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, ...

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...

Tuesday night was my first trainer ride in months. I had been left without a trainer since October, when he "borrowed" mine. After shelling out $300, I finally have a new one. At least this one is pink - maybe boys won't want to take this one.

...but don't really need it. At least not right now...

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.