WEEKLY SUMMARY (August 26-September 1): 75 miles (93% at easy and 7% at tempo paces)
  Sunday: 9 miles at 7:48/mi.
  Monday: 20 miles at 7:49/mi.
  Tuesday: 6 miles at 7:56/mi.
  Wednesday: 10 miles at 7:36/mi.
  Thursday: 2E, 3T (6:20/mi.), 2E, 2T (6:20/mi.), 2E (11 miles total)
  Friday: 9 miles at 7:37/mi.
  Saturday: 10 miles at 7:44/mi.

Several important metrics were up this week: mileage, pace, and humidity. The air dried out briefly on Wednesday and Thursday, but the rest of the week was muggy - as next week is also forecasted to be. I just wanted to get through my 20-miler on Monday and didn't care about the pace. Thursday's tempo gave me enough faster running for the week and went fine. On Saturday I didn't get around to running until early afternoon when it was 90 degrees and humid. When I was on the National Mall, I got talking with another runner who was moving at around the same pace. He was much more experienced than me: he was a little older, ran in high school and college, did some high school coaching, and was still running although he said his racing days are behind him. We talked some about marathon training, and he said some encouraging things about how my training has been going, as I reported it. But one thing stuck in my mind: he remarked that when your training seems to be going really well, you may be about ready to cross some line without knowing it and fall apart. I had noticed this in the past, and it's good to hear it now because I was just starting to think that I'm feeling pretty good lately. 6:20 tempo pace is getting easier, I've adapted some to the humidity, and my legs feel remarkably ok after my highest mileage week yet. But I don't want to get ahead of myself. There are still 8 weeks until the marathon, and I'll be in great shape if I just stay on track and don't do anything stupid like suddenly run way more miles or much harder workouts. Daniels's schedule has another long, killer tempo next week, and I'll try holding at 75 miles for next week as well. Then I'll back off for a week before the half on 9/16, after which I'll need another week that's lighter at least on intensity if not also on volume. Then I'll have two more hard weeks before starting my taper. So there are only four more really hard workouts, including the two remaining tune-up races, and three more weeks of 75+ miles (I'm still aiming at 80 miles for each of the two pre-taper weeks). At least that's how things would go ideally, but I need to continue backing off if and when I think I may be on the verge of pushing too hard. I've been pretty good about that so far. It'd be a shame to ruin things now.