Colorado Springs and 7 Weeks Out of Portland Marathon Recap

Well as per usual I am a bit behind on my training recaps though as I look back my guess is that you (the reader) would be ok with this because up until about a week or so ago training basically sucked.  Right when I started to run pain free I got hit with the wonderful symptoms of extremely low iron in which resulted in me spending the last couple weeks fighting through running in cement, dark circles under my eyes, random bruising, and being very tired.  That being said thank goodness for liquid Iron and mass quantities of it, for while disgusting it has helped bring me up to a manageable level again. Since I am a bit behind I will just give you a quick catch up of the world of Kayla this past month:

The first part of August I headed over to Colorado Springs, CO to see both my sister and surprise my mom for her 60th birthday.  She had wanted only one thing for her birthday and that was to have the family together, she wanted to see her girls.  So for the last couple months we have been planning this awesome surprise for her and I am happy to report it turned out AMAZING!!  Her birthday was August 6th which was a Thursday and the only thing my dad gave her was a card that said in a nutshell, "you are to be home and have your bags packed by this evening as we are going into Portland for an early morning flight the next day."  It wasn't until the next morning when they got into security that he gave her the tickets and said that they were headed to visit my sister in Colorado.  When she asked if I was able to make it he told her that unfortunately due to the wedding coming up and the fact that I was racing on Sunday I was unable to make it.  Little did she know I was already on a plane headed towards Denver in order to arrive a few minutes before them and be standing at the gate when they arrive.   I wish I had a picture of her face when her and my dad deplaned in Denver, because it was priceless.  So much joy to be able to surprise her and spend her birthday with her.

While in Colorado Springs we did as the Lloyd family always does spent our time hiking, exploring, running, drinking, and doing whatever was the craziest experience we could find; in Colorado Springs that would be The Incline. The Incline Trail is a set of stairs that spans 1 mile and a total of 2,000 vertical feet that gets your heart racing, legs burning, and your desire for passing out very strong.  Between altitude, a bit of low iron, and 2,000 feet of elevation change I honestly thought I was going to die at one point; I have never had to talk to myself so much in order to get myself up those blasted stairs.  Yes my parents both completed this journey, I have some of the most amazing and crazy parents you could ask for at the age of 59 and 60 years old they climb 2,000 veritical feet of stairs, go on 80 mile bike rides, run half marathons, golf 18 holes (after going on their bike ride), all while maintaining a 40-60 hour work week; whenever they ask me where I get my crazy notions of wanting to do an Ironman or competing in marathons I just look at them and ask them to remind me what they did last weekend, it usually answers the question. It was a really great trip and fun to be just with the family before all the crazy starts with the wedding, for while they will all be there so will 130 other people and getting one on one family time will be very difficult.

Arriving home from Colorado Springs put me at this past week and the first week that I actually felt on track training wise.

Monday August 10

Due to getting in really late from Colorado Springs I did not get myself out of bed to run.  I ended up not running at all this day and instead beat the crap out of my glutes and legs. Tuesday August 11

Early morning run, though took a bit to talk myself out of bed was totally worth it.  Put in a nice 8 miles before the sun even really came up and felt strong for the first time in a while. The afternoon called for some shoulders and arms in which I am pretty sure by the time I was done I could not raise my arms up.

Wednesday Aug 12

I had planned to get up and go to the gym this morning in order to get my strength training in since I had a track workout planned, well that didn't happen.... the comfort of my bed was too high.  For some reason morning where I sleep in when I wasn't planning on it I have a harder time getting myself moving throughout the rest of the morning, basically coffee was much needed.Because I didn't want to do my track workout on the treadmill I had to start it a lot later than usual since running 800s in the 100 degree heat really isn't the safest or even the most productive venture.  I ended up having a great first track workout back, it had been since April, and was even able to push it pretty hard; 3 mile warm up followed by 6X800 (3:10, 3:12, 3:07, 3:11, 3:09, 3:11) and then a cool down. Thursday Aug 13

Had a 6 mile run planned for the morning but MAN OH MAN where my legs shot!! They literally screamed at me for a very slow 3.8 mile shakeout run.  It was a bit frustrating to go from having a great workout the night before to barely being able to push through a couple miles.

Finished the day out with an afternoon strength training of back and arms.  I feel like my back has been coming along really well for Night of Champions and since my wedding dress is a low back I'm totally ok with it :)

Friday Aug 14

Well....slept in AGAIN! I seem to be doing that a lot lately.  I used to be so good at getting myself out of bed.  Luckily Brandon has long workouts lately and I have time to get both a lift and run in.  Ended up working out in my favor because it wasn't really safe to run outside today due to a crazy smoke/dust storm that blew through our region.

So I had a wonderful 8 miles on the treadmill and surprisingly, after the day before's run, had an AWESOME 8 miles.  I really pushed it.  It felt good to be pushing the pace a bit even if it was on a treadmill.

Saturday Aug 15

I am realizing that this round of training I don't have a lot of pictures so I apologize for the barrage of words you are seeing in this post.  Today turned out to be a crazy busy day in which I had to jam my workout, a 10 mile tempo run at 7:13 min/mile, in the morning.  As I had a dress fitting, massage, and a bunch of wedding errands to run in the afternoon. Sunday Aug 16

SUNDAY LONG RUN DAY!!! I absolutely love these days and this was my first one is such a long time!! 15 miles in the books and finished just before the smoke sank into the valley; for those of you reading this that live in the PNW you know that we are all basically living in a fire place right now. It felt really great to be on a long run again and those 15 miles put me right on track mileage wise to finish the week out at 55 miles (my strongest mileage during marathon training).  The last four miles were a bit rough and caused my overall pace to be slower but I felt strong throughout and know that pushing through helped me to be stronger.

I was pretty whooped after that so Brandon and I spent the rest of the day watching golf and doing some wedding planning/list creating (I LOVE checklists).   We are both starting to feel a bit of pressure being only 10 days away from the wedding, #TEAMBOWKER2015, so much to do and so little time to put it into.  Thankfully I am marrying the most amazing and supportive man who understands my weird anxieties and puts up with them brilliantly.

Good things come slow - especially distance running. --Bill Delinger