Motivational Mondays (Aug. 24)

Small steps.

You have to take small steps in order to reach your goal.

It's great to want to run a marathon or a 10K, but if you haven't run such a distance before, it might seem impossible. Same with weight loss. You might want to lose 100 pounds or maybe 20 pounds or whatever, but it's a daunting task.

But you can't lose 100 pounds in a day or week. And you won't go from running 5-7 miles to all of the sudden having the ability to run 26.2 miles. It doesn't work that way.

I joked with a friend about wanting to run an 18-miler with her next weekend, but there's no way. I've never run more than 13, and the last time I ran double-digits was in my pre-Loper days. I think if I tried to run 18 miles next week, I'd collapse.

If you are on the path towards a goal, whether it's fitness-related or not, remember that it's a path, and that requires movement towards something, a movement that is a journey.

It's like you are driving from one city to another. You have to go through the suburbs, barren areas, unincorporated county land, maybe a small town or two and more suburbs before you get to your destination.

Along your path towards running 26.2 or a 10k, you will also have such milestones. You will run a double-digit mile run for the first time. You will run five miles for the first time. You might set a new PR time in a certain distance - if you've never run five miles before, your five-mile time will be your PR! And you'll have something to shoot for the next time you run five miles.

If you want to lose 100 pounds, you will have to lose one to start. Then another. Eventually you'll drop 10 pounds, 20, 30 and you'll feel better and better about yourself. If you hit a bump on the road, remember that it's just temporary and that if you've sold yourself on the goal, you will get there. It might not be as fast you'd like but getting there is the most important thing.

It's only natural to feel as if you are not moving fast enough. Or it might also be that you feel the goal is unattainable. My Loper calendar says that we will run 8 miles on Sunday, 9 miles the week after that and then 10 miles on the 13th. The distances only continue to climb, and frankly part of me is scared. From Sept. 13 to Dec. 13, I will complete double-digit runs a dozen times. If that's not intimidating, I don't know what is.

Well, maybe the 20-22 miles scheduled for Jan. 17...

Anyway, it might seem like a lot to get down. But again, I don't have to do them all at once. And you don't have to lose 10 pounds in one week.

As long as you are moving along the path towards meeting your goal, you'll be set. Everything else will fall into place after that.