Comrades Marathon - January WP training programme for 2011

There are 149 days to go to Comrades 2011. With your entry safely in, you suddenly realise that we must really get going on with your Comrades training. The good news is that January is not too hard but definitely it signals a sign of things to come. First of all there must be an increase in training days/week. You will lose one of those rest days, never to be returned.

Comrades is essentially an endurance race and needs committed regular running. Regular running builds up endurance and you should now become a 6 day a week runner. The weekly kms are not too high yet so you will be able to handle the extra training day. A cautious move is to slow down just a little bit in January during the week.

In those days there is a lot to do. The overall plan is very clear and you must be aware always exactly where you stand and why you are doing it.

Phase 1. Build up to run a qualifying standard marathon at the end of February - 8 weeks.
Phase 2. Hard training competing in ultra marathons and finishing with a Long Club Run of 65km - 9 weeks.
Phase 3. Wind down before the big race - 4 weeks.

Total time of structured training = 21 weeks.

As from January 1st you are preparing for a standard marathon. It is essential to your confidence and the overall success of the plan that you qualify easily with confidence that you can handle distances a lot longer than 42km. The time of 8 weeks is enough to equip a novice to run 42km. In addition this preparation phase is also the conditioner for the next hard training phase when you run ultras and another standard marathon for 9 weeks. The total load for Comrades training is 1400kms which includes 2 standards and three ultras.

The programme on this website will guide you through the hard times to avoid the fear of injury and sickness. Injury claims the biggest number of lost training days leading up to Comrades. Some lost training days are due to interference from business, family, travel and sheer poor discipline. However, an injury produces a weakness which may well reoccur again later in the programme as Comrades is approaching, leaving insufficient time to repair the injury before race day. Your training must carefully balance the build up of strength and endurance with the risk of overuse. The skill of selecting which races to run and when and the recovery required after the race is covered in the programme. During the early stages in January you will often wonder if you are doing enough training. This is aggravated by the stories from fellow runners who are already doing huge mileage and frequent marathons. If you are a novice sticks to this programme. Your patience will be rewarded.

The preparation for a standard marathon involves at least two runs of between 30kms and 35kms and weekly kms of between 65km and 70kms. In this part of the world you are fortunate to have races between 30km and 36kms in January to provide the perfect opportunity. Looking back to December you enjoyed a fairly low mileage and no distance longer than 16km. This plan was to make sure you were well rested as you start off in January fresh and without injury. The jump in distance will be noticeable this month but with three or four months training behind you there should be no problems. The races in January to be used for our Comrades training is the Bay to Bay 30km on January 9th 2011 and followed by the Cape Storm Red Hill 36km on January 22nd 2011. The gap between those races, 13 days, is more than enough for recovery whilst keeping up your weekly training. Both the races must be run conservatively because they are both build up runs for your qualifier at the 42km Peninsula marathon on February 20th 2011. Your target for Bay to Bay 30km is 3 hours 10 mins. Your target for the Red Hill 36km is 4 hours 00 mins. To qualify easily is so important to Comrades runners. You should be able to finish a 42km reasonably weary but still feeling you could carry on if needed. Comrades will be two 42kms one after another plus another 2km.
The Bay to Bay and the Red Hill are hilly courses which is ideal for this year’s Up Run. Concentrate on relaxing while running steadily on the uphills. Avoid too much walking in these shorter races. It can easily become a bad habit. The first half of Comrades is mainly uphill and not too much time can be lost by too much walking early on in. Sensible planned walking is fine which you will be learning during the Ultras in April.

Never to be forgotten in January is your Commitment to run Comrades.
To confirm your intention of finishing Comrades you must sign your commitment card which looks like this:

Comrades Commitment Card

I am fully committed to run and finish the 2011 Comrades marathon.

Name: ............................................................

Signed:

Date:

Cut this out after completion and show your family and work colleagues. You will be surprised how much motivation this will give yourself and also how much support you will get. Prepare yourself for a few sniggers and screams of disbelief but that will spur you on to even greater heights.

Here is your January training Programme 2011.

Objective: To run the 36km Red Hill race in less than 4 hours

	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4
w/c	03/01/11	10/01/11	17/01/11	24/01/11
Monday	REST	REST	REST	REST
Tuesday	8km	8km	8km	8km
Wednesday	8km	8km	8km	8km
Thursday	10km	10km	10km	10km
Friday	8km	8km	5km	8km
Saturday	8km	8km	36km race	8km
Sunday	30km race	15km	REST	25km
Total	72km	57km	67km	67km

Total kms for January 2011 = 263km

Recommended races:
January 9th 2011 - Bay to Bay 30km, Camps Bay
January 22nd 2011 - Red Hill 36km, Fish Hoek

Thought for the month: “I’m making the right start.”

Don Oliver
Cape Town
December 2010