“I’m always impressed by people who keep choosing to take one more step … 1,000 times.”

These were the powerful words a woman I met this past Sunday shared with me when she learned I was a marathon runner. She was not a runner herself, but she easily understood the power of running being a choice – we make a choice to keep moving forward, even when it’s hard to keep doing so. I love thinking about the marathon (or any race/run) as a series of individual steps. Nothing we do – from achieving new goals to running a marathon – happens all at once. We have to take small steps to get there. And then we have to keep choosing to take those steps one after the other until they become a leap, and then a mile and then a lot of miles. We don’t change if we don’t challenge ourselves.

As I think about my life, my training and my never-ending to-do list, I’ve been thinking about what that wise woman shared with me. We just have to keep taking one step over and over. Choosing to take the next step. Continued forward motion … one step at a time.

Speaking of taking steps forward, today I’m sharing my weekly training recap from last week. Every week I share my weekly training and how I’m taking action against my 2015 goals. I also share the one thing I’m most proud of from the week and the one pitfall that has challenged me the most. Then, I invite you to do the same. There is a place at the bottom of this post for you to share a link to your weekly recap for others to come and cheer you on or offer you support. If you don’t have a Web site, simply share about your week in the comments section.

Here’s what last week looked like:

Getting Sweaty and Stronger

My fitness goals for 2015 are to stay in half marathon shape year-round (20-30 miles of running per week and long runs of 8-11 miles) and get stronger (2-3 strength training and cross training workouts each week).

• Monday: Ran 4.5 miles that included a 1-mile slow warm-up + dynamic stretching, 10 x 1-minute hard at 6:40 pace with 2 minutes of recovery jogging at 9:22 pace between each, followed by a short cool down, walking and stretching (yeah, yeah … I said I wasn’t doing any speed work. Whatever. This doesn’t really count. LOL!)
• Tuesday: AM: 45 minutes at Flywheel (23.3 miles on the bike + first female, yay!); PM: 1-hour of restorative yoga at Wide Angle Yoga

• Wednesday: AM: Ran 9 miles easy at an average 8:46 pace; PM: 1-hour restorative yoga at Wide Angle Yoga
• Thursday: 1-hour (full-body) strength training at Fit: To Be

• Friday: 1-hour restorative yoga at Exhale Spa.
• Saturday: 10 easy miles with friends (started at 9:12 pace and ended at 7:53) followed by brunch that I hosted at my house afterwards
• Sunday: 90 minutes of restorative yoga at Yoga Collective followed by a massage and facial … heaven!

All of the fitness classes I take are through my ClassPass membership. If you’re wondering what this is all about and missed my review, check it out here. It’s awesome!

Eating Clean

I ate my first piece of bread since completing my bread and sugar break-up last month. I had a whole wheat bagel after my run on Saturday and really enjoyed it, although I’m not jonesing for bread as much as I used to.

Here were a few new amazing recipes I made last week that I would highly recommend:

• Bacon, cheddar and roasted red pepper turkey burgers: Run to the store right now, get all of the ingredients and cook these turkey burgers from Apple and Sparkle tonight. That is how amazing these were! I used 99 percent fat free turkey breast, omitted the hot sauce, used white cheddar for the cheese and used olive oil instead of vegetable oil. I also omitted the bun and placed these on a roasted portabello mushroom instead. So gloriously good! I will be making these again this month.

• Baked Zucchini Parmesan Crips: To go alongside my turkey burgers above, I made these delicious little morsels from Raining Hot Coupons to serve as a stand-in for “fries.” They were delicious and the perfect pairing to the turkey burgers.

• My other go-to meal last week was a brown rice and protein bowl. I make these at least once a week. They are great to make if you are just cooking for one or two as well. I mix cooked brown rice with beans (any beans you enjoy like black beans, tri-blend beans, white beans, kidney beans, etc.), fresh salsa (I love the mild fresh salsa from Trader Joe’s), diced, cooked zucchini and meat of your choice (cooked chicken or chicken sausage are my typical mix-ins). I then top each individual serving with ¼ chopped ripe avocado and one ounce of grated white cheddar cheese (I always use Cabot brand). If you use the frozen organic brown rice from Trader Joe’s (cooks in 3 minutes) or the boil-in-a-bag brown rice from Success brand, this meal takes 10 minutes or less to cool. I love it for lunch too. If you are being mindful of calories, you can omit the beans or swap out a different protein. So versatile and so satisfying!
• No-Bake Oatmeal Banana “Cookies”: In case you missed these delicious little treats I shared last week, I was also cooking up batches of these last week. Mmm, mmm, good!

What I’m Most Proud of

• Going to 4, yes 4, yoga classes last week (hello, injury prevention!)
• Starting a closed Facebook group for a group of women who I often run with in Atlanta and inviting them to my house for a long run and brunch last Saturday. I love gathering amazing people together to run!
• Attending my first sewing class. Yep, you heard that right. It was one of my 2015 non-running goals to learn how to sew, and I’m on my way. I have my second class scheduled in April and I hope to be sewing awesome things in no time. (Did someone say race T-shirt blanket???)

Where I Struggled

I overate several times last week. I found myself really hungry and I binged a little too much on snacks and “healthy” desserts like date balls. I’m trying to exercise will power and portion control while consuming enough calories to fuel my workouts.

Thought for the Week Ahead

“Look for little improvements every day.”
–         Coach Ray Treacy

I want to hear from you! How was your week last week? How was your training? What are you most proud of? Where were you most challenged? Share your comments and/or link up to your weekly recap post below.