Sunday, December 19, 2010

Staying Positive

Since I got out of the swing of things, getting back has been a challenge but one that feels great and I am happy to be making steps in the right direction to get to where I was. The winter flu hit me hard this season and I literally could not exercise for over a month. I gained 13 pounds and was miserable. Yes! I said 13 pounds! I started focusing on my other passion, baking. Enough said about where the weight came from.

Determined, I started running again and going to the gym but it was not easy. Every mile I ran seemed like an eternity and I could not wait to get to the end of it. All I kept thinking is "how am I ever going to run a full marathon?!?!?" Truth be told, I started to get very discouraged the first couple weeks. When this happens, I go back to a prior post I WILL NOT BE DEFEATED!

This week was better...managed to drop 4.2 pounds and ran more this week than I had in a long time. My Nike GPS app made it a point to let me know...Tracy Morgan said, "You can drop it like it's hot and pick it up when it's cold because you ran more miles this week than you did last. I'm proud of you!" Too funny!

I was anxious for our Saturday team practice as our schedule called for a 75 minute run which I had not done in quite some time. It was a rainy day which made me even more nervous but I made it to practice and was ready for it. We did our stretches and off we went.

Typically most of the team will do intervals but there are a couple who run the whole way which is exciting because they keep me on track. God knows there are moments I want to stop for a walk break. About three miles into it, a teammate asked me, "Are you planning on running the entire 26.2?" I really didn't know how to answer that as I've never done a full before and to be perfectly honest, cannot even fathom the idea of it since I know 13.1 was hard enough let alone doubling that amount!

As we talked about this along our run, one of the teammates turned to me and said, "Just tell yourself you're gonna run the whole way!" And he was right, the minute we let ourselves be defeated or have a negative mentality going into something, we're only setting ourselves up for failure. We have to push ourselves to believe that we can achieve something instead of already thinking we can't no matter how hard the goal is. 26.2 is not going to be easy but nothing in life ever is which is exactly why I titled my blog one step at a time...that's how we have to approach it--one foot in front of the other.

Our coach also added, "You're doing it now and that's what I'm gonna train you guys to do...run the whole way." Positive talk, breeds positive results and having a strong support circle like TNT...GO TEAM!

Breakfast with the team after practice...my little reward for running 7.25 miles:



Some of the things I baked while I was out of commission. As you can see, I love baking cupcakes the most:

Vanilla Cupcakes

Pumpkin Bunt Cake


Funfetti Princess Cupcakes


Carrot Pecan Cupcakes

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