NYCM 2012: Week 4 Recap & Goal Setting

Week four is in the books!

Total Weekly Mileage: 39 miles

Monday: 5 miles. It was a slow moving day as my legs were probably recovering from the 10 miler from the day before. The legs finally woke up during the last mile. Isn't that how it always goes?

Tuesday: Unexpected day off = no speed workout. My stomach hated me Monday night and Tuesday morning. I am beginning to have doubts regarding my "lactose intolerance" and think there is something else going on. Unfortunately that means I will now be looking for a GI specialist in DC. Fun.


Wednesday: 6 miles. I felt like a completely new person running! Perhaps it had to do with the fact that there was practically zero humidity! I swear, I felt like I was running back in Vermont!


Thursday: 6 miles. Decided to throw in a tempo run since I missed the speed on Tuesday. If I went by feeling alone, I would say that I was running faster than my desired marathon pace. However, when I got home and mapped out the route on mapmyrun.com I found that I was going much slower than I thought. In fact, it was actually spot on with my average mile pace for my marathon PR (7:44/mile). I should be happy with that, but I miss my old running routes with my mapped out mile markers that gave me a more "reliable" idea of my running time. I like to run 7:30/mile pace, but if I go off of mapmyrun.com then I'm not hitting that time during any of my runs.

Friday: 5.65 miles. This was one of those days that I questioned my rationale for deciding to actually run. I woke up early to get the run in before our building shut off the water (therefore tp ensure that I could get a shower). My mind wasn't awake, and neither were my legs. Things were shaky until the 20 minute mark when I tackled a giant half-mile hill. That woke me up! From that point on I was cruising.

Saturday: 8 miles. Felt wonderful and averaged a 7:54 pace. I love running through Rock Creek Park in DC; the bike path and trials remind me of Stowe, it's cooler than being on the roads, and I don't have to wait for traffic lights! The only problem comes when I head home and have a GIANT and STEEP hill to climb within the last mile.

Sunday: 8 miles: Took it easy today to get the miles in, averaging 8:08/mile. I got bored at one point and started counting how many people were also out running/walking/biking on the same route. Within a 14 minute period I came across 100 people. That was not the case this morning (Monday) when I ran on the same route and came across maybe 3 people in that same amount of time. It can be hard to take an "easy" running day when you see so many people. The competitive side of me wants to beat all of them. I have to remind myself that the actual race is November 4th, not any sooner. No need to compete with strangers at this point.

So what about those goals?

1. Continue with the running program: Almost. I missed one day of speed work. But I got in all of the miles I needed. 

2. Get in at least two days of core or strength training: Check! Monday and Sunday

3. Properly refuel after runs: Check! I found that I am loving (and now craving) orange juice after my runs. And chicken pot pie is pretty much the best post-run food I could have asked for. Please don't judge that I may have been eating it at 9:00am. 

When I worked as part of a Community Health Team we focused a lot on goal setting with patients. The key to goal setting is to be specific and to be confident that you can achieve the goal. 

For instance, you should not make a goal of "I want to lose weight". That is too broad. How much do you want to lose? By when? How will you do it? We had a patient that made a goal to "drink one gallon of water a day" in an effort to lose weight. Now that is specific!

Confidence is crucial. You should ask yourself, on a scale of 1 to 10, how confident are you that you can achieve this goal (10 being the most confident). If you say 7 or below then you better rethink that goal of yours! You need to be an 8 or higher. You'll be more motivated to work toward that goal if you know it is within reach. 

I've failed on goals plenty of times since learning this style of goal setting because I fail to ask myself if my goal is specific enough and if I feel confident in it. Reflecting on last week's goals made me realize that they are too vague! So here goes some new goals

Next week's goals: 

1. Follow the marathon training program each day (except when sickness or injury arise - which I hope does not happen). 

2. Get in two core/strength training workouts that are 2-3 days apart from each other. 

Winner!

Apparently I was the winner of a Facebook contest for NYC Road Runners a few weeks ago. I shared the "I'm in to Finish 2012" Badge for the NYC Marathon and in doing so unknowingly entered a contest. I got an email a few weeks ago asking for my address so they could send me a hat and a gift certificate to their store. 

The hat came on Friday. I can't help but feel a little gangster wearing it. I also can't help but laugh because it is the last thing I wanted to put on since it was 92 degree out!

I am more excited about that gift certificate and hope it comes and was not accidentally left out of the package. That would be a bummer!