You need more than one-off snapshots of your fitness levels to assess your progress properly. Races and time trials are reasonable guides to how things are developing, but they vary too much to be really useful. Races also rely on maximal effort

of training, Kerry Neale, Philippa Braidwood and Phil Wilson are still training and making great progress to boot. It hasn’t been a case of simply going out for a run after work, though: all three have agreed to completely reshape their lifestyles. Under

Return to one course over the summer, and you'll have a golden opportunity to focus on your pacing and perfect your race strategy. Lessons learnt in these shorter races will give you a head start if you want to do well over longer distances - as well as giving you a good shot at ...

progression run means starting out at a slow pace, but finishing at a fast pace. And it can mean the difference between crawling over the finish line and storming through it. Progression runs aren't new. Finland's Paavo Nurmi, who won nine Olympic gold medals

Stage 1 : 33KThe first 13K of the stage was on the flat. The ground was uneven but firm and I was feeling fine. In the distance were towering sand dunes that shimmered like silk; they turned out to be the next part of the route and stunning though they were to look at, they were ...

"Look on a training diary as a coach, conscience and friend," says Steve Smythe, a runner and coach who's been writing down every run he completes since 1976. He's recognised that keeping tabs on his training is a great way to make the most of his running.When you start keeping a...

if this doesn't feel right, he'll be treating it as a relaxed long run instead. Generally speaking, Dan's making great progress. A couple of setbacks aside, he now needs to focus on how well the rest of his training has gone to build his confidence

back to normal, I had some great runs. It wasn't that long ago my steady pace used to start with a 9, so it's great to see more miles starting with a 7! I had a 10-mile race last week, but despite progressing well with my positive thinking recently

Got some pictures of the coastal relay you'd like to share on runnersworld.co.uk? Then drop us a line at editor@runnersworld.co.uk with the subject line 'Coasters' and we'll add them to our Coasters GB gallery.

to running well on race day, so make sure you use some of this in your training and understand how it feels. Meg is looking forwards to her first build-up race: a half-marathon on March 1. This will be a real benchmark of her progress and will also tell us