Kathleen's Adventures

Yesterday was the second Wednesday in a row where I've had a POTSish episode on my run. The first mile or two has been ok, typical warm-up feeling, but then bam! I feel awful. I get lightheaded and jello-legged and end up having to walk very long stretches at a time to try to feel "normal" again. Last Wednesday I attributed it to the Galveston ride, and it was the first run I'd done since then. Yesterday, who knows what was up! I ran on Monday after a decent-sized weekend of training with no problems, but then Wacky Wednesday was back again. This time I was able to still somewhat salvage the run and finished feeling okay, but I don't appreciate these episodes! I guess maybe back to the salt...and maybe compression socks. Funny thing about the socks though is that apparently I can't do Kona now because WTC has just banned compression socks or anything that covers the calf. I was totally planning on racing there until this. Oh well. (HA!) I understand that th...

I have felt like poo for about the last 4 weeks. I had a great week in the middle of March, and it seems like it has all been downhill since then. I have no idea if it has anything to do with POTS or not, but I assume it does. I'm over salt and compression socks. Eating Ramen and Easy Mac on a daily basis just isn't good. I feel like I've fallen off the training wagon too which sucks. I had all sorts of momentum heading into Lonestar and feel like I have somehow just lost it all since then. Granted I've had a lot of other stuff going on, but still. Lonestar meant that I did not run or ride long that weekend. The weekend before that I ran 15 miles and biked 80 on a moderately hilly course. Both of those went pretty well. This past weekend though I only made it 12.5 miles on my long run and our hilly century at the Easter Hill Country Tour turned into 75 miles of hell. The run was hot and humid and a good :30-:45 seconds/mile slower than I have been running. My heart rat...

I'm not sure what, and I'm not sure I should ask questions, but something is going right. I have had a great training week, despite the fact that I got to the pool on Tuesday only to find out it was closed, thus no masters workout. No problem, only an hour of my life wasted sitting in traffic. I did a spinerval workout at home both Tuesday and Wednesday. I forget how good they are - far better than me being left to spin at my own pace. I turn the DVD music off and turn my radio on and I'm good to go, surprisingly. Wednesday night at track I had a good workout too. The workout was 6x800 at I pace with 2 minutes rest then 4x200 at R pace with 2 minutes rest. My vdot last year at this time was 39. This year I started at a humbling 32. My 10k a few weeks ago brought me to a stout 33 - watch out. As I was walking out the door on Wednesday, with my 33 vdot times in hand, I thought I'd check to see if my 2:03 half marathon time from the weekend changed anything. Sure enough i...

Here are pictures of the getup (aka "costume") from Sunday: http://raceshots.net/app/event/zoomPictures?eventInstanceId=17480&picture=4080572 I was not planning on losing the shirt. The stupid socks are plain hot. I need to seek surgical help in the stomach area before it gets too much hotter outside! No one needs to see my jelly belly the way it is right now.

So, I find myself in a bind, quite literally, with the compression socks. Here is what I have found so far: Zoot : bought them at Luke's Locker on tri night. They are women's sized, with a true left and right foot. I ran in them Sunday and loved them. The feet are very padded and super comfortable. Only issue here: they are very hard to put on. I am not sure I would even have the patience to put these on in an Ironman transition. Published compression of 18-30 mmhg ; retail $60 at every place I have seen. I was able to get 20% off at tri -night and have a regular 15% off discount at Luke's, but with tax, that still comes out to about $55. Beaker Concepts : Pink! But, sadly, not very tight at all. No published compression figure. Not surprised. I have not run in these yet. I could see putting these on in transition of a half or full ironman , but don't know if they would work nearly as well as the Zoot's as far as compression. I ordered these for about $30 with s...

Almost.... Yesterday I ran the Seabrook Lucky Trails Half Marathon , to be exact. I ran it in 2:03...a mere 7 minutes shy of my PR I set just over a year ago, and 13 minutes faster than the HM I ran this January and 8 minutes faster than the HM I ran this February. My second half was only a measly 4 seconds slower than my first half, which is huge for me. I went in having no idea how the race would turn out, considering the 2:11 I ran exactly 4 weeks earlier in Austin was all I had. My first mile was around a 9:02 and I thought to myself that that was pretty dumb and that I should be running closer to 10:00 pace. I slowed a bit, but even when I thought I was slowing way down, I was still a bit faster than 9:30 pace. I just kept surprising myself mile after mile as I was able to hold on to that pace. Around mile 10 they have girl scout cookies and I think those turned me into high gear! I was so excited about the cookies, the next 3 miles were great. Mile 13 was my fastest at a 8:59. My...

That's what we do as triathletes, right? I guess I'll write a little about each. Swimming update: I finally got myself to masters on Tuesday night and it was a good workout. I swam 3100 yds and did not die. That included 4x250 of pulling, which is good for this time of year and good for triathletes who don't really kick anyway. I also got out of work early last Friday and got in a 1600yd swim then with a 1000yd time trial. I haven't looked yet for any old times to see how it compared, but the time was nothing impressive, so I'm looking for some substantial improvement over the next few months! Biking update: Did Rick's Brick again on Sunday. It was awesome, as expected. I was surprised how hot it got though considering I'd started my previous 2 long rides dressed up looking like a snowman because it had been so cold. Looks like I'll be dressed that way again on Saturday, but probably soaking wet as well. Can't wait. But back to Sunday's ride. We...