Going to South Africa next year: should I run the comrades marathon, if so how should I train for it?

Sand Dunes wrote:

See subject, discus.

To run a fast Ultra like the famous Comrades you should train like a marathoner.

The same as my only Ultra runner Peterson Too who recently ran a PR at half marathon 1.06.14 in Eldoret, Kenya.When I first started to coach him a couple of years ago he had troubles to do my specialty 20 x 400m in 78 sec, now he runs them in 66 sec.

Should you run Comardes? Only if you do it in a letsrun singlet.

How fast do you intend to run it? Just to finish it or compete?

Sand Dunes wrote:

See subject, discus.

If you're in SA on the date, I would highly recommend it. It is an amazing experience. Entries open next Friday (19th October). Expect entries to sell out fast, last year the cap was reached within 20 days.

Have a look at the Facebook Comrades page, there is a lot of info there, as well as on the Comrades website. Next year's campaign was launched yesterday, so there is a lot of chatter on the facebook page, and all the info for next year's race is now on the website.

There are a lot of related activities for internationals such as the Bruce Fordyce bus tour of the route and the after party. I haven't done any of those, but from what I hear they are great.

In terms of training, there are free generic training programs on the Comrades website for different times/medals composed by Lindsey Parry, who has coached one of the previous winners (Caroline Wostmann). I followed one of the training programs one year, it is a good starting point if you've never trained for an ultra.

General recommendations are to do at least 2 marathons and one ultra in the period 1 March to 10 May, which is your high volume training period. Don't burn the candle too bright during January / February, there is a lot of running to do March - 10 May.

no you're not

p.s. seeing that it is an up-run next year make sure to get in a lot of hill training.

Bekele could probably run this in about 4 and 3/4 hours.

When is your high school’s spring break?

liar liar wrote:

no you're not

The only correct answer.

Sandy Doody wrote:

liar liar wrote:

no you're not

The only correct answer.

And trolling is the correct mechanism.

This is what I did leading up to Comrades

Feb 19th. 30k

Feb 26. Marathon

March 11-Knickerbocker 60k hard effort 4;10

May 7th Lake Waramaug 50 mile easy 6:32

About 90 miles per week training through from the beginning of the year.

Comrades 7:02. 147th

Sand Dunes wrote:

See subject, discus.

Nice, do it!!! I’m planning to do it, too. Have 2 big goals next year: Boston and Comrades... Training wise, I’ll just train for a marathon, run Boston, recover and ease into easier long runs with one 50K ultra easy race thrown in 4 weeks before Comrades... If your weekly mileage is about 70-80 miles for the marathon, you should be fine for the Comrades...

My goal is the silver medal, sub-7:30 hour finish, based on my recent 2:59 marathon. I’m also running a local road 60K this November, shooting for 4:45-4:50 finish. If successful, I’m pretty confident I can run for a silver at Comrades, as long as so stay injury-free;)

Good luck, maybe we bump into each other in Durban!!!

Oldguy 1 wrote:

This is what I did leading up to Comrades

Feb 19th. 30k

Feb 26. Marathon

March 11-Knickerbocker 60k hard effort 4;10

May 7th Lake Waramaug 50 mile easy 6:32

About 90 miles per week training through from the beginning of the year.

Comrades 7:02. 147th

Thanks for posting, good benchmarks;) Congrats!!!

I'm not trolling. As far as what I would like to finish it in if I run it, I've never ran in a marathon but I have jogged the distance it in training in just over three hours. So, a sub 6 hours would be my goal. Any advice?