This week: Do you really benefit from warming up before a run – and if so, how hard and how far should you go?"How far, or for how long, are you supposed to warm up before a race? The more I warm up the better I seem to perform. I ran a 5.4-mile
of ultras and mountain races in the past 15 years, including half tour of Mont Blanc in August this year. My advice would be not to overdo the mileage. You can never really train for a 50-mile race by doing a 50-mile training run, as you would just get
race? Can I continue running 40-50 miles per week without risk of serious injury? Or this a stupid idea?!"– Michael FirmstoneYour best answers...Keep up the training, and enter a race evry couple of months to give you targets to aim at. Start trying
't mean no running at all, but avoid any major exertion) for each mile of racing. You wouldn't find a pro racing a half marathon two weeks after a marathon – and if they can't recover, nor can the rest of us. – Johnny JThe marathon will take it out of you
or the New Forest. And, unlike the Great North Run, it’s not on telly.But this marathon, in a sleepy market town just outside Oxford, is hugely popular. Race day isn't until October 22, but the event's 1,000 places have long been snapped up – 107 of them
It's not a marathon and it's not got Paula Radcliffe, but the Great North Run is one humdinger of an event.This road race in Tyne and Wear attracts the kind of attention and numbers that many full marathons can only dream about. On October 1, when
. So crowded was that 50,000-strong field that you gave it just 51 per cent for PB potential.That's the paradox of any big, famous race. The sheer weight of numbers makes it nigh-on impossible to sprint round the course unless you start at the very
likely to suffer if you fall out of a window while you're drunk or if you're still trussed up and tied to a tree in the middle of nowhere when the race is due to start. – VelociraptorWear St George kneepadsYou might be risking a twisted ankle, or some
player.The crowded start was my main beef about the race. I adore my running but I'm under no illusions about my pace; like Jimmy Savile, "I run marathons, I don't race them". So I lined up dutifully (and, it turned out, pessimistically) in the 2:30 area
, and partly for general health reasons. But I feel sluggish and my work is suffering. Is there really a point to this caffeine-free lark?" – Jane Hoskyn aka e17 pixieYour best answersResensitising really works, so brave it outI abstain from caffeine now
