last hard week of training

This is thankfully my last hard week of training before I begin my taper.  Following my training schedule is just proving to be more and more difficult as life keeps trying to get in the way.
A great example was this last weekend Shelly and I went to my hometown for a baby shower and also for my grandpa's 89th birthday.  On Sunday morning we planned to meet my mother, mother-in-law and grandmother for breakfast around 9:00.  The only problem is that I had to pack up the car with all of the baby stuff that we had received the day before, along with Scooter's crate and all of our luggage.  Of course that was after I had showered and gone my on 12 mile run.  I set my alarm for 5:30 and thought I had given myself enough time to squeeze it all in.  At around mile 8 I realized that there was no way I was going to be able to get in all of my 12 miles.  I am kind of sick of my long slow runs anyway so I wasn't heartbroken even though I want to stick as close to my plan as possible.  I was able to get in 10.4, but that extra 15 minutes I saved was the difference in us not being late.
The rest of the week has not been any easier.  Fall on the central coast of California is one of the most beautiful times of the year, especially because the fog seems to lift and we get really clear warm days.  I was expected to do some training in some warmer weather this time of year but this week it has been in the 90s!
Because of this I pushed my 10 mile run to 7 oclock on Tuesday night once the sun had gone down.  The bad part of this was that I was starving when I got home and ate bbq chicken and salad for dinner.  It's not that I pigged out, but just eating anything like that 2 hours before a run is going to make me feel sluggish.  That coupled with the weather and just being really stressed out over a lot of things led to one of my worst runs in a long time.  I "finished" it, which was a victory of some sorts, but I was just plodding along very listless.  Thankfully my wife decided to stay up (staying up for her these days is anything past 8PM) and make me a chocolate milk because she knew how stressed out I've been lately.  It's amazing how something like a glass of chocolate milk and my wife staying up until 8:45 can put me in such a better mood.

holy crap I'm sweaty

I knew the weather today would be no better than the previous days so I got up at 5AM to do my interval runs of 8x800 meters.  Besides having to stop halfway through to poop (this is my greatest fear in this marathon, seriously) it was a really good run.  Again the bad part is how hot it was outside, even for it being 5:30 by the time I stepped out the door.  As you can tell from my picture, if I look this sweaty after a run that early in the morning, it must be freaking hot out.  Overall it was quite different in terms of my pace and energy compared to the Tuesday run.  
Depending on weather my last 20 miler will either be on Saturday or Sunday morning.  Then hopefully it is easy street for a few weeks before the actual race itself.