) you’ll find all the confidence you need. —Bud Baldaro, running coach

commitments. And experiment with cross-training. If you give cycling and swimming a go you could progress to trying a triathlon. But above all, don’t waste precious years and then regret it later. —Bud Baldaro, coach and RW Contributing Editor

at the start of a race is a pretty sure way to feel bad at the end! You can’t expect your body to go straight from standing still to, say, eight-minute miling. Instead, coax it up to speed. Begin with 10-15 minutes of very gentle running. Once you

the next fast leg.—Bud Baldaro, coach and RW Contributing Editor

and fit one of these in at least every 10 days.I’d also recommend training on the track. Try hard intervals over as little as 200-400m, up to 1K. Shorter repetitions will help improve your pure speed and help you kick at the end of races. Longer

Q I started running last summer by running and walking a mile every three nights, and built this up to around 15 miles a week. I’ve now done three 10Ks, all in around 53 minutes, but in the last one I had trouble with some of the hills and had

that at the Flora London Marathon you try to run with the RUNNER’S WORLD pacers. They’ll relieve you of the pressure of pacing yourself. As for the second part of your question, multiplying your half-marathon time by 2.2 (or your 10K time by between 4.66 and 5

of your working heart rate is ideal for outright speed, while 85 per cent is good for speed endurance.—Bud Baldaro, RW Contributing Editor

think you could race that half-marathon.On Saturday, try an interval-type session of shorter bursts of running with a timed recovery between each burst (eg 6-10 repetitions of distances between 400 and 1000 metres). These don’t need to be flat out

partners. Almost every club caters for beginners, and you’ll find that running with other people is always easier than running alone.—Bud Baldaro, coach and RW Contributing Editor