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

’s trying to make it around the block four times, as well as the 36-minute 10K runner who’s training for a first marathon with long runs that stretch to 12 miles, then 16, then 20.The gradual-adaptation principle is deeply rooted in human physiology, and has

toward home. Two hours, nothing to it. When I want to increase my training prior to a marathon, I just add another 9/1 segment on the outbound trip. Now the session lasts two hours and 20 minutes, and I hardly notice the difference. Two weeks later, I do

this first-hand on a 1998 trip to Kenya. One morning, I joined a handful of marathon runners who were being coached by Dr Gabriella Rosa as they tackled the infamous Fluorspar Hill that rises nearly 4000ft in 13 miles.I managed to hang on for only 10 minutes

to all circumstances and all runners – the beginner who’s trying to make it around the block four times, as well as the 36-minute 10K runner who’s training for a first marathon with long runs that stretch to 12 miles, then 16, then 20.The gradual

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