The "Weight" for the halfway point

Week 9 is complete and that marks the half way point to the Carmel Marathon!
This week was all about getting myself back to race weight!
I focused on my food intake by logging all of my meals on myfitnesspal.com (friend me there at iammrejir)
Myfitnesspal was my key from getting from -70 to -100 pounds, and when I am disciplined with it, it works.
Here is the proof.  After stuffing my face last Sunday night with Mexican food, I weighed in Monday morning at 224 (up 21 pounds since July!)  I had let myself go with my eating, and was starting to feel it in my clothes.  By logging my food and staying disciplined to the calorie intake, I was able to weigh in Saturday morning (post-run) at 212!  Down 12 pounds just this week, (my wife hates me for this) and only 9 pounds over my peak race weight of 203 from last summer!  I could not be more pleased with this result.  Just knowing that I can control the food and the weight is exciting to me.  I will return to the discipline of eating like it's a job during the week, and eating what I want on the weekends to maintain myself in the near term.  Should be no problem to be under 200 by July! 
The bad news is that when you control back your calories, you are playing with what your body can do physically.  Think of every calorie as a unit of energy.  With less energy, the workouts become all the more difficult.  Because last weeks long run was on Sunday I had one less day to get the workouts in. 
Monday was a great 4 miler on the treadmill followed immediately by a 50 minute spin class.  But sadly, that was the only good thing for the week. 
Tuesday I attempted the bike, but the legs wouldn't cooperate, and I only got in 10 minutes and a 20 minute video.  Wednesday I set out for my 7 miler and was only able to run through mile 5 and had to walk mile 6 home.  With two workout fails in a row, I decided to take Thursday and Friday completely off as rest days to prep for the long run on Saturday.  This week we only did 13.1.  The weather was cold and windy, and I felt fine through mile 6, during mile 7 we came up a slight hill and then into the wind, and as I leaned forward to move up the hill and into the wind, my back basically quit.  The tightness was too much to bear in a running motion, so I began a strict and disciplined run/walk approach of walking 0.1 and running either .15 or .40 depending on what I could manage.  It was miserable, and the voices in my head were reminding me of the longer miles yet to come this year, and made me question what I may be capable of.  I pushed through the pain and the voices, and finished the distance, but it was not ideal.
The back is still tight this morning and I will likely stay off the bike again today.
We will play next week by ear, but the distances go up again to 4, 8, 4, and the long run of 17!  I'm actually really looking forward to the 17, but hoping the weather cooperates.  The biggest negative to training for a Spring marathon is certainly the cold winter long runs!
Have a good week friends!