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, ...

...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...

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 ...