Weekly Goals and Workout Recap: Vision Boards and Super Bowl Sunday

My week started off with me being sick and freaking out about how it would affect my NYC Half training, but it ended with a wonderful weekend that has me so excited for the rest of the year.

On Friday, I was at the law school for almost 12 hours. I had class for much of the day, then grabbed coffee with a friend during my break before I met then high school student who I've been coaching for a high school debate program coordinated by Legal Outreach. We went over her arguments and practiced questioning, then headed in to watch her compete. I also had to judge all the students in the room and was really impressed by the quality of the seniors!

how cute is my high school mentee, Christina?

Saturday I met up with the Lululemon Run Club to run my 8 mile long run. I joined up with Bernadette, Nicole, and a brand new face (to me), Allison, and we settled into a roughly 9:30 pace, picking up a bit near the end of the 5 mile loop.

Here's where I have an embarrassing confession to make. I had been running late because I felt queasy Saturday morning, so I took a $12 cab to the run club. THEN because I stayed around and chatted with the girls before starting on my last three miles, my clothes were cold and wet and my body temperature had dropped so that going out into the "feels like 12 degrees" weather made me instantly start shivering. So I hopped ANOTHER cab back home and finished the last three miles on my treadmill. A $25 run is the most expensive run I've ever done. Let's make sure that doesn't happen again...

Vision Boarding
Saturday night I met up with Abby and Beth for wine, snacks and vision boarding. What's that, you ask? It's a poster board that you cover with pictures and words for your goals.

So honestly, normally this kind of thing is something I'd mock. But I've been making an effort to become more open to all the somewhat-cheesy kinds of personal motivation tools that exist out there. Things like bracelets with mantras and vision boards would have been something I laughed at a year or two ago, but I've personally seen their power and am now totally on board with the cheesiness.

Besides, cheese is delicious.

Putting this together was actually frightening to me. I was revealing to the universe all the thoughts and goals that have been percolating inside my mind for a while about what I want to accomplish in 2013. With a bit of wine and the support and faith of Abby and Beth to fuel the vision board creation (wine was our peyote, I guess?), I just put them all out there. So... here is what I envision for 2013.

• Breaking 25:00 in a 5-K.
• Finishing my first 10-K.
• Graduating from law school.
• Running my first 10 mile race in D.C. at the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler.
• Breaking 2:00 in a half-marathon (hopefully the NYC Half, hence the shamrock).
• Placing in a race.
• Rocking the job when I start at my law firm in September.

And the really big one that scares the shit out of me? Running the Chicago Marathon. With my A goal being to run it in under 4 hours. On October 13, 2013 (that picture was from a 2012 magazine, oops), I want to cross the finish line in Chicago and officially be a marathoner.

I've told several friends my goal of running the Chicago Marathon, but I haven't posted about it here yet. I'm not sure I'll get in when registration opens this month, but I wanted to put that goal out there now because it's my biggest, scariest goal of 2013. 

I have a lot of reasons for running Chicago, and I'll go into them in another post, but for now the world knows what my hopes are for this year. And putting them out there feels like a huge step to making them come true.

Super Bowl Sunday

I'm going to make the Gridiron Classic Race a traditional part of my Super Bowl Sunday because it was a great race, despite the freezing cold. As always, I'll recap it separately, but suffice it to say -- I was happy!

After resting a bit post-race, I went upstairs to the gym in our building with Sourabh for a quick strength workout. I really wanted to get in my workouts for this week that I missed due to being sick, even if they were abbreviated ones. 

I mainly mention this because I got to the gym and realized I was ridiculously colorful. Purple Reebok shoes, green Oiselle shorts, pink Lululemon top, and a yellow phone case. 

It is shocking how my core strength is lacking after being sick. Running and lifting seem fine, and yet holding a plank is killing me! So weird. So my Abs by April workouts didn't happen this week -- will have to pick back up with the challenge next week.

I used heavier weights than normal and only did one straight-through set:

• Squat to shoulder press w. 10 lb weights - 20 reps
• Bicep curls w. 15 lb weights - 15 reps
• Bridge glute lifts w. 10 lb weight on abs - 20 reps
• Side plank w. 10 lb weight on hip - 30 sec. ea. side
• Side lunges to shoulder press w. 10 lb weights - 15 reps ea. side
• Dumbbell fly w. 10 lb weights - 15 reps
• Deadlift w. 15 lb weights - 15 reps
• Back row on stability ball w. 10 lb weights - 20 reps
• Plank for time (misrecorded but I think it was ~2:00)

The rest of the evening was spent consuming delicious Super Bowl foods and watching the big game. And seeing my love for Beyonce justified. She put on a great show, right?? 

I made guacamole and nachos, picked up some salsa and spicy chicken wings for the meat eaters (and the traditional carrot and celery sticks), and our friend Katherine brought cupcakes from Magnolia Bakery. I made us aperol spritzers -- prosecco with a splash of aperol (an orange-flavored aperitif) and some lemon and lime juice. Red for the 49ers since we were all kind of cheering for them. We didn't care much either way -- I wanted them to win, but a good friend from undergrad loves the Ravens (she has an amazing Ravens blog) so I was happy for her sake.

I am ready for a week of "clean" eating. It was a great weekend, but my body is definitely ready for some leafy greens!

Weekly Workout Recap

Surprisingly, my goals from last week ended up being met fairly well. I missed a short run and a yoga practice, but I got in my tempo run, a short run, and my long run. Spin class had been a possibility but I wasn't sure if it would happen, so I'm fine with not making it. I wasn't able to do the previous week's long run, though -- so I'm just writing it off and moving on!

Monday-Wednesday: Sick and unable to work out. Boo. 

Thursday: Ran 4 miles on the treadmill. Added a short strength workout after, similar to the one detailed above. 

Friday: Rest day. Didn't get home until after 9 PM and had been up late reading for my classes the night before so couldn't run in the morning. Since I'm still having some pain in my arches, though nothing too distracting, I didn't want to run the night before my long run so made it a rest day.

Saturday: 8 mile long run. 5 miles with the Lululemon Run Club then 3 miles on the treadmill. Went through my yoga flow for runners and foam rolled.

Sunday: 4 mile race as 40 minute tempo run (well, 35 minutes). 20 minute strength workout. Foam rolling during Super Bowl.

Total Mileage = 16 miles. Not ideal, but considering how the beginning of the week started, I'll take it!

This Week's Goals

I am not loving the fact that I've lost some strength over the past month. I want to rededicate myself to two hardcore strength workouts a week, so I took a deep breath and bought a student 10-pack of Refine Method classes to make that happen. The package is $150 for 10 classes, so while it's a steep amount, the per-class cost is very reasonable.

I also started thinking more about paces and crystallized what I want to be running at for my different runs. So, this week at least, easy pace will be 9:30-10:00 and race pace will be 8:50-9:00.

So here's what I'm committing to this week:

• 1 long run (9 miles at easy pace)

• 3 short runs (one 3-miler and one 4.5-miler at easy pace, one 4-miler at race pace)

• 1 speed work session (8x400)

• 2 strength workouts

• 2 yoga practices

• 1 spin session if possible

How did you spend Super Bowl Sunday? Have you ever made a vision board? What are your goals for this week? Leave me a link if you do a goals post!