On the latest episode of Ask Coach Parry today we have a short and sweet question coming in from David. He’s saying, “Hi coach.  I’m a runner with a personal best of 1:20 for half-marathon and a 3:30 for a marathon.”

He did his first Comrades Marathon this year, but he struggled just after half way due to stomach problems, and he crossed the halfway mark in 4:30.  He’s intending to try and finish the Comrades Marathon next year well under silver, and even perhaps aiming for a Wally Haywood.

He needs your guidance in terms of training that can assist him to achieve his goals.  What should he be doing mileage wise, sort of what should he qualify at, and that sort of thing?

Brad Brown: On the latest episode of Ask Coach Parry today we have a short and sweet question coming in from David. He’s saying, “Hi coach.  I’m a runner with a personal best of 1:20 for half-marathon and a 3:30 for a marathon.”

He did his first Comrades Marathon this year, but he struggled just after half way due to stomach problems, and he crossed the halfway mark in 4:30.  He’s intending to try and finish the Comrades Marathon next year well under silver, and even perhaps aiming for a Wally Haywood.

He needs your guidance in terms of training that can assist him to achieve his goals.  What should he be doing mileage wise, sort of what should he qualify at, and that sort of thing?

LINDSEY PARRY:  There’s a massive disconnect between his half-marathon time and his marathon time.  It is possible that the marathon was just an easy training run, I guess.  With an 80 minute half-marathon, he should have run close to 3 hours for sure, but he really should have gone under 3 hours.

And then obviously at the Comrades Marathon, with having his stomach issues, but certainly based on his marathon time, 4 ½ hours was the right time to be going through halfway.

What to do if you want to run a Comrades Marathon silver

So if he wants to run well under silver, the first piece of advice I need to give him is to train to be able to run a marathon in well under three hours, so probably in the region of 2:45, If he’s serious about running a Wally Haywood, he probably wants to get that marathon closer to 2:35.

So those are sort of the levels of performance that will give you an indication that you are moving in the right direction.  A sub-7 hour Comrades Marathon  2 000 to 2 300 km from January till race day is sort of your accepted number.

That typically would mean starting in January at around 70 to 80 km a week and building it up, and this is largely individual, their ability depending. Some people prefer focusing a bit more on intensity, and some people really need to focus entirely on the volume, so that’s why I’m giving quite a broad range here.

But you would build yourself up to your peak mileage weeks in late March and early April will probably be in the region of 160 to 200 to 220 km. And I guess where you fall in that spectrum will depend a little bit on the amount of intensity that you want to do.

But that’s certainly where you’re looking to go if you want to go under six hours for the Comrades Marathon, but I think he’s still got a bit of homework to do.  He’s really got to get that marathon time down a lot lower, into the 2:30s, and he’s also going to have to get that half-marathon time down into the 70's.

So yes that will give him an idea of where he needs to go.  So good luck David!