Comrades training - September 2011

Welcome to the September 2011 edition of the 2012 Comrades Marathon training programme.

Entries for Comrades 2012 have already opened!  They opened on 1 September 2011. While officially entries are due to close on Friday 30 November 2011, there is no doubt that the cap of 18,000 entries will be reached long before that date, at which point the entries will close.  This might already be the case!

If you intend running next year's Comrades Marathon, and you haven't yet entered, make sure you put your entry in NOW!

Training for the Novice runner:

Last month, I gave you an indication of the highlights of every month of the year, from the first month of training (i.e. June), all the way to the Comrades Marathon at the end of May next year.

This is what was said about the month of September:

Month 3.  September 2011

Goals:

    1. To run two further 10 km races.
    2. To build up the weekly mileage of between 20 - 25 km per week.
    3. To stay injury free.

Total weekly mileage: 20 km, 20 km, 20 km, 22 km

Total Monthly mileage: 82 km

Road race distances to be achieved: 1x10 km

Highlight of the month: none
 

Let's look at this in greater detail:

Goals:

Having completed your first official 10 km race, you are now "on the road".  Whereas in August you were averaging between 15 km and 20 km, this month we would like to see you averaging around 20 km on a consistent basis.

Mentally you should now start believing in yourself, and that you are on the way to Pietermaritzburg come end of May next year.

There is an excellent 10 km race mid month, the Citizen Gerald Fox Memorial 21.1 & 10 km, run from the Johannesburg Zoo.  It's a very popular race, and well timed coming 2 weeks after the Wanderers 10 km run at the end of August.

Total weekly mileage:

By running a mixture of 3 km and 5 km training runs you will very easily maintain the required 20 km per week.

You will be running 4 times a week, except for the weekend of the 10 km race, where you can take a well earned rest the day before the race.

Total Monthly mileage:

Don't place too much emphasis on this monthly figure, as this can change depending on how the days fall out each month. Still, it gives you some kind of indication of the increase in mileage from the month before.

In August the exact mileage was 78 km, and in September it will be 86 km. That's almost a 15 percent increase, and is nice and slow, especially for this time of the year.

Road race distances to be achieved:

There is just the one race of 10 km, that of the Citizen Gerald Fox Memorial 21.1 & 10 km .  Other than that, there is a weekend where you can run a training run of 5 km on the Saturday, and then an 8 km on the Sunday.  That should be quite a weekend, as you will have run 13 km in two days.

Highlight of the month:

Although I mention no highlight for this month, running another 10 km race could well be considered a highlight.

You will have gathered experience from your first outing last month, and hopefully you will enjoy this run even more than the last one.

See below for the breakdown of the daily training:
 
 

The Regular runner:

Goals for regular runners - September 2011:

    1. To get back into a regular running pattern after a long post Comrades lay-off.
    2. To maintain a steady 35 - 40 km per week.
    3. To complete two 10 km runs, a 15 km run, as well as a half marathon.

This year there are surprisingly few races to choose from in Gauteng.  If fact there are just three, the same three as last year.

They are all particularly good races and are well worth running.

Running these races will give you a 15 km race, a 10 km race, and a half marathon.  If you do a 10 km training run in addition to these races, you have done sufficient training for the month

Try keeping your weekly mileage to between 35 - 40 km per week.

Have a look below:
 
 

For completeness I have listed below all the races in the Gauteng region during September 2011.

If you live outside the Gauteng region, simply substitute a race of similar distance. The weekly mileage will remain the same wherever you are in the country.
 
 
 

See you in October.....