Running with Scissors

I promised myself a year ago that if I ever felt well enough again to race and train I would never squander an opportunity to do so.  Fast forward 1 year and 1 amazing opportunity later and here I am. I am finally about to race again. And like I promised myself… I am taking full advantage of all that I have been given. The last year has given me my health back, a new and HUGE chance to be coached by someone who gets me and a new bike of my dreams. I cannot waste this time. 3 years have already been lost so to speak. I used to get asked a lot what makes me want to push through and Ironman or big training days.  It started as an escape. A way to do what my mother always said I could never do. Be someone. Do something amazing. Succeed. To grow up the way I did makes it easy to push through pain and see things to the end. I can’t give up because I had to fight the 1 st 17 years of my life or I would not have survived. Everyday was a day closer to leaving. In racing eve...

So… week 2 was actually week 2 and 3. I had a few set backs so it took 14 days instead of 9 to get to stage 3 but I made it!!! Setbacks: Ghee----not going to happen. I am kind of bummed out about this because I really do not care for the taste of coconut in my food all the time. The only 2 options I have right now to cook/pan sear foods is coconut oil and ghee until week 5. It took 2 days to figure out my stomach can’t take it yet. I had plans to bike on my days off and needed something portable to take with me to New River to eat after my workout. I steamed cauliflower and added salt, pepper and eggs and friend little “pancakes” in ghee. FOOD!!! Real food that was not boiled. I immediately ate 4 little pancakes for supper and had issues all most right away but ignored them. The next day my stomach was so swollen L  No ghee. However last night I had avocado. Smooth creamy delicious avocado. I had it with boiled turkey and I swear it tasted to me like a turkey san...

I finally found a Nutritionist who wasn’t going to break my budget and specifically works with people with Auto Immune Disease. I admit I was about to walk out of the appointment after the first few minutes as she was telling me about how blood sugar is controlled. Ummm…yeah got that and doing it. Still gaining weight and thanks for nothing. But instead I just shed a small tear and stayed put. Man am I glad I did. She told me about what she wants me to do. Gave me a list of Fats, Proteins and Carbs all with weights and measures for each and she said I am going to eat one thing from each column at every meal and snack BUT FIRST……… GAPS DIET…WTF is that??? GAPS includes the 3 main principles: 1) Healing the gut- by avoiding all foods that irritate it, and by consuming only foods that will nourish and heal it. 2)Repopulating the gut with beneficial bacteria- This is done by avoiding all foods that Feed bad bacteria/gut flora.As well as high quality probiotics are used to ac...

I have been very fortunate to have lived in 10 states and at least 40 different towns/cities. I have met a ton of people in my life and many of them I have called friends even though we no longer talk all the time or even at all since the last time we saw each other. That is why this introvert loves FB. That may be the only reason I love it but it is a reason. I hate the phone but I can keep in contact, or rather, cyber stalk friends/people I know and see what they have been doing with their lives. Every single one of them doing very different things. I feel confident that of my “friends list” on FB I actually know or have met at least 95% of them. That, however, does not make them all friends. I am always very careful to use the F word with caution. I am not “friends” with a lot of people. Meeting someone once does not make you a friend. That requires at least one life event to bond us. A real life event not a made up fluff BS event like meeting at a party once or being at the sa...

It has been some time since I posted. I have been torn on what to share for fear of not coming across clear and possibly miss stating the issues. But here goes. So… Since getting the diagnosis of MTHFR…. There are several other genetic defects that my WoNdErFuL NP and I are working on. Each time something starts to slip health wise I go back and we move forward with the next process. Some facts/new info~ 1.       My body does not release toxins- Had all my amalgam fillings removed 2 weeks ago. All 11!!!! Have no idea if it will help but my brain does seem a bit clearer. Could be some other factors though.  2.       I can’t detoxify estrogen. Yeah,… great for the girl who has been on birth control ( estrogen) for the last 25 years. So that was immediately changed 3.        Compromised anti-oxidant defense         4.        Sub optimal ...

Quick fix. Everybody wants one. I am well aware that quick fixes don’t work. But what if you have been fighting for years and you just don’t want to fight anymore. What if you just want a small thing to go right so that you can see, even if just a little bit, the path ahead of you is starting to clear and the weeds and briar patches that you have fought through are a little less? I don’t think that is too much to ask. But, sometimes, it is. You just have to let go and but trust (WHAT!!!) in someone else and their plan. Not easy for this girl. The last time I really felt GrEaT was about 5 years ago. I was getting ready for Ironman Lake Placid, finally been diagnosed with Celiac and severe food allergies, and had lost about 34 pounds now that I wasn’t eating everything I was allergic too. I was weight lifting 2X a week, training with Kathy (someone I never thought I could keep up with) and had no stomach issues. 5….years …ago. It had taken a friend’s wife begging me to come see ...

Mountain Man Olympic was not on my radar at all this year. I have not raced in nearly a year and had no intentions of racing until 70.3 Austin in November. That is until a weekend Smashfest on Mt. Lemmon with the #bff turn into a race weekend. At first I was F**K YEAH!!! Then I realized a few things.  1. I am not race ready. My nutrition on the Keto diet has been hot and cold on training days. More cold than hot 2. I am so unhappy with where my body is physically I wasn't sure I would even have the endurance to go for 3 hoursish without having to stop. ( Which I hate!!) 3.The last time I was at this race a year ago I had an "episode" that night. I understand that it is unrealistic to think that it would happen again but that slight fear is always with me. SO I did what Heidi does best.... Push those emotions aside and deal with it on race morning. The #bff came up from The Valley on Friday when I got out of work. Great afternoon of eating, olive oil a...

The Power of Hmmmmm   I had every intention of riding today. Get up at 0500. Hit the road by 0600. It would be great. Then it hit. I had the worst stomach issues ever within minutes of waking. I was planning on maybe riding indoors. But maybe waiting till it passed. Or maybe running later. What should I do. Then the man asked the loaded question..."when is camp?"   well, actually it is 3 months away. "HMMM" was the response I got. I know what that means. That means get yer ass out there because you ONLY have three months to get your poop in a group ( so to speak!). I picked an easy by Sedona standards trail. Big park Loop. Totally can not get lost. Go straight then take a right at the end then another right at the end to get back to parking lot. LOL. trust me I can and did get lost because that is what I do.  It is a very pretty and way less traveled trail then Bell Rock Pathway which is what ALL the tourists walk. I lost the trail at the...

It has been four weeks since IMTX. Plenty of time to recover, right? YES!!! I did my first run two weeks ago and loved it! I didn't feel like a 41 year old that just raced for 14.5 hours a few weeks earlier. I was excited. I thought " HELL YES! I AM BACK!". Then.....crickets..... I have done some rides and some runs but my heart isn't in it. Here it is... all my tri brothers and sisters know what I am going to say... Post Ironman Blues. I thought that by signing up for two IM's this year I would kick that dreaded  post IM bullshit square in the teeth with my steel toed boots. Man was I wrong. So.... on my run Weds after work I decided to do a variation on my coaches workout. Fartleks. Instead of rollers I would run as hard as I could up to Lowell Observatory from Upper Lake Mary parking lot and I would take  it easy on the way back. This gave me time to think. As I was huffing and puffing my way up my mind started to drift (shocker I know...oh..SHINY THINGS!)....

Ok... Here I go again. My first race report just disappeared. Great way to start out on a new blog, huh? So..... This one will be short and sweet. First of all ( hee hee Kelly Hull), BEST IRONMAN EVER!!!! No my time wasn't a PR. No, I didn't even do well at any of the legs and no, I didn't meet Big Sexy. What did happen though was I found out I love Ironman. This was the first one where I just " Let it go". Now that doesn't mean I didn't give it 100%. I definitely did. The only problem was my 100% on May 17th was much less than my 100% on any other given day. But that is fine! I had fun! FUN!! Who was this person in black? Slapping hands with spectators, Joking with other racers and longhorning everyone I saw? It was the new me. And I loved every second of it. So, the beginning. I arrive in The Woodlands to discover that I have far more amazing friends then I already assumed I had. I know they are amazing people. That is why we are friends :) H...