Food to become my best friend

I have failed to mention that my Lukes Locker training for the 2008 White Rock Marathon in Dallas officially began last Saturday.

I can already tell that the hardest part about this marathon training will be what to eat and how much.

For the last few runs, I've really struggled to keep a moderate pace. During Tuesday's tempo run, for example, I could barely hold on to a sub 9-minute mile pace over the last two miles. Usually, I'm easily under 8:20.

I've chalked up the struggles to a lack of fuel in the tank. With all the traveling back and forth to Austin to see Noah (Father's Day was great, thank you), my eating went out the door. There were periods of time over the weekend that I went 6, 7, and even 8 hours without eating (not including the times I slept).

I probably drank more coffee and wine than water.

Uhhh. Not good.

It's been nice to see the scale lately. I am hovering between 161 and 163 pounds (down from 170 in February), but I need my strength for the training ahead. So I'll have to make sure I take more food to work, eat a little more at dinner. More snacks, etc.

And more importantly: DRINK MORE FLUIDS that are not named Zinfandel or Pike's Place Roast.

After the horrible tempo run Tuesday (which took me an hour to complete 7 miles), I drank a 24-ounce Accelerade shake as soon as I got home. A glass of water before I got in the shower. Toast. Two egg whites. Orange Juice. A carrot on the way to work. And a cup of coffee.

I felt kind of bloated before I even got to my desk. But funny thing is I was starving again before 11 a.m. So I'll have to keep this up to keep my body fueled.

By the way, they gave us our training plans for the first week. It looks something like this:

Sunday: 30 minutes easy; Monday 40 minutes or cross train; Tuesday: off; Wednesday: 40 minutes easy; Thursday: 35 minutes easy; Friday: off; Saturday: 4-mile evaluation run.

For me, this is about a 21 to 22-mile week. I'd been running about 30 miles a week and don't wanna lose my fitness. I asked Christa, one of the coaches who leads the early marathon training sessions (they are already up to 30 miles a week and a 10-mile long run), if I could run with them. She said I should stay where I'm at with the late marathoners so I don't burn out or peak too soon.

I don't think I'll peak too soon running 30 miles a week right now. But I'll stay with my running group on the weekends. What I'll do is stay at 30 miles a week until our training program gets to 30, then I'll increase my mileage and my long runs.