August 2011
Training Programme for Comrades 2012
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CENTRAL GAUTENG PROGRAMME
NEW NEW NEW NEW NEW NEW Where are we now?
The
burning question right now is "Where are we now?” There are 308
days to go and this is the big decision time believe it or not.
Entries for the 2012 Comrades open on September 1st this year.
You only have the month of August to make up your mind. The
people I like in August are those that don’t want any more time to make
up their mind. They know already and nothing will change their
mind. They will be there in Durbs on June 3rd next year. We
are not in favour of the uncertain runners who sit on the fence and say
“We will just enter in case and make up our mind in May".
These are the 5000 guys that paid; some qualified but none of them
started the race. Any Comrades medal hopeful must be utterly dedicated
right from the start and keep up their enthusiasm and dedication right
up to June 3rd 2012.
Internal
links: conditioning; This year I am aiming slightly higher for the readers of our website. No longer will it be a “Get any medal as long as you finish”. This year we are all going for bronze (and better). Standards and performances have slipped in the last few years and now one half of the field finishes in the last hour. They are the Vic Clapham medallists. This year there were 5256 bronze medals given out followed by 3613 Vic Clapham and a disappointed 1995 who didn’t finish. To give you some idea, there was 15% of the starters who didn’t make it. If you had looked around at the start in Durban, every 6th runners around you and all the way down the street failed to take a medal home. Most of those were not properly trained for such a demanding event. On the day they cited a long list of reasons from nausea to light headiness. They even covered their failure under a meaningless “It was a hard Comrades this year”. It was in fact good weather, same distance and hills as other years for the up run and plenty of refreshments of all types along the route. Maybe the truth of the matter is that after a gap of 3 years they had forgotten how hard the Up Run actually is. The target this year should be a bronze medal. Start off training for a sub 11 hour and if you have some trouble along the way before or on Race Day you might be forced to accept the organisers’ offer of the extra hour but only up to 15 minutes of it. Don’t start off aiming for sub 12hour because if something goes wrong there are only the DNF (Did Not Finish) behind you. All 1995 go home empty handed. The training for a Bronze medal is very similar to our finishers’ programme of earlier years but just a little bit faster all round both in training and races. Bear in mind that for the 89km Down Run, to finish comfortably in 10hours 45mins, requires an overall pace of 7,2 mins/km. Most of you never run that slowly but remember none of you have run that far before. One of the greatest levellers in road running is to accept that: "The longer the distance the slower the speed.” The converse of that is "The shorter the distance the faster the speed.” To that end all of your training between August 1st and June 2nd will be faster than 7,2mins/km. On the big day of Comrades 2012 you will be running so easily for the whole way because it is slower than you have ever run before. The structure of our training programme has been very successful over many years. The basis is the Comrades Panel Meetings held in Johannesburg for over 20 years and later as the first Comrades Coach on the Comrades website and articles for many years in Runner’s World magazine. You will be covering about 1300kms between January 1st and June 2nd 2012 and included in that total will be two standard marathons and three ultras. We progress gradually each month by achieving a clearly defined objective and then move on to a slightly bigger objective that is easy to achieve. Each month you get more and more confident that you are indeed an achiever. When you line up in Pietermaritzburg you are fit, rested, strong and confident that you will achieve yet another objective just like you have been doing each and every month for 6 months. Our next 4 months from August 2011 to January 1st 2012 is called conditioning. It gets you in the right shape of mind and body to tackle the next 5 months dedicated Comrades training. The runners embarking on our programme will be coming from a huge variety of backgrounds of age, gender, height, mass and running experience. However when you start off on January 1st you will be on the same starting line; to win a Comrades bronze medal. We have learned from hard experience that you must start off slowly and gradually. You can’t start hard training now and keep it up for 9 months. In fact our hard training programme next year only lasts for 9 weeks. We know that this is the most that runners can take before they start breaking down and getting injuries and becoming sick. These are the two main reasons for not finishing Comrades. Your final test is a road race. It seems logical that you must get a lot of experience at running road races. So as early as this month you should be going to the shorter races of 10km and15km and trying out your ability to control your speed and effort. Set a target time for the race and regulate your speed to achieve your goal. You will not find that easy first of all but it is such an important part of running a good Comrades - Pace Judgement. One of the most important parts of training is to judge your speed. This month will deliberately be an easy month. It is mid winter and cold and dark but get used to the discipline of sticking to the programme. Here is your first training programme for August 2011.
Notes: 1. Use the gym sessions to strengthen quads, knees and stomach muscles. Once a week include spinning. 2. The walk in Week 2 and 4 should be a brisk, hilly walk for one hour. Thought for the month. "I have started off and it looks easy to me" Don Oliver Cape Town July 2011 For those Alsoranrunners considering running a Bill Rowan we have decided to include a Bill Rowan addendum to our programme each month. The Bill Rowan programme The Bill Rowan medal is presented to about 17%-20% of the first runners after the Silver medallists. There were 1723 this year. That puts them in the really top group of ultra distance road runners in the country. To receive such a prestigious medal will obviously require dedicated training. The sub 9 hour barrier looks at first sight to be relatively easy. The overall pace is 6, 06 mins/km for 89kms. To many, that appears to be attainable but the huge distance of 89kms presents a formidable barrier. To run 89kms comfortably at 6mins/km, over a shorter distance of 42km you should be capable of running at 5mins/km. Taking it down even further, for 10kms you should be able to run easily 45mins and an 8km time trial should be under 34mins. That is the speed required to get a Bill Rowan and now for the endurance and stamina. A total kms training between Jan 1st and June 2nd 2012 is 1400km. Included in that total should be two standards and three ultras. The most Bill Rowans come from the B grade seeding (693) which needs a sub 3hrs 20mins standard marathon. There is a smaller number from the C grade seeding (sub3hrs40mins) of 497 but only 78 from the D grade seeding (sub 4hrs 00mins). It is important to weigh up your present capability compared with the needs of the qualifying standards. In general, to attain a 30mins improvement in your Comrades time year on year is realistic. Having decided that your chances of success are good, the training in August should be:
Repeat for 4 weeks. Expected total for August month = 200km Don Oliver Cape Town July 2011 External links: Official Comrades Marathon website;  |
Copyright Don
Oliver 2011