September 2011
Training Programme for Comrades 2012
|
WESTERN PROVINCE PROGRAMME
NEW NEW NEW NEW NEW NEW Where are we now?
There
are 277 days to go to Comrades 2012. It takes 9 months to have a
baby and you have just over that time to prepare yourself for a new
birth of everything in your life from June 3rd 2012. Every big
project has thorough preparations. Getting ready for Comrades is now
the right time to develop all the qualities required to be a 2012
Comrades bronze medal holder. At the start of all big projects
there must be a clearly defined objective and for you, that is; “I will
win a bronze medal at the 2012 Comrades”.
Key words: We used to view the early spring months of each running year as just relaxed, back on the road events. Now I am clear that these valuable months are time to adjust to your whole overall Comrades plan. To win a safe bronze medal at Comrades 2012 you will have to run 89kms in 10hours 50 mins. Your overall pace on that day will be 7,3mins/km; same as 7mins 20secs /km. To give you some idea, that translates to a 5hrs 08min standard marathon or a 6hours 48mins Two Oceans 56km. Most people will settle for two standards a bit faster at 5hrs 05mins followed by another 5kms at 8mins /km to give you a total time of 10hrs 50mins. That is the speed required for race day and all the shorter distances in training and races before that must be at a slightly faster speed to be able to run Comrades at the slowest you done, run in a race to accommodate the longest distance you have ever run. The golden rule is “The longer the distance the slower the speed”. It is always wise to have a look at this year's results to see what happened on the day. Here are the runners who got a bronze:
The most medals come from seeding groups C and D. The least medals come from H seeding. To have the best chance on the day of getting a bronze medal is to qualify in February 2012 (Peninsula marathon) with a sub 4hrs 00mins marathon or at least sub 4hrs 20mins. An alternative is to run under 6hrs 00mins for the 56km Two Oceans marathon. This table is very revealing in as much as the most bronze medallists run a sub 4hrs marathon. There are many current runners under the illusion that getting in under 4hrs 30mins for a standard to qualify still gives them a good chance for a bronze at Comrades. This is not true. The total of the G and H seeding only got a total of 685 bronze medals out of the 5292 given out on the day. That sets our sights very clear now. What are we aiming for in February 2012 to qualify? Obviously we will be going all out to get under 4hrs 00mins Seeding D and at worse 4hrs 20mins, Seeding F. This year the FHAC runners got 9 bronze medals and 5 were D seeding, 1 was E seeding 2 were F seeding and 1 was G seeding. That says it all. The remaining G and H seeding did not get a bronze. We can start off getting the best seeding by running some shorter races in September. To prepare for the races, you need to have slightly varied weekly and daily programmes. Train 4 times a week and make it up with runs of very different speeds.
If you go to two races, which is a good choice, then you fill up the other two weekends with slow club runs. That is a very good formula. You now you have an overall plan, a target to gun for and how to start off doing it. Nice way to start Spring. The training Programme for September 2011. Objective: To run a 15km race in under 90minutes.
Total km for September 2011 = 198km (equivalent to 159km for a 4 week month) Notes:
Saturday September 10th 2011 Medihelp Tekkie Challenge 10km, Jan Kriel School Kuilsriver. Saturday September 17th 2011 Beachcomber Race Against Crime15km, Strandfondtein Thought for the month: "That is quite a lot of running this month. I am pleased about that”. The Bill Rowan Programme Looking
forward after completing just one month of Bill Rowan training you
should be well aware now that there is a lot of quality running needed
to meet even the rather easy standards that you went for last month. Of
course the beauty of training is that the more you put in the more you
get back and the training actually becomes easier and more rewarding. To emphasise a point the road races are more important to you B.R. trainees and you must get used to analysing results to check you are up in the first 20% of the field. In road races you get used to who is around you and you must feel confident and comfortable with the competitors running alongside. Never feel inferior that you shouldn’t be up with the well known local athletes. Secondly you must teach yourself how to control your own race pace. In contrast to my last refection on who is around you, you must not be influenced by the pace of the field which is at times very unwise. You must become familiar with how much effort you can put in compared with the distance remaining in the race. That valuable experience is built up by yourself in the weekly training sessions. Go a bit too fast deliberately and get the feeling throughout your whole body that this can’t last for much longer. Slow down a fraction and then recognise how quickly you recover. To be a successful runner you have to study your own capabilities and reactions. It is up to you to build yourself up. No two runners are the same. The training for September will be of a similar profile as the Safe Bronze runners in the main body of the article but as usual your speed must be faster.
Total km 51km. Repeat for 5 weeks to give a total of 255 kms The target time for a 15km road race is 73mins. Don Oliver Cape Town August 2011 Internal links: External links: Official Comrades Marathon website;  |
Copyright Don
Oliver 2011