+1 with a note:
It is better to go into Vermont with a few extra pounds. Your stored reserves will come in handy.
In the past, when I've gone into an ultra or IM feeling "light" I suffer. With a few extra pounds, as many as five, I feel fine ,come out and recover better.

I lift twice...consists of pullups, squats then a bumping workout with the kettlebells. No heavy weight, just lots of reps to failure. Endurance stuff.
I stop about two weeks out from anything major and just stop the week of if it's a short event.
I'm sure you're not heavy and flabby, but I understand you feel that way...I call them FDU days (Fat Dumb and Ugly days) Hang in there...maybe you're suffering from "tapertoses." That dreaded feeling that everyone goes through when they start tapering for a major event. Remember now IS NOT THE TIME to get in another huge workout hoping it will make you feel svelte.

Star-

The way your body is now is due to the things you have been doing over the last 12 months. So if you feel flabby; then either cut back on the calorie intake or increase exercise or both. If I want to lean down; I skip dinner and use a meal replacement. 23% bf is a little high; that may not be good for the knees. Lifting weights will burn fat believe it or not. I lift 6 days a week; but I have no life. Diet is a huge part of bf% so just nail that part down seems like you are doing a ton of endurance training.
-M

Are you sure your not retaining alot of water? Is is that time of the month? An easy thing to do would be to cut out alot of salt from your diet and you will likely lose water weight, which may make you feel not as heavy. Of course you shouldn't do this right before the race though since you need all the salt you can get to get through the race.
1+ on KitKat's post. Alot of women don't eat enough. I'm not sure how old you are, how much you weigh, but I would guess that 2K-3K calories is not enough for somone doing as much running as you. A women who does NOTHING needs at least 1500 calories, so you throw in your 10 miles a day or so running plus any other cross training. I would try eating at least 3000 K a day and see what happens. You might see the weight drop like KitKat did.

Yeah I often find if I up my cals a bit I start to drop weight. Actually, I also found most came off after my ultra this year and kept dropping with less long long runs.

Hey, thank you for the responses and the links. First, I don't think that *increasing* the amount of "exercise" (its not really exercise anymore, is it?) or decreasing cals is the answer, as I believe those are at their limits already.

I have done some calculations for my body weight (135 now!) and height (5'5") and age (36 y.o.) to figure out how many cals I should be taking in, especially carbs...but gosh dang! Some of those numbers are outrageously high on the longer training days (like 3000-5000 cals per day, and 600g-800g of carbs per day!?!). YIKES! That seems like a LOT of food. But if you're telling me I should eat more (healthy stuff, of course) then ok...its just counterintuitive.

And don't worry...I'll be smart about what I do for the next two weeks, then make some changes AFTER I'm recovered from Vermont. I appreciate the LOVE :)

+1 ^

Maybe THAT is my problem..... I lost about 50 pounds with WW about 6 years ago but after a few stress fractures and time off running I am 10-15 lbs over where I would like to be. I still count my points but have a problem making it work with heavy exercise when I stay in my range and mentally I cannot bring myself to eat back the points I exercise (like they tell you ) because when I do, it still does not come off---am I not eating enough back?

KitKat, where did you go to get that tested, and how much did it cost? I think with my situation (I only have half a thyroid), I would benefit a lot from knowing my exact rate.

Thanks!

I just have to say that 23% body fat is not a little high. It's well within healthy for a woman!! You have to remember that women are meant to have a higher bf% than men.