Don’t overdo the long runs

“How do you train for a 90km race, Bruce?” I am often asked this by those who find the concept quite daunting. “You must have to run all day, every day, and include enduring some really long runs?”

“Actually, it’s really quite simple,” I reply, “You just pretend you’re training for an ordinary marathon and add on a couple of longer runs.” And I really mean “a couple”. I understand the thinking behind the question. It seems logical to believe that if the Comrades is twice the length of the standard 42km marathon, a runner must have to run twice the distance in training and run prodigious numbers of long weekend training runs.

But it’s not logical, because the human body can only cope with a certain amount of training and, pushed too hard, it will break down with an injury or illness, or both.

During this critical Comrades training phase I advise runners to train as if they were preparing for a standard 42km run and then carefully select a few longer runs.

I’ve never been a great fan of the weekly long run but I suppose I was indoctrinated into accepting it as an essential part of the weekly training programme by my mentors and heroes in the 1970s. In those days they ran extremely long training runs and they ran them at regular intervals.

While I now disagree with this approach, I accept that of course you have to build some endurance if you are planning to run a 90km race, but just how far should you run, and how frequently?

Training methods have changed since the great Wally Hayward ran each weekend from his house in Germiston to the Pretoria Fountains. He would take a quick dip in the fountains and then run home. That would give Wally a run of about 100km in one morning. He told me he often did that on both Saturday and Sunday mornings. No one now would run a single 100km training run but the influence of Wally Hayward and his generation still pervades and there are many runners who will still cover several runs in the 60 to 70km range in training.

It is interesting that double Comrades champion Leonid Shvetsov never ran further than 35km in one training run, and in his two record-breaking Comrades victories he didn’t appear to be short of distance or endurance.

When I chatted to him about his approach, he and I appeared to think on similar lines.

Leonid agreed that for many of us the training week itself has now become one extended long run. We are running so much from one day to the next, that the big weekend that Wally and his generation favoured is now no longer so critical.

More importantly the long run has to be considered in the context of the entire training week.

How damaging is the long run, and how much does it impinge on the quality of the training during the next few days? If you’re forced to take a couple of days off to recover and stiff and aching legs threaten the next few days training then that long run was clearly not the wisest choice. I always liked to be able to run at least 15km on the morning after a long run. It wouldn’t be a fast run, just a gentle recovery jog, but importantly I didn’t miss a session. I see in my 1986 training diary I recorded running the Two Oceans Marathon in just under four hours with the late Chet Sainsbury. The following day I wrote: “Easy 15km along the Seapoint promenade, legs a little heavy and right calf tight, but otherwise a good run.”

So not wanting to be quite as radical in my thinking as Shvetsov, I am persuaded that a few longer runs are necessary but they have to be carefully planned and equally carefully run. In the weeks leading up to Comrades I would advise running one 60km run, one 50km, two 40km runs, and a handful of runs in the 20 to 30km range. So a sensible weekend long run programme would look something like this; 30km, 25km, 50km (races such as Loskop, Two Oceans, Om-die-Dam etc), 20km, 40km, 30km, 60km (club long run), 20km, 40km, 30km, 20km and taper to race day.

Obviously, every runner would have their own programme and would have to consider the marathon calendar and their plans concerning races and ultras such as Two Oceans, Loskop, Om-dieDam and Bergville.

But this is just a rough guide. The important thing is to remember that these long runs should be run slowly. Speed is not important, but time spent on your legs in a vertical position is important. Speed will be created in other training sessions

Racing the Old Mutual Two Oceans/ Comrades double is possible this year because the gap between the two is sufficiently large.

Easter is very early this year, and Comrades relatively late.

A couple of nights ago I was delighted to address the Team Massmart elite ladies club and we discussed the training tactics to be able to race both. The key is to taper quickly in the week before the Two Oceans and then be brave enough to allow sufficient recovery time after the 56km. Many will be tempted to return too early to hard training. Those that are patient will be able to race well at both races. It’s an exciting challenge.