On this edition of the Ask Coach Parry podcast, I’m Brad Brown and today’s question comes through from Craig and it’s a Comrades combined with IronMan question for Lindsey. Craig wanted to know; he’s doing a lot of IronMan training and needs to keep that up. He’s entered a half in March 2016, I love this, he’s planning ahead.

He wants to know, is doing a half IronMan in March 2016 too close to the Comrades Marathon? Plus can he incorporate his swimming, riding and running into the Comrades training program, what would you suggest?

Finally when would you seriously start training for Comrades in the build up to 2016, and he’s asking where can he get a program from for first timers. He has done the Two Oceans, so he’s no novice to running, but he’s thinking of making the step up to the Comrades Marathon next year.

On this edition of the Ask Coach Parry podcast, I’m Brad Brown and today’s question comes through from Craig and it’s a Comrades combined with IronMan question for Lindsey. Craig wanted to know; he’s doing a lot of IronMan training and needs to keep that up. He’s entered a half in March 2016, I love this, he’s planning ahead.

He wants to know, is doing a half IronMan in March 2016 too close to the Comrades Marathon? Plus can he incorporate his swimming, riding and running into the Comrades training program, what would you suggest?

Finally when would you seriously start training for Comrades in the build up to 2016, and he’s asking where can he get a program from for first timers. He has done the Two Oceans, so he’s no novice to running, but he’s thinking of making the step up to the Comrades Marathon next year.

Lindsey Parry: First up, training for a 70.3 and doing one in March, particularly if it’s early March, but even if it’s late March, that to me is not a major problem for Comrades at all. I think that you’ll find that the diversity of training; the swimming and the cycling and the running, it’s a lot easier on your body and it certainly gives you a much better sense of general preparedness.

The only thing I would say is that because you are then planning to do Comrades is that you do want to perhaps do a bit more running than you otherwise would if you were just doing a pure 70.3 training program.

That doesn’t necessarily mean adding extra running on top of all the training that you would have done, because that may compromise your recovery.

Comrades and a 70.3 – just strike a balance

You need to find a balance that works for you. If going to have to cut a little bit cut in the swim, because the swim is the one where you may only lose a minute to 1.5 minutes. But the reality is that if you cut your bike, you may lose half an hour to 40 minutes. So you want to look at which is the one with the biggest diminishing returns.

Then, March and April are your peak training months for Comrades. You will need a little bit of recovery after IronMan 70.3. But it’s really not much worse, or in fact a marathon is worse than a 70.3. So if you take a week off after the 70.3 and then get stuck into proper Comrades training from then, you should really be fine. I would encourage you to keep some of the swim and bike training going through April and into May, obviously you’d just do a little less and a little more running.

BB: Craig, I hope that helps, thank you very much for your question. Don’t forget, if you want to get yours answered, just head over to the website, askcoachparry.com, we’re back again tomorrow with another edition, until then, from the two of us, it’s cheers.