EIGHT TIPS FOR YOUR COMRADES PREPARATIONEIGHT STEPS TO COMRADES DURING THE TAPERAt this stage there are three weeks to Comrades 2. By race day this will be over 2. There is no more training to be done. Now its about recovery and getting stronger for the day. Not just physically stronger, but mentally stronger and one of the best ways to get the confidence to complete comrades is to make sure you cover all bases in your preparation. The following eight steps will guide you through to the 2. Comrades and you special 5. Comrades medal. STEP 1 – DETERMINE YOUR TAPER: Training is a process of overload and adaptation. Each time we train small micro- tears are generated in our muscles, but rest and recovery allows the muscles to rebuild. When given adequate rest the muscles rebuild stronger than before. Scientists have shown that muscle damage is more severe when running further than 2. Based on this: -. Your last 1. 8- 2. In the first week cut the overall training distance to about 6. The final week needs to be fairly specific and will only be about 2. But don’t forget the following day you will be covering 8. Weekly training distance during 1st two weeks of 3 week taper to Marathon or Ultra race. Marathon 4: 0. 0 Marathon 4: 3. Marathon. Max Dist. Peak week 1. 30km 1. Important: It is the distance that is dropped – not the . STEP 2 – PREDICTING YOUR FINISH TIME: Only by setting a realistic target time will you achieve your optimum finish time. The facts are that a 2: 4. Gold medal, and a 3: 3. Bill Rowan and there is no point in going off at a pace that is aiming for such times unless you have the basic credentials. A rough estimate for a realistic finish time can be found from multiplying your best 1. Considerably more accurate is my computer prediction programme. Developed in the 1. Comrades distance. The results have often been accurate to less than 5 minutes. Keep and eye on www. It is best to set yourself three finish goal times: Firstly get your predicted best . This is normally not more than a 2% to 4% improvement on your realistic time. The main reason to consider this is to see if it affects the colour of your medal. For instance if someone has a . Similarly a 2% improvement on a predicted 9 hour 1. Bill Rowan medal. The third time goal to set is the back- stop. This is the time you would . With the goal times established we can move on to how we are going to run to achieve them. Tim Noakes' official statement on his controversial low carbohydrate, high fat diet. STEP 3 MENTAL PREPARATIONS: The reduced training and increased time from tapering provides time for mental preparation, and building confidence. Two key benefits of the mental preparation are a) to build your confidence in your ability to achieve your goal and b) to prepare yourself for the things that go right and wrong in the race. Visualizing your run in the race helps you develop a race day strategy allowing you to see yourself achieving your goal: the running on race day becomes . Initially view the start and the line up as if you were filming the race. Follow the race through right to the finish. See the hills – how do you tackle them – the downhill- see how you are running, what are you taking at the tables, visualise your walks. See how you deal with the muscle soreness, or what you do when your lace comes undone. Whenever you get a negative action stop and try to replace it with a positive action. Once you can handle this, try using another session to view the race from ? See what you would see as you run down Commercial Road, cross Duzi Bridge, up Alexander Road into Ritchie Road and up to the top of Polly Shortts – how do you feel, what speed are you running? Carry on like this right through until you see the arch of Tollgate Bridge, the downhill of the freeway into Pine St and the final turn into Walnut Rd and finally the see and feel the atmosphere as you see the Finish banner and cross the line. See yourself getting the medal, feel what it is like to hold it, feel its weight, see how good it feels to show it off to your family at the finish – enjoy the feeling of success. As you visualize you will become aware of the aspects likely to bother you, or go wrong, during the race and most importantly you have the opportunity to develop strategies to cope with them. Try to do this visualisation on alternate days. Once you get into the rhythm you will be able to click into this mode quickly, even during any short break during a day. Every runner has the potential to be a winner – a winner or an achiever within the family and work restrictions that curtails training time. Mental training can take you even closer to achieving that potential. STEP – 4 PACING: Pacing is about creating the most efficient and effective way of achieving our optimum time, Pacing is about the conservation of energy: - It is the maximizing of performance from the limited energy resources so that we achieve our goal without either leaving excess fuel in the tank nor running out of energy before we arrive! Over the training months we have developed a rhythm of stopping for water every 4- 8kms and in some group runs stopping for longer times to buy a drink from Caf. Why then do we expect to run non- stop from Pietermaritzburg to Durban on 3. May? There is no logic to support anyone finishing over 7 hours adopting a non- stop run approach to Comrades and so we need to adapt our typical run and walk rhythm to suit our goals for Comrades race day. During these walks: your muscles get a change of movement, your heart rate reduces, your respiration rate drops, your muscles are stretched, AND you have an opportunity to make sure you are getting enough fluid and energy. It is a strategy that many Gold medalists have utilized to their success: Runners who wait until they are forced into walking find that they spend much of the last kilometres walking and losing much more time than if they spaced the walks out more evenly during the race. Choose a run and walk schedule: By example; if you walk every 9kms then there will be 9 walks in the total length of Comrades. Allowing for walks are each 3 minutes long, then the total length of walks is 2. In this time you will easily cover 2km, which you then don’t need to run! This means that you now have only 8. The ability to have 2. Before you panic remember that your average running pace is around 2. The 1. 2 seconds increase actually makes it easier to run, as it becomes closer to your normal training pace. For example: a 3: 4. He has a realistic Comrades finish of 9 hours which is an average of 6 minutes per km and if using a run and walk schedule would run Comrades at 5 minutes 5. GPS and Heart rate – The easiest way to an even effort run: Although we all talk about pacing, the best way of running is actually to use even effort throughout the distance. Training with the latest Garmin Forerunner systems display your actual running pace (mins per km), the distance, and your heart rate on the single watch face every step of the way. In addition the watch will automatically alert you every km along the route and this total combination enables the runner to equate a feeling of EFFORT. When running uphill your heart rate increases and this needs to be balanced by a reduction on pace, whereas on downhill running the heart rate decreases and the pace can increase to keep the same overall effort. However bear in mind that the use of technology for pacing is not allowed under IAAF rules and so these watches (or any heart rate / distance devices – and music) may be banned in Comrades particularly if you are in contention for any age group or open award / prize. Refer to Comrades final instructions. STEP 5 CARBO- LOADING: Carbo- loading has developed over the years. Initially the protocol required us to go for a long run 7 days before the race, and then virtually omit all carbohydrates from our diets for 3- 4 days; finally we switched to the opposite extreme by eating only carbohydrates. Such dramatic changes in eating over a week wreck havoc on our digestive system. No wonder it caused gastric upsets. Another problem surrounds what to eat in the loading days. Most high carbohydrate foods tend to be bulky and fairly bland in taste: - Potatoes, bread, rice, pasta and vegetables, – with fruit and sugar providing some taste relief.
Budd Coates is the training director for Runner’s World as well as the senior director of Employee Fitness and Health for all of Rodale Inc. Coates designs all of. The fact is that chocolate; pizzas, cakes, and even beer are NOT good for carbo- loading. Alcohol is not only stored as fat, but also increases urine production and so the chances of starting the race in a partially dehydrated state. It is vital to drink more fluid during the carbohydrate loading phase, as each gram of carbohydrate needs 3ml of water to . On loading days you require roughly an additional 2 litres of fluid! Since this should increase your weight by around 1. The amount of carbohydrate required varies from person to person. As a very rough guide, most . These figures are all very well, but they mean little to the average runner. For this reason I have always turned them into some practical examples, such as 3. Remember this needs to be taken without any sauces, or toppings! In addition if you were to try this you would not be getting your requirements in fat and protein. The only solution is to take high quality carbohydrate drinks, as fluids are easier to consume. The quality is important. Most mass- produced commercial ready to drink . In addition many of the . Carbo Train, or Revenge, and one of the above meal replacement drinks each day you will get 5. You will also be consuming an additional 1. Quality meal replacements have a balance of carbohydrate, fat and protein, which will ensure that you have a good foundation for your meal plan. Then simply keep to your normal meals so you get your . Remember one of your quality carbohydrate drinks should be taken immediately (within 1. Since the carbohydrate stores in your liver deplete every minute, even when sleeping, it is vital to have breakfast on Comrades day, otherwise you can be starting with only 3.
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