, that dreaded substance that turns your legs into cement blocks. These days, however, respected and reasonable people are saying some nice things about lactic acid, or at least about the lactate that is quickly produced from lactic acid. In a journal article

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

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

-distance runner. In the 1970s you had your Alberto Juantorenas and John Walkers, the strong runners. Now it's the guys like Morceli and El Guerrouj, who are basically lungs on legs." Masback believes that these kinds of long-legged lungs, in 2054, could produce a

naive. I thought downhills were easy, the way most people think of them."Two miles later, Waitz walked off the road and sat on a kerb, unable to move her legs. "People were trying to push me back on to the course, but nothing was going to work," she says

more leg endurance and quickness.Weatherford said he wasn’t sure, admitting to Drossin that he had never worked with a distance runner before. “But let me think about it, and do some research,” he said.Weatherford returned with several ideas worth

.g. your knee)," he says. "When you strengthen the hips - the abductors, adductors and gluteus maximus - you increase your leg stability all the way down to the ankle."Action Plan You don't want to train for bulging muscles. You need just enough core, hip

Amby Burfoot is Executive Editor of Runner's World USA, and the 1968 Boston Marathon winner Imagine that there was an exercise programme that could guarantee to get you in shape with only three identical 30-minute exercise sessions per week. I

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

showed statistically equivalent performances between, say, a 59-year-old father and his 31-year-old daughter. In effect, the old fogies were using maths to accomplish what their legs couldn't – beating the whippersnappers. The WMA age-graded tables were