Joie de vivre – walks are great, too. I need to be taking the puppy out for more of them…

Good job on your 9 miles on the TM. I fuel every 45 minutes and that seems to work wel for me. I like the gel type things b/c they are easier to get down and don’t require as much chewing so don’t make you out of breath to eat them. When I have been doing the long marathon training runs I have gone to more food type things in the later fuelings such as these fig newton crisp bars b/c they are pretty easy to chew and then during the actual marathon I think I might eat a bagel towards the end. When you are running for 4 plus hours the gels just don’t always cut it and you need more substance. I have used the jelly beans before and I am not a huge fan b/c of the energy they take to chew them but you should try every type to see what you like the best.

Also, I do my short training runs in the mornings on the TM also. I won’t run alone in the dark and cold so the TM it is. I do all of my long runs outside with the exception of that one 10 miler that I needed to get done. When you training for a half/full in the winter you just do what you gotta do to get through the runs.