up. Fat reserves can therefore postpone or prevent a race-day collision with the notorious ‘wall’. Eat foods that are high in unsaturated fat, such as nuts or fish cooked in olive oil. Limit foods that are high in saturated fat, such as pizza and ice

training and injury prevention thanks to the low-impact nature of cross-training. Build those musclesConventional Thinking: Strength training will make you a better runner.Uncommon Wisdom: Skip the gym; you don't run on your arms. If you're a runner

, swimming, and weight lifting are great most of the year, as part of low-key training months when your main goals are general fitness and injury prevention, but the heavy training month before a big race needs to be a month of living a little dangerously

out. A good guideline is that if the pain forces you to alter your stride, drop out so you don’t develop a long-term injury.A side stitch strikesAs excruciating as these can be, plan to keep on running, because most stitches vanish within a couple