I realized this morning after stepping on the scale that I hadn't posted a progress report on the nutrition aspect of my marathon training for a while.
Here are the high--and low--lights:
1) My weight has remained steady to a teensy bit lower. This morning it was 129.4 pounds, putting my BMI at a "normal" 20.3 (see chart here; I am 5' 7"). I'm glad I haven't gained any weight as I've been training (I know this can happen), but I'm also not much closer to my "racing weight" projected at 120 pounds than I was two months ago. Oh well. I'll focus more on that (and on whether or not it's realistic or healthy for me to try to get that low) for my Houston training cycle. I haven't weighed that little since high school.
2) I have a body fat feature on my scale. This morning it put me at 22.0%. According to one chart, this lands me in the "fitness" category. That sounds good, until you look one set up and see that there's also an "athlete" category for women with a range of 14-20%. "Athlete" sounds much more like "Boston Marathon qualifier" than "fitness" does (fitness makes me think of aerobics VHS tapes from the 80s). But losing 2 percentage points of fat may be as tough for me as getting down to 120 pounds.
I think there are two reasons I'm still sort of marshmallow-like despite my increasing miles: a) I stopped my weight training class three weeks ago (and before that missed a bunch due to my kidney infection and some kid-related issues) and b) I've fallen off the no-sugar bandwagon--not in a huge way--I've definitely been worse--but wine, pastries and chocolate have crept back into my diet.
Taking care of business on those two fronts, starting now for the sugar and starting after the Top of Utah Marathon for the strength training, may help with that body fat percentage.
3) I got the lab tests back for the blood draw my doctor ordered up in an effort to help me get to the root of my poop issues on some runs. These tests were all normal: no celiac disease, thyroid issues or anything else out of the ordinary. So now I'm waiting to hear back on some stool tests (sorry to be graphic!). I really don't expect those to be out of the ordinary either. I think I just have to be careful with dairy and nuts, and just generally eat really bland food, for about two days ahead of long runs.
Any other diet thoughts out there? Anyone else find the nutrition side of running so much less interesting (and therefore so much more difficult to get a handle on) than things like tempo runs, intervals and pace charts?
