Hot&Humid - Past vs Present

After reading GZ's post and discovering some mold growing on my shorts around the same time I decided to share this photo. It's been quite hot and humid here already - way too early, and highs will be around 90 the next 10 days. Looking forward to spending 4 days in CO above 8,000'!
Those little dots you see in the photo is some sort of mold/fungus growing on the back of my shorts where the shirt over-laps. Pretty gross, but not as gross as delicious single track. I hang these 9 year old bad boys up after every run, and even wash them once in a while so not sure what's causing this. Most likely it's a Hop Fungus caused by my Dale's Pale Ale sweat - it has been a staple hydration/recovery the past few months ;-)

The past few weeks I've been working my way up to a peak and have naturally reflected back to times when I've felt fit and ready to go. It's been a while since I've been where I'm at right now - atleast as far as how I feel the the effort I can hold for a duration. Can't really compare speed since I've trained specifically for the ups, but...
That said, I've been thinking alot about where I was in 2007 hoping to run BTMR and PPA as well as I could. Kind of knew we wouldn't be in Woodland Park long so I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity. I trained hard and on my own with the very little knowledge I had specific to running. I did manage to get quite fit. Early July I ran the PPA course right near the 3:00 mark and when my race goal was to break 3:00 I thought I had that in the bag then, like the amateur I was, I set a goal of 2:50. WRONG! Then a week before BMTR I decided to TT the course and ran close to the 2:00 mark - another race goal time done in training. The following weekend I made it about 15 minutes into the BMTR and pretty much bonked. Then managed to injure my achilles determined to to go as hard as my heart could even though I could barely move. So a month after that I still had achilles trouble and kept trying to get faster. I ended up injured and over-trained trying to do the PPA, and I knew I had nothing to give. I went as easy as possible to BC, then mostly hiked to the Summit. I trained hard and did alot of good things, but couldn't finish it off - same reason I was always a defender in soccer!
That was the Past.
This is the Present.
At the moment I'm dying to go - I want to train until I can't run anymore - I want to feel the pain as hard as it will come, then enjoy how great it feels to stop. But, because of the past failed experience and the guidence of Tim, I'm doing things the smart way. Well, let me re-phrase that - I'm listening to Tim - I'm only smarter now because I'm listening ;-)
My point is that I know I can get myself far along in training, but I have no idea how to fininsh it properly and prepare for race day. In the past I've never know when "the hay is in the barn." I just figured the barn always had room for more hay. At the moment the barn is almost full, when that day comes I won't try to force anymore in this time.