Ultimate Comrades

Tag: comrades

  • The longest week done

    Comrades Training Theory The short version of  the theory of the distance part of Comrades training is this: Starting with what you can cope with in January run weeks of increasing mileage so that first 10 weeks average is rounghly 10% less than the second 10 weeks average with a once a week long run…

  • The longest week

    So it begins … The only way really to simulate the demands of Comrades without running it and without breaking down:  The highest mileage and hardest work week, at the end of 4 weeks of increasing mileage and effort work. My target is the Comrades run distance of  87 km. There are still 5 days to…

  • Pushing the limits

    Peak Distance Weeks The idea of Comrades training is always to push your running limits closer of the demands of the run, even to meet the demands if we can. Running lots to make you stronger, without breaking you down. My plan is always to build to a peak-distance week 3, preferably 4 weeks before…

  • Reaching my limits

    I must be getting to my limits. I’m not sleeping right. I go to sleep early to get a proper sleep and wake, after 4 hours feeling awful but unable to sleep again Nor am I eating right. I pick at food, eat junk and less healthy food because its easier and don’t make sure…

  • Number Stories

    What stories do the log-book numbers tell? Distance 77 km in the Two Oceans week, 33 easy the next, then 56 and 65 km building to 80+ km longest week. It’s not a lot by the hero runner standards by it is more than the minimum and just a tiny bit less than what I…

  • Rest day

    Don’t know if I like rest days. Part of me says “Run … just a bit”. Most of me restlessly rests. I get up at the same time as running days anyway. Sleep just isn’t a comfort thing. Or more accurately, my comforts don’t need to sleep – but that’s another story. The real me…

  • 5 miles-8 km

    Good miles or junk miles? Sure there was a time when I wouldn’t run less than 12 km at a time. That’s a memory I can’t do now. The thing is, these 5 mile runs in the morning are working for me. They are short enough to recover from before the next run. They are also…

  • Boston bombs

    If I thought about it, getting ready to run this morning would have been a grind. But as I stepped out the door, something strong surged in me. On the ups on the way home it surged again and again. I got home to the news of the Boston marathon blast. The fun went out…

  • Mind matters

    As I go out now to get more miles in my legs, my mind turns to the Big Day. The good thing is that the agony comes later in the run. I’ll start happy. Let the hanging-in creep up, take over the closer to the end the better. After Polly Shorrts is okay. Please!

  • 1935 Comrades Marathon humour

     “As one would expect in an atmosphere charge with common suffering and endeavour, there is a lot of spontaneous, unconscious humour of the type that the written record cannot adequately capture. One pictures the exhausted 1935 athlete lying on the roadside on Alverstone Hill with his legs stretched up the bank for greater relief.”  …