Should I gain weight in marathon training ?

I weigh more now than before I started my marathon training about ten weeks ago. Considering I now run 4 times a week and do yoga twice a week, and once a week I even cycle to yoga - how is it then that the scales are 3 to 4 pounds heavier ??

Well, it could be that my diet consists of chocolate brownies, preceded by pizza all washed down with a couple of glasses of white.. (I ran out of red ..) Really, I'm not that bad diet-wise but yes, I do have a fondness for wine and pizza and chocolate, but I also eat cereal, bananas, fruit - ah, yes I quite like the odd bit of cheese too.

All that said though, it is certainly true that I am less of a wobble than ten weeks ago and my arms are nicely toned, I am building thighs of steel and my tum seems more toned too.

Just three minutes until I leave for yoga, when BB gets home. He and CC are swimming tonight for South London Harriers triathlon club, so it's a late night all round.

I can only hope that when the training is finished I will trim down weight-wise, although oddly I look better than before...

Explain that one !!

An update:

It's now November, the marathon was last month. I think the weight gain I mentioned above was something of a tipping point, because just before the marathon, literally the week before, my body became a lot leaner than ever before. It is still quite lean now. I had taken my measurements (arms, tum, thighs, waist, hips, calves) etc in May this year, and I re-measured just before the marathon. I had lost centimetres in all areas, just 1 or 2 in every area, except for, wait for it, yes, you guessed it, my calves, which I think grew by one centimeter.

So, if you do find yourself putting on  a little weight, stick with your nutrition and training plan and reassess later. Don't suddenly start changing your plan, because if you start eating too little, then you could find that you start to lack the energy to train, just as you are increasing your mileage.

Although I watch what I eat to a certain extent, as my training stepped up, I quite literally started to see my food as fuel, and I really needed to make sure the tank stayed full, even if it meant eating more than usual. If you're in the middle of a training plan, I would recommend ignoring the numbers on the scales for now (to a certain degree, of course), keep with the training, and listen to your body.