As runners, we all want to increase our endurance, but we’re often referring to different things. While the beginner often wants to go further – from two miles to four miles, then to six, more experienced runners don’t see much point in running

on a shorter race distance for this spring and postpone your marathon goal for a year.Do you have people to train with?Your preparations will be easier if you can find a partner, or better still, a small group to go out with. The added motivation

-month training plan may not sound simple, but it only takes an hour or two, and once it's done you won't have to worry about it for another four months. Work backwards from your goal, and plot out each week's work-outs one by one, including long runs, speed

Cooper, aerobics pioneer3. Be a minuteman"The biggest mistake that new runners make is that they tend to think in mile increments – one mile, two miles, three miles. Beginners need to think in minutes, not miles."—Budd Coates, coach4. Go for good shoes

. But coaches know that beginners are often intimidated by the track setting, so most have devised ways to nudge their charges into faster-paced running without leaving their more familiar venue.Pick up on pickupsPickups, which are segments of faster

10 weeks. On the other hand, the less you’ve run lately, the more likely you are to hurt yourself by doing too much, too soon. That’s why it’s so important to set two related goals as you start or restart your running programme – to maximise

, swimming, and weight lifting are great most of the year, as part of low-key training months when your main goals are general fitness and injury prevention, but the heavy training month before a big race needs to be a month of living a little dangerously

the privilege of age, took the final three miles.Aged 26, 48 and 69, we had a common goal. For a few hours on a cold morning in November, the generational roles were eliminated. We were not just a mother, a father and a son – we were teammates. We were

can I start?Early-morning runs - how should I fuel up?Goals - what changes are you really going to make to achieve them?Improving - How can I get faster?Improving - I'm 40 and overweight - should I focus on distance or speed?Recovery runs - useful

the quantity-versus-quality conundrum: “Is it better to get in a 10-miler, so I can hit a certain weekly mileage goal, or should I do the interval session that would give me two hard work-outs this week?” In other words, is it better to run longer (quantity