Comrades Marathon Training: Navigating the Final Six Weeks and Race-Day Preparation

With the Comrades Marathon returning to June the 11th the critical final six week period falls in probably the best time of the year for training. It has cooled down considerably and the humidity in all parts of South Africa has dropped to pleasant levels. 

Qualifying has been done and that would have required a good period of consistent training since December. Running a hard marathon will also have given us a good, long training session, which counts a lot in the run up to the big day. From here, we top up the endurance and focus on building strength for the hills between Pietermaritzburg and Durban. The critical parts of the schedule below are the ‘mid-week long run’, which is focused on hilly routes and these gradually escalate in intensity through the 6-week period. 

The most important part of our weeks are the weekends. We start with the notorious Comrades long run, which is a big day on the legs. Make sure that you fuel and hydrate well for that one and don’t worry about pace. This is purely for the time on the legs, even if there is a decent amount of walking. We also want to ensure that we don’t go too deep in that session so that recovery is fairly quick and we can get straight back into the final run in to Comrades without any additional recovery time or, injury niggles.

From there, the weekends are focused on back-to-back Saturday and Sundays. The combination of these two sessions is what we are looking for and we need to exercise good discipline as far as lifestyle and eating and drinking habits so that we optimise our recovery from session to session. There will be plenty of time to celebrate after we have that medal hanging around our neck.

This final six weeks are essentially the taper into Comrades. Tapering is not about resting. It is about gradually decreasing volume and workload while maintaining the intensity. Our bodies have gotten used to the training volume and as soon as we allow too much rest, it is going to go into recovery and de-training mode, and we don’t want that to happen before the race. Recovery yes, de-training no.

The final week is obviously where we allow the recovery and freshening up to happen but it is still important to keep the body moving and the legs ticking over so that they are ready and raring to go on Sunday the 11th. Take care to avoid anyone with any kind of illness and don’t spend too much time walking around at the expo in the days leading up to the race.

It can be nice to run Comrades in a fresh pair of shoes. If you are planning to do that. Make sure that you purchase the same model and make that you have done the majority of your training in and start wearing them in training at least two weeks out from Comrades, We definitely don’t want to be standing on the start line in brand-spanking-new, untested shoes.

Another essential part of running a good Comrades Marathon is having a perfected eating and drinking plan for the day. Energy products etc. should be tried and tested in the long sessions on the weekend to see how effective they are for you. Remember that everyone is different and someone else’s magic potion may be your poison. Definitely listen to advice from those with experience but always test things out yourself to determine how you like the taste, consistency etc. but also how the body responds to it. Especially towards the end of a long session.

When not running make sure that you are getting as much quality sleep as you can and tell your significant others that you need to be exempt from any household chores and DIY until after you have recovered from Comrades. 

Have fun and soak up every minute of the challenge, both getting to the start line and the journey to the finish.

MONDAY	TUESDAY	WEDNESDAY	THURSDAY	FRIDAY	SATURDAY	SUNDAY
Rest stretch and core.	40-60 minutes easy and relaxed on an easy route.	80:00 on a hilly route but keeping things nice and controlled on the climbs. Nothing above a 7/10 perceived effort. Relax and recover on the downhills and keep it chilled on any flat sections.	40-60 minutes easy and relaxed on an easy route.	Rest stretch and core.	20-30 minutes easy and relaxed on an easy route.	Comrades Long Run 5-6 hours. If you are in the area, some of this over the route is ideal. Otherwise, try to simulate the ups and downs on your own routes.
Rest stretch and core.	30-40 minutes easy and relaxed on an easy route.	60:00 on a hilly route but keeping things nice and controlled on the climbs at first. Nothing above a 7/10 perceived effort for the first 40 minutes but making two harder efforts between 40-50 minutes taking the effort up to a 9/10. Relax and recover on the downhills and keep it chilled on any flat sections.	40-60 minutes easy and relaxed on an easy route.	Rest stretch and core.	2:30 – Easy and very chilled on an easy route @ 60-65%. Well fuelled and hydrated and finishing with more to give.	2:00 – Easy and relaxed endurance effort on an easy route @ 65-70% as much as possible. BUT with a 10:00 acceleration in the last half an hour. Taking the HR up to 80-85% gradually and then holding that for the remainder of the 10:00 period before easing up and resuming the original pace for the rest of the run.
Rest stretch and core.	40-60 minutes easy and relaxed on an easy route.	80:00 – Hard on the hills again – After 5 minutes of warming up, tackle the hills as follows: Build over three hills. So first one at 75%, second one at 80-90% and the third on at 100%. Irrespective of how long or steep they are. Use the downhills and any flats to relax and recover.	40-60 minutes easy and relaxed on an easy route.	Rest stretch and core.	2:30 – Easy and very chilled on a rolling route @ 60-65%. Average in the 60s at the end and definitely want to avoid anything over 75%. Well fuelled and hydrated and finishing with more to give as before.	1:45 – Hilly route. First 10 minutes or so easing out the weary legs and then start working nicely on the hills. Push them nice and hard but not 100%. Then take the downhills nice and easy in between and end with another 10:00 or so easy to cool down.
Rest stretch and core.	40-60 minutes easy and relaxed on an easy route.	80:00 – Hard on the hills again – After 5 minutes of warming up, tackle the hills as follows: This time we are running every hill hard but building our effort every third of the way up. Doesn’t have to be accurate, just an estimate but 1st third @ 7/10; 2nd third @ 8/10 and final 3rd @ 9-10. Use the downhills and any flats to relax and recover. Use the downhills and any flats to relax and recover.	40-60 minutes easy and relaxed on an easy route.	Rest stretch and core.	Morning session: 1:00 @ marathon perceived effort. Rolling to easy route if possible. Use RPE as a guide but remember the HR information for this evening. Late evening session: 1:00 Nice if you can do the same route again but not essential. This one you work at the HR zone from this morning. Set the average from this morning as the minimum HR and add 10-15bpm for the maximum and work in that zone.	First thing in the morning: 2:00 starting easy and relaxed but building into it if the legs are up to it. Preferably overall average HR falls somewhere between the two runs yesterday.
Rest stretch and core.	40-60 minutes easy and relaxed on an easy route.	75:00 – Hard on the hills again – After 5 minutes of warming up, do the hills in the next 15:00 at about 70%; the hills in the middle 15:00 at about 80-90% and then the following 15:00 at a full out effort! Have the rest of the run easy and relaxed again to cool down. Obviously all downhills easy to recover between the climbs.	30-40 minutes easy and relaxed on an easy route.	Rest stretch and core.	2:00 – Easy and relaxed endurance effort on an easy route @ < 65% as much as possible. BUT with a 10:00 acceleration in the last half an hour. Taking the HR up to 75-85% gradually and then holding that for the remainder of the 10:00 period before easing up and resuming the original pace for the rest of the run.	1:30 – Easy and relaxed endurance effort on an easy route @ <65% as much as possible.
Rest stretch and core.	30-40 minutes easy and relaxed on an easy route.	60:00 – Hard on the hills for all the climbs today. Short warm up and cool down period but the rest of the way a good maximum effort on the hills and an easy jog down the other side. Try to make a big difference in the effort between up and down.	30-40 minutes easy and relaxed on an easy route.	Rest stretch and core.	1:30 – Mostly easy and relaxed but with a 20:00 period on a flat to only slightly rolling section of road in the second half where you run at 80-85% before easing up for a few minutes at the end.	Rest and stretch.
40-60 minutes easy and relaxed on an easy route.	Rest and stretch.	30-40 minutes easy and relaxed on an easy route.	Rest and stretch.	20-30 minutes easy and relaxed on an easy route.	Rest.	COMRADES