Fordyce: Train clever not hard

This morning two of my running friends will have run a 25km training run in preparation for the Comrades marathon. I tried to dissuade them, but I hit a brick wall and nothing short of breaking their legs was going to stop them.

The reason I tried to stop them training was that last Saturday they both ran the punishing Old Mutual Two Oceans marathon and they both ran hard. The Two Oceans was no easy training run for either of them. It was a gruelling effort over 56km of brutal hills. I tried to point out to them that only in South Africa do we lull runners into a false sense of security by using the terminology “marathon” to describe a race that is clearly much longer than the standard marathon distance of 42.2km.

“Two Oceans marathon” – “Comrades marathon” Both events should come with warning labels, “beware this race is much longer than a marathon and has enough steep hills to start its own mountain range”. Then perhaps runners such as my two friends would get the message. But unfortunately, this year it has been pos- sible to try for the “double” because Easter fell so early in the year (March 31) and Comrades so late (June 10). The possibility of great performances in both races has been seductively dangling in front of hundreds of runners but these runners have failed to understand that the key to running a successful double is to rest and recover properly between each race. What my two foolish friends should have done this morning is jog a gentle 5km and then relax in front of the television or next to the braai for the rest of the day.

Then perhaps next week they could make a gradual return to normal training.

But my advice to be cautious has clearly fallen on deaf ears and my friends are training flat out, with legs severely battered by the precipitous descents of Chapman’s Peak and Constantia Nek and respiratory tracts sandpapered raw by deep breathing up the steep ascents of the same two famous hills.

They argued that since they were both disappointed with their performances at Two Oceans they are now obliged to train even harder to avoid another disappointment. They reminded me of the spectacular and beautiful stands of cosmos flowers blooming on the sides of highveld roads and reminded me that the Comrades veterans have always warned that if the cosmos are flowering it is high time to train hard for Comrades.

They also reminded me that I once told them that Alan Robb won the old Pieter Korkie 56km (Pretoria to Germiston) in March 1978 and ran an extra 8km that same evening. He won that year’s Comrades in a record time. I tried to reason that global warming has resulted in the cosmos flowers blooming earlier and earlier each year. That argument fell on deaf ears, so too did my warning that Alan Robb could get away with foolish training (running 64km of racing and training in one day) because he chose his parents very cleverly and that his genetics allowed him to make some serious training blunders and emerge unscathed.

So, my advice for those who wish to complete the double and who ran the Two Oceans hard, and indeed the Easter 100km three-day training run, the Bergville/Ladysmith this weekend or the Loskop later this month, is to ensure that you have totally recovered before starting the long training journey to Comrades.

Reward yourselves by enjoying a rest for the remainder of this week and even for a few days more. Resist the temptation to rush back into heavy training until you really feel like it. The absence of any leg pain or stiffness is not necessarily the best indication that all is well. Nor is that fading cough and sniffle. These are encouraging signs, but the real inkling that all is well is when that post race leaden legs feeling has faded and there is a noticeable spring in your step and most importantly, the enthusiasm to run has returned.

The next 10 weeks are going to be tough. Training shouldn’t be seen as a chore, and as a burden, but rather as an exciting project. If runners recover properly there should be plenty of excitement to keep the motivation going in those dark cold mornings that lie ahead.

Success in the Comrades is not the result of how hard you train, but rather of how cleverly you train. And for those who raced hard a t the Two Oceans last Saturday being clever is knowing when to start. I would venture to suggest that somewhere between a week to 10 days after a hard ultra-marathon race is the clever time.