It would seem natural that your heart rate monitor should be your greatest ally when it comes to race day – but as ever, the reasoning is not that simple. While you can use your experience from previous competitions to your advantage, you'll find that you can't just transfer w...

way you can," says sports psychologist Victor Thompson (sportspsychologist.co.uk). The good news is that even when you've been put out of the running, there are ways to keep training and remain part of the race-day action.Get back to classAfter having

-tune your training regime and plot a perfect race-day strategy. Plus, keeping an eye on your heart rate means you'll be able to spot looming illness and the effects of overtraining and side-step the risks of running under the weather. GETTY IMAGES

that it gets easier and easier as your body gets used to it. – Fat FyesBreak the incline into manageable chunksDon't beat yourself up if you can't always run up hills – even more experienced runners have off days. One tactic I employ is to focus on a point

. She used this half-marathon as a full race-day rehearsal, practising her pre-race breakfast and fuelling routine, along with caffeine for an added mental boost. She does feel throughout the race she didn’t take on board quite enough fluid which could

, swimming, and weight lifting are great most of the year, as part of low-key training months when your main goals are general fitness and injury prevention, but the heavy training month before a big race needs to be a month of living a little dangerously

race-day nutrition and hydration planning and even put it down on paper. This plan may evolve slightly over the next two weeks as Richard continues to refine his practice with gels and fluid intake during training. It is a great example to everyone