their experience of pre-competition stress. He says, "The world's best athletes set lots of different goals – if you go into a race with 15 goals, then you're sure to achieve at least some of them.' Set a variety of goals to make sure you come away happy. You could
-level schedules he recalled the story of Graham Williamson, one of the athletes he coached in the mid-1980s. Williamson had been injured and was avoiding speedwork until the three weeks before a big mile race. Even then he only did a total of four sessions
. This will dramatically reduce your chances of being kicked by another swimmer. However, some races have limited space and if everyone is going to the back then this strategy isn’t going to help you much – and you’ll be a long way back from the start line.You can ask
cause an electrolyte imbalance, which can also lead to nausea," says Taylor.Having a race-day nutrition plan is the best step for combating exercise-induced nausea. Some athletes set their watch to beep when it's time to take in fluids. "Develop a fluid
, since iron is lost in sweat and, in blood, from the urinary tract or gastrointestinal system of many endurance athletes. The repetitive impact of running may also cause red blood cells to break down - this is known as foot-strike haemolysis
In principle, tapering should be simple – run less so you’re rested for race day. In practice, many athletes find two to three weeks of cutting back on mileage and intensity makes their legs feel heavy and lifeless. But Spanish coach
no doubt felt, it’s tempting to focus your training on building towards harder workouts, and schedule rest when your body ‘needs’ it. Studies have found that inexperienced athletes make exactly this mistake, steadily increasing training until fatigue
Standfirst: Author: Joe DunbarPics:Issue date: Racing secrets bookletKeywords:uan61--There arent many mile races in the normal sense of road racing, but many tracks around the country offer open graded meetings in the summer. These are events open
These schedules run for 10 weeks and cover three broad bands of runners. Band one: Sub-1:25This band covers serious athletes. The schedule will take you up to over 50 miles a week, which is about as much training as is compatible with a lifestyle
and then 200m almost flat out. Scott Simmons, who coaches American marathon runner Fernando Cabada, has his athlete do as many as 25x400m at 10K-race pace with three or four of them run at an all-out pace in the second half of the workout. These "hammers
