Missoula Mary Training

I am now in the thick of my full marathon training plan.  And I must be honest, last week I was wondering why the hell I registered for this race again.  I have run both the half and the full in Missoula and loved both (eventhough during full i learned that gu and me don't mix at three).  The course is so beautiful, great supports and spectators along the way, a super fun expo, and not to mention our awesome friends live in Missoula and we don't see them often enough.  All last week, however, I had to keep reminding myself of these things.  By Saturday, the day of my 15 miler, I was back in the groove.  I ran part on the tread, part on the path and did 10 pushups each mile just to add variety and because I am walking on the shy side of crazy, apparently.  My runs are finally starting to feel decent again; not feeling like i am new to this activity.  Running has been my thing since I was a child, so i am very familiar with the ebbs and flows and try to just stay on track or mix it up etc. but when it ebbs when you are in the middle of a training plan (and not near the end of it) that is mentally debilitating.  And I was trying to mentally prepare for backing out of a race...

BUT I AM BAAAAAACK!!

I did an 8-9 mile mountain bike ride with the Hubbee and Wrigley on sunday and then ran 7 miles on monday, and was supposed to run 4 today, but I rode my bike 14 and ran 3.3 with the incline at 2 the whole way.  Tomorrow is a track workout and I am stoked for it. the rest of the week is 5, 5, and 3 w/strides and a 5k or 10k race in place of the long run.  EASY PEASY!!  

In case I haven't mentioned this before, I am following a training plan by steve magness from the Nike+ site.  it is an intermediate plan and the longest run is an 18 miler.  This is freaking me out a bit, but also appeals because some of those 20+ runs are just daunting.  This has longer runs during the week, so the total mileage is high, and so far this is working...

I am a little unsure how I go from the full in July to training for the full in October.  I have looked at some Hal Higdon plans for this but am definitely open to ideas/suggestions/other's experiences.

How is everyone else's training going?

Does everyone love the updates to the Nike+ gps app? i do--i did have a glitch and had to delete and re-install but I LOVE the updates--no more ending workout by mistake! aha!!!!

Hope everyone is having a fantastic week!