On this edition of the Ask Coach Parry podcast, I’m Brad Brown, Lindsey Parry joins us once again. Lindsey, it’s just after Comrades 2015 and a lot of people have obviously achieved their goals, but many people have also failed in attempts. Whether it be at a specific time, if they were going for a Bill Rowan or for a bronze medal and even sometimes missing a cut off.

But a lot of people are itching to get back onto the roads, let’s talk about recovery after Comrades. It’s a big effort, it takes a lot out of you, when should you seriously think about starting to run again.

I know runners are the world’s worst, they get itchy feet, but you really want to rest up a bit after an effort like the Comrades Marathon.

Lindsey Parry: You do, there’s no coincidence that people essentially qualify for about two weeks of leave a year from their jobs. You need that break to freshen up mentally and get ready for another year of hard work. So this business of training for Comrades is no different to that.

You are essentially, this rest is rejuvenating mind and body, so that you can get going and have a nice second half of the year of training.

Two weeks minimum of no running, no exercise. I try and convince people to take three, but that’s not usually adhered to. But in that third week, gym, swimming, cycling, rowing, those are great options and then in the fourth week after Comrades, you can get back on the road and then I encourage people to do a reverse taper.

How a Comrades reverse taper can benefit you

So you build up, the same way that you tapered in the last three weeks going to Comrades. This time it’s going to be the other way around and you’re going to build your mileage up over three weeks.

If you do that, you will be so amazed at how well you will run in the second half of the year. If you go straight into training and you do too much too quickly, whenever you try and run hard or when you do races, you will feel this heaviness in your legs and that will persist for 12 weeks.

So do it right and you’ll be running very happily and very well, six weeks after race day.

BB: Awesome stuff Lindsey, thank you very much for that and if you are one of those people who are itching to get going, I think that’s fabulous advice. We’ll see you out on the road in a few weeks from now. From myself, Brad Brown and Lindsey Parry, it’s cheers.