This extract is from The Runner's World Complete Book of Running by RW USA Editor Amby Burfoot. You can now preview it, free, for two weeks without risk or obligation. All running programmes for beginners are the same: they move you from walking

Runners are divided into two camps: those who love numbers and those who don't. Members of the latter group prefer to focus on the Zen of running - they're always talking about the running "experience". This experience, they contend, is the essence of running – not mileage total...

not become great by following a path of timidity and cowardice. And we can only hope that, when pummeled, as the Boston Marathon was today, they will rise again, stronger than ever.****Amby Burfoot is a contributor to the US edition of Runner's World. You can

If you ask me, the ancient Olympians were a lot cleverer than we are. They had the good sense to run, jump and throw in the nude. When you put anything between your skin and the environment, such as shorts and a singlet, you only decrease your body’s cooling efficiency (even if y...

At Runner's World we try to practise what we preach, and so, along with following abstemious diets (well, we try), we also follow our training advice. That means regular speedwork, long runs, rest days and the dreaded hillwork. Repeatedly dragging ourselves up to the top of north...

Like so many of the other firsts in my life – first school, first kiss, first child – I remember my first “runner’s high” as if it were yesterday. It came on a perfect October afternoon while I was running near a cider mill near my childhood home. A warm sun trickled through the ...

Even though I’ve been reading up on hyponatremia for almost 20 years, I was surprised last April by The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). Five days before the Boston Marathon, it published research showing 13 per cent of the 2002 field might have suffered hyponatremia, a da...

Amby Burfoot is Executive Editor of Runner's World USA, and the 1968 Boston Marathon winner Imagine that there was an exercise programme that could guarantee to get you in shape with only three identical 30-minute exercise sessions per week. I

There’s no hotter issue in sports nutrition right now than the carbs versus carbs-plus-protein controversy. The battle pits scientist against scientist, small companies against behemoths, and new research against long-held beliefs. At one crucial juncture, it even threatens the f...

For as long as I’ve been running – and I recently passed the four-decade mark – I’ve been practising certain key principles of our sport. Run long to develop endurance. Run fast to build speed. Take recovery days as necessary. Sleep well. Eat a varied, low-fat diet. Cross-train t...