was running slower than I could walk up a hill, but I kept running. If you want to overcome the mental battle, leave your watch at home and tackle a new route and listen to music, bird song anything – just enjoy being a runner. Also, make sure you're warmed up
total beginner. I'm looking to build lung capacity and cardio-vascular fitness rather than calorie-burning. I run on a treadmill rather than road, and it's part of my gym programme which mostly consists of resistance machines. I'm a non-smoker, 5
. Also, the flatness of the course at Abingdon is good for first-timers. New Forest was my second marathon, and I found it very tough with all the hills."The Abingdon Marathon also obeys the three cardinal rules of event management: organisation
, but only so I can get to the gym/race/work. I keep it as light as possible. If I could ditch the pack, I would. – coughie I'm training for a half Ironman, and I run once a week with my wife. She's a beginner and runs at a far slower pace than me, so
time, there's some evidence that human skeletal muscle switches fibre types from "fast" to "slow" due to training. But how's a beginner to know which race length suits their biology best? Probably a case of experimenting with different distances. I
