@ Chalky, you have qualified already, so what you need to do now is to run the mileage.
If you run long and slow, you will do that mileage easily, train your muscles to run, strengthen your body and tendons and mind, acquire the right muscles for long distance running, get used ti whatever food and drinks you want to try out, allow your body to learn what it means to run long – all these benefits – without doing serious damage to your body.
If you persistently run at race pace – fast pace, more for ego than anything else – through all these long runs, you will run the risk of doing too much too fast and injure yourself and have to be laid off for weeks.
The choice is yours!
Here is my personal experience.
I qualified last year September for Comrades. So since then, all my runs have been at a consistent steady pace, at the pace I want to run Two Oceans in (that is the race I am focusing on this year on doing well). It does not matter whether I have friends that are running faster, or I feel particularly good, or it is a fast and flat course, I run at that speed. That is the speed I want to train my body to do, especially the long ones. I do sometimes run faster at shorter races, such as 10km or 15km, just to get my heart rate going at times. But if I have long runs to do close to those races, I won’t run even those short races hard.
I learnt my lesson 10 days ago, which I will share with you.
I ran 42km Sasol marathon 4th Feb and 32km Striders 5th Feb – 74km one weekend – both slow and steady with no problems.
The next weekend, I ran 10km nite on Friday – at a fast race pace, a 32km race on sat and a 21km race on sunday.
Because I ran fast on Friday, I didn’t give myself enough recovery time and when I started fast for the 32km race, I suffered with knee pain from 21km. I immediately slowed down and resumed at a much much slower pace than usual, walk and run, until I finished. On Sunday, the pain was still there. So I undertook to start Pick’nPay 21km right at the back at a rapid walk, rather than run, just to complete the mileage. By taking it really slow and gentle, my knee pain went away completely after about half way and I was able to finish the race at 5 min/km for the last 8 km.
So this last weekend, no more heroics. I ran 21km on sat and 42km on sun at a good steady slow pace and finished very comfortably, no pain, no stress, strong and sprinting.
I realised my mistake and corrected it by taking it easy and hence can do these mileages without problems.
Don’t risk injuries. It is not worth it.
Focus on your long term goal and stick with it.
