Run With Coach Parry

On this edition of the Ask Coach Parry podcast, I’m Brad Brown joined again by Lindsey Parry, the official Comrades Marathon coach. Lindsey, this isn’t a question that’s been submitted, it’s one I thought would be pretty important to chat about right now. The route for the 2015 Comrades Marathon Up run has changed slightly. There’s been a bit of a detour in Pinetown due to road works on Old Main Road and I wanted to get your take on how that is going to affect your pacing in the first half of this year’s Comrades Marathon. I think it’s about 800m that’s been added to the overall distance. Obviously the halfway point doesn’t actually change from a distance perspective and what should people be aware of for the various medals if they’re chasing silver, Bill Rowan, bronze or a Vic Clapham? Read More · Training Programs · www.CoachParry.com

It is just around the corner and as we record this, just over 2 weeks to go to Comrades Marathon race day and here’s a question in from Corne van Rensburg. Corne said; I started running on the 1st May 2014 after I was challenged to run the Comrades Marathon. Got off the couch, killed my cigarettes and started running. Fortunately I’m rather apt at running and got into it quite quickly. Started slowly, aiming to run a 5km, then moved to 10km, 21km etc. Qualified for Comrades at Kaapsehoop last year running a 4:07, and finished the year on 911km. This year Corne has run four more marathons and two ultras, Loskop being the best at 4:51. Up to now Corne’s lucky to be injury free, and has run 1 150km for the year so far. The question is this; while I feel fantastic, I have not been in this kind of shape ever in my life, have I done too much? Is there a chance I’ll show up on the start of Comrades and not be fresh? I’m following the bronze medal program and currently tapering. Reduced my weekend long runs and my q

On this edition of the Ask Coach Parry podcast, Lindsey Parry is with us once again. I’m Brad Brown. Lindsey today’s question, one about spectating, it’s from Peter Terblanche. Peter wants to know, how does his wife second him at Comrades, he says he can’t find any info, what does he need to know and where can he find info about where to second? Read More · Training Programs · www.CoachParry.com

On this edition of the Ask Coach Parry podcast, a couple of interesting questions have come through, regarding Comrades Marathon pacing. We’ve been chatting quite a bit about tapering and what people should be doing, but obviously a lot of people looking ahead towards race day and what they should be doing as far as race day management goes. The first one came through from Bruce Griffiths and he wanted to know the best settings for monitoring target pace on your watch. Should you be keeping an eye on your current pace, the pace you’re running at at the time or should you look at your average pace? Another question in from Jerome Reed, he said he’s looking for an Up run calculator to work out splits at certain distances, he said not the ones you buy at the Expo as those don’t take into account that you tire and your pace slows. I know you’ve got a lot to say about pacing charts because your pacing charts are the ones that are for sale at the Expo, what advice could you give Bruce with regards to pacing and J

On this edition of the Ask Coach Parry podcast, we have a very interesting question. Not too long to go to Comrades now, everyone is talking about tapering and what they should and shouldn’t be doing. Namhla Zondane said, should she be doing speed work, anything that we do exercise wise with only three weeks left to go. Also worried that her weight is going up, should she be worried? Read More · Training Programs · www.CoachParry.com

On this Monday edition of the Ask Coach Parry podcast we have had a couple of injury related questions. The first one comes from Raoul le Roux; and Raoul is saying, he picked up an injury, he hasn’t run for three weeks. In the build up to Comrades this year he’s done four half marathons, two 32’s and one marathon and he’s totalled 970km from 1st January until now. He says he is receiving physio, if he takes a break from now until race day, does he have a chance to finish? Then one from Gillian Innis saying that she broke a metatarsal bone in her right foot in September last year, only started in January again, he’s done 750km since then, no marathons, only halves and no ultras, she has entered Comrades, she started in H batch last year and she missed the cut-off by 25 minutes. Should she give it a go this year or should she give it a skip? Read More · Training Programs · www.CoachParry.com

On today’s Ask Coach Parry podcast, it is Friday, the weekend is upon us and only a few weeks to go to the 2015 Comrades Marathon. Lindsey, today’s question comes from a guy who is no stranger to road running and athletics in South Africa, Wes Botton, one of the top journo’s in the sport and he’s not a bad athlete himself either. Wes is saying that he’s very underdone for Comrades this year. He’s done far less mileage than he should have. He did 56km last week Friday at five minutes a kilometre and felt pretty comfortable, sore but okay he said. He said, can he aim for silver and hope that he doesn’t blow or should he go for a Bill Rowan? Read More · Training Programs · www.CoachParry.com

On this edition of the Ask Coach Parry podcast we’ve got a great question in from Judith Simon. We mentioned yesterday about keeping your hands clean and that sort of thing, I’ve just got back from the Old Mutual joBerg2c and I was amazed to see how much hand sanitiser was around that event. But obviously people just really, really being particular about keeping their hands clean and avoiding germs as much as possible, but Judith wanted to know, is it advisable getting a flu vaccine now in the build up to Comrades? Read More · Training Programs · www.CoachParry.com

In today’s edition of the Ask Coach Parry podcast, Wayne Thomason got in touch. Lindsey, Wayne was saying he’s feeling a little bit sore, he’s worried about being around anybody with flu, do we have any recommendations? Is it normal to be feeling quite sore and tender at this time in your Comrades training, and from a paranoia perspective it’s quite normal to be avoiding people? Read More · Training Programs · www.CoachParry.com

On this edition of the Ask Coach Parry podcast, we have two similar questions. Scott Giles, with just less than a month to go to Comrades, and Hermo Terblanche want to know about tapering. Scott asked at this stage, heading into Comrades and looking at the taper, should he be tapering as far as distance goes, speed-wise or both. Hermo wanted to know percentage wise for tapering, how much should he cut back in May compared to the mileage he reached in April. Read More · Training Programs · www.CoachParry.com

On this edition of the Ask Coach Parry podcast, with being less than a month out from Comrades, questions have come in thick and fast. So for the next week or so we’re going to be answering all the questions that were posted and the first one came through from Brett Driver. Lindsey, Brett says he’s having a problem with his sciatic. He says, please help, his right foot has gone numb, what can he do to sort that out? Read More · Training Programs · www.CoachParry.com

On this edition of the Ask Coach Parry Podcast we look at how to make sure you run your race, no matter what seeding group you are in. Lindsey, great question from Dave Wood and I want to add my five cents worth at the end of it too but Dave said he qualified for Comrades with a 3:30 marathon which gets him that C seeding. He says generally he runs in the 3:20 to 3:40 range. He had originally been looking to go for a sub-9:30 hour finish at Comrades, although, he's been battling with various illnesses and subsequent lack of training. He's now just looking for a finish. So, he's probably go off a lot slower than the rest of the guys who will be starting in that C seeding batch. He said, am I not going to deliberately get in the way if he starts toward the front but is it a possibility that he could, if he does start in the front because he's going to be going a lot slower? Equally, he doesn't want to start at the back of the group if he's going to lose vital minutes that he'll need later. So, his question is

On this edition of the Ask Coach Parry Podcast we look at the IronMan, Comrades Marathon double. Today's question comes from Jason Rademan, he says he completed IronMan at the end of March. He had a pretty good race by his standards. He finished with a marathon of 3:53 which is way more than pretty decent Jason. That's fantastic. He's planning on doing Comrades this year. Last year he did the double as well but he thinks he made an error by doing a 48km club run two weeks after IronMan which gave him a few niggles which he carried into Comrades. He's aiming for Bronze and finishing around the 10:30 mark this year. He needs some advice on the amount of mileage he should be doing from now up until the build-up of Comrades and how many long runs, 42km plus, he should be doing between now and race day? Read More · Training Programs · www.CoachParry.com

On this edition of the Ask Coach Parry podcast we answer a very interesting question submitted on our website. It comes through from Mark Inz and it's got to do with doubling up. He said, I'll be running both the London Marathon and Comrades this year and would really appreciate some advice as to what to do between the two in order to arrive at Comrades in the best possible shape. He says his main target has been and remains the London Marathon and it'll be 100% effort on the day. So, he's going to London, he wants to go and smash it as hard as he can. Clearly that compromises the shape he can arrive in for Comrades on the 31st of May. However, he would still like to do everything possible in the 5-week window following London to be as prepared as possible under the circumstances. Read More · Training Programs · www.CoachParry.com

On this edition of the Ask Coach Parry podcast and the question was submitted via our website, askcoachparry.com. Nicole got in touch said she'll be running her first Comrades come 31 May. She’s got two main concerns for race day though. The first one is, how to avoid cramping, and the second, how slow is slow? Her qualifying marathon was a 4:46 and she says she can comfortably run at 7min, 7m30s a kilometre but she's still afraid of not starting slow enough or starting too slow that she ends up not making it through the cut-off point. So I think it's a valid concern, particularly that second question. Lindsey, what's your thought? Read More · Training Programs · www.CoachParry.com

On this addition of the Ask Coach Parry podcast, we look to answer a question from a Comrades Marathon first timer. As Comrades draws nearer most novices are starting to already feel pre-race nerves. Will Broad got in touch and he said; “Hi coach, I've been training since November 2014, registered for Comrades 2015 and did my first marathon in Feb 2015, clocked a time of 3:48, did second marathon in March in 3:38. I'm currently doing about 70 km a week. Why is it that I still feel a lot of pain in my legs and struggle to finish each time I try a distance above the marathon? For example, 50km, what chance do I then have of finishing Comrades?” Read More · Training Programs · www.CoachParry.com

On the next edition of the Ask Coach Parry podcast, we look at potential Comrades panic, following on from a poor Two Oceans performance. Today's question comes from Jennifer and she's in a bit of a panic after Two Oceans because she missed the cut off in the Comrades Up Run in 2013 by 2 km. She's been training fairly well including strength training and using one of your programmes, she's averaging about 75 to 80 km a week. She managed a 4:10 marathon at the beginning of Feb despite a knee injury. Two weeks before Oceans she was completely fatigued so she changed the schedule to 20 km on alternate days and a final 20 km on the Tuesday before Oceans. It was her fifth Oceans and her worst time. She did a 6:20. The previous 4 have been an average of 5:45 and however, she has had a great recovery this time round. What do you suggest she does to make sure she makes that Comrades 2015 cut off? I mean looking at 20 km on the Tuesday, you should be tapering. Surely that's too much, Lindsey? Read More · Train

On this episode of the Ask Coach Parry Podcast we look at running injuries and niggles in the build up to the Comrades Marathon, Enrico submitted his question. He said his Achilles tendon started to give him some trouble and only just on seven weeks to go till the Comrades Marathon. It's not painful yet but he knows that it's not right. It's feeling a bit tender. He was planning on doing the Bruintjies Hoogte Ultra as his last long run before Comrades. It's a very hilly race and he's having second thoughts as he doesn't want to aggravate the Achilles further and risk not going to Comrades. Up until the end of March training's been pretty good. He said he's done about 1200 km since September last year. How long should he refrain from running to give the Achilles enough time to heal so that he doesn't miss Comrades? He's currently doing about 70 km per week? Read More · Training Programs · www.CoachParry.com

On this episode of Ask Coach Parry we chat about how many marathons and ultra-marathons are enough in the build up to running your first Comrades Marathon. Kate submitted her question and it went something like this: started running in August 2014 and did 700km from August to December. So far this year have done 650km from January, this is going to be her first Comrades. She said she ran her first ever marathon in East London at the Buff. She did a 4:26 and did the Long Tom in 6:35, planning on running the RAC60 as well as the Wally Haywood Marathon on the 1st of May. Are 2 marathons and 2 Ultras enough and what sort of time can I aim for at Comrades? I wish for a sub 11 Comrades Marathon but I'm petrified because I've been a supporter at the 9 of the 10 Comrades that her dad ran and she knows how tough this race is, would appreciate any advice. Lindsey, what's the take? Is 2 ultras, two marathons enough? Read More · Training Programs · www.CoachParry.com

Welcome to the next edition of the Ask Coach Parry podcast. today’s question is about someone whose done a big event and who is now moving onto Comrades and it was submitted on our Facebook page. We posted a thing saying we’re going to be doing the recording, Craig got in touch and he said, how much time should be taken off after Ironman before picking up training again for the Comrades Marathon. Also, what’s the maximum distance to run, assuming he’s not doing a long run, having done one standard marathon and the Ironman marathon as well? Read More · Training Programs · www.CoachParry.com