Bruce Fordyce's Comrades Training Programme

Month 4 - April: BUILDING ENDURANCE IS VIRTUALLY COMPLETE 

Weeks of long slow distance running are soon to come to an end. The process of building endurance is virtually complete. It is now time to start doing a little quality work. 

Most of us should have run our longest runs last weekend or at the latest this coming weekend. Thereafter the weekend runs should rapidly decline in length. 

In the next few weeks we should work on our speed so that we can cruise the Comrades distance a little faster; so that we can cope with some of the steep hills we will encounter. In the final three weeks before Comrades, we cut back drastically on our training load and this, coupled with our speed work and quality work, will help us to have strong rested legs, and to peak for a great run in that week of June 16. 

This however, is a very dangerous period. 
Winter is settling in, months and weeks of hard training may have exposed some potential injury problems, and bodies will be generally fatigued. Increasing the training load by adding faster, harder running is fraught with danger. 

We must always monitor total fatigue. If our legs are unduly heavy, or tired, or we have a slight niggle, it is important to be wise enough to rest and to choose to recover rather than to force an over trained body. 

We must always warm up thoroughly when starting quality work. 3 or 4 kilometres of steady running, some stretching and a few run "run throughs" or short surges should always precede any quality running. 

1.	Trackwork.  This session includes repeated intervals of 400 metres to 1000 metres of even mile repeats on a standard 400 metre track with a slow job or walk between each session.  My favourite session used to be 5 x 1000m with a 200m recover walk between each session.  This training however is painful, boring and tough.
2.	Speedplay is less rigorous and more fun.  Runners can run "lamp posts" or to a different traffic sign or tree. The length and severity of each run is up to the runner. It is important some faster running is achieved.
3.	Short distance races such as time trials of 5 - 8km or races up to 15km help to sharpen runners and to give us an idea of how our training is progressing. A fast time at an 8 km time trial at the end of May or in early June is a positive indication we are ready to race.
4.	Hillwork.  As discussed in an earlier column, hillwork is a useful quality session.

Remember; a couple of slow cool-down kilometres after a hard session also help to aid recovery. Quality running is diverse and there are a number of different sessions we can run.