January Recap

​January – One month down!
Has this month flown by for everyone else as well? I can’t believe we are into February already! Hopefully you are all getting used to running 5-6 times a week and the fatigue is starting to wear off as your body gets used to the extra mileage.
Just a re-cap on the objectives for January:

1. Total Mileage = 260-270km: I have incorporated cross-training into my Comrades program so my mileage is a bit short. If I convert the spin sessions to running km’s I fall in the range. I usually take the time I spend on the bike, say 1 hour, and then calculate how far I would run at the same exertion I used on the bike. If it was an easy bike session of 1 hour, I would say I ran about 8km’s. If I really pushed myself I would convert that to 10km’s. I add up those converted km’s and add to my running km’s for the week. May seem like a lot of unnecessary work but the satisfaction I get out of seeing how many km’s I’ve managed to accomplish is a huge boost to my confidence.
2. Make the commitment to complete the Comrades Marathon - have you done this? Or are you telling yourself you’ll see how far you get? If you are, you are setting yourself up for failure. You are training to FINISH Comrades, you are not training to START comrades.
3. Run 6 days a week – EISH! This is tough! My rest day has yet to fall on the planned day I marked out for it. I have not ran 6 days a week but I have managed to get some form of physical exercise, whether it is a run, a spin or even a power walk session (although I try to keep power walking as an addition to another form of exercise and not a substitute).
4. Run your 8-10km training runs comfortably without walking. Don’t worry about time - Check! Watching some of you on Strava I see you are also comfortable with this! Well Done!
5. Race speed 6.3min/km and training speed 6.5min/km. My race speed was considerably slower and a few training runs were considerably faster. I am conditioned to run how I feel so I’m not too concerned about this. Would love feedback on this objective please! Perhaps someone who actually raced this month? How did you feel afterwards? Were you able to hop right back onto the program after the race? What was your recovery time like?
6. Are you feeling less fatigued? I sure struggled the first couple weeks. It has only been this last week where I’ve felt energized and pumped up to run. The first two weeks was a battle to get on the road!
7. Have you been recording your runs? Are you able to discern any useful information from your logs? Do you run better when you have eaten/drank a certain product? How’s the mileage in your shoes? Will they get you through Oceans or do you need to start looking at replacing them? Oceans is only 8 weeks away so if your current takkies aren’t gonna cut it you need to think about replacing them soon.       

And that’s it for January! Congratulations! Please let us know how you are feeling and coping with the training. If you are on another program, let us know how it is going. The more info we have, the better prepared we’ll be for the Big Day!