Today we answer a Comrades Marathon training question submitted to Ask Coach Parry by Rowan Demmer. He says “Hi Coach. 2015 will be my first Comrades Marathon, I have been training since June this year giving myself a year to train.

I have been following the Bill Rowan training program but running at an average pace of 6:40 odd per km.  I'm doing roughly 50km a week in Musgrave area in Durban so there are some serious hills that I use to train on the normal weekend runs.

I have done a 10km in July (55min), a Half Marathon in September (1h59min), and finally my Qualifier marathon last month October (4h52min).

I was wondering how do I adjust my Comrades Marathon training program now that I have already run my marathon a month earlier than the schedule says?

I took a week off and then ran for an hour and legs were still tired even now 2 weeks after the Marathon, it feels as though I am starting to train all over again, feel a bit demotivated, is this normal? Thanks for the great info that you guys share.”

Brad Brown: Today we answer a Comrades Marathon training question submitted to Ask Coach Parry by Rowan Demmer. He says “Hi Coach. 2015 will be my first Comrades Marathon, I have been training since June this year giving myself a year to train.

I have been following the Bill Rowan training program but running at an average pace of 6:40 odd per km.  I'm doing roughly 50km a week in Musgrave area in Durban so there are some serious hills that I use to train on the normal weekend runs.

I have done a 10km in July (55min), a Half Marathon in September (1h59min), and finally my Qualifier marathon last month October (4h52min).

I was wondering how do I adjust my Comrades Marathon training program now that I have already run my marathon a month earlier than the schedule says?

I took a week off and then ran for an hour and legs were still tired even now 2 weeks after the Marathon, it feels as though I am starting to train all over again, feel a bit demotivated, is this normal? Thanks for the great info that you guys share.”

What should you do?

Lindsey Parry: Firstly he should not be following the Comrades Marathon Bill Rowan programme, he should be following the finishers programme.

But on the plus side he has taken a slightly sensible approach in that he hasn’t tried to force the Comrades Marathon Bill Rowan training paces. He has been running bronze training paces.

If you look at his 10km and his 21km he’s probably not too far off following the Comrades Marathon bronze programme training paces. The Comrades Marathon bronze training programme is probably the appropriate programme.

By following the Comrades Marathon Bronze programme paces there is a bit of self limiting in the mileage. He is not going to run as much mileage as a Comrades Marathon Bill Rowan person is supposed to. So he probably has not done too much harm at this stage.

Looking across his 3 races of 10km, then into the half marathon then into the marathon, he’s got a nice transit from the 10 into the half. Which means that he probably had enough time in training between the 2, but then he really struggles in his qualifier.

That tells me that he is a month ahead of the programme, and it tells me that he was a month light on training. As a result that marathon is probably not a true reflection of his ability as a marathoner.

I would recommend, moving forward now – he’s taken the best part of 2 weeks, I would take another week off. The fact that his legs are so tired also indicates to me that he just went a lot further than what he should be doing now by running that marathon when he did.

Take another week of just training a little bit here and there. Very gradually build yourself up over December, and then get onto that Comrades Marathon bronze programme starting in January.

You should be able to get yourself very close to a 10 ½ hour Comrades Marathon if you just follow the basic steps and train properly. Whereas right now you’re looking more like an 11:45 candidate, based on your drop off from your half marathon to your marathon.