This is Ask Coach Parry and today we have quite a detailed question with a lot of info in. It comes from Peter. He says he is relatively new to running and he is doing his Comrades Marathon qualifier at the Pietermaritzburg marathon on the 22^nd of February.

He used last year to develop a running base and now he is following your Bill Rowan training programme and is comfortable with the paces. His recent times were as follows; he ran a sub 21 on a flat 5km route, sub 36 on a hilly 8km route, his 15km time is 1’14.

His half marathon time is 1’47 at the Kearsney race which is very very hilly. For the slightly longer runs he feels that he is running within himself and could have gone faster, and he has also done slightly longer training runs at lower intensity.

He feels that he is in pretty good shape for his qualifier. With your training programme, it says that you should be able to run a 3’30 marathon. His question is should he aim to run a 3’30 in February or should he take it a bit more comfortable and run a sub 4, although he feels like he is in shape to run a 3’30.

He is just a bit concerned about his pacing and how he should be running his qualifier. The wise bit of the question here: he says he doesn’t want to over exert himself and risk injury for the  bulk of his training in March and April.

Brad Brown: This is Ask Coach Parry and today we have quite a detailed question with a lot of info in. It comes from Peter. He says he is relatively new to running and he is doing his Comrades Marathon qualifier at the Pietermaritzburg marathon on the 22^nd of February.

He used last year to develop a running base and now he is following your Bill Rowan training programme and is comfortable with the paces. His recent times were as follows; he ran a sub 21 on a flat 5km route, sub 36 on a hilly 8km route, his 15km time is 1’14.

His half marathon time is 1’47 at the Kearsney race which is very very hilly. For the slightly longer runs he feels that he is running within himself and could have gone faster, and he has also done slightly longer training runs at lower intensity.

He feels that he is in pretty good shape for his qualifier. With your training programme, it says that you should be able to run a 3’30 marathon. His question is should he aim to run a 3’30 in February or should he take it a bit more comfortable and run a sub 4, although he feels like he is in shape to run a 3’30.

He is just a bit concerned about his pacing and how he should be running his qualifier. The wise bit of the question here: he says he doesn’t want to over exert himself and risk injury for the  bulk of his training in March and April.

What he should do

Lindsey Parry: That is the most sensible approach. Listening to his times he is also probably not quite Bill Rowan but he’s close enough that I'm happy that he follows the Bill Rowan programme. I would look to try and run a 3’40 something marathon.

If that is pretty chilled, he doesn’t have to fasbyt and he can run at a fairly consistent pace and he feels ok the 2 or 3 days after the marathon. If he hits around 3”45 and 3”50, and he can do that quite easily, then he probably is quite close to a 3’30 marathon potential.

He can take the confidence knowing that he is probably a 3’30, which means that he is close enough to go for the Bill Rowan. However, if he goes out at 3”45 and he starts to feel that that pace is hurting, he should back off a little bit so that he doesn’t hurt himself and then, yes, aim for sub 4.

But then we will also know he is probably better off chasing a 9’15, 9’30 at the Comrades Marathon. That is the way that I would do it.