Training Recap: Week 13 July - 19 July

Week Two of Portland Marathon training complete and while still feeling a bit behind it was a big step from the week before.  This week was a big mental and physical break through for me as I broke (or at least improved upon) the post-injury barrier.

Monday 12 July Still working on the knee issue that popped up after fixing my hamstring and adductors in my left leg.  The thought is that the knee was injured (rather stressed) by running a marathon on the hamstring and adductor injury but because the discomfort was so great in the muscles it masked the knee pain.  So now we are fixing that.  After some hardcore manual therapy on the TFL I was told not to run today and left with a very very sore knee.

So no running today.... yet I could do everything else and Monday's are leg days.  But when I got to gym I was experiencing my usual UGH I'm not running, my knee hurts, I'm so far behind mental turmoil so my brilliant fiance sent me into spin class in order to work out my issues.  He really is brilliant at knowing exactly what I need because I came out of an hour spin class feeling much better and able to hammer out some glutes and quads while I waited for him to finish up.

Tuesday 13 July

Allowed to run today, so I got myself up for a nice early morning run.  I was told to push through the knee pain as I need to start strengthening the joints and working the inflammation out of the knee.  It is amazing how you can actually reduce inflammation and break through scar tissue by doing the one thing that causes it; the body really is amazing.  So I pushed through for as much as I could handle or rather my mental status could handle. Which was about 3.8 miles according to my garmin.  TALK ABOUT FRUSTRATING. At this point I have been struggling with the fact that I have been running in pain for many months now.  It's been a bit rough on my mental state causing me to always be somewhere else as my fiance puts it; my brain is constantly focusing on the fact that I am not where I need to be physically.

The beauty of this frustration is that my way of letting it go is through exercise (usually running but lifting takes a close second) and I was able to hammer out an AWESOME back day at the gym that afternoon. Wednesday 14 July Last day of physical therapy, put on an as needed basis (which you will find out later will be utilized quickly).  Basically told, as nicely as possible, to run through it and just go for it. Due to physical therapy  being so early in the morning I did not get a morning workout in and put the majority of my training in the evening, that meant destroying shoulders and then running afterwards.  I have been focusing on my shoulders and my glutes during this prep; trying to build up my delts to create the capped look the judges are looking for and since I love shoulder day it has been fun!

So post lift run, meaning I ran home from the gym.  Well I got about a mile into it and BAM there's the knee, every time.  Instantly I got frustrated and down like come on why can't this F@#$%ING knee just give it a rest.  Then honestly I am not sure what happened but something changed, I got angry like really angry, and I never get angry.  It was time to stop feeling sorry for myself and to stop letting my brain dictate when and how much I ran because I AM WAY stronger than that.  I am Kayla Lloyd, I run marathons and I run them fast so stop being a little bitch (pardon the language) and run.  So I did. I ran hard and I ran fast.  I turned my music up and I went for it.  IT WAS AWESOME!!! Talk about needing that! Thursday 16 July Woke up feeling a lot better mentally after running the night before but also like I had been hit by a car, not a big one but for sure a small car.  I hadn't pushed or tested my body like that in a while and I could sure tell.  That being said when the alarm went off to run I did not get myself out of bed, something I need to stop doing.

I finished out the day with glutes and hamstrings at the gym.  You know it is a good workout when you can barely walk out of the gym by the end of it.

Friday 17 July Oh Happy Friday! It had been kind of a stressful work week, so I was very glad that Friday had rolled around.  Motivation was a bit low today for me, and as we drove to the gym I turned to Brandon and said "I want to go home, cuddle on the couch and eat bon bons." But as we are who we are we did not turn around and walked into the gym a couple minutes later.  Sometimes the lack of motivation turns itself on its head when I start lifting but today was not one of those days.  So I packed up my stuff and told Brandon I just didn't have it and ran home.  Thankfully running always makes me feel better and I had the longest run to date since my injury. WAHOO!! Saturday 18 July Brandon was asked by his cousin to caddy for him at the golf tournament he was playing in this weekend.  Since we knew that we were going to be walking 18 holes of golf and be gone for 6-8 hours at a time we decided to take the day off from the gym and take the doodle for a walk instead. During this walk I brilliantly tripped and gouged a hole into my knee, which was wonderful since I was trying both my wedding dress and my sister's bridesmaid dress on today, who doesn't want blood and puss on their wedding dress. :) You don't get to see the wedding dress :)

After both dress fittings I rushed to the golf course to catch up with the family as we walked the golf course.  Spencer did very well shooting I believe 1 under to put him at 140 for the weekend and making into the finals the next day.

Sunday 19 July

Since Spencer made the finals today we had to be at the golf course at 9 am which meant to get some running in I had to get myself up and out of bed and ready to go.  The goal was to get 8 miles in today and that plan started out fine until 3 miles in my groin started hurting, and the pain just kept getting worse and worse to the point where I just couldn't take it any longer so I called Brandon to come get me, I made it 6 miles instead of the 8 I was planning.  Turns out when I fell I jammed my back pretty bad which prevented my body from running properly (thank you physical therapy for fixing it quickly).

Spencer had another great round and shot consistently 1 under for the entire tournament.  It was a lot of fun to watch him and be a part of that with the family, plus Brandon had a lot of fun caddying.  Needless to say though we were both worked after this weekend (logging upwards of 12 miles a day walking) as it had gotten really hot on Sunday. We took some much needed down time and relaxation with our feet up, some Orange is the New Black and some meal prepping.

Totals for the week: 22 miles Goals for next week: 30 miles and one long run

"Be curious, not judgmental" - Walt Whitman