vivalarepublica wrote:
Anyways, I came to this thread because I want to run a sub-2:30 marathon by the end of the year, so I'll look around some more and see how it goes.
The end of the year isn't that far away, so don't get wrapped up in that goal too much. Sh1t happens...
anyway, I did that 50k on Saturday. Fortunately the top runners weren't interested in hammering even the easy paved downhill start so we were all just chatting away for several miles. I was expecting to be the 3rd best guy out there even with a low-effort race, but I misjudged one guy (and one studly gal) and took 4th by an annoyingly close amount, like 40 seconds.
Basically we went out slow, a girl took off and nobody cared to chase her (she has won western states 100 a couple times) and we never saw her again, haha. But I really didn't care about her anyway, I was just hoping to easily get 3rd. I kept it easy in 4th place from mile 9 all the way to the end. 3rd was as much as 8 minutes ahead of me at mile 25 but as I had taken it so easy early on, I easily made up 7+ minutes, mostly in the very last steep climb. I'd have caught him if the race were maybe a quarter mile longer but so it goes.
As for recovery, I was pretty wrecked after the race. Hard not to be even with the easier effort. Was able to get in a 2 mile shakeout on Sunday, mainly just to get my dog some exercise. Ran something like 8-8:30 pace (no watch) and definitely could've gone a few more miles but 2 miles was fine.
Hoping to be able to get in over 40 miles this week with no days off unless something starts to hurt.