This post, unintentionally, is centred around a couple of things that I missed in Marathon Training – What They Don’t Tell You. The comments included the addictive quality of running, and the need to eat constantly. This week, it’s been all about the food and the desire to get as much race and running experience as I can.

Also – I’m hoping that I can justify buying a new pair of runners. My friend Chelsea just bought a pair of these -

I want purple ones too!

The Weekly Chase

I’m a bit late with this, but I’m going for it anyway! Melissa at Live, Love & Run, has come up with the Weekly Chase, to share our health and fitness goals, and stick to them.

So here’s are mine for this week:

Run 13.5 km this weekend

I’m giving myself 1 hour and 14 minutes, so I’m feeling confident

Food

I am getting hungrier and hungrier as my training ramps up and my body gets more efficient. At the moment, my staples are yogurt, oats and fruit, all with peanut butter.

While I was in the US a couple of months ago, I got hooked on Chobani. It’s sold at Woolworths here, and I’m an addict. I tweeted my love for Chobani, and in no time, this appeared at my apartment in Sydney:

Yay! Gotta love free yogurt.

It’s also been an indulgent week though. With my brother in town for the Lady Gaga concert…

We went out for lunch and dinner, downed a few ciders, and sang along to a lot of trashy music.

Which probably explains why I now have a cold!

Even so, the nicest thing happened today. Being new to marathon training, I didn’t know if it was wiser to rest up or stick to the plan. I tweeted #runchat and threw it out to the twitterverse, and the gorgeous running community gave me plenty of advice.

The result was that my 5km short run to test the waters ended up being a fantastic 10km, right on schedule.

So now I know the answer – little cold = harden up! :-D … and use #runchat where we’re all crazy about running!

Sydney

It’s a hard life. Check out my view from Monday lunch in the city:

I’m hoping to run across that same bridge on Sunday 8th July for the Sydney Harbour 10km. I’d love to know if anyone else is running it – would be cool to meet up with people at the starting line.

I also registered for the City2Surf, but sadly I have to work in Canberra that day, so it looks like I’ll miss out this year

Cairns

In happier race news, my fantastic father kindly looked into running in Cairns for me. I’m seeing the family for the first time in 6 months to holiday in far North Queensland for a week (I know, hard life).

Dad has always been incredibly supportive of our sporting goals, and he found a Wednesday evening time trial I can do while visiting.

- While we’re on the Dad being awesome bit of this post, I feel like everyone needs to know that when I was dong my long run in Melbourne late last year, Mum and Dad jumped on their bikes and came with me. Dad navigated, carried water bottles, and fed me at the turn-around point. Love you Mum and Dad! -

Today’s Moment

Definitely waking up to the kindness of the twitterverse – and smashing out a great run.

Your Turn!

• What motivates you to run when you’re feeling off?
• Who is always supportive of something important to you?
• What is your go-to food? (I am going through half a large pot of yogurt every day!)