in need of MOTIVATION for marathon!! :(

After looking at your food diary, I think the biggest issue that you face is that you just plain are not eating enough food...by a LOT. Eat more food, you'll have the energy and the motivation to get out there and do the training. You are starving yourself.

i hear you what you are saying....i see it in black and white with regard to the calories that i am consuming and with that having been said i am eating when i am hungry and idk what else to eat (i dont eat meat but crave choc, lol). i ran last night and had a productive run although it was only six or so miles. you are right though...ever since i have dropped some weight i have problems with finding stuff to stick into my mouth. (gotten kind of anal about it all).

i still think i can do the marathon in oct though

I think you can too, but you are going to need to add some carbs to your diet. You've got to at least get to 1200 a day. Preferably, you would eat back most, if not all, of your exercise calories. I did this during the buildup to my spring half marathon, eating at a 400 calorie deficit and eating back 90% of the exercise calories, and still dropped a pound a week, maybe slightly more. I was able to run 70 mile weeks while doing this. There is tons of research out there on the dangers of going too low on your caloric intake. The human body, on average, requires 1200 calories a day just for normal day to day function. You appear to often be well below that.

Fine someone to run with or a group. My girlfrien and i are doing the Chicago in Oct and I am helping her stay motivated since I ran it last year. Stay focus and remember: Now if you are going to win any battle you have to do one thing. You have to make the mind run the body. Never let the body tell the mine what to do. The body will always give up. It is always tired in the morning, noon, and night. But the body is never tired if the mind is not tired. George S. Patton

Fine someone to run with or a group. My girlfrien and i are doing the Chicago in Oct and I am helping her stay motivated since I ran it last year. Stay focus and remember: Now if you are going to win any battle you have to do one thing. You have to make the mind run the body. Never let the body tell the mine what to do. The body will always give up. It is always tired in the morning, noon, and night. But the body is never tired if the mind is not tired. George S. Patton

thanks for the motivation! and i do have a running group that i run with on weds and saturdays...but i have been a slacker with them also, havent really joined them in a long time...been running alone and then slowing down so....like others have said i think my main issue is my intake of substance. which i am going to TRY and work on

There is no try, only do.

Go to the group, find someone you click with and ask if you can be accountability buddies. That's how I trained for the half I did in the spring. There were many many times I didn't want to do a run or workout and knowing my training buddy was counting on me and would be following up was hugely motivating.

And your plan doesn't have a stepback week at all?! Ahhhh. That's likely a huge problem there, which could explain the burnout.

And in regards to not eating enough, I lost a lot of my appetite marathon training (for my first) last year. I KILLED my metabolism, it was half of what it should be. I'm finally, almost a year later getting hungry again after runs. I had to force myself to eat food. It's not pretty, and it does happen. I would run 20 miles and eat 2000 calories total. That does.not.work. Somedays negative net, I never was hungry. Just keep that in mind. Eating a bit of "bad" food to get enough calories is far better than screwing up your metabolism that bad.

And what I learned during my coaching certification class is that when you're training for an endurance race, food is fuel. Try not to distinguish between good and bad foods.

it is very hard for me to eat after a run...very.
with regard to my schedule there are no down days but today i downloaded a lighter schedule that does allow for some downtime days...(which is what i have been doing for the prior week)
and i DO want to do this race...very much....i am just scared is all.

But you've run one before. And you know you can do one, so what's different? Get out of your own head. Go out on your run and don't set any expectations. Did you set a "reach" time or are you just doubting that you can do it? You have to come to the table with a positive attitude and believe you can do it, we can't give you that attitude.

If you have a Garmin, don't run with it. Just try and run for fun once a week. Pay no mind to pace and map your route in advance. People get too caught up with the numbers, it's what drives me but for some it's just too much.