(hills) and one long distance run. The hills have made quite a difference in building up leg strength. We avoid boredom by not planning our routes too much and just head off down various roads. We have added a few miles by getting lost on occasions. We

gravity, you'd be far safer finding a decent hill. The rate of lower limb and back injuries amongst military recruits who train with packs is quite frightening. But if you are determined to achieve the "military poseur", try this top tip. Fill your huge

any terrain, road, hills, XC, anything. It's very accurate; within about two yards in a mile. Any maps can be scanned in, or read in from websites. It's PC based and you can save, print, email your routes. Version 2 also allows for gradient, height

, but it does allow your brain to switch off. You can generally buy it from a good herbalist or online. – Nick KirbyDo you eat before or after your run? When I trained for the London Marathon I used to run at about the same time each evening, and then would have

-twitch muscle fibres will not in themselves make someone a fast runner. The one thing that is consistently proven to improve fitness (and speed) is training. Generally the more you train the better you get. Less is NOT more! Don't get worked up about what your

days a week. Once your body is happy with that, introduce some speed work, efforts or hills. Whatever you choose, build it up slowly and listen to your body. – FlavsA few light jogs in the first week will help ease the stiffness out. Your legs

to keep the blood flowing while I was lying on the sofa. I kept quiet about it not having occurred to me that I shouldn't be scrambling in and out of the loft with heavy boxes, digging the garden, and hopping on the train and doing some gentle hill

generally get my athletes to run at least a mile before doing dynamic stretches, then running drills before each training session. For recovery runs you don't really need to do this, as the first part of the run should be nice and steady, but for harder