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

", a branch of statistics used to predict future trends. He's surprised by the relative linearity of the mile record progression over the past century, but notes that it would be "risky" to assume the same going forward. Since about 1982, he perceives a

is crucial to improved running. "When beginners get discouraged or hit a plateau, I tell them to remember the time and effort invested and the progress they've made," says beginners' coach Jane Serues. "You don't want to slide backwards, you want to keep

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

by the number of runs you are doing per week (that is, if you’re doing four runs, you can increase by four miles). Follow a progressive training programme that gradually builds to a racing peak Daniels’s ideal training plan lasts 24 weeks or longer, and moves

, enjoyable (and effective) way to run. It’s worth a try, isn’t it? Amby Burfoot is Editor of Runner's World US.

testing, and the two have been working together ever since. “We started with core strength, and progressed to explosive leg plyometrics, always focusing on the basics, and doing quality sessions, not quantity. Runners already do enough quantity,” he says