WEEKLY SUMMARY (September 23-29): 80 miles (87.5% at E/L and 12.5% at T paces)
  Sunday: 8 miles at 7:37/mi.
  Monday: 2E, 4x1T @ 6:18/mi. (1 min.), 10E, 2x1T @ 6:28/mi. (1 min.), 2E (20 miles total)
  Tuesday: 8 miles at 7:57/mi.
  Wednesday: 10 miles at 7:37/mi.
  Thursday: 8E, 4x1T @ 6:19/mi. (1 min.), 3.8E (15.8 miles total)
  Friday: 9.2 miles at 7:48/mi.
  Saturday: 9 miles at 7:45/mi.

This was a heavy-duty marathon training week and my first week ever at 80 miles. It would have been better, as I had originally planned, to get up to 80 miles several weeks earlier and to have kept my volume steady since then while increasing marathon-specific intensity. But things didn't work out that way and I wasn't content staying at the mileage I was at by August, though in fact I haven't increased it much since then (10 miles). Anyway, this week had two longer runs with some tempo miles mixed in. Monday's was the harder one with tempo intervals toward the beginning to wear me out and then again near the end to finish me off. It was considerably less difficult than the similar workout I did several weeks ago because the weather was much more accommodating. I could have done more than two tempo miles at the end and wasn't suffering all that much on the two I did, but I didn't want to take any risks. By Thursday I was feeling pretty worn down. But when I got to the tempo interval portion of that workout, I surprisingly felt fine, and I felt ok the next day too. The only worry is that my main weak point - somewhere in the nexus of my upper hamstrings and lower back on my right side - has tightened up some this week. Because of that, I'm going to play things by ear next week. I may stick with my original plan of doing another 80 mile week, with a steady 22-miler on Sunday (tomorrow) and a medium-long run on Wednesday with some tempo stretches. The following Sunday is also my final tune-up race, a metric marathon that I plan to run at marathon pace. My idea has been to run that tired and then to begin my taper afterward. But I may back off either of those two quality workouts next week if I feel too tight and/or worn down, and that would probably mean cutting mileage for the week as well. I'll spend some time with the foam roller and see how it goes. As for the taper, I still don't have a definite plan. I suspect that the reason why tapering for a marathon has never worked out well for me in the past is that my mileage has never been high enough before the taper, so that dropping down to 50-60% of peak mileage has taken me down too far. But maybe I won't have that problem now that my peak mileage is a bit higher. Daniels recommends that I already be down to 70% of peak mileage and drop down to 60% and 50% in the last two weeks. But when I look at actual training logs of people faster than me, they tend to taper less and later. What matters, I suppose, is that I do whatever leaves me feeling strong and sharp, not over- or under-rested. Since the quality workouts will get shorter and easier after next week, I may feel adequately rested without running drastically fewer miles. I'll just have to play that by ear as well.