underfoot. Continue to zig-zag along the beach.Sand dune hillsFind a sloping sand dune and after a warm-up, run hard up to the top (or for up to one minute), maintaining a short stride and fast cadence. Jog back down and catch your breath. Aim for 5

Q. I train four to five times a week, including hills and a couple of interval sessions. However, each time I increase my training, by even a modest distance or pace, my muscles are too stiff and sore to undertake the next day’s session. What can I

of my daily commute? Can I replace interval sessions, hill work and long runs on my way to the office?A The first – obvious – thing to remember is that bike miles and running miles aren’t equivalent. If you were to run at, say, eight miles an hour, you

distance race he ever entered as a teenager. He obviously had legs, guts, and stamina from the go.He also won a more recent running race. This time it was a run-bike-run affair called the Dirty Duathlon in Rocky Hill, Texas, back in December 2002

-and-seconds-per-mile pace.5KTRAINING PHASE:BASE (4 WEEKS)Speed sessions:4 to 12 hill sprints Distance sessions:5- to 10-mile variable-pace runTRAINING PHASE:BUILD 1 (3 TO 4 WEEKS)Speed sessions:4 to 12 x 400m @ 1-mile pace with 2 minutes recoveryDistance sessions:4 to 12

. The participants seemed to love almost everything about it - the off-road route, the views from the top of Leith Hill, South-East England's highest point, and a mass rendition of William Blake's rousing Jerusalem at the start line. Now, that's a nice touch

-marathon. So in the build-up to his next marathon he ramped up his training by adding speedwork and hill repetitions, doing more long runs at a faster pace, and sometimes skipping rest days. The result: he managed 3:32 in his next outing over 26.2 miles

, in essence, is that lactate moves around the body from muscle fibres to organs, including the heart, and is an excellent energy source.So how did we misunderstand things for so long? It turns out we were misled by two Nobel laureates, AV Hill and Otto

Hard Training Q&AsTRAINING GENERAL• Do I need to take an "easy week" when my average mileage isn’t that high? • Should you try and break through ‘the wall’ in training? • Is it just the cold weather, or am I getting fitter? • How do I overcome

wearing a belt and pulling against a resistance. Like weight training, this has the advantage of being quantifiable, so you can see your progress. You can measure the load, the number of repetitions and the speed of the runs.Hill running and sand