Monday detox and new goals

Well, hey there! Another whirlwind weekend is over.

Here’s a quick rehash of the highlights, MIMM-style. (Thanks for hosting, Katie!)

There was a lot of basketball-watching…

TVs counted for your convenience.

(I’m all over the new PicMonkey features, obviously. Can you find the 4 special effects in that picture? Ha!)

Bracket update: I’m maintaining a solid 41st place ranking in my group. But it’s not over till it’s over, baby.

Some birthday fun for the new 1-year-old in the family:

To be clear: that picture isn’t truly representative of what happened. Really, he was exhausted from skipping his afternoon nap and just waved the cupcake around a little bit before tossing it over his right shoulder.

There was also A LOT of naughty stuff consumed (by me) this weekend. (Hopefully you know that by “naughty” I mean “totally fine in moderation.”) Here’s a little sample: French Silk pie from Baker’s Square (for M’s bday), beer (basketball), caramel corn (ditto), brownies (I actually encountered them TWICE over the weekend), chocolate chip cookies at Grandma’s, and Cadbury Eggs.

And that’s just a sample.

Man, just writing it out makes me feel like a blob. (Which, by the way, is how I felt half the weekend after eating like that.)

Not that I regret it (umm have you tried the French Silk pie from Baker’s Square?), but needless to say, my body’s now screaming DETOX ME PLEASE. Weekends like those always make me super eager to get back on track. So today, I’m back to eating mostly whole foods, and I’m also dropping sweets and dairy (my new top food elimination trick for weight maintenance) for a few days. Ta ta for now, butter and cheese!

In other news: I’ve been in a little workout rut lately.

It’s not that I need something new and exciting to do—it’s that I need a reason to do what I’m already doing. When I’m lying on the couch at 8 PM thinking, “I should go run…” sometimes my brain shoots back, “why? What difference will it make, really?”

It’s like the lazy voter’s mentality—if my one, single vote will never, ever determine who’s actually elected, then why bother voting?

If this one measly workout, on its own, won’t really make me any stronger, faster, leaner, whatever, then what’s the point?

Obviously, there are a few arguments:

–One measly workout will always, always make me feel better.

–Any amount of working out helps with food control. It might make you hungrier, but it also makes you more aware, and protective of the body you just invested a bunch of time into.

–Skipping one workout can lead to skipping two workouts, then three, and…well, you know where that’s going.

Bottom line: I need motivation.

More specifically: I need to be in training.

I’m one of those people who responds well to workout programs and challenges. I thrive on structure, guidelines, and deadlines.

Which is why I respond really, really well to race training. I don’t even need rewards or punishments—a piece of paper with boxes all over it stuck to the fridge is somehow more powerful than any of that.

I think the paper knows it, too.

Like I mentioned last week, I’m planning to really focus on speed training (rather than distance) this summer. I’ll be talking a lot more about this in the coming weeks, and sharing my race plans for the summer (which I’m STILL ironing out), but for now, I’ve come up with a few immediate speed training goals for myself.

MILE: 7 min

5K: 25 min

10K: 50 min

I think these are reasonable—as starting points, anyway. You know how it is with goals (or how it is for me anyway)…the second I hit one, my brain’s already drafting the next one.

Side-goal: remember to celebrate reaching goals before creating new ones.

Do you have any current running/fitness goals?

How about speed training tips for me?