I have logged about 21 hours with my instructor doing x-c under the hood and then doing approaches at airports 50nm away. At first I thought this was knocking out 2 birds with one stone, getting x-c out of the way and getting instruction at the same time. After re-reading the far's, I am questioning whether this is the best thing to do. Should I just be staying local with my instructor to practive approaches and doing the 50 x-c hours alone? And then doing the 25 hours (40 hours minus the 15 of required instruction) under the hood with a safety pilot instead of with my instructor? And one more question, is all the time logged during instrument training logged as PIC since I'm rated in the airplane? Thanks in advance for any advice.