November 2011
Training Programme for Comrades 2012
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WESTERN PROVINCE PROGRAMME
NEW NEW NEW NEW NEW NEW Where are we now?
205 days to go. There is still over 6 months to go with Christmas
in between. Comrades runners will be taking part in 2 very big
races in November. The first one is the Landmarks half marathon
6th November, and later in the month, Winelands 19th November.
Comrades novices will be running the Landmarks 21 and the Winelands
21. The big field at Winelands has many full marathon entries,
mainly from experienced runners who have already run Comrades. A
42 km standard marathon in November does not form part of our
training program for Comrades 2012. Our first standard marathon
will be in February 2012 at Peninsula. As a reminder both races
require pre-entries.
Key words: November will be a noticeably heavier training month than October. First of all, you will lose one rest day. Monday and Thursday are your 2 rest days in November, Saturday goes. That loss of a rest day will hardly be noticed as the training conditions are now vastly improved. The 2 races should be approached fairly seriously, going for target times. The Landmarks 21km is quite a hard course, but your target time of less than 2h00min is 6 minutes quicker than last months target. The same target of 2 hrs will also apply at Winelands. I suggest you choose one of the two, but not both. One of the success patterns of Comrades training is to alternate between official races and relaxed laid back club runs which are recovery runs and are even more important than the target times at races. The discipline of relaxing on club runs and then switching to paced running the next weekend is not easy to achieve. Since the first lists of Comrades entries are appearing it is a time to choose running partners for the next six months. They must be like-minded individuals who have already openly declared their commitment to run Comrades but remain evasive on their expected Comrades finishing time. All the alsoranrunners will be going for a minimum of a bronze medal. These are the people you should be running with. A running mate can be a friend who you run with every day. Others are not available during the week but run comfortably at the same pace over the weekend, albeit a club run or a race. These are also good friends. The Runners Guide comes out in November and it forms the basis of designing racing programmes for all of us. You will be given recommended races by us that fit in with your local races and Comrades hopes. The Runners Guide should not be used to pick glamorous races that are irrelevant to the Comrades training programme. Here is your November Training Programme: Objective: To complete a half marathon in less than 2hrs.
Total km for November: 261 km (equivalent to 209km in 4 week month) Recommended races: 6th November – Landmarks 21km – WP Cricket grounds 19th November – Winelands 21 km – Stellenbosch Thought for the month. "I’m beginning to feel strong” The Bill Rowan Programme. The road race programme is starting to wake up, you must now begin to cut valuable minutes off your race times. The two important half marathons are fairly hard and need you to certainly look at this early stage if you are Bill Rowan material. You are looking at getting in at the finish a whole two hours before the Safe Bronze. Very roughly in a 21km local race you should be finishing at least 15mins in front of the bronze medallists. That is 1hour 45mins. Worked out in different ways we come to the same answer. This a speed of 5mins/km and compared with your 8km T/T trial speed of 4,5 mins/km you should be capable of the 1hr 45mins for the half. It is unnecessary to increase your current weekly km but rather a small increase in running speed. Your T/T time should be just under 36mins say 35mins 50secs. Your weekly training programme looks like this.
October 2011 Cape Town Internal links: External links: Official Comrades Marathon website;  |
Copyright Don
Oliver 2011