performance laboratory.Ask yourself the following question: at what pace or paces should I train to maximise my fitness and my running performance? If you can answer this question, you have the key to a successful training programme.Over the past 25 years

Most runners want to keep track of their pace. It’s how we measure many sessions. So what happens to your overall pace when you combine running and walking? You slow down, obviously. But not as much as you might think.The following table shows per

high school sensation Jim Ryun was doing, and Coach wanted us to be like Jim. Trouble was, we weren’t Jim, and most of us couldn’t even do 400 metres once at Jim’s pace.Runners don’t need random, isolated sessions; we need individualised, realistic

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

as many words as the Eskimos have for snow. You might have read or heard about some of the following: anaerobic threshold, ventilatory threshold, lactate threshold, lactate turnpoint, Conconi pace, or even OBLA (onset of blood lactate accumulation). All

further. (Isn’t 26.2 miles far enough?) Instead, they want to improve their speed endurance – the pace at which they can cover substantial distances.Fortunately, you can have it both ways. You can follow training plans that build the length of your long

oxygen uptake by 4.8 per cent and their lactate-threshold running pace by 4.4 per cent. In other words, the three workouts had led to better fitness and race potential. FIRST was up and running.In the summer of 2004, FIRST advertised a free marathon

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

further. (Isn’t 26.2 miles far enough?) Instead, they want to improve their speed endurance – the pace at which they can cover substantial distances.Fortunately, you can have it both ways. You can follow training plans that build the length of your long

't accelerate the pace and distance of your remaining workouts in an effort to 'catch up'. Instead, adjust your goals as needed.2. Listen to Your BodyThis is perhaps the oldest and most widely repeated advice for avoiding injuries, and still the best: if you don