You're not going to believe this, but the truth is that I only do abs twice a week. 100 swiss ball crunches with a 25lb plate on my chest. That's it. The truth is that you could do 5,000 crunches a day and still not have visible abs if they are covered in a little fat. A lot of bodybuilders don't even do abs. They are just so damn lean that they pop out. The general rule of thumb is that you won't get visible abs until your body fat is below 10% (for men at least). You can do it too Sully. Great bodies are made in the kitchen and sharpened through training. I believe that 100%.

That's encouraging but I can't seem to lose the last 5-7 pounds to get down to my goal weight of 170. I'm running more miles and I don't think I eat that much but it just won't go away. Since I started running I've lost 15 pounds (that took about 6 months) but I've hit a wall at about 177. Very fustrating.

I'd like to look like a "hunk of love" (as someone so beautifully phrased it lol) for my wife and if I could run faster that woud be even better.!

You and I are pretty much in the same boat, Sully. After my marathon next week I am going to get serious about what, and how much I eat, and also get back at some weight training coupled with my running. If I have any particular successes, I'll let you know. My biggest problem is not being disciplined in my diet and overindulging in not so good food (if you can call it that) choices.

You're definitely on the right track. I can't begin to fully describe the change in my overall physical appearance weight training has made. Currently I am only lifting 2x a week and I do no leg work. I keep it really simple. One exercise for chest, back, shoulders, triceps, biceps, and abs. I do recommend changing the exercises regularly and sometimes lift heavy with few reps and sometimes lift light with more reps. Last year my focus was more on weight lifting and less on running. I got up to almost 200lbs from 170 in about 5 months. I lifted real heavy and ate about 3200 calories a day. When I got there I decided I didn't like how I looked 'big' so I tore it all back down to get to a decent running weight. Even though my weight is back where it was, I am a lot more muscular in the upper body at the weight expense of some fat I didn't need. And, of course, diet is everything. I still eat some junk food but it's always in very small quantities and once or twice a week at most. Having one scoop of 'real' ice cream on a Sunday evening is a weekly treat that I look forward to. I nibble and snack mostly on nuts or Triscuits.

I know that because I run I figure I have extra room to indulge in things I shouldn't. And thats what keeps the 5 pounds on.

Sounds like you're onto something there Sully.

Hey, Marcus, the Bun Run 5k I'm doing in Austin starts at the river, goes down Congress and around the Capitol, then returns on Colorado. My friend said there's a pretty good hill around 7th street. I'm trying not to think about it! I wanted to show my running partner around downtown, so this is a pretty good way to do it! I tried on lots of new running outfits today, trying to decide which one to wear for the race. I think I'll go for the pink that matches my running graph. The contractor who is putting in dry wall for our addition had a Longhorn hat on and there's a Longhorn decal on his pickup truck! We picked the right man for the job.

I think I know that hill on 7th street. It's not too bad but definitely not flat. You're such a girl...trying on new race outfits. Ah, the price of being beautiful. Have fun. I am so jealous.