Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 114, January 2019 | Page 52

OUT OF THE By BOX Norrie Williamson Brought to you by B4 Play Products NEW YEAR, NEW STRATEGY Einstein compared insanity to doing the same thing in the same way and expecting a different result... yet runners do it year after year! There is absolutely no science or logic to commencing Two Oceans and Comrades distance training on 1 January every year. None, zilch, zero! Individuality is key, as each of us has different responsibilities, constrictions of time, and levels of stress, and so while the key principles are common, the final outcome needs to be tailored to individual circumstances (while keeping the principles). Just remember that we all think we are ‘special cases,’ but we can’t do more, nor do we need to make excuses to do significantly less. BY THE NUMBERS So what defines your Comrades or Oceans potential? It’s not the distance that determines what your fastest time can be, it’s your speed over the short distance. For example, a runner with a 10km PB of 60 minutes will never win Comrades, nor make a silver or Bill Rowan, or even the new Bob (Robert Mtshali titanium medal for a finish between 9 and 10 hours), but may get perhaps a bronze, or a Vic Clapham for a finish between 11 and 12 hours. 52 And what is the maximum peak distance you can run in a week? Again, it relates directly to your speed over the shorter distances. Research has shown that the amount of time the average club runner has to train in a week is between 10 and 12 hours. If you go over this, you quite simply do not have the time to recover sufficiently to gain the benefit from the training. Remember, training breaks down muscle, and recovery allows the muscle and system to adapt and get stronger. Without recovery, we constantly break down, which leads to injury, fatigue and overtraining! From this, our peak distance is our average training pace (over a week) by 10 to 12 hours. This is the great equaliser amongst amateur runners: While a runner who runs a sub-3 hour marathoner (37 minutes for 10km) can perhaps average a pace of 4:22 per kay in the quality period, his pace will drop to, say, 4:35/km in the endurance phase. With those paces, this runner can have a weekly total of 90km from January to mid-March, and a peak in May of 150km. With exactly the same emphasis on quality and endurance, a 55-minute 10km runner will only achieve 65km per week in quality, and a peak of 110km in May. The time commitment is the same, but your ability at short distances determines how much you can do before overtraining! PUTTING IT IN INTO PRACTICE It’s clear then that it is important initially to use the full range of the ‘gearbox’ and to keep the total weekly distance to a moderate level, so that there is quality recovery from the quality work. Therefore, in the final 10-12 weeks before Oceans (starting 1 February to 15 February) or Comrades (starting 17 March to 1 April), your training should focus on endurance with the ISSUE 114 JANUARY 2019 / www.modernathlete.co.za majority at the average pace you will be running in the race. The progression from the early weekly distance to a 3-4 week peak distance is gradual, with 10-13% increase over a 7-9 week period. For example, our 55min runner focusing on Comrades may train at an average pace of 5:40/ km for the period of January to mid-March and total around 65-70km per week, then gradually increase and change emphasis towards endurance until the last week in April, where he or she would be doing 110km with an average pace of 6:20/km and long runs at 6:25/km with a sub-9:40 Comrades finish in the crosshairs! The key issues here are: • Not using the full training time allocation in the period from January to mid-March, allowing family, work and social life to fit comfortably alongside your training, hence only doing around 6-7 hours training per week. • From mid-March, the longer, slower, ultra race pace runs increase, thus gradually increasing overall weekly distance from 65 to 110 km, and also increasing training time towards doing 11 hours for three weeks, when work, family and social life will have to be sacrificed. After that, a three-week taper decreasing from 110km to 55km, then 35km, to a restful race week, will ensure the runner is fresh, fit and ready to tackle the Comrades Challenge. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Norrie has represented Scotland, Great Britain and South Africa in ultra- distance running and triathlon, and he is an IAAF- accredited coach and course measurer. You can read more from him at www.coachnorrie.co.za. F or years, runners have seen 1 January as the starting point for serious Two Oceans and Comrades training – Simple Logic says this CANNOT be true. For a start the race dates of both events have changed… If 1 January was ideal for Comrades on May 24 th , then when it moved to 31 May it should have been 8 January – and then when it moved to 16 June and now 9 June, it would have needed to change again. Two Oceans is even more diverse, as Easter varies from early March to late April. So let’s get real for 2019, and let’s build a usable strategy to get to the start line with fresh legs, a fresh enthusiastic mind, and the best shape to capitalise on our individual ability!