Brad Brown

I’ve been chatting to mates who are planning on running Comrades 2011 about their thoughts and training for the 2011 edition of the race. Everyone seems to be gearing up to get their training on properly come January. I went back to my training logs from last December to see what I was doing. What a difference a year can make. Last December I was battling the peroneal tendonitis and was running on and off. I went back and found a 10km run that I did in December 2009 to compare it to the 10km I ran on Monday. I was more than 10 minutes quicker on Monday (bear in mind that I also cycled 60kms before Mondays run and the route I ran was a bit tougher than the 2009 one). My splits are what really interested me. My fastest kilometre a year ago was 6:46. My slowest yon Monday was 6:51. My fastest was nearly a minute and a half faster than the one last year. (See the two workouts below on Garmin Connect) Read more…

I can’t actually believe how fast this year is wrapping up. I looked at the triathlon racing after Comrades 2010 and plotted out what races I was planning on doing in the build up to Ironman 70.3 in East London in January and the Ironman in Port Elizabeth in April 2011. I only scheduled 3 before the end of 2010 and two have come and gone already. The next big triathlon on my racing calendar is the Prestige Ultra Triathlon in Vanderbijlpark on the 16th of December. 11 Days to go to my first half ironman triathlon. Just writing that scares me. I’m doing a half ironman having only done two triathlons up until now. My training has gone well and I am pretty sure I’ve done what is needed. I’ve got a couple of longish cycles planned for early next week but other than that it’s time to taper. I always get nervous when I start taking my body to places it has never been before. You never quite know how it is going to react to the stresses and strains you put on it. It was the same in he build up to Comrades this year every time I went up to a new distance I was nervous. The only time I attempted to double what I had done up until then was from an ultra marathon to Comrades. I am practically doubling what I have done to this point in triathlons. That is a huge step up and I think I’m understandably nervous. I’ve done more than the individual distances in training (except the run, I haven’t gone further than 15 since I picked up some ITB in August) but it is now a case of stringing it all together on the same day. I’m sure there is going to be pain on the day but I really hope I have a good race as this is my dress rehearsal for the 70.3 in East London which is just 6 weeks away. Now THAT is scary. 6 weeks away from my first surf swim. I’ll leave that for another post.

Another week closer to Comrades 2010! Only 18 more weeks to go. That is starting to scare the living daylights out of me. My training is going well, but I can’t help but feel I’m not doing enough. In the January edition of Runners World mention is made that I should be able to do Read more…

What a great start to the new year. My training has been going really well and I feeling fit and fab (although the foot is still a bit niggly). I think one of the benefits of running through December is that by the time January is in full swing you have hit the ground running and there is no need to try and play catch up. I noticed yesterday on Twitter ( You can follow me here)  a few people had mentioned that there were 140 days left to go until Comrades 2010. Someone else mentioned that Read more…

December has been one silly month! I am actually glad it is over to tell you the honest truth. I’ve been pretty slack updating you on the progress of my training but at least I haven’t been slack on the training. I seem to be recovering pretty well from my foot injury (although it has been playing up a bit the last couple of days again). I’ve managed to get a few 10km runs in the last two weeks which has been good preparation I think for the Read more…

It has been a pretty productive week as far as my training has gone. I am still battling with the tendonitis in my left foot but as the week has progressed my foot has improved. I’m still going for physio every day with Derrick Carter and he seems to be working some serious magic. I was able to run 4 times this week; Monday I did about Read more…

I have been a bit slack over the last two weeks as far as updating the progress of my training and also on the status of injury I have picked up. At least my training hasn’t been as slack as my updates! After seeing Dr Jon Patricios at the Morningside Sports Clinic the diagnosis was made that I have Read more…

The weather this week played havoc with my raining plans. With two weeks to go to the Roy Brown memorial half marathon I really wanted to run the 15km night race last Wednesday in Benoni just to see how I would cope with a slightly longer distance. I was really nervous the first half of the week leading into it, but Wednesday morning arrived and the weather was shocking. I decided not to risk getting sick by running in the cold and wet conditions. That left me with a huge dilemma as Read more…

Brad Brown

There are two and a half weeks to go to my first half marathon since 1993. I can’t believe how quickly time is passing. It seems like just yesterday that I was looking at the race calendar and thinking to myself that I should be ok because there was about ten weeks to go. I’m running my first 15km since I started running again tomorrow. I’m also starting to get a bit nervous.

Although my training has been going reasonably well I am worried that I may be slightly underdone coming into it. I have uploaded my training for this week onto my Garmin Connect Dashboard. I’m still not going to break any land speed records but I am getting quicker. I took 2 minutes off my best 5km time yesterday and at the same time ran 5km’s without walking. I’m definitely getting fitter and I’m loving the process.
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