Fordyce writes for us

Sometimes you bump into people in the oddest of places. Last Sunday I was standing in the queue for the loo shortly before the start of the Sarens marathon when I felt a tap on my shoulder. There was no mistaking the beaming smile looking at me. It was Ludwick Modibe Mamabolo.

The always smiling, always positive Ludwick is most famous in South Africa for his win in the 2012 Comrades and for six top-10 finishes and three second places. Nothing appears to deflate Ludwick’s enthusiasm. He was still smiling and cracking jokes when, in his one disappointing Comrades Marathon, he was forced to abandon the 2015 race.

Clearly he felt the queue at the garage was no place to stop joking and he teased me loudly to the general mirth of the others in the queue.

“Hey everyone, did you know that Bruce’s best Comrades time is one second slower than mine?”

I’m afraid it’s true. Ludwick ran 5:24:05 last year and I ran 5:24:06 in 1986.

Before I could reply that at least I won my race in 1986 whereas Ludwick finished second, he was posing for selfies with other runners and dishing out training tips.

Someone asked him what time he was hoping to run that morning in the Sarens marathon.

“No this is just a training run for me, “he replied. “A nice long slow run” Someone else remarked “and these long runs are the best for preparing you for your big race aren’t they Ludwick”?

And then a pearl of wisdom from the runner who could well win his second Comrades this year

“No, the best training run, and the most important training run, is the one you dislike the most.”

I immediately had goosebumps and not just from the pre-dawn chill. I knew exactly what he meant. We all have sessions we hate, the ones we try to avoid, and the ones that make us nervous just thinking about them.

They are inevitably the sessions that have the greatest benefits and that help us reach that next level of excellence.

Speedwork sessions on the track were the ones I loathed the most. In fact, I found all quality sessions very tough, both mentally and physically.

But there was something about the track which filled me with nervous fear; the white lane lines curling around on the grass or tartan, the sight of runners donning spikes, the stopwatches clicking. All these warned me of the pain ahead. So much so that these days I cannot contemplate running another track training session in my life

But they worked. Oh yes, those timed track sessions, the ones I hated the most transformed me from a good Comrades silver medallist to a gold medallist almost instantly.

Four or five times a 1 000m was my key session. A warm-up jog, some strides and then I was ready to sprint around the track for twoand-a-half-laps laps averaging two minutes 50 to 55 seconds. I would walk 200m to recover and then surge again.

I know that most Comrades runners feel the same as I did in the Eighties. Ultra-runners aren’t afraid to run 40, 50, 60km training runs, but a short distance race or searing track session. No thank you!

Of course we need the long runs, but the greatest breakthroughs come from quality work.

Quality sessions don’t have to be run on the track. Not everyone can find a track and track work can be boring at the best of times and boring and painful at the worst. It is more fun and less boring to run hill sessions with friends or short distance time trials and races with clubmates. The key to success is to run them honestly and hard.

Unfortunately they have to hurt a bit. If you finish a session gasping for air and with your hands on your knees, it was a productive session.

And now is the time. As we start the month of April it’s a good time to knuckle down and start some quality work. It doesn’t have to be brutal. Ease into it gently and gradually increase the intensity, but make sure these sessions become regular weekly commitments.

Now I just need to catch Ludwick in another loo queue and ask him about his best Comrades up run time.

I believe my time may be slightly faster than his, certainly more than one second.

Bruce Fordyce