Tapering for the Comrades Marathon is challenging because runners struggle with reducing mileage and intensity, especially when balancing it with the Two Oceans Marathon, despite the benefits of allowing the body to adjust to less stress before race day. Picture: Tobias Ginsberg / File
Image: Thobias Ginsberg / File
As the Comrades Marathon is now under two weeks away, it’s widely accepted that tapering (reducing mileage and intensity of workouts) usually is the hardest part before a big race - but why is that?
It’s because you’ve become accustomed to a routine of hard workouts and you should hopefully be in great shape ahead of race day, but dialling it back always seems counterproductive on some level.
For example, if you’ve been doing between 50km and 70km every week for six weeks, reducing that mileage dramatically the two weeks before the race will make you feel like you’re losing fitness.
The opposite is actually true. Your body is just adjusting again to different stresses, and in this case it’s less stress and normally any kind of change for your body can feel strange.
It’s also particularly difficult when we’re talking about Comrades. Most people who do Comrades also do the Two Oceans Marathon. The two big races on the SA road running circuit are just nine weeks apart.
That gives little time to recover from the 56km Two Oceans before gearing up for Comrades, which this year will be just under 86km.
It’s a massive undertaking for elite runners like Gerda Steyn, never mind the average runners who make up the vast majority of the field for both races.
Being ready as you can be for either race takes a lot of blood, sweat, tears, and probably a lot of chafing for good measure.
But when race day is less than a fortnight away, just taking it easy when you’re itching to cram a few more miles in can sometimes be the most difficult part of all.
*IOL Sport’s Michael Sherman is a veteran road runner of over 27 years and reports on Two Oceans and Comrades Marathon every year
* The views expressed are not necessarily the views of IOL or Independent Media.
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