.To help make all this happen, here's our first-ever beginners' racing guide. Here, you'll find everything that you need to know – from tips on nutrition and warm-ups, to race-day strategies and recovery techniques. Race DayRace day can be intimidating

At some point early on, a beginner learns that 99.9 per cent of runners are pleasant, helpful people.This realisation usually dawns when a beginner meets a veteran at a race or on a training run, and theveteran starts sharing his or her enthusiasm

establish eye contact with the driver before proceeding.DO try some light stretching exercises before and after your walk/run sessions, to reduce muscle tightness and increase your range of motion.DO include a training partner in your programme if possible

to exert yourself on non-running days, some form of exercise will energise your mind, improve your attitude and burn fat. Choose an activity that doesn't fatigue the calf muscles, such as swimming or walking.How to vary your weekYou can keep the same

hard. Ease to a walk to allow your muscles time to heal, says exercise physiologist and coach Shelly-Lynn Florence Glover (runningcoach.com).4. Feel like a runner"If you're running, no matter how much or how slow, you're a runner," says Andrew Kastor

and drinks will come in useful. They will also help your recovery and your training on days that follow.  ➌ Make sure you are fully warmed up, and stretch after every session to help your muscles stay loose.  ➍ Hill training is another way to develop speed

and coaches generally agree that there are three ways to improve running performance: you can increase your maximum oxygen uptake, or VO2max, which measures the greatest volume of oxygen that can be dispatched to your muscles during exercise; you can extend

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

easier. I routinely schedule a sports massage every other week, and more often if something hurts, or if an important race is coming up. Massages are good for repairing sore muscles and preventing injuries. And they just plain relax you.Do it yourself

you should stay tucked up in bed with are fever, chilliness, a chesty cough and muscle aches. Just take your runs easy, and you should feel better for them."Exercise helps to decongest the nose," says Professor Ron Eccles, director of the Common Cold