Comrades training programme December

Holiday Training

Welcome to the December edition of the Comrades Marathon 2006 training. December as a rule is holiday time! A time to "tick over" and relax somewhat. There is a tendency, however, for some of us to overdo the training during December as we suddenly find ourselves with lots more time available for training whilst on holiday. My advice to those people, is to resist the urge to over train on holiday, and simply "coast" your way through the December period at roughly 35-40 km per week.  Leave the hard work for the period January - May 2006!

Well done to all of you who completed the "RAC Tough One" on November 27th.  If you have comfortably completed this tough 32 km race, you are well on the way to completing next year's  Comrades marathon.

But what if you are not able to run 32 km at this point in time? What if you have just recovered from an injury and are only building up slowly at this point?  Don't panic. The running year has still not officially begun.  December is not the time to catch up lost mileage and risk picking up an injury.  Continue with whatever your programme was, but try to slowly increase your weekly mileage a little every week so that you are close to doing about 35 - 40 km per week by the end of December. With just over 5 months left till Comrades, the weekly mileage will only really start the steady climb in January.  In order to achieve this, simply run a 10 km run/race on the Sunday, three out of the four weeks.

If you completed the "Tough One" and are feeling up to it, you may want to run a few of the four 10 km runs offered this year in December. It works out well, one 10 km a week for 4 weeks.  Not bad in your log book! See below for details.

Goals for December 2005:

    1. To maintain a steady 35 - 40 km per week
    2. To gear yourself up mentally for the high mileage season, come Jan 1 2006
    3. To enjoy your running, stay injury free, and not put on too much weight during the holidays
 

Here is the complete race calendar for December 2005 for the Gauteng region:

Date                 Race  Name     Distance            Time
Sunday,  4th      Ekurhuleni           21/10km             07:00
Sunday, 11th     Lesedi                10km                   07:00
Friday, 16th       Malcolm X        10km                   08:00
Saturday, 31st   Fred Norman     10km Nite Race  18:00

Going away to the coast on holiday can be a dangerous period for developing injuries..  I would like to alert you to some of the
most common aspects of preventing injury while training on holiday:

Holiday Training

1.  Beware of over training

When you are on holiday, you will suddenly find that you have a lot of extra time at your disposal for training.  You are in new
and scenic surroundings and, if you are at the coast,  running is suddenly very much easier because of there being more oxygen
in the air.

Because of this there is usually pressure from your running friends to go and explore all the scenic routes - the hillier and harder,
the better!

Be careful not to let your surroundings and the holiday atmosphere interfere with what you know is your training limit.  Resist
the urge to overdo the training.

2.  Avoid Dehydration

Runners tend to spend the whole day in the sun without taking in the necessary fluids.   This is then followed by going out for a
long run without sufficient water points on the route.

While on holiday you should drink regularly during the day in order to maintain a positive water balance before the run.  With
the hot humid conditions you need to drink a lot more than in the cooler dry climate you are used to.

Another alternative is to try and get your run done in the morning before going out into the sun.

3.  Avoid running in the soft sand

A favourite amongst the city dwellers is a barefoot run on the beach.  This is particularly dangerous.

Firstly, the skin under the foot is soft and will very quickly form a huge blister.

Secondly, the heel sinks deeper into the soft sand than when running on a harder surface.  This is true whether running with or
without running shoes.  This puts extra strain of the calf muscles and achilles tendons and results in injury.

Should you wish to run on the beach, run on the hard sand, close to the water's edge.  Better still, find a road running along the
beach front and enjoy the view from there.

Despite the dangers of holiday training, I do believe that it's a great time to get out there and enjoy some sensible running.

See you next month......