Kathleen's Adventures

Not sure if you noticed my new tri shorts in my pictures below (how could you NOT notice them?), but they are definitely here to stay. You don't see too many pink floraled (is that even a word?) butts at tri races, but you'll be seeing mine for many races to come! They got me my first hardware, so surely they are lucky! Oh, and here's an updated view of my tattoo from IMAZ. It is still going strong, and turns purple when I am cold.

My first triathlon was supposed to be five years ago today. I was signed up for the super sprint distance at the CapTex triathlon in Austin. However, five years ago yesterday my best friend's mom died. Kelly and I were sitting on her couch in Austin that Sunday morning, being lazy after celebrating her 21st birthday the night before. I got a phone call that I will never forget - Mike telling me his mom had just passed away. I was in utter shock. She had ovarian cancer, but had been doing fine. She had even gone to her youngest daughter's high school graduation the night before. Still in shock and disbelief, Kelly and I packed up our things and headed to Beaumont to be with Mike. On my way out of town, I picked up my CapTex race packet, but informed them I would not be there to race. It is funny how May 24, 25, and 26 are so vivid in my mind each year they roll around. May 24 is Kelly's birthday and my sister's anniversary, May 25th is the day Mike's mom died, and Ma...

I went to Beaumont Saturday after the race and had some quality bonding time with Scout, my dog (well, not really mine, but I claim her when she's being socially acceptable):

We had our monthly club happy hour Thursday night and had a grand old time. Someone, who will remain nameless, was super excited about the prospect of having her picture in my blog, so here are some pics from the night:

So I donned my hot pants for the first time in a while before I headed out the door to my track workout. It was to be my first real track workout in quite a while. Only issue was that it was a record high temp day (95 degrees) and I'm not so much motivated to kill myself right now. I thought the hot pants might help. No such luck. My workout turned into more of a social hour with some walking, running, and sitting in the bleachers and talking (kind of reminiscent of middle school PE). But no worries, I still got in over 4 miles and am in good spirits!

Ugh. I think I'm finally facing the post-Ironman blues. I miss everyone. I miss planning the weekend training events and I miss planning our group social events. I always had something to look forward to. Most of our group put some aspect of their life "on hold" to do Ironman and looked forward to getting back to that part of life once the race was over. They put husbands, wives, girlfriends, boyfriends, friends, and family on hold. The only thing I put on hold to train for Ironman was cleaning my apartment. I feel like everyone had something to "go back to" after the race, yet I just came back to my teddy bear whose head is about to fall off. Oh, and apparently I came back to food too since I managed to gain 6 lbs in 6 weeks. I'm feeling pretty lost right now and am not sure where to go from here. Normally I don't feel very lonely, but I do right now. Hopefully this will pass soon.

My body is amazing. Literally amazing. Wednesday AM weight: 127.6 (this is the weight that caused the alarms to go off) Wednesday: ate well, ran 3 whole miles Thursday AM weight: 126.2 (ah, maybe Wed was just weird, I like this direction) Thursday: didn't eat great, but I think around 1800 calories for the day, including one vodka drink at dinner) Friday AM weight: 128.4 (WHAT THE HELL???????) So, I decided I'm putting the numbers out there for all to see, to maybe hold myself more accountable. I know I don't have much to lose at all, but I'm just shocked I let it creep up soooo fast. I want to be back to 122-123 ASAP. I'm not all crazy or anything and don't have any aspirations of looking like an anorexic distance runner. I'd just like to be comfortable in my own skin, and perhaps just some little shorts and a sports bra when I run. It is Houston after all. I know all you boys are out there saying "6 lbs...what is the big deal? I can lose that in a w...