Comrades Training Plans 2023 - 2024

Comrades 2024 Finishers Programme by Lindsey Parry – Official coach of the Comrades Marathon Association:

To learn more and ask Questions sign up to:

www.Coachparry.com/youtube and www.coachparry.com/facebook

The finishers programme is a unique programme and offering for runners who have literally taken up running so that they can finish the Comrades in 2024. For that reason, the programme starts at a very basic level and unlike all the other programmes on the site the aim will be to Qualify in February 2024.

Our goals for 2023 are 3-fold: 1) to build you up, injury free and healthy 2) Make you confident that you too can be a runner 3) to finish a half marathon or 2 in 2023.

For the 2024 Comrades, I have also considered the stats, kindly provided to me by Mark Dowdeswell and Comrades to plan the programme. The main changes will be seen in Jan to June 2024, and to plan the pacing charts.

The following are some stats, the intention is not to scare or discourage you, but it is critical that you do understand that this is a tough race, and it will consume much of you from March next year until 17:30 pm on 9 June 2024.

45% of H Batch starters (sub 4hr50 Marathon) finish under the official 12hr finish time, while 71% of G Batch (Sub 4:40 Marathon) starters receive a Finishers Medal. The degree of difficulty increases because G Batchers take on average 6min48sec to cross the start line and H batchers take 7min21sec. (taken from Comrades 2019)

From these stats, a sub 5 qualifier does not guarantee a finish. Meticulous preparation and pacing on race day are key. What is of great importance is that 45% do finish and so it IS POSSIBLE.

You are at greater risk of not finishing if qualifying was:
• Achieved at Sea Level (4:45)
• Achieved on a downhill course (4:45)
• Achieved in temperatures lower than 19 degrees Celsius (4:45)
• You do not follow a very strict, conservative race plan (4:45)
• It is compounded by combing 2 or more of these factors (4:40)
(In brackets, I have put down what I believe to be more appropriate times in these conditions)

The programme for the rest of 2023 will be based around developing consistency as this will be the most crucial factor in determining your 2024 Comrades race day success.

Who should follow this programme?

• Anyone who wants to start running

If you are an experienced runner, but your Half Marathon time is slower than 2:15 or you have completed Comrades, you can follow the Bronze programme. It is however important to follow the pacing guidelines in this programme. The biggest single threat to you finishing Comrades is getting injured. Place a premium on recovery and ensuring this through following the appropriately designed programme for you.

Time based programs also prevent you from settling on a route that you need to run faster every time you do it. It is easier to maintain discipline and run easy on the easy days. I must again emphasise here that being injury free and consistent in your training is the key to a successful race, easy days are there to ensure full recovery so you can get the most out of every days training.

The aim is to be capable of running a sub 4:50 marathon before Comrades. However, we will not look to finish a Marathon this year and attempt to qualify in early 2024 once you have a little more training in the bag.

There are recovery weeks built into the programme every 4 weeks, do not be tempted to do more as this will only compromise you later in the programme, leading to injury, illness and under performance in goal races.

If you feel you would like to train more, I encourage you to add cross training or strength rather than more running.

Training days are interchangeable, if your club has Time Trials (TT) on a Tuesday or Wednesday you can swap Thursday with one of these days.

For the dates of races in your area you can go to www.runnersguide.co.za for a full fixture list.

Training Paces:

Easy (E): 6:56-7:25/km
Long (L): 7:00-7:41/km
Recovery (rec): 7:30-8:05/km

These paces area guide for someone who is training for a 4hr50 Marathon, aim to run at or around these paces taking note of how easily you recover.

Enjoy the training!

Click HERE to download the training plan

July 2023:

August 2023:

September 2023:

October 2023:

November 2023:

December 2023:

Comrades 2024 Bronze Medal Programme by Lindsey Parry – Official coach of the Comrades Marathon Association:

To learn more and ask Questions sign up to:

www.Coachparry.com/youtube and www.coachparry.com/facebook

Our goals for 2024 are 3-fold: 1) to continue to improve your consistency and capacity to do work 2) Make you a stronger and faster runner 3) to qualify with a sub 4:25 Marathon.

On the way to achieving the sub 4:25 Marathon we will look to break the following times:

5km: 27:00
8km: 44:45
10km: 56:15
15km: 1:27:15
21.1km: 2:05:30
20 Miles/32km: 3:17:30

Moving the qualifier forward slightly means we can get into a better training groove early in 2024, opening the door to either improving your speed a bit more or doing another qualifier if necessary. Particularly with Comrades falling on the 9th of June in 2024.

For the 2024 Comrades, I have also considered the stats, kindly provided to me by Mark Dowdeswell and Comrades to plan the programme. The main changes will be seen in Jan to June 2024, and to plan the pacing charts.

69% of D (sub 4hrs) Batch Starters finish the race under 11:00 hours, while 36.46 of F (sub 4:20) Batch starters receive a Bronze Medal. The degree of difficulty increases because D Batchers take on average 3min18sec to cross the start line and F batchers take 5min35sec. (stats from 2019 up Comrades)

Training for a Bronze and getting a Sub 4:25 Marathon are no Guarantee for achieving a Bronze finish. Based on my experience and discussions with runners who were not successful, this year and in past years, I have come up with a few possible reasons for this.

Your Bronze is at risk if your Sub 4:25 was:
• Achieved at Sea Level (4:17)
• Achieved on a downhill course (4:17)
• Achieved in temperatures lower than 19 degrees Celsius (4:20)
• You do not follow a very strict, conservative race plan (4:20)
• It is compounded by combing 2 or more of these factors (4:12)
(In brackets, I have put down what I believe to be more appropriate times in these conditions)

Who should follow this programme?

• Comrades finishers who have run sub 11hrs
• Comrades Novices who can run a half Marathon in sub 2hr10
• Comrades Novices who have come close to/or have broken 4hrs30 for a Marathon

If you do not fall into these categories, then read through the introduction to the other programme options to select the appropriate programme. DO NOT follow this programme thinking that the extra mileage will guarantee a finish. The biggest single threat to you finishing Comrades is getting injured, place a premium on recovery and ensuring this through following the appropriately designed programme for you.

This programme is time based so people of more experience and greater running ability will get relatively more out of the programme and progress faster. Time based programmes also prevent you from settling on a route that you need to run faster every time you do it. It is easier to maintain discipline and run easy on the easy days. I must again emphasise here that being injury free and consistent in your training is the key to a successful race, easy days are there to ensure full recovery so you can get the most out of every days training.

There are recovery weeks built into the programme every 4 weeks, do not be tempted to do more as this will only compromise you later in the programme, leading to injury, illness and under performance in goal races.

Training days are interchangeable, if your club has Time Trials (TT) on a Tuesday or Wednesday you can swap Thursday with one of these days.

If you did not run Comrades and have been training consistently for several weeks already, you can adapt this programme to focus on races in September and October.

For the dates of races in your area you can go to www.runnersguide.co.za for a full fixture list.

Training Paces for a 4:30 Marathon:

Recovery: 6:50-7:15
Easy (E): 6:20-6:40
Long Runs (LSD): 6:20-6:55
Hill Repeats: 5:10-5:20
Time Trials:
4km 20:20
5km 26:00
8km 42:45

Start at the slower end of the training paces and move towards the faster end as you progress through the coming months of training.

Enjoy the training!

Click HERE to download the training plan

July 2023:

August 2023:

September 2023:

October 2023:

November 2023:

December 2023:

Comrades 2024 Robert Mtshali Program by Lindsey Parry – Official coach of the Comrades Marathon Association:

To learn more and ask Questions sign up to:

www.Coachparry.com/youtube and www.coachparry.com/facebook

Our goals for 2023 are 3-fold: 1) to continue to improve your consistency and capacity to do work 2) Make you a stronger and faster runner 3) to qualify with a sub 4:00 Marathon.

On the way to achieving the sub 4hr Marathon we will look to break the following times:
5km: 24:40
8km: 40:35
10km: 51:00
15km: 1:19:15
21.1km: 1:54:00
20 Miles/32km: 2:59:30

Moving the qualifier forward slightly means we can get into a better training groove early in 2024, opening the door to either improving your speed a bit more or doing another qualifier if necessary. Particularly with Comrades falling on the 9th of June in 2024.

For the 2024 Comrades, I have also considered the stats, kindly provided to me by Mark Dowdeswell and Comrades to plan the programme. The main changes will be seen in Jan to June 2024, and to plan the pacing charts.

Training for a Robert Mtshali and getting a Sub 4:00 Marathon are no Guarantee for achieving a Robert Mtshali finish. Based on my experience and discussions with runners who were not successful, this year and in past years, I have come up with a few possible reasons for this.

Your Robert Mtshali is at risk if your Sub 4hr was:
• Achieved at Sea Level (3:50)
• Achieved on a downhill course (3:50)
• Achieved in temperatures lower than 19 degrees Celsius (3:50)
• You do not follow a very strict, conservative race plan (3:50)
• It is compounded by combing 2 or more of these factors (3:44)
(In brackets, I have put down what I believe to be more appropriate times in these conditions)

Who should follow this programme?

• Comrades finishers who have run sub 10hrs30
• Comrades Novices who can run a half Marathon in sub 1hr55
• Comrades Novices who have come close to/or have broken 4hrs for a Marathon

If you do not fall into these categories, then read through the introduction to the other programme options to select the appropriate programme. DO NOT follow this programme thinking that the extra mileage will guarantee a finish. The biggest single threat to you finishing Comrades is getting injured, place a premium on recovery and ensuring this through following the appropriately designed programme for you.

This programme is time based so people of more experience and greater running ability will get relatively more out of the programme and progress faster. Time based programmes also prevent you from settling on a route that you need to run faster every time you do it. It is easier to maintain discipline and run easy on the easy days. I must again emphasise here that being injury free and consistent in your training is the key to a successful race, easy days are there to ensure full recovery so you can get the most out of every days training.

There are recovery weeks built into the programme every 4 weeks, do not be tempted to do more as this will only compromise you later in the programme, leading to injury, illness and under performance in goal races.

Training days are interchangeable, if your club has Time Trials (TT) on a Tuesday or Wednesday you can swap Thursday with one of these days.

If you did not run Comrades and have been training consistently for several weeks already, you can adapt this programme to focus on races in September and October.

For the dates of races in your area you can go to www.runnersguide.co.za for a full fixture list.

Training Paces:

Easy (E): 5:40-6:15/km
Long (L): 5:45-6:30/km
Recovery (rec): 6:20-6:45/km
Hills: 5:06-5:13/km
800m: 3:37-3:48 (4:30-4:45/km)
RP: 5:41/km

These paces area guide for someone who is training for a 4hr Marathon, aim to run at or around these paces taking note of how easily you recover.

Enjoy the training!

Click HERE to download the training plan

July 2023:

August 2023:

September 2023:

October 2023:

November 2023:

December 2023:

Comrades 2024 Bill Rowan Program by Lindsey Parry – Official coach of the Comrades Marathon Association:

To learn more and ask Questions sign up to:

www.Coachparry.com/youtube and www.coachparry.com/facebook

Our goals for 2024 are 3-fold: 1) to continue to improve your consistency and capacity to do work 2) Make you a stronger and faster runner 3) to qualify with a sub 3:30 Marathon.

On the way to achieving the sub 3:30 Marathon we will look to break the following times:
5km: 21:30
8km: 35:35
10km: 44:30
15km: 1:09:00
21.1km: 1:39:00
20 Miles/32km: 2:36:30

Moving the qualifier forward slightly means we can get into a better training groove early in 2023, opening the door to either improving your speed a bit more or doing another qualifier if necessary. Particularly with Comrades falling on the 9th of June in 2024.

For the 2024 Comrades, I have also considered the stats, kindly provided to me by Mark Dowdeswell and Comrades to plan the programme. The main changes will be seen in Jan to June 2024, and to plan the pacing charts.

58.12% of B Batch Starters finish the race under 9:00 with 4% of these achieving Silver, with 1 athlete getting a GOLD. 20.64% of C Batch starters receive a Bill Rowan Medal (2019 stats for last up run)

Training for a Bill Rowan and getting a Sub 3:30 Marathon are by no means a Guarantee for achieving a Bill Rowan finish. Based on my experience and discussions with runners who were not successful, this year and in past years, I have come up with a few possible reasons for this.

Your Bill Rowan is at risk if your Sub 3:30 is borderline and:
• Achieved at Sea Level (3:23)
• Achieved on a downhill course (3:20)
• Achieved in temperatures lower than 19 degrees Celsius (3:20)
• You do not follow a very strict, conservative race plan (3:20)
• It is compounded by combing 2 or more of these factors (3:16)
(In brackets, I have put down what I believe to be more appropriate times in these conditions)

Who should follow this programme?

• Comrades finishers who have run sub 10hrs
• Comrades Novices who can run a half Marathon in sub 1hr45
• Comrades Novices who have come close to/or have broken 3hrs40 for a Marathon

If you do not fall into these categories then read through the introduction to the other programme options to select the appropriate programme. DO NOT follow this programme thinking that the extra mileage will guarantee a finish. The biggest single threat to you finishing Comrades is getting injured, place a premium on recovery and ensuring this through following the appropriately designed programme for you.

This programme is time based so people of more experience and greater running ability will get relatively more out of the programme and progress faster. Time based programs also prevent you from settling on a route that you need to run faster every time you do it. It is easier to maintain discipline and run easy on the easy days. I must again emphasise here that being injury free and consistent in your training is the key to a successful race, easy days are there to ensure full recovery so you can get the most out of every days training.

There are recovery weeks built into the programme every 4 weeks, do not be tempted to do more as this will only compromise you later in the programme, leading to injury, illness and under performance in goal races.

Training days are interchangeable, if your club has Time Trials (TT) on a Tuesday or Wednesday you can swap Thursday with one of these days.

If you did not run Comrades and have been training consistently for several weeks already, you can adapt this programme to focus on races in September and October.

For the dates of races in your area you can go to www.runnersguide.co.za for a full fixture list.

Training Paces:

Easy (E): 5:00-5:30/km
Long (L): 5:05-5:50/km
Recovery (rec): 5:40-6:05/km
2min Hills: 4:25-4:30/km
1min Hills: 4:09-4:15/km
400m: 1:32-1:36/km
RP: 5:55/km

These paces are a guide for someone who is training for a 3hr30 Marathon, aim to run at or around these paces taking note of how easily you recover.

Enjoy the training!

Click HERE to download the training plan

July 2023:

August 2023:

September 2023:

October 2023:

November 2023:

December 2023:

Comrades 2024 Silver and Isaval Roche-Kelly Medal Programme by Lindsey Parry – Official coach of the Comrades Marathon Association:

To learn more and ask Questions sign up to:

www.Coachparry.com/youtube and www.coachparry.com/facebook

Our goals for 2023 are 3-fold: 1) to continue to improve your consistency and capacity to do work 2) Make you a stronger and faster runner 3) to qualify with a sub 3 hour Marathon.

On the way to achieving the sub 3 hour we will look to break the following times:

5km: 18:25
8km: 30:15
10km: 38:00
15km: 59:00
21.1km: 1:25:00
20 Miles/32km: 2:14:00

Moving the qualifier forward slightly means we can get into a better training groove early in 2024, opening the door to either improving your speed a bit more or doing another qualifier if necessary. Particularly with Comrades falling on the 9th of June in 2024.

For the 2024 Comrades, I have also considered the stats, kindly provided to me by Mark Dowdeswell and Comrades to plan the programme. The main changes will be seen in Jan to June 2024, and to plan the pacing charts.

Only 37.87% of A Batch Starters finish the race under 7:30, this number includes Golds and Wally Hayward medals, while 4.76% of B batch starters finish under 7:30. (stats from Comrades 2019)

Training for a Silver and getting an A seed are by no means a Guarantee for achieving a Silver finish. Based on my experience and discussions with runners who were not successful, this year and in past years, I have come up with a few possible reasons for this.

Your Silver is at risk if your Sub 3 is borderline and:
• Achieved at Sea Level (2:54)
• Achieved on a downhill course (2:52)
• Achieved in temperatures lower than 19 degrees Celsius (2:52)
• You do not follow a very strict, conservative race plan (2:50)
• It is compounded by combing 2 or more of these factors (2:50)
(In brackets, I have put down what I believe to be more appropriate times in these conditions)

Who should follow the Silver programme?

• Comrades finishers who have run sub 8hrs
• Comrades Novices who can run a half Marathon in sub 90min
• Comrades Novices who have come close to/or have broken 3hrs for a Marathon

If you do not fall into these categories then read through the introduction to the other programme options to select the appropriate programme. DO NOT follow this programme thinking that the extra mileage will guarantee a finish. The biggest single threat to you finishing Comrades is getting injured, place a premium on recovery and ensuring this through following the appropriately designed programme for you.

This programme is time based so people of more experience and greater running ability will get relatively more out of the programme and progress faster. Time based programs also prevent you from settling on a route that you need to run faster every time you do it. It is easier to maintain discipline and run easy on the easy days. I must again emphasise here that being injury free and consistent in your training is the key to a successful race, easy days are there to ensure full recovery so you can get the most out of every days training.

There are recovery weeks built into the programme every 4 weeks, do not be tempted to do more as this will only compromise you later in the programme, leading to injury, illness and under performance in goal races.

Training days are interchangeable, if your club has Time Trials (TT) on a Tuesday or Wednesday you can swap Thursday with one of these days.

For the dates of races in your area you can go to www.runnersguide.co.za for a full fixture list

Training Paces for 3:00 marathon:

Recovery (Rec): 5:15-5:40
E (E): 4:30-5:10
Long Runs (LSD): 4:30-5:20
Tempo: 3:40-4:00/km
2min Hill Repeats: 3:50-4:05/km
1min Hill Repeats: 3:30-3:45/km
400’s: 76-80sec
1000’s: 3:30-3:45

Start at the slower end of the training paces and move towards the faster end as you progress through the coming months of training.

Enjoy the training!

Click HERE to download the training plan

July 2023:

August 2023:

September 2023:

October 2023:

November 2023:

December 2023:

Comrades 2024 Finishers Programme by Lindsey Parry – Official coach of the Comrades Marathon Association:

To learn more and ask Questions sign up to:

www.Coachparry.com/youtube and www.coachparry.com/facebook

It is just over 5 months until the 2024 UP Comrades Marathon. The UP RUN is known for The Big Five Hills: Kowies Hill, Fields Hill, Bothas Hill, Inchanga and Polly Shortts. The 1st 3 are all run in the 1st 40km with Inchanga taking you to 50km and Polly Shortts with a little over 10km to go. There are also many other climbs like Little Polly’s, Umlaas Road and other unnamed hills, in short, the UP Run is an enormous challenge. It is important to prepare physically for the challenge and in so doing also prepare for the psychological challenge of running 87 odd kilometers from Durban to Pietermaritzburg.

The focus up until now has been on laying a foundation and improving half Marathon speed. From January we look at preparing for a Marathon to qualify for Comrades and from there it is all about race day 9 June 2024.

Your biggest training months will be mid-March to early May and as such you should not be looking to do any hard races during this time.

If this is your first attempt at Comrades and you have not followed my Comrades programme for June-December, but you are a regular runner and can do a Half Marathon in 2hrs20 then this is the place for you to start. If you are not a regular runner and have not run a half marathon before or are slower than 2hrs20 then you need to look at considering 2020 as your 1st Comrades or contacting me directly for a training plan.

This programme is time based so people of more experience and greater running ability will get relatively more out of the programme and progress faster. Time based programmes also prevent you from settling on a route that you need to run faster every time you run that route. It is easier to maintain discipline and run easy on easy days. The aim is to be able to run a sub 4:50 marathon before Comrades.

Because you will employ a run walk strategy for your Qualifier, Long run, and Comrades we will use this strategy in training. Very important to note about using a run walk strategy is that the walk is not a Sunday stroll but fast walking with purpose. It is a change in focus on the muscles not a “rest”.

RECOVERY is important so DO NOT add extra running. It will however be massively beneficial if you add cross training or strength training to your schedule.

Note that training days are interchangeable, if your club does hill training on a different day or club long runs on a different day then you can change days around.

Training Paces for a 4:50 marathon:

Recovery (R): 7:30-7:50/km
Easy (E): 6:50-7:10/km
Long Runs (L): 6:55-7:25/km
Hills: 6:00-6:15/km
Time Trials (TT):
4km 23:18
5km 29:45
8km 49:00

Start at the slower end of the training paces and move towards the faster end as you progress through the coming months of training.

Please note that if you cannot run the Time Trial times this does not mean you are not capable of a 4:50 Marathon. These are guidelines so there is some room either side.

Enjoy the training!

Click HERE to download the training plan

January 2024:

• Walk a minimum of 1min for every 30min of running on L Runs
• Continue to walk 5min as a warm up before running

February 2024:

• Continue to walk when necessaryWalk a minimum of 1min for every 30min of running on L Runs
• Continue to walk 5min as a warm up before running

March 2024:

• Walk a minimum of 1min for every 30min of running on L Runs
• Continue to walk 5min as a warm up before running

April 2024:

• Walk a minimum of 1min for every 30min of running on L Runs
• Continue to walk 5min as a warm up before running

May 2024:

• Walk a minimum of 1min for every 30min of running on L Runs
• Continue to walk 5min as a warm up before running

June 2024:

• Walk a minimum of 1min for every 30min of running on L Runs
• Continue to walk 5min as a warm up before running

Comrades 2024 Bronze Medal Programme by Lindsey Parry – Official coach of the Comrades Marathon Association:

To learn more and ask Questions sign up to:

www.Coachparry.com/youtube and www.coachparry.com/facebook

It is just over 5 months until the 2024 UP Comrades Marathon. The UP RUN is known for The Big Five Hills: Kowies Hill, Fields Hill, Bothas Hill, Inchanga and Polly Shortts. The 1st 3 are all run in the 1st 40km with Inchanga taking you to 50km and Polly Shortts with a little over 10km to go. There are also many other climbs like Little Polly’s and Umlaas Road and other unnamed hills, in short, the UP Run is an enormous challenge. It is important to prepare physically and in so doing also prepare for the psychological challenge of running 87 odd kilometers from Durban to Pietermaritzburg.

You should be running consistently and have laid a solid platform over the past few months.

If this is your first attempt at Comrades but you are a regular runner and can do a Half Marathon in 2hrs or a Marathon in under 4hrs30 then this is the place for you to start. If you are not a regular runner and have not run a half marathon before or are slower than 2hrs then you need to follow the FINISHERS programme, If you find your Time Trial times are closer to this programme, use the finishers programme by tweaking the pacing slightly faster.

Essentially start out a little easier and build up a little slower to ensure you build up injury free.

This programme is time based so people of more experience and greater running ability will get relatively more out of the programme and progress faster. Time based programmes also prevent you from settling on a route that you need to run faster every time you run that route. It is easier to maintain discipline and run easy on easy days. The aim is to be able to run a sub 4:30 marathon before Comrades.

Because you will employ a run walk strategy for your Qualifier and Comrades we will use this strategy in training. It is very important to note that the walk is not a Sunday stroll but a fast walk with purpose. It is a change in focus on the muscles not a “rest”.

Training days are interchangeable, if your club does Time Trials on a different day or club long runs on a different day then you can change days around.

If you feel you would like to train more, I encourage you to add cross training or strength rather than more running.

Training Paces for a 4:30:

Recovery: 6:50-7:15
Easy (E): 6:20-6:40
Long Runs (LSD): 6:20-6:55
Hill Repeats: 5:39-5:51
1min 4:30-4:40/km
3min 4:50-5:00/km
Time Trials:
4km 21:40
5km: 27:00
8km: 44:45

Start at the slower end of the training paces and move towards the faster end as you progress through the coming months of training.

Enjoy the training!

Click HERE to download the training plan

January 2024:

• Walk a minimum of 1min for every 30min of running on L Runs
• Continue to walk 5min as a warm up before running

February 2024:

• Walk a minimum of 1min for every 30min of running on L Runs
• Continue to walk 5min as a warm up before running

March 2024:

• Walk a minimum of 1min for every 30min of running on L Runs
• Continue to walk 5min as a warm up before running

April 2024:

• Walk a minimum of 1min for every 30min of running on L Runs
• Continue to walk 5min as a warm up before running

May 2024:

• Walk a minimum of 1min for every 30min of running on L Runs
• Continue to walk 5min as a warm up before running

June 2024:

Comrades 2024 Robert Mtshali by Lindsey Parry – Official coach of the Comrades Marathon Association:

To learn more and ask Questions sign up to:

www.Coachparry.com/youtube and www.coachparry.com/facebook

It is just over 5 months until the 2024 UP Comrades Marathon. The UP RUN is known for The Big Five Hills: Kowies Hill, Fields Hill, Bothas Hill, Inchanga and Polly Shortts. The 1st 3 are all run in the 1st 40km with Inchanga taking you to 50km and Polly Shortts with a little over 10km to go. There are also many other climbs like Little Polly’s and Umlaas Road and other unnamed hills, in short, the UP Run is an enormous challenge. It is important to prepare physically for the challenge and in so doing also prepare for the psychological challenge of running 87 odd kilometers from Durban to Pietermaritzburg.

You should be running regularly and ready to train from January.

If this is your first attempt at Comrades but you are a regular runner and can do a Half Marathon under 1hr55 then this is the place for you to start. If you are not a regular runner and have not run a half marathon before or are slower than 1hr55 then you need to follow the Bronze programme, If you find your Time Trial times are closer to this programme, use the Bronze programme and tweak the paces to be 3-5sec/km faster than recommended.

The important message is to start out a little easier and build up a little slower to ensure you build up injury free.

This programme is time based so people of more experience and greater running ability will get relatively more out of the programme and progress faster. Time based programmes also prevent you from settling on a route that you need to run faster every time you run that route. It is therefore easier to maintain discipline and run easy on easy days. The aim is to run a sub 4hr marathon before Comrades.

Also note that training days are interchangeable if your club has Time Trials (TT) on a Tuesday or Wednesday you can swap Thursday with one of these days.

Training Paces for 4hr marathon:

Easy (E): 5:40-6:15/km
Long (L): 5:45-6:30/km
Recovery (rec): 6:20-6:45/km
Hill Repeats: 5:06-5:13/km
90sec 4:00-4:15/km
3min 4:30-4:45/km

Time Trials:
4km 19:35
5km: 24:40
8km: 40:35

Start at the slower end of the training paces and move towards the faster end as you progress through the coming months of training.

Enjoy the training!

Click HERE to download the training plan

January 2024:

• On your Long runs, walk 1min for every 30-40min run

February 2024:

• On your Long runs, walk 1min for every 30-40min run

March 2024:

• On your Long runs, walk 1min for every 30-40min run

April 2024:

• On your Long runs, walk 1min for every 30-40min run

May 2024:

June 2024:

Comrades 2024 Bill Rowan Program by Lindsey Parry – Official coach of the Comrades Marathon Association:

To learn more and ask Questions sign up to:

www.Coachparry.com/youtube and www.coachparry.com/facebook

It is just over 5 months until the 2024 UP Comrades Marathon. The UP RUN is known for The Big Five Hills: Kowies Hill, Fields Hill, Bothas Hill, Inchanga and Polly Shortts. The 1st 3 are all run in the 1st 40km with Inchanga taking you to 50km and Polly Shortts with a little over 10km to go. There are also many other climbs like Little Polly’s and Umlaas Road and other unnamed hills, in short, the UP Run is an enormous challenge. It is important to prepare physically for the challenge and in so doing also prepare for the psychological challenge of running 87 odd kilometers from Durban to Pietermaritzburg.

You should be running regularly and ready to train from January.

If this is your first attempt at Comrades but you are a regular runner and can do a Half Marathon under 1hr40 then this is the place for you to start. If you are not a regular runner and have not run a half marathon before or are slower than 1hr40 then you need to follow the Robert Mtshali programme, If you find your Time Trial times are closer to this programme, use the Robert Mtshali programme and tweak the paces to be 3-5sec/km faster than recommended.

The important message is to start out a little easier and build up a little slower to ensure you build up injury free.

This programme is time based so people of more experience and greater running ability will get relatively more out of the programme and progress faster. Time based programmes also prevent you from settling on a route that you need to run faster every time you run that route. It is therefore easier to maintain discipline and run easy on easy days. The aim is to run a sub 3:30 marathon before Comrades.

Also note that training days are interchangeable if your club has Time Trials (TT) on a Tuesday or Wednesday you can swap Thursday with one of these days.

Training Paces for 3:30 marathon:

Easy (E): 5:00-5:30/km
Long (L): 5:05-5:50/km
Recovery (rec): 5:40-6:05/km
Hill Repeats: 4:40-4:46
90sec 3:52-4:00/km
3min 4:10-4:16/km

Time Trials:
4km 16:50
5km: 21:30
8km: 35:35

Start at the slower end of the training paces and move towards the faster end as you progress through the coming months of training.

Enjoy the training!

Click HERE to download the plan

January 2024:

• On your Long runs, walk 1min for every 30-40min run

February 2024:

• On your Long runs, walk 1min for every 30-40min run

March 2024:

• On your Long runs, walk 1min for every 30-40min run

April 2024:

• On your Long runs, walk 1min for every 30-40min run

May 2024:

• On your Long runs, walk 1min for every 30-40min run

June 2023:

Comrades 2024 Silver Medal Programme by Lindsey Parry – Official coach of the Comrades Marathon Association:

To learn more and ask Questions sign up to:

www.Coachparry.com/youtube and www.coachparry.com/facebook

It is only 5 months until the 2024 UP Comrades Marathon. The UP RUN is known for The Big Five Hills: Kowies Hill, Fields Hill, Bothas Hill, Inchanga and Polly Shortts. The 1st 3 are all run in the 1st 40km with Inchanga taking you to 50km and Polly Shortts with a little over 10km to go. There are also many other climbs like Little Polly’s and Umlaas Road and other unnamed hills, in short, the UP Run is an enormous challenge. It is important to prepare physically for the challenge and in so doing also prepare for the psychological challenge of running 87 odd kilometers from Durban to Pietermaritzburg.

The programme continues to build speed before we build strength in March and April to carry you through 7hrs30 of hard running.

If this is your first attempt at Comrades but you are a regular runner and can do a Half Marathon in 1hr25min then this is the place for you to start. If you are not a regular runner and have not run a half marathon before or are slower than 1h25min then you will be better served by the Bill Rowan or Bronze programme which will start out gentler and allow you to build up without injury.

This programme is time based so people of more experience and greater running ability will get relatively more out of the programme and progress faster. Time based programmes also prevent you from settling on a route that you need to run faster every time you run that route. It is easier to maintain discipline and run E (E) on E days. The aim is to be able to run close to a sub 3:00 marathon before Comrades.

As the programme progresses you may need to add an extra rest day. You need to monitor your recovery: If you are in good shape, feel rested and ready for each workout then you can follow the programme. If however you are always feeling tired and struggling through workouts you need to add an additional rest day. This is crucial; it is during recovery that we improve and get stronger, in the absence of recovery we get sick and injured.

Also note that training days are interchangeable if your club has Time Trials (TT) on a Tuesday or Wednesday you can swap Thursday with one of these days. Or if you prefer long runs on a Sunday, you can swap Saturday and Sunday.

Training Paces for 3:00 marathon:

Recovery (R): 5:10-5:30
E (E): 4:30-5:00
Long Runs (L): 4:35-5:10
Tempo: 3:50-4:00/km
Hill Repeats (H): 4:05-4:10/km
3min Hills 4:15-4:25/km
1000’s: 3:35-3:40
400s 76-80sec
200s 40-45sec

8km Time Trial (TT): 30:25

Start at the slower end of the training paces and move towards the faster end as you progress through the coming months of training.

Enjoy the training!

Click HERE to download the plan

January 2024:

• On your Long runs or 3hrs plus, walk 1min for every 50min run

February 2024:

• On your Long runs or 3hrs plus, walk 1min for every 50min run

March 2024:

• On your Long runs or 3hrs plus, walk 1min for every 50min run

April 2024:

• On your Long runs or 3hrs plus, walk 1min for every 50min run

May 2024:

• On your Long runs or 3hrs plus, walk 1min for every 50min run

June 2024: