Welcome to Ask Coach Parry, and we have another great question in from Dave. I think this is something that is going through the  minds of a lot of runners who are preparing for the Comrades Marathon.

He said unfortunately from the start of this year he has been struggling with illness, and he has just managed to fight off a lung infection that prevented him from running at all during January. Now he is behind on his training schedule and he is only just starting to run again this week.

Fortunately he has qualified back in October with a 3.30 marathon in Dublin, so he doesn't have to worry about that.

But given that he usually prepares for a marathon with an 8 - 10 week training programme, is 15 weeks enough to get ready for the Comrades Marathon?

Brad Brown: Welcome to Ask Coach Parry, and we have another great question in from Dave. I think this is something that is going through the  minds of a lot of runners who are preparing for the Comrades Marathon.

He said unfortunately from the start of this year he has been struggling with illness, and he has just managed to fight off a lung infection that prevented him from running at all during January. Now he is behind on his training schedule and he is only just starting to run again this week.

Fortunately he has qualified back in October with a 3.30 marathon in Dublin, so he doesn't have to worry about that.

But given that he usually prepares for a marathon with an 8 - 10 week training programme, is 15 weeks enough to get ready for the Comrades Marathon?

Lindsey: It is plenty of time. In some ways, getting ill or injured early in the year is a bit of a blessing because really what we want to do in January and February is prepare the body for the training that is coming in March and April.

It is still pretty early in February now, so that gives you an opportunity to just build yourself up and get yourself into a nice groove. So that in March and April you are able to put in a really good effort for training.

Don't rush back onto the programme, obviously you are going to have to increase a little quicker to try and catch up by the middle of March, I'd say. As long as you do that you should be in pretty good shape by the time the Comrades Marathon starts.