In this episode of Ask Coach Parry we touch on a topic that was mentioned in our first Comrades Marathon webinar for the 2015 Comrades Marathon (The can register for the next one here). It is quite interesting and it deals with Comrades Marathon training and Comrades Marathon coaches.

Obviously in the build up to the Comrades Marathon, you want to find a coach training philosophies you can work with and fit to your style of running and what you’re looking to get out of the Comrades Marathon. But then you need to stick to that coach’s advice, and that includes using that coach’s Comrades Marathon pacing charts on race day.

We used a football example in the webinar.  It’s like Sir Alex Ferguson coaching Manchester United all season, but then on match day they listen to Joe Soap for the match tactics.  It’s not going work and they’re not going win.  It is pretty much the same with the Comrades Marathon.

There’s lots of Comrades Marathon pacing charts around and online.  There are lots of Comrades Marathon training programmes around and online.  What advice could you give to someone in the build up to the Comrades Marathon, training a specific way and then using a different pacing chart on, on race day?

Brad Brown: In this episode of Ask Coach Parry we touch on a topic that was mentioned in our first Comrades Marathon webinar for the 2015 Comrades Marathon (The can register for the next one here). It is quite interesting and it deals with Comrades Marathon training and Comrades Marathon coaches.

Obviously in the build up to the Comrades Marathon, you want to find a coach training philosophies you can work with and fit to your style of running and what you’re looking to get out of the Comrades Marathon. But then you need to stick to that coach’s advice, and that includes using that coach’s Comrades Marathon pacing charts on race day.

We used a football example in the webinar.  It’s like Sir Alex Ferguson coaching Manchester United all season, but then on match day they listen to Joe Soap for the match tactics.  It’s not going to work and they’re not going to win.  It is pretty much the same with the Comrades Marathon.

There’s lots of Comrades Marathon pacing charts around and online.  There are lots of Comrades Marathon training programmes around and online.  What advice could you give to someone in the build up to the Comrades Marathon, training a specific way and then using a different pacing chart on, on race day?

LINDSEY PARRY:  Look, obviously it’s the same as when it comes to actual coaching methodologies. Different coaches are going to differ in their opinion on how to run on Comrades Marathon race day.

But I do find that a little crazy, when somebody invests so much time and energy in a particular person or coach, often invests money in that coach, and then decides to use their own pacing strategy or someone else’s pacing strategy because they don’t buy into what the coach is saying.

Getting your Comrades Marathon timing right

Now the reality is that a coach’s Comrades Marathon pacing strategy is developed in part from the training programme that they’ve given you and the way that they’ve prepared you to run.  So, you know, if you’re going to ignore that advice, there’s no way that you’re going to be able to get the best out of your day.

Now, I am going to use one of my athletes as an example, and I know that she won’t mind. But a lot of people just refuse to accept that you can run the Comrades with a negative split or a positive split and I’ve seen it over and over and over again.

I’ve actually got three athletes in particular whose examples I can use, but the one I wanna use is Kate Reece. Kate went through half way in last year’s Comrades, in what some people consider to be not great conditions, but the reality is they weren’t so bad.

I think what happened is that for most people, the weather wasn’t ideal, but on the back of the previous year a lot of people thought ah, here we go again. But anyway, the conditions weren’t ideal.

She went through half way in 4:11:12.  And she finished the race in 8:13:20.  So that is a significant negative split.  She went 4:02 in the second half of the race.

Now this is an accountant who works a full time job, and raises two children.  So she cannot do ridiculous amounts of mileage, and she cannot do extreme intensity, because she has a full life that needs to be lived, and people that need to be looked after. And that’s why I always use her as a perfect example.

If you set your target realistically, and you base it on your training, and you go through half way in line with that goal target, particularly on the down run, you have to run faster in the second half, because the whole second half is downhill.

I can’t stress that enough to people.  Slowly but surely I’m getting more and more people that will listen to me and believe me.  As I said, last year I had three athletes that either ran faster than, or within 10 minutes.  And for me, five to ten minutes is still an acceptable positive split, but anything more than that and you just went through half way miles too fast

And in fact, if I use another one of my good friends, Kirsten Leemans, he ran just over a ten minute positive split.  He ran a 6:20.  And our pacing chart that we worked out for him was to get him over the finish line at 6:25.  So he ran faster than we thought we could.

But he went through half way on target, to run very close to 6:10.  I think it was 6:11 or 6:12.  And eventually faded out to 6:20.

So if he’d just gone through half way, it’s three of four minutes slower, and that’s not a lot.  He probably could have gotten close to a 6:15, 6:16.  But he still ran a good race, and pretty well paced. Well he ran an excellent race, and he ran a pretty well paced race.

So yes, if you’re going to invest your time into doing this properly and training for it properly, on race day get your pacing right and get the reward that you deserve.