I'm not sure, looking too far ahead in the schedule scares me I think the maximum is either 46 or 48, so not too much more. My Wednesday and Saturday runs are now as long as they go (8 miles), I don't think my Tuesday and Thursday runs get any longer now (5 miles), and this week is 18 miles on Sunday and I'm only going up to 20. So this is about as hard as it gets, hopefully!

8 miles done this morning, I'm getting there, slowly. I realised earlier that I don't actually have that many more long runs left, I might start counting them down (unless it makes me too scared!) I also had a moment of madness last night when I started considering triathlon once I've got the marathon out of the way (although I'm going to get a ballot entry form for London later today, so you never know, there might be more marathon action before that - only about a 1 in 6 chance of getting in through the ballot though )

Wow! 44 miles in a week - that's impressive, Helen. So when you train for a marathon, you never actually do the 26 miles in advance?

I joined in again with the Learn to Run group, both on Sunday morning and today after work. Everyone is so supportive - I'm definitely liking that aspect of it. Plus, being relatively new to the city, it's nice to meet more people since I know very few outside of work. We were doing 2 sets of 8 minutes, 1 minute walking, then two additional minutes of running at the end. It felt a lot tougher (even though I've done sets of 10 minutes on the treadmill), plus we had stairs and two bridges to go over during our route today - and I've not dealt with inclines before, so I think that took a bit out of me. Next week we jump up to 2 sets of 10 minutes. Oy.

Then, feeling all good about working out, I decided to climb the stairs up to my 12th floor apartment. That, surprisingly, went much better than I expected - I didn't even have to stop - though admittedly I was starting to curse a bit around the 10th floor. I've walked up them a couple times and I'm trying to make it more regular as it's another good way to get more activity into my pretty sedentary days (I work in an office).

No, or at least on my plan you don't. You go up to 20 - 22 miles and then rely on the race day atmosphere and the extra energy you've built up from tapering to get you round the rest on the day. Or that's the theory

I did my 5 miler this morning to take me to 18 out of 44 done. I've actually checked the rest of the plan and I think this is the hardest week. I have a couple of weeks with longer long runs (the 20 milers), but on those weeks my Saturday run is only 5 miles whereas this weekend I have 8 on Saturday and 18 on Sunday. That's going to be hard, particularly if it doesn't cool down. Still, the worst is almost over and I've counted only 12 more runs over 6 miles, which doesn't sound so bad.

Helen you're doing great!

I did 1.5 miles yesterday in the gym. Was completely not up for it at all! Meant to do 3 miles, but just flopped and went home. *sigh* Was very bothered by the heat all day yesterday, so I'm putting it down to that. Got a 6 miler on Friday, so I guess I need to get some good Zen music sorted out and perhaps put those silly audio books on my Zen like I've been meaning to! (If I can find them on my computer!)

Hi guys, I have been running and reading but not posting. Great mileage, Helen! My long run this week is 9 miles. That will be on Sat am and...it sounds like such a long long way. >Sob<! Got to fix my attitude!

3 miles this am. Saw the sun come up over the mountains and I was glad I hauled my carcass out of bed.

Hi guys! C25K student with a question for you - I've read both on this board and on the coolrunnings board how running is not for loosing weight. Instead people talk about how it reshapes parts of your body. In the 3+ weeks that I have been on the program as well as daily walking on the treadmill, I can see a difference in my lower legs, everything below the knee. Unfortunately I see no difference about the knee, where all the jiggle is. Anyway, would anyone care to describe the changes their body went through because of running and about when these changes occurred. I know I should change the way and the amount I eat, but from past experence, I know if I start two new fitness programs (running and dieting), I will most likely give up on both because it is too much to adapt to at once. Once I get through the C25K program and running becomes a habit, then I will consider dieting. Again, what kind of changes in my body can I hope to see as I become a runner?

My boobs disappeared and my legs got skinny - my thighs particularly. But I lost a load of weight at the same time, so maybe that would have happened anyway. I don't agree that running isn't for losing weight - it's great cardio and I put most of my loss down to it. You need to do other stuff too, and may not lose from running alone, but it certainly is a big help!

For above the waist type stuff, your abs get a better workout if you run outside where you have to control your balance more, rather than on the treadmill which is nice and even. Obviously it's not a substitute for a good abs workout, but every little helps, and varying your running surface and building some hills is a good way to work different muscles while you're getting that cardio in.

I have always had problems with my butt hips and thighs. I had a roll of fat above my knee and a pocket of fat behind it. I had been running for about 2 months, not really dieting but also working out in other areas. Running really was the difference and the reason my body started reshaping itself. I lose about 2 inches off my hip/butt area and the same off my thighs. I am no longer seeing that roll of fat over my knee and although behind my knee is still squishy it is getting leaner. I feel like my skin is adapting to getting tighter and firmer, diminishing my stretch marks.

batmomm - you look fantastic in your avatar and so close to goal! I'm no longer doing SB just counting calories and trying to work out regularly. How have things been going?

Only one more run to do in the week from ****, I got my 8 miler out of the way this morning, so only 18 more to do tomorrow. Hopefully itwill cool down a little before then, during the week I run really early (about 5.30am) so even running at 7.30 like this morning is a fair bit warmer than I'm used to, so when I'm out there for 3 hours I could really do with it not being too warm at 10am when I'm flagging! They've been saying that cooler weather is on its way for ages, but it doesn't seem to have arrived just yet.

Good luck with your 18 miler tomorrow Helen! I've got a cutback week long run wise, with "only" about 24km/15 miles on schedule.

Lekker, some experienced marathoners will run 26+ miles in training. But I'm training for my first marathon, and the first time I run 26.2, I want someone at the end to put a medal around my neck. Most beginner/intermediate schedules don't go beyond 20-22 miles with the theory that 26miles in training is too hard on your body recovery-wise for too little training benefit.

It's been warm here too, but even worse, humidity has been 95%+ (without rain!) in the early mornings when the air is coolest. It's like running through soup and sweat just does not evaporate. I ran about 15km yesterday morning through the soup, today I decided that I'd rather face the heat of the afternoon than the soup of the morning for an easy 5km. Tomorrow I'll be up early for 24km. Then only one more 32km/20mile run before my taper starts. The end of August is coming up way too quickly. I did just finally get a new pair of shoes yesterday, so at least that is sorted and I don't have to try out a new model for the marathon. Both the old pairs I was using had 1000km+ on them.

I've had a crazy week with DH on travel and DD sick again and banned from day care (not me this time, so far). Got out for a short run/walk (2 mi) yesterday afternoon. It was so HOT, humid, and I was pushing the baby jogger. I cut myself a break and just ran and walked when I felt like it. 30 minutes. Not so bad.

Webweevil, I went from a size 18 to a size 10/12 and dropped 25-30 more lbs when I started running (down about 75 lbs from my start at size 24). When I started doing the long distance stuff (anything more than half marathon), my appetite went crazy, and if I didn't eat I felt sick and terrible. So I ate more to appetite and my weight stabilized at just slightly overweight (much better than morbidly obese) and my running got better, if still slow. I don't think I reshaped as much as just generally shrank.

Helen, hope your long run goes well, same for your short one, Only Me. Stay cool out there everybody--it's nasty.

Anne

My run didn't go well I was going strong just past 8 miles when my hip just went and I had to stop running. I was about as close to home as I was going to get in the next 5 or 6 miles so I decided rather than carry on (which would have been v. painful), in the interests of not making it worse I'd head home. I had a three mile walk back, the first one was absolute agony but after that I seemed to walk it off a bit, and I could have run the last mile but had mentally switched off. No crisis yet, I've rearranged my schedule a little and still have time to re-try 18 before heading on to 20 (I had a spare week built in for a holiday anyway, so I can play around with runs a bit to fit them round that and miss a shorter run rather than one of the important long ones). Other than that, I actually felt quite good on the run, up to the point where I stopped!

That's too bad. You're smart to cut the run short rather than running through pain and taking longer to get better. Hopefully it will be cooler in another week or two as well.

It was wonderfully cool and not humid this morning. No fog/mist hanging over the city at all and beautiful blue skies. I slept in until almost 7am and then had a great 24km long run.

I think I can now win for oddest animal spotted on a run. There was a small seal trapped near the marina. It was too weak to get itself up onto the floating dock it was near (and 15 feet below the boardwalk, so way to far for anyone to attempt to help it). By the time I ran up, several people had been called, including the aquarium. I hope the little think is ok now. I have no idea where it came from though. The aquarium was aobut 10km up river, and although the river is still tidal (barely), it's a long way from salt water or where you'd expect to find that sort of marine life.

Sadly, the only unusual wildlife I saw on my run was a dead rabbit in my path (There was other stuff too, but nothing I don't normally see).

My hip's feeling much better now, I had another 3 mile walk this afternoon to try to loosen it up and hopefully with a lighter week of running this week I'll be in good shape to attempt 18 miles again next Sunday. I'd rather be slightly underprepared than injured at this stage of training, I can always finish the course slower if I've not done enough long runs, but I won't get round at all if I injure myself badly.