as much a part of local folklore as the five watermills that gave the race its name.I first heard of the Cinque Mulini as an athletics-mad child growing up in the North-East. In his autobiography, Brendan Foster, the one-time world 3000m record holder

. Dr David Fletcher, lecturer in Sport and Performance Psychology at Loughborough University says, "If beating people is the only thing you're interested in, then you're going to be in trouble.'Dr Fletcher works with elite athletes, researching

to mid-19th-century people. Most of the world's top runners have healthy BMIs, but they are athletes with personal coaches and nutritionists. Sprinters, for example, are bigger because they are built for power and speed over endurance

reality is that many of the country's top athletes - including Alistair Brownlee, the reigning ITU World Champion - spend the majority of their off-season slugging it out through rain, sleet and snow right here in the UK. And if they can do it, so can you

is now over, it is hard for me to say 'no' to all the 'bad' foods I enjoy. I think that is where a majority of athletes begin their off-season downfall."And the annoying thing about this downfall is that, to an extent, triathletes are at this time of year

Mo Farah has long been one of Britain's most talented distance runners, but his stunning 5,000 and 10,000m victories at the European Championships this summer have cemented his position as an athletics hero.After becoming the first British man

for parking, bathrooms and bike check.”Dennis Meeker, top age-group athlete and Team Timex member. He has been racing triathlon since 1995, winning the first ever Zoot Sports 5430 Ironman-distance race in 20013. From swim to bikeYour training should also

good mile time, you could add an extra two weeks on to the schedules (see ‘The Big Build-Up’, below), but rest assured that you can get a lot done in a month. When George Gandy, director of athletics at Loughborough University, was giving us his mid

, but what little self-esteem I still possessed was seriously eroded. Here was I, living a life of blameless purity – and far from enjoying a sort of athletic Indian summer, a swansong of blistering times and smashed records, I was relying upon my dog, Oscar

to accept the idea that the rest of my life would have to change. I wasn’t ready to start thinking like an athlete. I wasn’t ready to be a runner when I wasn’t running. I was not going to become one of those people.Not me! I was going to be the one who