Comrades training - April 2012

April is the 11th month of the Comrades' year.

Goals for April 2012:

 1. to run the second standard marathon of the year
 2. to follow that with an Ultra marathon !!
 3. to average about 60 - 70 km per week

With the Comrades Marathon being run at the beginning of June this year, there is a very limited "high mileage" season.

I personally think that this is not a bad thing.  The longer a runner maintains "high mileage", the greater the risk of injury. It is usually at this time of the year when Physiotherapists such as myself see the greatest number of overuse injuries related to Comrades training.  This does, however, leave minimal time in which to fit in your "high mileage" training.

In April this year, there are a quite a few marathons and Ultras to choose from. The aim is to run one standard marathon and one Ultra marathon.  Whichever ones you choose, make sure you allow least 14 days between any two runs over 42 km in length.

Here are some options:

 -  Running the full marathon at the Jackie Gibson marathon on 25 March, followed by the Loskop 50 km Marathon on Saturday 21 April.  This would allow for four weeks between races.

 -  Running the Jackie Gibson marathon followed by the Two Oceans 56 km Marathon on Easter Saturday 7 April.  This would allow two weeks between races.

 -  Running the Jackie Gibson marathon followed by the Slow Mag 50 km Ultra from the Benoni Northerns Sports Grounds on Sunday 15 April. This would allow three weeks between races.

Unfortunately there is no official road race during the first two weeks in April in Gauteng this year and if you would like to run a standard marathon during this time, you will have to do this by doing a training run of some sorts.

One way of doing this is to run either the Alberton City Half Marathon or the Bichwood half marathon on Sunday 1 April, and then add in a further 21 km on your own, by running either to or from the race, or both.

Having done around 42 km on Sunday 1 April you then have the option of running either the Slow mag, The Two oceans or the Loskop Ultra mentioned above.

So, April is a very busy month.  However you choose to run your marathon and ultra, try to maintain a weekly mileage around 60 - 70 km km.

Having completed two standard marathons and an Ultra since the beginning of the year, we begin to wind down our training with the "taper".

More about that next month.
 

Catch up with you in May...