Comrades 2014 Bronze Medal Programme by Lindsey Parry – Official coach of the Comrades Marathon Association

The 2014 Comrades is a DOWN run, for the uninitiated don’t think for a moment this is an easy direction. You still climb an enormous amount; however it is the 10km of downhill between the top of Bothas (39km to go) and the bottom of Fields Hill that the major damage is done to your legs. It is for that reason that you should consider adding a day or two of strength training to your routine.

For now the focus should be on building consistency into your running. Success on 1 June will be determined by the work you do day to day, week to week and month to month. Doing too much now and having to miss training later through injury starts to put the Comrades into doubt. Start short and easy so you can build up to long and easy over time.

This programme is time based so people of more experience and greater running ability will get relatively more out of the programme and progress faster. 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 easy days. The aim is to be able to run a sub 5:00 marathon before Comrades. Continue reading →