Blog Roll - Stephen Muzhingi

Overview of my Annual Training

During the “off season” I do a little bit of running but just enough to stay relatively fit. Generally there will be no hard running sessions, just regular runs, so that when the real training starts I am not starting from square one. At the same time my muscles are still used to running but have not placed them under any particular stresses.

Running is hard and if I start from nothing with hard sessions I am likely to pick up injuries, and have many setbacks, when I can’t afford to. Yes, my running season goes from Comrades to Comrades, as I am sure many out there do the same. So a typical year for me is pretty much like this:

June & July: Are definitely rest months from running Comrades in May. This rest I have at home in Zimbabwe where I do absolutely no running at all. This in order for my muscles and joints to recover from the mileage needed to run comrades.
August: I start with easy slow runs, and do nothing more than 15km at any session. I then progress to once a week on one of the runs doing a varied pace, in order to get the heart rate up. This is always hard as you have no real pace in your legs, but your mind is telling you that you can run faster, as I suppose its become the norm. I always think at this time that, hey so much work to do, how will I ever get back to the shape I was in.
September: I do various medium distance runs, and start with strength sessions, yeah – Up and down hills, happy days! I sometimes look at doing a race (marathon) around this time, just to keep me focused for the hard sessions ahead and to also check how my body is responding to the training to date. This is always a difficult race.

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