Halfway point

I'm currently halfway through my marathon training and it amazes me that my body has changed as much as it has in such a short time.  Even my way of thinking of nutrition, strength training, cross training, resting, and just how I deal with the day to day.  Now I'm getting to the point where I'm looking at specific foods as my fuel for training versus giving into cravings.  Meal planning has become a much bigger part of training because I know that Thursdays and Fridays, I need to have more complex carbs and tend to have red meat in order to feel more fuel for my longer runs on Saturdays.  I drink about a gallon of water a day, which is something that I haven't done since I was breastfeeding.  In some aspects, running and breastfeeding are similar to each other in dealing with having the proper fuel.  I know that when I breastfed lil miss that red sauce was a no-no because she would break out and I would have a heartburn from it whereas, with lil man I couldn't have too dairy products because he would be fussy/gassy and so would I.  I have learned now that drinking regular milk does NOT sit well with my stomach or system overall so, having anything with too much milk in it isn't good for my training.  Green smoothies are awesome!  Strength/cross training is absolutely necessary, which I know that I did that in high school and college when I swam but, really cared or took the time to understand the importance of it until now.

Green Smoothies

Green Smoothies

1 1/2 cup of Almond milk or Soy milk or Rice milk (regular milk doesn't mix well)
1/2 cup of fresh fruit or frozen (ie mixed berry, mango, strawberries, pineapples, etc)
1 sliced banana
1/2 cup to 1 cup of fresh spinach

Place into a blender and mix until smooth.

If you choose to place into a freezer bag omit the milk until you are ready to mix in the blender.

Half/Full Marathons Plans

The two training plans.  The first one is for half marathon training:

The second one is for marathon training:

I have combined several different training plans/programs as well as my own experience to make up the half marathon plan.  With the marathon training plan I combined several different training plans, never increasing more than 15% a week for the mileage.  I have found after running 2 half marathons that having a long taper period doesn't well for me because I feel like I'm resting too much and then I feel winded during the race.  I'm at start of week 8 of the marathon training and so far, I really like this plan because I build up the mileage for 3 weeks and back off for a week, then start building up again.