Good luck Dave!

That will get un-done when you start your taper and begin to recover. Don't worry, you're not going backward!

No, it's not. It's all relative!

Thanks for the comment.

You may enjoy the book:Running the Spiritual Path: A Runner's Guide to Breathing, Meditating, and Exploring the Prayerful Dimension of the Sportby Roger D. Joslin. It's been awhile since I read it, but it might be a good read for you.

Chris -- I could see how you might think that this wasn't slow enough. I didn't include a key piece of information in the post. My training pace this season has been for a 2:36:00 marathon. I was attempting 2:40:00 in the previous marathon and had some issues in that race. So the difference between my training pace this season (2:36:00) and my Portland Marathon pace (2:57:00) is actually more than 20 minutes. It probably could have been slower, but this was a decent reduction in the pace for me.

In a good way, of course!

What we normally suggest is that you alternate weeks between an long run at easier pace (in the range that you suggest below) and then a long goal paced run the next week at a slightly shorter distance. For example, you might run 20 miles at the slower pace one weekend and then 18 miles at goal pace the next. Regarding your fluids, what I might suggest is that on your goal paced runs, you leave bottles somewhere and do multiple 4-5 mile loops passing those bottles, so that you don't have to carry them with you. Finally, with regards to being tired at the end of the training week that's to be expected, but try to build in either one rest day or an easy cross-training day before your goal paced runs, so that you are at least fresh enough to run them at goal pace. If you aren't able to do the runs at goal pace, then you are either not recovered enough or the pace is too fast for you. Good Luck!

Very well put Jake!

Isn't that so awesome (and kind of scary)!

Thanks for the note Grant.

Here's the story from the AP:

(8-28-09)
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; ">WELLINGTON, New Zealand — U.S.-based New Zealand Olympic marathoner Liza Hunter-Galvin was banned from competition for two years Friday after admitting using the banned performance-enhancing substance EPO.
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; ">Hunter-Galvin, 40, a mother of four, admitted using EPO on three occasions — in February, March and in May, only three days before she returned a positive doping test.
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; ">Hunter-Galvin, a teacher who lives in San Antonio, Texas, represented New Zealand at the 2004 Athens and 2008 Beijing Olympics. On both occasions she had been rejected for selection but appealed on the basis of her personal best marathon time of 2 hours, 30 minutes, 39 seconds.
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; ">She finished 51st in the Athens marathon and 35th in Beijing last August.
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; ">"Everybody is incredibly annoyed," Athletics New Zealand chief executive Scott Newman said. "It's very sad that one of our elite would choose to do this but we're not naive.
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; ">"We don't imagine that our athletes aren't exposed to this at most major international competitions and I guess some will be tempted for some reason. In this case Liza was tempted and we're incredibly disappointed about that."
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; ">There was no immediate comment from Hunter-Galvin.