connective tissue. Dr Cardinale advises, "At this stage, you need to look at performance indicators – such as a build-up 5K or 10K – see what happens in those races, and judge how well your schedule is working based on those." Phase 4: Race timeIf you

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

targets along the way as practice and to help with confidence – maybe a 5K race early on, followed by a 10K or two a month or so later. Finally, consider putting in a 10-mile race as your long run two or three weeks before the big day. This will really

to improve when you hit the ceiling of your body's V02 max and endurance. The Research Institute for Olympic Sport at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland found that 'explosive strength' training reduced athletes' 5K times by enhancing

.Most events fall into one of three racing distances (see below), though some fixtures also offer a super-sprint (shorter than sprint) or middle-distance (between Olympic and Ironman) option. Triathlon Race DistancesSprint750m swim, 20K bike ride, 5K run

faster than the other women, so we joined the men’s training group. We had a great coach who pushed us to try harder.Before my first child was born, my PBs were not bad, but not amazing: 3:26 for the marathon, 50 minutes for 10K and 25 minutes for 5K

’s somewhat inconvenient, here is an easy way to make a reasonably close guess: add 35-40 seconds per mile to your 5K race pace, or 15-25 seconds per mile to your 10K race pace.Then you need to train to raise your threshold. Try the following two training

an effective way to build efficient and powerful leg muscles. Find a hill that is 75-100m from bottom to top and run up at an intensity slightly harder than 5K race pace. Start with seven or eight intervals, each followed by an easy jog back to the bottom

–9K mark, it’s generally fast, flat and beginner-friendly. There’s also a 5K and a 1K for under-8s; medals, T-shirts and chocolate; and the chance to boost the total of £30,000 raised so far for a new Leukaemia Centre at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital

on tired legs at the minute. On race day, you'll be well rested so your marathon pace should feel closer to a 6. My tip would be to write your 5K splits on your arm - beware, Miles 2 and 3 are slightly downhill but if you hit the Cutty Sark on time, you