One of the things I knew was important when I started training for the Philadelphia Marathon was leaving room for flexibility in my training plan.

After a rigid summer training for the Philly RnR Half, I knew there was no way I was going to be successful with that kind of training program for the marathon.

October was a busy month, there were lots of things I was already committed too and I wanted to be able to fit running around my regular life, not sacrifice my life for the sake of running.

So far the flexibility has been working well for me. When I was sick a few weeks ago, I had to skip my 17 miler. It wasn't a big deal I just moved it to the following weekend, and it turned out to be a great run.

This coming weekend I originally had 18 miles penciled in on my schedule and 20 miles the weekend after.

But that 20 miler fell on the weekend of homecoming, a day that will start ridiculously early with tailgating and friends, and the Marine Corp Marathon, where I'll be cheering on all my friends running.

To solve that problem, I'm implementing my flexibility plan.

I'll be running the 20 miles this weekend and try to fit in a shorter run next weekend before the tailgate madness starts.

It might not be the perfect solution and it's probably not what the marathon pros would do, but for me it works.

Do you ever bend your training plans to fit around your life or do you stick pretty closely to what your plan says?