Keep speedwork simple: run at race-paceWildWill – To improve half-marathons and 10-milers, I run one-mile intervals. For 10K, I run 1K intervals, and for anything shorter I do 400m. Likewise, the speed is governed by the race distance I am targeting. For example

; the trick is doing the training that gets you gradually stronger."—Keith Brantly, Olympic marathoner20. Pick fun hard runs"Do sessions that you enjoy. Mile and 400m repetitions are more fun for me than fartlek. I feel better about my running when I do

a 1:48 and regularly hit 1:50. At the bottom of the hill, do several sprint repetitions, varying between 50m and 400m. Says Lydiard: "These sprint repetitions begin the development of your capacity to exercise anaerobically." After six weeks of hill

his famous four-minute mile as a set of 400m reps, and you can apply the same technique to make your targets feel more achievable. Split the race up into sections – just use the mile or kilometre markers on hand in most races – and the race becomes a

8 x 400m efforts in around 78 seconds; Sue completes the same distance but 10 seconds slower. “Sue runs them in 88 seconds, which means she only gets 80 seconds recovery,” admits Bruce. “But then, she can say that she’s training harder than me

speedwork at 10K and 5K pace as you can - one session a week would be sufficient at this stage. Concentrate on doing a reasonably high number of intervals per set, with short recoveries. On a track, that could be 15 x 400m at 10K pace with 100m walk (60sec

cycle + 5 minutes run]. Cool down: 5 minutes easy jog CYCLE Warm up: 8 x 50m progressively quicker. Main: 4 x 50m close to maximum effort with a full minute recovery between efforts, then 400m time trial, then after recovering 10 x 50m alternating

marathon effort.WEEK THIRTEEN (March 21-27): approx 48MMon RestTue 1M jog, 5 x 1M (or 7:00) fast, with 400m (or 2-min) jog recoveries, then 1M jogWed 9M easy (approx 81 mins)Thu 1M jog, then 4M at half-marathon pace (approx 30 mins), then 1M jogFri Rest

before 8am so I get to swim alone sometimes - which is surprisingly peaceful and relaxing.I'll be trying to put in one long session of an hour and swimming each week and two half hour sessions one with weights beforehand. Managed to get my 400m time under

'd expect to achieve during sessions of 800m to one-mile reps.95% Peak heart rate at 400m rep pace (not full-out race pace). NB It's difficult to use a heart-rate monitor to pace short intervals below 1,000m. The figures above 85% are a guide to what you