Comrades training - May 2012

May 2012 has arrived!  We have been working very hard at our running the whole year, and now finally, we are in the last month of the "Comrades year".

The main goal of the month of May leading up to Comrades is to get to that start line injury free!  To best achieve this, we will taper our training in May, by running around 10 - 15 % less each week.
 

Goals:
    1. To taper our training by running approximately 10 - 15 % less each week

Following on from whichever Ultra marathon you ran during April, you now start to decrease your weekly mileage simply by decreasing the long Sunday run from week to week. So the Sunday long run will go from 32 km to 21 km to 10 km

    2. To get to the start line of Comrades as injury free as possible.

If you haven't had an ideal build up in the months leading up to Comrades, the month of May is NOT the time to make up mileage.  The most common time to pick up an injury is around this time of the year, when you have your very long runs. If you have picked a small injury, please cut down even more than the recommended 10 - 15% per week. If fact, many a minor injury will settle if you back off ALL running for a few weeks at this time.  Don't worry about loosing fitness at this time by resting for a few days, or even a few weeks if you have to, you will still have all the residual fitness you have spent so much time and effort building up.

    3. To line up on the day well rested so that you are looking forward to the big day with anticipation

If a runner subjects his/her body to the high mileage's for too long a period, the body will break down with an injury. Also, high mileage running  leave a runner sapped of energy, and over trained. So the focus here now turns to running less every week, to start letting the body build up strength again.  By race day, you should ideally be slightly under trained, slightly over weight, and very keen to tackle a 90 km run.

Total weekly mileage: 67 km, 61 km, 55 km, 46 km, 100 km

From a weekly mileage of around 70 km when you ran the Ultra Marathon, the mileage drops by around 10 - 15%  per week.

Total Monthly mileage: 294 km (including Comrades)

There is 204 km of training before running the Comrades Marathon. Aside from the Sunday runs, no run should be more than 10 km.

Road race distances to be achieved: 1x32 km, 1x 21 km, 2X10 km and the Comrades Marathon

On Sunday 6 May there is the Colgate 32 km, which fits in perfectly 2 weeks after the Loskop Ultra marathon.

On Sunday 8 May there is the Kwai Half Marathon, which also fits perfectly into our Comrades Taper.

On the last two Sundays of the month before Comrades, one need only run a maximum of 10 km.  The RAC The Sweat Shop/Asics 10 km on Sunday 20 May is also perfectly placed for this. There is no official run on Sunday 27 May, one week before the Comrades marathon, and so a nice easy relaxed 10 km jog is all that's needed at this time.

With the Comrades Marathon falling out on a Sunday this year, this gives you the maximum time to rest after the weekend's running.  You might want to do two 5 km runs at the beginning of the week, but then please use the remaining three days to rest and recover.

Highlight of the month: To run the Comrades marathon

No doubt, the highlight of the year!  Finally, after a complete year of dedicated training, you are about to fulfill you ultimate goal of running the 2012 Comrades Marathon! Good luck!
 

Lets look at the actual daily training required in May this year:
 

This column will continue in June giving advice to both the novice runner as well as to those who have run the Comrades marathon before.  If you know anyone who is looking to run the 2013 Comrades marathon and is looking for a training programme that allows you enough training to compete the Comrades, while at the same time not to over train, please introduce them to this programme, which will appear at the beginning of June 2012.