Comrades 2025 Finishers Programme by Lindsey Parry – Official coach of the Comrades Marathon Association:
This year we will be doing things just a little bit differently, the plans will take us into October and the rest of the plans will be uploaded towards the end of Oct.
Our goals for 2024 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 2024.
For the 2025 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 2025, 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 8 June 2025. 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. 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:
(In brackets, I have put down what I believe to be more appropriate times in these conditions) The programme for the rest of 2024 will be based around developing consistency as this will be the most crucial factor in determining your 2025 Comrades race day success. Secondly, it is very important to take note of how hard the down run is on your legs. The eccentric load (pounding) on your legs is extremely high; to help prepare for this, strength training is highly recommended for the down run. The earlier you start with your strength programme, the sooner you will be used to the added work and the lower the impact will be on your programme. My suggestion is to do your strength training on 2 of your 3 rest days in the week, leaving at least 1 full day between each gym session.
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 ensure this through following the appropriately designed programmes 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 2025 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. 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:
These paces are a 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.
Contact me:
@LindseyParryZA, @AskCoachParry
Enjoy the training!
August 2024:
Monday |
Tuesday |
Wednesday |
Thursday |
Friday |
Saturday |
Sunday |
|
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 Aug |
Walk 5min easy; Jog 5min walk 1min x 5 | REST | Walk 5min easy; Jog 5min walk 1min x 6 | Walk 5min easy; Jog 9min walk 1min x 3 | |||
5 Aug | REST |
Walk5min E; Jog 5min, walk 1min x 6 |
REST |
Walk5min E; Jog 5min, walk 2min x 6 |
REST |
Walk5min E; Jog 5min, walk 1min x 7 |
Walk5min E; Jog 9min, walk 1min x 4 |
12 Aug |
REST |
Walk 5min E; 30min E, walk as needed |
REST |
10min rec; 5km TT, walk as needed, 5min cool down |
REST |
Walk5min E; Jog 5min, walk 1min x 8 |
Walk5min E; Jog 9min, walk 1min x 5 |
19 Aug |
REST |
Walk 5min E; 35min E, walk as needed |
REST |
Walk 5min E; 35min E, walk as needed |
REST |
Walk5min E; Jog 5min walk 1min x 9 |
Walk5min E; Jog 9min, walk 1min x 6 |
26 Aug |
REST |
Walk 5min E; 40min E, walk as needed |
REST |
Walk 5min E; 40min E, walk as needed |
REST |
Walk 5min E; 50min E, walk as needed |
September 2024:
Monday |
Tuesday |
Wednesday |
Thursday |
Friday |
Saturday |
Sunday |
|
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 Sep | 1hr10 E, walk as needed |
||||||
2 Sep |
REST |
Walk 5min E; 45min E, walk as needed |
REST |
Walk 5min E; 45min E, walk as needed |
REST |
Walk 5min; 1hr E, walk as needed |
1hr10 E, walk as needed |
9 Sep |
REST |
Walk 5min E; 35min E, walk as needed |
REST |
10min rec; 5km TT, 5min cool down |
REST |
1hr10 E, walk as needed |
1hr30 E, walk as needed |
16 Sep |
REST |
Walk 5min E; 50min E, walk as needed |
REST |
Walk 5min E; 50min E, walk as needed |
Walk 5min E; 15min E |
*10km race | |
23 Sep |
REST |
Walk 5min E; 55min E, walk as needed |
REST |
Walk 5min E; 55min E, walk as needed |
REST |
1hr20 E, walk as needed |
1hr45 L, walk 1min every 3km |
30 Sep | REST |
October 2024:
Monday |
Tuesday |
Wednesday |
Thursday |
Friday |
Saturday |
Sunday |
|
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 Oct |
Walk 5min E; 1hr E, walk as needed |
REST |
Walk 5min E; 1hr E, walk as needed |
REST |
1hr30 L, walk as needed |
2hr L, walk 1min every 3km |
|
7 oct | REST |
Walk 5min E; 45min E, walk as needed |
REST |
10min rec; 5km TT, walk as needed, 5min cool down |
REST |
1hr15 E, walk as needed |
1hr30 L walk 1min every 3km |
14 Oct |
REST |
Walk 5min E; 1hr E, walk as needed |
REST |
Walk 5min E; 1hr10 E walk as needed |
REST |
1hr30 L, walk as needed |
2hr15 L, walk 1min every 3km |
21 Oct |
REST |
Walk 5min E; 1hr E, walk as needed |
REST |
Walk 5min E; 1hr E, walk as needed |
REST |
1hr30 L, walk as needed |
2hr30 L, walk 1min every 3km |
28 Oct |
REST |
Walk 5min E; 30min E, walk as needed |
REST |
Walk 5min E; 30min E, walk as needed |
REST |
Walk 5min E; 15min E |
*Half Marathon |
Comrades 2025 Bronze Medal Programme by Lindsey Parry – Official coach of the Comrades Marathon Association:
This year we will be doing things just a little bit differently, the plans will take us into October and the rest of the plans will be uploaded towards the end of Oct. 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:
Moving the qualifier forward slightly means we can get into a better training groove early in 2025, opening the door to either improving your speed a bit more or doing another qualifier if necessary. Particularly with Comrades falling on the 8th of June in 2025. For the 2025 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 2025, 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. Training for a Bronze and getting a Sub 4:25 Marathon are therefore 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:
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 appropriately.
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 day’s 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.
In closing, the down run offers a unique challenge in terms of the eccentric load (Pounding). It is therefore highly recommended that you start following a strength programme now to ensure your legs are very strong come 8 June 2025.
Training Paces:
These paces are a guide for someone who is training for a 4hr25 Marathon, aim to run at or around these paces taking note of how well you recover.
Contact me:
Lindsey@coachparry.com
@LindseyParryZA
@AskCoachParry
www.facebook/ComradesCoach
Enjoy the training!
August 2024:
Monday |
Tuesday |
Wednesday |
Thursday |
Friday |
Saturday |
Sunday |
|
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 Aug |
Walk 5min E; 1hr E |
REST |
1hr10 E walk as needed on hills |
1hr30 L with 1min walk every 3-5km |
|||
5 Aug |
REST |
Walk 5min E; 1hr E |
REST |
Walk 5min E; 1hr E |
REST |
1hr20 E walk as needed on hills |
1hr45 L with 1min walk every 3-5km |
12 Aug |
REST |
Walk 5min E; 1hr E |
REST |
Walk 5min E; 1hr E |
REST |
1hr30 L walk as needed on hills |
2hr L with 1min walk every 3- 5km |
19 Aug |
REST |
Walk 5min E; 45min rec |
REST |
Walk 5min E; 45min rec |
REST |
5min E; 5x30sec RP, 30sec E; 5min E |
*10km race |
26 Aug |
REST |
Walk 5min E; 1hr E |
REST |
Walk 5min E; 1hr E |
REST |
1hr30 L walk as needed on hills |
September 2024:
Monday |
Tuesday |
Wednesday |
Thursday |
Friday |
Saturday |
Sunday |
|
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 Sep |
2hr20 L with 1min walk every 3-5km |
||||||
2 Sep |
REST |
1hr E | REST |
1 hr E | REST |
1hr30 L walk as needed on hills |
2hr40 L with 1min walk every 3-5km |
9 Sep |
REST |
1 hr E | REST |
1 hr E | REST |
1hr30 L walk as needed on hills |
3hr L with 1min walk every 3-5km |
16 Sep |
REST |
45minrec |
REST |
45min rec |
REST |
1hr15 E walk as needed on hills |
1hr30 L with 1min walk every 3-5km |
23 Sep |
REST |
10min E; 4x2min hills; 10min E |
REST |
1hr05 E |
REST |
5min E; 5x30sec RP, 30sec E; 5min E |
*10/15km race |
30 Sep | REST |
October 2024:
Monday |
Tuesday |
Wednesday |
Thursday |
Friday |
Saturday |
Sunday |
|
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 Oct |
10min E; 5x2min hills; 10min E |
REST |
1hr10 E |
REST |
1hr30 L walk as needed on hills |
3hr30 L with 1min walk every 3-5km |
|
7 Oct |
REST |
10min E; 6x2min hills; 10min E |
REST |
1hr15 E |
REST |
5min E; 5x30sec RP, 30sec E; 5min E |
*21.1km at Planned Marathon Pace |
14 Oct |
REST |
45min rec |
REST |
40min E; 5km TT – Flat out; 10min E |
REST |
1hr15 E walk as needed on hills |
2hr30 L with 1min walk every 3-5km |
21 oct |
REST |
10min E; 8x400m, 1min rest; 10min E |
REST |
1hr E |
REST |
1hr E |
1hr E |
28 Oct |
REST |
10min E; 10x1min RP, 1min E; 5min E |
REST |
30min E |
REST |
5min E; 5x30sec RP, 30sec E; 5min E |
32km or 42km Race |
Comrades 2025 Robert Mtshali Programme by Lindsey Parry – Official coach of the Comrades Marathon Association:
This year we will be doing things just a little bit differently, the plans will take us into October and the rest of the plans will be uploaded towards the end of Oct. 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 4:00 Marathon.
On the way to achieving the sub 4hr Marathon we will look to break the following times:
Moving the qualifier forward slightly means we can get into a better training groove early in 2025, opening the door to either improving your speed a bit more or doing another qualifier if necessary. Particularly with Comrades falling on 8 June in 2025. For the 2025 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 2025, and to plan the pacing charts.
Training for a Robert Mtshali and getting a Sub 4:00 Marathon are no Guarantee for achieving a sub 10hr 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:
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 appropriately.
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 day’s 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.
In closing, the down run offers a unique challenge in terms of the eccentric load (Pounding). It is therefore highly recommended that you start following a strength programme now to ensure your legs are very strong come 8 June 2025.
Training Paces:
These paces are a 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.
Contact me:
Lindsey@coachparry.com
@LindseyParryZA
@AskCoachParry
www.coachparry.com
Enjoy the training!
August 2024:
Monday |
Tuesday |
Wednesday |
Thursday |
Friday |
Saturday |
Sunday |
|
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 Aug | 45min E | REST | 1hr10 E run | 1hr30 L, walk 1min every 6km |
|||
5 Aug | REST |
10min E; 5x2min hills; 10min E |
REST |
1hr E |
REST |
1hr20 E run |
1hr45 L, walk 1min every 6km |
12 Aug | REST |
10min E; 6x2min hills; 10min E |
REST |
1hr10 E |
REST |
1hr30 L run |
2hr L, walk 1min every 6km |
19 Aug | REST |
40min E run |
REST |
45min E |
REST |
5min E; 5x30sec RP, 30sec E; 5min E |
*1okm race |
26 Aug | REST |
10min E; 10x1min hills; 10min E |
REST |
1hr 20 E |
REST |
1hr30 L run |
September 2024:
Monday |
Tuesday |
Wednesday |
Thursday |
Friday |
Saturday |
Sunday |
|
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 Sep | 2hr20 L, walk 1min every 6km |
||||||
2 Sep |
REST |
10min E; 10x1min hills; 10min E |
REST |
1hr20 E |
REST |
1hr30L |
2hr40, walk 1min every 6km |
9 Sep |
REST |
10min E; 10x1min hills; 10min E |
REST |
1hr20E |
REST |
1hr30 L |
3hr L, walk 1min every 6km |
16 Sep |
REST |
45min rec |
REST |
45min rec |
REST |
5min E; 5x30sec RP, 30sec E; 5min E |
*10/15km race |
23 Sep |
REST |
10min E; 6x3min intervals, 3min rec; 10min E |
REST |
1hr05 E |
REST |
1hr30 L |
3hr L, walk 1min every 6km |
30 Sep | REST |
October 2024:
Monday |
Tuesday |
Wednesday |
Thursday |
Friday |
Saturday |
Sunday |
|
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 Oct | 10min E; 6x3min intervals, 3min rec; 10min E |
REST |
1hr20 E |
REST |
1hr30 L |
3hr30 L, walk 1min every 6km |
|
7 Oct |
REST |
10min E; 6x3min intervals, 3min rec; 10min E |
REST |
1hr20E |
REST |
1hr30 L |
*21.1km at Planned Marathon Pace |
14 Oct |
REST |
45min rec | REST |
40min E; 5km TT – Flat out; 10min E |
REST |
1hr15 E |
2hr30 L, walk 1min every 6km |
21 Oct |
REST |
10min E; 10x400m, 1min rest; 10min E |
REST |
1hr E |
REST |
1hr E |
1hr E |
28 Oct |
REST | 10min E; 10x1min RP, 1min E; 5min E |
REST |
30min E |
REST |
5min E; 5x30sec RP, 30sec E; 5min E |
Qualifier |
Comrades 2025 Bill Rowan Program by Lindsey Parry – Official coach of the Comrades Marathon Association:
This year we will be doing things just a little bit differently, the plans will take us into October and the rest of the plans will be uploaded towards the end of Oct.
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:
Moving the qualifier forward slightly means we can get into a better training groove early in 2025, opening the door to either improving your speed a bit more or doing another qualifier if necessary. Particularly with Comrades falling on 8 June 2025. For the 2025 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 2025, and to plan the pacing charts. 58.12% of B Batch Starters finish the race under 9:00 with 4% of these achieving Silver.
20.64% of C Batch starters receive a Bill Rowan Medal
Training for a Bill Rowan and getting a Sub 3:30 Marathon are by no means a guarantee for achieving a BR 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:
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 appropriately. 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 day’s 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 a few weeks already, you can adapt this programme to focus on races in September and October.
In closing, the down run offers a unique challenge in terms of the eccentric load (Pounding). It is therefore highly recommended that you start following a strength programme now to ensure your legs are very strong come 8 June 2025.
Training Paces:
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.
Contact me:
www.coachparry.com
Lindsey@coacghparry.com
@LindseyParryZA
@AskCoachParry
Enjoy the training!
August 2024:
Monday |
Tuesday |
Wednesday |
Thursday |
Friday |
Saturday |
Sunday |
|
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 Aug | 1hr E | REST | 1hr20 L | 1hr30 L | |||
5 Aug | REST | 1hr E | 1hr10 E | 1hr E | REST | 1hr30 L | 1hr45 E |
12 Aug |
REST |
45minE |
1hr E |
45minE |
REST |
5min E; 5x30sec RP, 30sec E; 5min E |
*10km race |
19 Aug |
REST |
15min E; 5x2min hill repeats; 10min E |
1hr30 L |
1hrE |
REST |
1hr50 L |
2hr20 L |
26 Aug |
REST |
15min E; 6x2min hill repeats; 10min E |
1hr30 L |
1hr E |
REST |
2hr L |
September 2024:
Monday |
Tuesday |
Wednesday |
Thursday |
Friday |
Saturday |
Sunday |
|
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 Sep | 2hr40 L | ||||||
2 Sep |
REST |
15min E; 6x2min hill repeats; 10min E |
1hr30 L |
1hr E |
REST |
2hr L |
3hr L |
9 Sep |
REST |
15min E; 10x1min RP, 1min E; 10min E |
1hr E |
45min E |
REST |
5min E; 5x30sec RP, 30sec E; 5min E |
*10/15km race |
16 Sep |
REST |
1hr E |
1hr30 L |
15min E; 10x1min hill repeats; 10min E |
REST |
2hr L |
3hr L |
23 Sep |
REST |
15min E; 10x1min hill repeats; 10min E |
1hr30 L |
1hr E |
REST |
5min E; 5x30sec RP, 30sec E; 5min E |
*Race a Half Marathon |
30 Sep | REST |
October 2024:
Monday |
Tuesday |
Wednesday |
Thursday |
Friday |
Saturday |
Sunday |
|
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 Oct |
15min E; 10x1min hill repeats; 10min E |
1hr30 L | 1hr E | REST |
2hr L | 3hr20L | |
7 Oct |
REST |
15min E; 10x1min RP, 1min E; 10min E |
1hr30 L |
1hr E |
REST |
5min E; 5x30sec RP, 30sec E; 5min E |
*Run a Half Marathon at Marathon Race Pace |
14 Oct |
REST |
45min rec |
1hr30 L |
1hr E |
REST |
1hr30 E |
2hrs L |
21 Oct |
REST |
15min E; 10x400m, 1min rec; 10min E |
1hr E |
1hr E |
REST |
1hr E |
1hr E |
28 Oct |
REST |
15min E; 10x400m, 1min rec; 10min E |
30min rec |
20min E |
REST |
5min E; 5x30sec RP, 30sec E; 5min E |
*Race a Marathon |
Comrades 2025 Silver Medal Programme by Lindsey Parry – Official coach of the Comrades Marathon Association:
This year we will be doing things just a little bit differently, the plans will take us into October and the rest of the plans will be uploaded towards the end of Oct. Our goals for 2019 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:
Moving the qualifier forward slightly means we can get into a better training groove early in 2025, opening the door to either improving your speed a bit more or doing another qualifier if necessary. Particularly with Comrades falling on the 8th of June in 2025. For the 2025 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 2025, 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. 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:
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 appropriately. 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.
In closing, the down run offers a unique challenge in terms of the eccentric load (Pounding). It is therefore highly recommended that you start following a strength programme now to ensure your legs are very strong come 8 June 2025.
Training Paces:
These paces are a guide for someone who is training for a 3hr Marathon, aim to run at or around these paces taking note of how easily you recover.
Contact me:
Lindsey@coachparry.com
@LindseyParryZA
@AskCoachParry
www.facebook/ComradesCoach
Enjoy the training!
August 2024:
Monday |
Tuesday |
Wednesday |
Thursday |
Friday |
Saturday |
Sunday |
|
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 Aug | 15min E; 5km TT; 10min E |
REST | 1hr20 E | 1hr45 L | |||
5 Aug |
45min rec |
15min E; 6x2min hills; 10min E |
1hr05 E |
1hr E |
REST |
1hr30 E |
2hr L |
12 Aug |
45min rec |
15min E; 7x2min hills; 10min E |
1hr10 E |
1hr E |
REST |
1hr30E |
2hr L |
19 Aug |
45min rec |
15min E; 4x2min hills; 10min E |
1hr E |
45min E |
REST |
5min E; 5x30sec RP, 30sec E; 5min E |
*10km Race or Time Trial |
26 Aug |
45min rec |
15min E; 12x2min hills; 10min E |
1hr15 E |
1hr05 E |
REST |
1hr30 L |
September 2024:
Monday |
Tuesday |
Wednesday |
Thursday |
Friday |
Saturday |
Sunday |
|
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 Sep | 2hr15 L | ||||||
2 Sep |
45min rec |
15min E; 12x1min hills rest; 10min E |
1hr20 E |
1hr10 E |
REST |
1hr45 L |
2hr30E |
9 Sep |
45min rec |
15min E; 12x1min hills rest; 10min E |
1hr30 L |
1hr15 E |
REST |
5min E; 5x30sec RP, 30sec E; 5min E |
*10/15km Race |
16 Sep |
45min rec |
1hr E | 1hr E | 15min E; 8km TT; 10min E |
REST |
1hr15 E |
1hr30 L |
23 Sep |
45min rec | 20min E; 6x1000m with 3min rest; 10min E |
1hr45 L | 1hr15 E | REST | 5min E; 5x30sec RP, 30sec E; 5min E |
*Race a half Marathon |
30 Sep | 30min rec |
October 2024:
Monday |
Tuesday |
Wednesday |
Thursday |
Friday |
Saturday |
Sunday |
|
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 Oct |
45min E run |
1hr30 L |
20min E; 6x1000m with 3min rest; 10min E |
REST |
1hr45 L |
2hr45L |
|
7 Oct |
45min rec |
20min E; 6x1000m with 3min rest; 10min E |
1hr45 L |
40min E; 5km TT – Firm; 10min E |
REST |
1hr45 L |
3hr L |
14 Oct |
45min rec |
15min E; 10x1min Race pace, 1min E; 10min E |
1hr E |
45min E |
REST |
5min E; 5x30sec RP, 30sec E; 5min E |
*Half Marathon at Marathon race pace |
21 Oct |
45min rec |
20min E; 12x400m with 200m rec; 10min E |
1hr20 E |
25min E; 5km TT – Firm; 10min E |
REST |
1hr E |
1hr E |
28 Oct |
30min rec |
15min E; 10x1min Race pace, 1min E; 10min E |
45min rec |
30min rec |
REST |
5min E; 5x30sec RP; 30sec E; 5min E |
*Race a Marathon |