What was your longest run in preparation for the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon Saturday? If you think that training for a marathon is hard, what would you say to running 250 miles a week?
That is what it takes to become a three-time winner of the world’s best-known ultra-marathon, the Comrades race in South Africa.
Stephen Muzhingi will run his first big 26.2-mile event in New York Sunday. In May he became the first athlete in 23 years to win the Comrades three years in succession. Is he satisfied? “I am going for 10,” says Muzhingi, who wants to beat the current record of nine in a row. His Comrades preparation involves a “loading” period from October to January, when he runs 250 miles each week at a slow pace.
From January through to the race in May or June, he works on strength, speed, and endurance. Although his mileage drops, he still does two long runs each week, including, from February, one between 25 and 45 miles on the Comrades route between Durban and Pietermaritzburg.
Muzhingi hopes to break 2:12 in New York, running 125 miles a week in preparation. But, once the race is run, Comrades will be back in focus. The mileage will double. Ah yes, the easy life of the mere marathon runner.
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