good long break, especially if you've just run a hilly marathon. Lastly, some good news. Downhill running builds your strength for future downhill running. If you practise it regularly, you'll gain muscle endurance and suffer less from post-run soreness
professor and maths whizz. Bill is also a lifelong runner with a marathon PB of 2:45, so he suffers my questions without much protest. I send him a long list of mile world records, and ask what he sees. He responds with a lecture on "extreme value statistics
When Gunder Hagg ran 4:01.4 to set a mile world record in 1945, his achievement stood for 3,215 days - almost nine years. Then Roger Bannister ran his historic 3:59.4 on May 6, 1954. Bannister's record lasted just 46 days before John Landy took it down to 3:58.0. "For a few minut...
has been studying questions like this for more than 20 years, in between running 58 marathons (with a 2:37 PB) and ultra-marathons. He is also a doctor of public health and a professor of exercise science at Appalachian State University in the USA. I
realise that's pretty impressive, when it comes to endurance sports I see things through a runner's eyes. I naturally wonder how tough the Tour really is, and what kind of marathon Armstrong could run. The answer hinges on stuff that's familiar to runners
2006 was a great one for chocolate fans. In January, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (of Washington DC in the US) published the most convincing study yet linking flavonol-rich cocoa to improved blood-vessel health. A month later, the Archives of Internal Medic...
training schedules and his philosophy, but mostly I peppered him with questions. He answered many by reaching for the bulging folders in a nearby filing cabinet. “I studied that back in the 1960s [or 1970s or 1980s], and I’ve got the answer right here,” he
faster after exercise.A headline-making study from the University of Indiana in the US last year suggested chocolate milk helped athletes recover more efficiently and could therefore boost subsequent endurance after exercise better than fluid
an improvement in hydration status or endurance performance, but a two-year-old study with Olympic distance triathletes produced convincing results. In a randomised, double-blind, crossover study in 30.5oC conditions, the triathletes slowed down much less
