Kathleen's Adventures

Grrrrrrrrrrrr....its coming back to haunt me.  I had a POTS episode Thursday night and Friday night while running.  While I've had a history with it, I cannot tell you the last time I've had any issues come up.  I guess it was in the spring?  If even then?  I had almost all but forgotten about it.  Monday night I had a great run, Tuesday I had a great swim, and Wednesday I had a great bike workout.  When I say great about all of these, I mean good and hard, but I felt strong at the end, not positively exhausted.  However, come Thursday evening, on a measly little 2 mile run, it came back.  Seriously?  Really?  Now?  Why?  The lack of predictability of this stupid thing has been the most frustrating part - not necessarily knowing what causes it or what makes the symptoms go away.  Thursday I went on to do our weightlifting class and felt okay, but decided to skip on on my swim workout and get some rest.  ...

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...

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...

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 woke up this morning and could not go back to sleep so I decided to get out of bed and pulled out the suitcase...guess this is really happening! The sun is coming up earlier and earlier and I think I really am a true child of the sun - when it is up I am awake. That will be very interesting when we get to CDA and the sun comes up at 4:30. I hope the hotel room has good curtains! I have been asked by several people over the last few days "how's the ticker?" Seriously - the term "ticker" was used over and over again. It was kind of funny. I haven't blogged about the POTS stuff lately mostly because it has not really been on my mind, which is a good thing. I did sit down and read back about 6 months on my blog the other day and I am blown away at how sick I was then and how healthy I seem to be today. I say seem because I have learned that you just never know. Over the past few months, things have seemed to be okay health-wise. I have not been cons...

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 found a good link here, after discussing my issues with a fellow triathlete over the weekend. He said he remembered US Soccer player Michelle Akers had something similar. I have just started looking at info about that, as it might give some insight into orthostatic intolerance and athletes, but the link I included above is a good, basic description of what is going on when someone has orthostatic issues.

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...

I found a new website that has all sorts of good info about POTS: http://www.potsplace.com/ If you are interested in reading any more about it, go there. On the left, you will see a menu with symptoms, causes, what to avoid, etc. I will highlight some of the stuff here that has kind of set off a light bulb in my head. Symptoms Lightheadedness Fainting or near fainting 60.5% of patients report near fainting Generalized weakness Shortness of breath 2 Chest discomfort and/or pain Loss of sweating Excessive sweating (Loss of sweating and excessive sweating are more common in patients with elevated norepinephrine levels) Delayed gastric emptying (23.7% of patients report gastrointestinal complaints, including bloating) Bloating after meals Nausea Abdominal pain Fatigue (which can be disabling) Sleep disorders (can cause unrefreshing sleep and an increased need for sleep) Dizziness Tachycardia Exercise intolerance Intolerance to heat Feeling cold all over Noise sensitivity Light Sensitivit...

Have a good amount of sodium....120mg for a 45 calorie stick. Yummy. It is going to be very hard to get as much sodium as I need from regular food without doubling my caloric intake, and I don't want that. I am already worried about the water weight I will be carrying around once I get to 5000-6000mg of sodium a day so I don't need real weight to be added on top of that. Yesterday I was thrilled about finally having a diagnosis, but now the reality of that diagnosis and the uncertainty around POTS is starting to set in. Yes, it is an answer, but not a great answer. There will still probably be more questions than answers. The dr. even said with some sort of structural defect they know what it is and how to treat it, not so with this. I guess I'm just worried it salt and compression socks won't bring me to my next PR and that perhaps nothing will. I don't think or expect that everything will be back to normal as soon as I eat some salt and slap on some compression so...

I finally have a diagnosis...POTS. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postural_orthostatic_tachycardia_syndrome http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/postural_tachycardia_syndrome/postural_tachycardia_syndrome.htm http://home.att.net/~potsweb/POTS.html Thankfully my case does not appear to be as severe as it could be and the dr doesn't know what set off my symptoms so quickly, as he said I have probably had it all along. For now, the treatment plan is to increase my sodium intake to 5000-6000 mg a freakin' day!!!!!!!!! I recently realized I was probably borderline hyponeutremic as I have always had over a gallon of water a day, but starting with my allergy diet in the fall and even moreso since the start of the new year, I have been averaging way less than 1000 mg of sodium a day. I also am supposed to wear compression socks now for biking and running. I will be one of those people. I just wish I could get some printed with "I have a heart problem" so people don't think I...

Wow - I had a pretty crazy weekend, and even just typing the title to this blog post tells me that. My weekend started with a nice hunk 'o Zoe's chocolate cake complete with a birthday candle in it for breakfast. Jon and I exchanged birthday/Valentines day presents while I happily ate my cake for breakfast and then we packed up to head to Austin for two nights. You would have thought we were going away for two weeks by the way my car was packed, but oh well. I guess that is the beauty of driving somewhere as opposed to flying. We spent the rest of Saturday walking to packet pickup, eating lunch, and getting ready for the race. We probably walked 3-4 miles that day and it made me miss Austin so much. It is so nice to be able to just walk everywhere. I have organized a pasta dinner at Spaghetti Warehouse for the last 2 years in downtown Austin and could not pass up the opportunity to do it again this year. We had about 65 people and it was a fabulous time. Friends from Houston Fi...

I had a great weekend last weekend - things may slowly be looking up for me in the health and training department, but I still plan to be walking on egg shells for quite a while longer. Saturday morning several of us headed to Katy Mills to do the Puddle for the Ducks organized ride. The route we were going to do was 46 miles and I wanted 50, so before the ride started I did 2 loops of parking lot at Katy Mills - it actually worked out quite nicely! No one is in that parking lot at 7am on a Saturday. Shellie, Augie and I all pretty much stayed together through the ride. It wasn't that bad until the last 15 miles or so. We were heading due east and the wind was coming straight out of the south...at 24 mph! We complain about wind a lot, and it is windy here a lot in the Spring, but honestly it is usually in the 15-20mph range (which is bad enough!). Sustained winds of 24mph over any length of time is pretty high...nearing Arizona conditions! A cross wind that heavy was pretty tolling...

Interesting day actually... I also had a visit with a nutritionist before that to get my BMR (amount of calories you burn a day) tested...more on that in another post. I'm still in shock that it seems like I can no longer eat anything if I want to lose weight. Anyway, today I had autonomic testing in the med center. There are only 30-40 similar labs in the nation, so I'm "lucky" to be close to one. Right now, I have a few crop circle looking things left on my arm and leg and a small burn on my leg from the first test. This one was where they hooked "capsules" up to a few places on my arm and leg and infused medicine through my skin that made my sweat glands go to town, and then they measured something...who knows what. All I know is it was five minutes of constant "ant bite feeling" on those 3-4 places. That was fun. The next few tests were just kind of whatever - lots of blood pressure and heart rate evaluation. The next-to-last test, though, I ap...

Got 'em. Running at 11am near the coast when it is 80 degrees outside will do it to you! That was Sunday, but back to Saturday. Saturday morning, a few of us headed 75 miles north to Coldspring , TX for "Bike Through the Forest and Hills." They sure got the hills part right, well, and the forest for that matter. It was a beautiful ride, but the hills at the end were just awful. I did not realize until over half way through that I had been in a tailwind, and would be in a headwind the rest of the way. I also did not realize I had gone down more than up on the first half. The second half had a good stretch of 10 miles or so with not really any downhills at all, and tons of uphills. Then you got a tiny break for a couple of miles, but then, miles 30-33 (the last miles) were the worst of all! Uphill, into the wind. At one point I was in my last gear, at 30 something RPM not sure if I was going to keep my bike from falling over or not. Yes, I'm in awful bike shape, yes thi...

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...

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.