Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 124, November 2019 | Page 62

COACHING
CO
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By the Coach Parry Team
GETTING FASTER
IN NOVEMBER
In South Africa, we are closing out the Marathon season in November, so what is it that we should be looking to do at this
time of year with more big goals ahead for 2020? Here are some musings from a ever-so-slightly crazy runaholic, Coach
Lindesy Parry himself.
M
ost runners want to be faster, but how does one go about getting stronger
and faster, in order to post better marathon times in SA? Those of you
fortunate enough to have run marathons in New York, Berlin, Amsterdam,
Chicago, Lisbon or another venue with more temperate climate, and importantly at
sea level, may have come away with nice PB’s, and should finally understand why
running fast in South Africa is so hard to do.
The answer is that we need to look to the less ‘mentally flawed’ (for the time
being anyway) beginner runner, who has started their running journey by targeting
their local parkrun. It is a very difficult thing to do, but if you can resist the urge
to keep piling on the kilometres, with South Africa’s number 1 running obsession
(Comrades) around the corner, you can take your running to the next level.
The beauty in this approach is that this is good advice for all running abilities (and
degrees of running insanity), from 5km specialists right up to ultra-runners. That is
why I encourage everyone to focus on building the blocks from shorter distances,
to lay that foundation for an incredible year of running in 2020.
Rest, Then Restart
If you’ve recently raced a marathon, make sure you recover fully from the effort,
as it’s likely been a full year of running to get to this point. And even though your
excitement may be high from the experience, or the new PB, you will soon feel
flat and stale if you do not take some time off. This is critical, both mentally and
physically, and should last for a minimum of 10 days.
On returning to training, the rules remain unchanged. Start low and slow, building
up over three to four weeks before jumping into full training. Once the consistency
is back, and you are feeling a lot better and enjoying the routine again, it’s time
to moderate the mileage. You don’t need to be hitting massive kilometres, just
medium kays, run at the right intensity – in other words, slowly – with some good
quality speed/hills/intervals to really get the legs turning over.
Also, race some 5km to 10km races (or parkruns) through December and into early
January. The longer you can delay the start of the heavy training of next year, the
better for your goal race, be it a marathon, Two Oceans or Comrades.
Ready for Speed
So, how do you know you are ready for speed training? If you followed a
programme with appropriate pacing for your conditioning and ability for 12-16
weeks leading into your marathon, if you can ‘hand on your heart’ say that you ran
90% of your training very easy, and you can feel when you run in races longer than
5km that your lungs and heart are not what are slowing you down, then it’s time to
look at some speed, hill or interval training.
The key is to make sure that you only do one session per week (unless you are a sub-
3-hour marathoner, sub-85min half marathoner or have run sub-40min on a 10km),
the total of which should not exceed 10% of your total training volume for the week.
That’s right, you will still be making sure that 90% of your training is completely aerobic
in nature. I like to start with hills or intervals as you set out on the speed journey. Hills
build strength, which makes you faster and less likely to get injured with speed work.
As with your general build-up, start with three to four repetitions and build up to six
to eight repetitions. The aim is to run these reps at 3-8sec faster than your 5km best
effort, and on the hills to run close to your 5km race pace on the hills. Every two
weeks, run a parkrun for time and adjust your interval pace on how your 5km time is
improving. (Also check out our video on how to run faster by slowing down.)
Workouts to Try
Here are two speed/hill workout examples to consider using.
Workout 1: Hill Repeats
Warm-up: 15min easy with some drills and strides.
Workout: 5x2min hills at 5km race pace, recover by jogging down the hill easy.
Cool-down: 10min easy.
Workout 2: Speed Intervals
Warm-up: 15min easy with some drills and strides.
Workout: 6x1min at 8sec faster than 5km race pace, 2min jogging to recover.
Cool-down: 10min easy.
Very important, always stretch after every run to ensure a great range of motion for running.
Head to www.coachparry.com
to check out our programmes and
running drill videos.
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ISSUE 124 NOVEMBER 2019 / www.modernathlete.co.za