Firth. One of them asked, “Shall we walk for a bit?”“I’m not stopping,” I replied, and I carried on and won. From that point I thought of myself as a runner, and since then I’ve run eight or nine hundred races and covered 100,000 miles in racing

Q After running a sub-3:00 marathon in my mid-30s, I spent the next 17 years running only occasionally. But last year, to celebrate my 50th, I returned to serious training for the Flora London Marathon. I finished in 3:28, and this has got me

Q I’m a 33-year-old female, and after being collected by the ‘slow police’ after 19 miles in last year’s Berlin Marathon, I’m desperate to get my time down in this autumn’s race. I guess I should do speedwork but I don’t know what my targets should

running over 400-1000m stretches, but your long runs should be really slow. The crucial question is how long you can train hard without taking a rest. A lot of our top marathon runners cover 100 miles a week for most of the year, but the elite cannot

Q I took up running a year ago and was really pleased to quickly notch up PBs of 36:57 for 10K and 1:21 for the half-marathon. I then set my sights on the marathon and built up to a peak of 80 miles a week, with five good long runs under my belt

there will probably be one training night a week for the under-12 or under-13 team, plus a race of some kind. If there is a local club, boys and girls should be encouraged to go along and join in. Two training runs a week, plus a race and the other games activities

For nearly 20 years, I wrote for RUNNER’S WORLD and its predecessors, Running and Jogging. I have also given countless clinics and seminars, coached dozens of athletes and met tens of thousands of runners at races around the country. Throughout

, swimming one hour a week, and spending 30-40 minutes per week on gym work.For the running, try to do one session a week of speedwork, with things like 10 x 1 minute fast, two minutes slow (or 12 x 200m fast, 200m jog if you’re on the track). This should

minutes at 20K and another five minutes to the finish – so your aim for the first one should be to break 1:45. And yes, it is a good idea to run an intermediate distance first – a 10-mile run if possible – so that you can get used to the slightly slower

will get from the time off. Even the most dedicated runner can afford to have one rest day every two weeks, and I recommend that you should have one easy week out of every four; the easy week should usually come when you are racing at the end of the week