WEEKLY SUMMARY (August 5-11): 70 miles (94% at easy/long, and 6% at tempo paces)
  Sunday: 9 miles at 7:39/mi.
  Monday: 8.5 miles at 7:37/mi.
  Tuesday: 15.5 miles at 7:41/mi.
  Wednesday: 9 miles at 7:41/mi.
  Thursday: 9 miles at 7:38/mi.
  Friday: 2 miles easy, 2 x 2 miles at 6:20/mi. (2 min. rest), 2 miles easy (8 miles total)
  Saturday: 5.5 miles at 7:48/mi. (AM), and 5.5 miles at 7:37/mi. (PM) (11 miles total)

This week didn't go so well running-wise. We arrived back in the US last Friday evening and moved on Saturday, so we spent the first half of this week unpacking boxes and trying to get organized. I put off the 20-miler on Daniels's schedule until Tuesday and just hoped to get through it without any kind of fast pace or negative split, but I couldn't even manage that. I don't know if it was the humidity that got to me, or if I was just too tired from traveling and moving, or both. But my mind definitely wasn't in it. Around the 12 mile point the lower hamstrings behind my right knee started hurting. I stopped briefly to walk it off and refuel, but it was still there when I started up again. I was dragging pretty badly anyway, so after a few more miles I decided to cut the run short. After icing my leg that night it didn't give me any more trouble, but the humidity continued to bother me all week. By Friday I was more rested and settled into our new place, so clearly the humidity is mainly what caused me to cut that day's workout short as well. Daniels's schedule says to do 4 x 2 miles at tempo pace with 2 minutes rest between intervals, but I was hoping to get through only 3 x 2 miles, since 2 x 2 miles is the most I've done so far and doubling that seems like a big leap. It was storming in the morning when I drove to the park where I plan to do most of the tempos from here on out. I ran immediately after the rain stopped when the humidity is especially high, though it wasn't hot. Despite that, I felt strong and comfortable on the first interval. Normally I drink only water on runs and supplement that with gels when needed, but during the two minute rest after this first interval I drank some gatorade. Gatorade often bothers my stomach, but it's available during the MCM, so I thought I'd use it during some training runs to see whether I could get used to it. The second interval was predictably harder but I held the pace. After finishing that interval I drank some water, which immediately made my stomach hurt. I started a third interval but stopped pretty much right away because of stomach discomfort. The humidity was probably the main problem, I think, and the gatorade may have made things worse. Next time I'll stick with water (and gels, when necessary). I guess I should be happy with running 2 x 2 miles right at my tempo pace in high humidity, since that is harder than doing the same workout in low humidity, as I did two weeks ago, and adjusting to the humidity has become an important task for me now. But I also need to start running further at tempo pace. The killer tempo workouts on Daniels's schedule begin next week, and frankly I expect that to be harder than running a 20k at marathon pace next weekend, which should be hard enough. As for volume, cutting both key workouts short this week meant that I wasn't able to increase my mileage into the mid-70's, and in fact I had to run a double today in order just to get to 70 while allowing my body to recover from yesterday. (Two shorter runs are easier, though less convenient, than a single longer one). But mileage isn't my main concern right now. I'll continue trying to ascend towards 80 miles per week, but running solid tempo workouts despite the humidity, and recovering from those before the next one, is now becoming my main concern.