get your bpm . Counting for a whole minute is worthless because I usually drop 30-40 beats in the minute after I stop, and I'm not talented enough to run normal pace and take my pulse while doing so for a minute. So my little "rough est...

Here is a little project I have been working on with a few other HRTC volunteers (AWESOME volunteers!). My stint on the board is over, but I am still helping out where/when I can. This one has been fun but took a little more work than any of us expected!! Sorry the pictures aren't any bigger - they aren't the greatest quality/format. But, hopefully everyone can see them and get the idea. We will also hopefully get them on the HRTC page before too long.

I want to introduce everyone to two new babies who were due Feb. 13 and Feb. 14 (my bday), but both decided to make their entrances a bit early. Stephanie and Clea are both proud new mommies and the best of running buddies in Austin. Jill (who, by the way, just had a baby of her own on December 31) and I ran our first 50k at the race where Stephanie and Clea ran their first 50 miler. We all did it to raise money for the LAM Foundation . (Stephanie has LAM, but has not let it stand in her way of anything .) (Jill, Clea, Stephanie, Me - Sunmart 2005) Amelia Rose Kalahurka was born January 14 and finally got to go home last week. Look at that little tummy - just about the cutest thing in the world!! Jasper Alexander Czysz was born this morning, apparently after his momma did her last bike trainer workout while denying she was in labor! I will start taking bets on how long it is before they are both hitting Town Lake with the babies in jogging strollers, and when their first race back ...

Wow - this is long. Maybe I should blog more often so I wouldn't have as much to say at one time. I'm impressed if anyone actually reads the whole thing. So I think I am learning the hard way that being sick can bring me back to square one with POTS. I'm not entirely sure that is what is going on, but it seems to be the case. How awesome is it that I can finally recover from 6+ weeks of bronchitis only to be slapped in the face with POTS all over again? I have had no heart rate issues since maybe July, and that was my recovery month from IMCDA and it was 100 degrees outside, so understandable that it was harder to keep my HR under 85% max then as opposed to April or October. I remember I was a bit worried on a few runs then, but any issues I may have had faded as the temperatures slowly dropped and my mileage slowly ramped back up for IMFL. Not including July, it has been a good 10-11 months since I have had major POTS issues. I cannot even tell you when they really started...